Who will take over horse racing coverage from the BBC?
Sunday 11th January 2009
As we enter 2009 and await confirmation of the BBC's expected reduction in horse racing coverage across the UK, there is speculation as to whether any one party or group of parties will be able to take up the "slack". Despite a dedicated racing channel on satellite TV and coverage from Channel 4 there are concerns that no one party will have the sufficient financial resources to step into the breach at such short notice.
The BBC has been at the forefront of horse racing coverage for decades and produced some of the world's more famous horse racing commentators. While events such as the National and other treasured horse race meetings throughout the year are sure to be safe we could see many of the peripheral horse racing courses come under pressure. Income is vital to many of these more rural horse racing courses as they look to improve their services and their reliability.
Without income from the likes of the BBC we could see horse racing in the UK focused on a smaller group of racecourses to the detriment of both the sport itself and UK gamblers. The government has not yet shown any interest in becoming involved in keeping horse racing on terrestrial TV although there are hopes this could change in 2009.
As we enter 2009 and await confirmation of the BBC's expected reduction in horse racing coverage across the UK, there is speculation as to whether any one party or group of parties will be able to take up the "slack". Despite a dedicated racing channel on satellite TV and coverage from Channel 4 there are concerns that no one party will have the sufficient financial resources to step into the breach at such short notice.