Contentious meeting predicted over Irish racing’s media rights deal

A potentially explosive meeting between racecourse officials and Horse Racing Ireland’s media rights committee will take place on Monday.

Representatives of the country’s 26 tracks are set to get details of a proposed new five-year media rights deal due to start in 2024.

The HRI committee, which includes Nicky Hartery, the semi-state body’s chairman, announced last month “preferred bidder” status has been given to Satellite Information Services (SIS) and Racecourse Media Group (RMG) which operates the pay per view channel Racing TV.

That decision, and the manner it was announced, has compounded long-standing concerns held by some tracks about the transparency of the process as well as how income from those rights is distributed by HRI.

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At least five tracks are understood to be deeply unhappy with the situation. They are among the smaller and less high-profile courses in Ireland.

Although no one was prepared to speak publicly, one industry insider predicted the HRI committee is going to be “lacerated” at Monday afternoon’s meeting at Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge. They also said there are other “like-minded” racecourses uneasy about the process.

The decision to give preferred bidder status to SIS means a counter bid from The Racing Partnership group, which has Arena Racing Company (ARC) as a key player and is linked to Sky Sports Racing, has been excluded without racecourses getting details of that bid.

Privately, it is believed the ARC offer was worth a minimum €40 million a year to Irish racing with potential add-ons from generated betting revenue.

The current media rights deal, which covers pictures shown in bookmaker offices and the increasingly lucrative live-streaming sector, as well as the controversial home viewing element that puts much of Irish racing behind a paywall, concludes at the end of next year.

Those rights are held by SIS and RMG and are believed to worth in the region of €40 million a year to Irish racing. They were vital to the survival of tracks during the Covid-19 pandemic when lockdown meant the sport was held behind closed doors.

Reports suggest the proposed new deal offered by SIS and RMG could be worth even more although no firm details have emerged. However, insiders suggest even an ordinary meeting can generate over €60,000 for a racecourse with potential live-streaming revenue on top of that.

Nevertheless, there is considerable unhappiness at how the HRI committee revealed news of the preferred bidder status to the media last month with no opportunity for the ARC offer to be examined by tracks.

“The HRI media rights committee act as agents of racecourses in negotiating media rights contracts,” said one racecourse official. “There is a major internal issue between HRI and a number of racecourses over how HRI structured the distribution of income in the current contract.

“HRI’s allocation for their data should only be market value. The current contract is constructed in such a way that it favours HRI and the major racecourses for data income. All we want is fair market value for our media rights,” they added.

At a joint-Oireachtas Agriculture committee hearing in June, HRI was accused of “abusing its position” by Independent Senator Ronan Mullen. He alleged a disproportionate distribution of income that favoured larger tracks, including the four owned by the semi-state body.

HRI receives 16 per cent of revenue generated by media rights.

The media rights committee is chaired by the Punchestown boss Conor O’Neill and as well as Hartery it includes the Galway chief executive Michael Moloney, Robert Nixon, and former Turf Club senior steward Meta Osborne. They are charged with negotiating rights deals for all 26 tracks.

Privately, some of the disaffected courses say that such is the level of dissatisfaction that they can’t rule out individual tracks breaking ranks and doing their own deals.

That could open the potential for the start of a similar scenario to Britain where there are bidding battles for rights between ARC and the other major player, Jockey Club racecourses which is linked to RMG.

Racecourses here will have the final vote on whether any new SIS/RMG deal is accepted but no decision is likely to be taken on that for some time.

Monday’s meeting is being called to provide tracks with details of a new deal which those within HRI are confident will be attractive. How the money generated gets distributed though is likely to be much more contentious.

Some smaller racecourses are fearful of a “performance-based model” linked to rates of betting turnover. Since most betting is generated by the bigger meetings at more high-profile tracks that could impact on them.

Perhaps the most fractious issue though could be the percentage that goes to HRI to be spent within the broader industry.

One official pointed to how a new all-weather circuit is proposed to be built at the HRI owned Tipperary racecourse at a cost of €18 million.

“Why should we be the ones paying for that?” they queried on Sunday.