Turf wars raise prospect of bursting media rights bubble

Media rights have become racing's main revenue stream but how sustainable are they?

The Frontier Economics report, which the government used as one of the key foundations for its reforms of the levy system, estimated racecourse income from media rights was just short of £128 million in 2014.

That is likely to have risen again to around £140m, much more than even the yield expected from the reformed levy of around £90m, which illustrates how vital media rights income is.