Racing TV owners reaffirm that potential gambling bill would make Irish market 'unviable' following minister's accusations

Racecourse Media Group (RMG), the parent company of Racing TV, has hit back at James Browne after the junior minister responsible for drafting up the impending Gambling Regulation Bill accused the broadcaster of exaggerating the cost of splitting its Irish feed, while also questioning the industry for being over-reliant on bookmaker support.

Both Racing TV and Sky Sports Racing have warned the proposed gambling advertising watershed between 5.30am and 9pm will render their racing coverage in Ireland "economically unviable".

Speaking to the Irish Sun earlier this week, Browne noted that splitting a feed is "very straightforward" for broadcasters and the projected cost of €2m put forward by Racing TV was "questionable" and a "tiny fraction of a contract worth hundreds of millions of euros" entered into with Horse Racing Ireland in May.

Explaining the potential costs associated with a separate Irish feed, Martin Stevenson, RMG's chief executive, told the Racing Post: "Racing TV is a small, independent broadcaster which simply does not have the scale and facilities to regionalise our coverage and offer feeds with different advertising. 

“Major broadcasters, whom the minister may have spoken to, will have far greater resources and technology at their disposal to run their much larger and more complex businesses. It is not economically viable for Racing TV to deploy this technology.

"To continue broadcasting in Ireland without bookmaker advertising would require us to invest in a separate satellite network to run a separate channel for Ireland, which would cost circa €1m per annum. Once you factor in separate studio space, gallery, staffing, uplinks and downlinks, the cost would be in the region of €2m per annum. At that level it becomes unviable to service the Irish market.”

Stevenson was also keen to point out that the majority of the money from the €47 million media rights deal with HRI is in relation to Sports Information Services (SIS) rather than RMG.

He said: “The very great majority of the value in HRI’s media rights does not lie with Racing TV but with SIS – a completely separate organisation who have contracted with HRI for the valuable betting shop and digital streaming rights. 

“The direct-to-home media rights licensed to Racing TV is only a small fraction of the overall media rights revenues and there simply is not the headroom within the economics for us to subsidise a separate broadcast into the Irish market. The benefit of Irish racing being on a direct-to-home channel such as Racing TV is not the media rights revenues it generates for HRI, which are modest, but the vital exposure it offers horseracing fans and sponsors of horseracing, both of whom are essential to the health of the Irish racing industry.”

Martin Stevenson: “The very great majority of the value in HRI’s media rights does not lie with Racing TV"

Browne stated his belief that advertisers outside the gambling sector would fill the void for racing channels, while he also questioned the industry's "narrow dependency" on bookmaker revenue. However Stevenson states that the intrinsic relationship between racing and gambling makes it difficult to attract alternative advertisers.

“While other sports broadcasters are able to attract advertising from outside of the bookmaking sector, unfortunately horseracing does not attract those advertisers and is consequently heavily reliant on the bookmaker industry for advertising revenue," said Stevenson. "This is not for a lack of effort in attempting to attract other advertisers – racing simply does not have the appeal of other televised sports. 

"Horseracing and betting are inextricably linked. The sport is underpinned by betting income and would not survive without it.

“You have to be over 18 years old to subscribe to Racing TV and therefore should hopefully satisfy, in our view, many of the opt-in safeguards seen elsewhere in the bill. 

"The condition that a subscriber has to actively consent to view Racing TV is a direct parallel and is consistent with the digital requirements in the bill that require positive opt-in to see bookmaker advertising. This does not create any greater risk of exposure to bookmaker advertising than intended in the bill, noting that digital audiences are far greater than TV audiences.”

Read more on the Gambling Regulation Bill:

Curragh boss Brian Kavanagh challenges gambling bill minister over 'disrespectful' comments 

Irish minister accuses bookmakers of 'crying' over proposed advertising ban in gambling bill 

Racing TV and Sky Sports Racing may be forced to stop broadcasting in Ireland due to 'devastating impact' of new gambling bill 

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