Sky Sports to Launch Dedicated Racing Channel

Sky Sports is adding to its bouquet a channel dedicated to horse racing.

Sky Sports Racing will replace At The Races. It will be available to all Sky TV customer in the U.K. and Ireland at no additional cost. The channel will be available in HD for the first time and produced from Sky’s studios in West London. The service will deliver live racing from more than 650 British fixtures as well as exclusive international race events.

Ahead of the launch next year, a ten-year deal with Chester Race Company has been signed to bring live racing from Chester and Bangor-on-Dee to Sky Sports Racing from March 2019. The oldest racecourse in the U.K., Chester was established in 1539.

Sky Sports Racing, the eleventh dedicated sports channel, will be available on TV and on mobile through Sky GO for the first time.

Managing director of Sky Sports, Barney Francis, said: “We’ve seen a great reaction from our customers to launching dedicated sports channels and this takes us to another level. Horse racing is a massive sport that Sky has been involved in for two decades, now we will have a channel to give our customers more of what they love every day. Adding Chester and Bangor-on-Dee is fantastic news and we look forward to making Sky Sports Racing a new home for racing fans.”

Chief executive of Chester Race Company, Richard Thomas, said: “We’re delighted to announce this new deal and long-term partnership. We believe it secures a positive and exciting future for Chester and Bangor-on-Dee Racecourses and fits squarely with our values and ambitions. We know Sky Sports will move the dial in the way our racing is covered but more than that we are excited by the prospect of how we can communicate and promote racing and the Chester brand further. We see real value in what the partnership can bring across TV, digital and social media, for us and for our sponsor partners. There is a lot of crossover between our core audiences and an opportunity to extend our reach more broadly via the Sky family of channels including Sky Sports News. We will be working very closely with the teams at Sky Sports and ATR in what will be a genuinely collaborative relationship.”

Chief executive of At The Races, Matthew Imi, said: “We very much look forward to working with Richard and his excellent teams at Chester and Bangor-on-Dee. The Boodles May Festival at Chester is a true highlight of the U.K. racing calendar and both tracks are very well supported and respected within the industry as well as being truly progressive in their outlook. Also, there is no better home for our new channel production facility than Sky Sports’ studios which are the best in the business and we believe Sky Sports Racing is set to be a game changer for racing. Later this year we look forward to presenting our plans in more detail to the major constituents in our sport and racing fans more generally.”