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The Racing Channel was a British subscription television channel which used to extensively cover horse racing. It ran between 1995 and its closure in January 2003. [1]
The Racing Channel was produced and transmitted by Satellite Information Services (SIS) direct to the home through Sky and cable television. Originally it was a high premium stand-alone channel costing £19.99 per month and was the first single-sport channel in the world. It did at one time attract 35,000 subscribers [2] In November 2000, the rights in the channel reverted to the Race Course Association (RCA), with SIS continuing to produce and transmit the channel on a commercial basis for the Association. The channel was subsequently sold to The Racing Network International (TRNI) who took the decision to close the channel in January 2003.
In 2001, BSkyB, Channel 4 and Arena Leisure (owners of 6 UK courses) signed a lucrative £307 million deal with 49 of the 59 UK racecourses for a 10-year period. This meant that the Racing Channel lost many of its top courses and was left with just 10 courses. The 10 courses did not feature any of the major meetings, and at this point the subscription fee was dropped and the channel was available more generally to Sky Digital subscribers. Nonetheless, the channel was clearly no longer viable.
At the time of its closure it had the contracts to cover meetings at ten of the minor courses in the country; Exeter, Fakenham, Hexham, Kelso, Leicester, Perth, Sedgefield, Stratford, Taunton and Towcester. These courses did not sign to the original attheraces. However, when this channel closed on 29 March 2004, these independent racecourses elected to join the relaunched At The Races portfolio of courses, rather than the new Racing UK channel.
ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners of two franchises of the ITV network. Starting as ONdigital in 1998, the service was re-branded as ITV Digital in July 2001.
Horse racing is the second largest spectator sport in Great Britain, and one of the longest established, with a history dating back many centuries. According to a report by the British Horseracing Authority it generates £3.39 billion total direct and indirect expenditure in the British economy, of which £1.05 Billion is from core racing industry expenditure and the major horse racing events such as Royal Ascot and Cheltenham Festival are important dates in the British and international sporting and society calendar.
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but also increasingly via digital terrestrial, and streaming television. In the United States, subscription television began in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the form of encrypted analog over-the-air broadcast television which could be decrypted with special equipment. The concept rapidly expanded through the multi-channel transition and into the post-network era. Other parts of the world beyond the United States, such as France and Latin America have also offered encrypted analog terrestrial signals available for subscription.
Goodwood Racecourse is a horse-racing track five miles north of Chichester, West Sussex, in England controlled by the family of the Duke of Richmond, whose seat is nearby Goodwood House. It hosts the annual Glorious Goodwood meeting in late July and early August, which is one of the highlights of the British flat racing calendar, and is home to three of the UK's 36 annual Group 1 flat races, the Sussex Stakes, the Goodwood Cup and the Nassau Stakes. Although the race meeting has become known as 'Glorious Goodwood', it is sponsored by Qatar and officially called the 'Qatar Goodwood Festival'.
Sky Sports Racing is a British pay television channel devoted to horse racing. A joint venture between Sky Group and Arena Racing Company, it broadcasts coverage of domestic, European and international horse racing events.
Sky Italia S.r.l. is an Italian satellite television platform owned by the American media conglomerate Comcast. Sky Italia also broadcasts three national free-to-air television channels: TV8, Cielo and Sky TG24. As of 2018, following an agreement with Mediaset, Sky Italia also operates a series of subscription-based terrestrial channels offering sports, entertainment and movies. Sky Italia is also the major sports broadcaster in Italy.
Sky+ is a discontinued personal video recorder (PVR) and subscription service from the satellite television provider Sky in the UK and Ireland. Launched in September 2001, it allows customers to record, pause and instantly rewind live TV. The system performs these functions using an internal hard drive inside the Sky+ set top box, an upgrade over the standard Digibox.
ITV Racing is a programme produced by ITV Sport for races shown on ITV or ITV4 in the United Kingdom. In its previous incarnation, the show was an essential part of World of Sport.
Sky Cable is a cable television service of Sky Cable Corporation in the Philippines. It covers areas across the country with both digital and analog cable services, and it has 700,000 subscribers, controlling 45% of the cable TV market.
Racing TV is a British television channel with 34 racecourses as shareholders and fixtures from 61 racecourses broadcast live on its output. As Racing UK grew several other business units and joint ventures were developed under the ownership of the parent company Racecourse Media Group Ltd. Racing TV is one of the two major UK horse racing television channels, the other being Sky Sports Racing. The station is dedicated to horse racing broadcasting over 70% of all live racing from Britain and Ireland, including nearly 90% of all Group and Graded races.
ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.
Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million U.S. households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. with Data by SNL Kagan shows that as of 2006 about 58.4% of all American homes subscribe to basic cable television services. Most cable viewers in the U.S. reside in the suburbs and tend to be middle class; cable television is less common in low income, urban, and rural areas.
Sky Multichannels was a package of analogue television services offered by BSkyB on the Astra satellites at 19.2° east from 1 September 1993 to 27 September 2001, which started off with 15 channels before expanding to over 40.
Sky Racing is an Australian broadcaster primarily telecasting live thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing. It is owned by Tabcorp and operates a number of television channels and a radio service.
Sports Information Services (SIS) is a company which provides content and production services to the betting industry; such as horse racing and greyhound racing, to betting shops in the United Kingdom and Ireland and other worldwide destinations. Previously, they provided news gathering services and specialized broadcast solutions to clients beyond betting industry.
Walter Raleigh Willock Gilbert, known as Raleigh Gilbert was a British horse racing commentator active for 40 years.
Darren Charles Owen is a horse racing commentator, born 3 June 1967 in St. Asaph, North Wales.
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group, and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It has played a major role in the increased commercialisation of British sport since 1991, and has sometimes played a large role inducing organisational changes in the sports it broadcasts, most notably when it encouraged the Premier League to break away from the Football League in 1992.
This is a timeline of the history of horse racing on television in the UK.