Ascot Racecourse has officially agreed on a new three-year deal with United Kingdom-based
pay television channel Sky Sports to extend their current partnership. The deal, which will be covering digital rights and pay-television in both the UK and Ireland, will see live coverage of the Ascot’s 25 annual events being broadcasted in Sky Sports Racing until 2024, as fans and bettors will be seeing more of the Kentucky Derby horses now more than ever.
At The Races, which was formerly being operated by Sky Sports, are reported to continue to
manage licensing and distribution of Ascot races for live streaming to the United Kingdom
betting companies in another long-term agreement.
The current deal agreed by both Sky Sports and Ascot Racecourse was set to expire at the end of
this year 2020 and with the new three-year deal extension digital rights will now be with the UK
channel till the 1st of January, 2024. The first deal Ascot and Sky Sports agreed on, signed in
July 2018, saw the channel takes charge from their rival Racing UK as the new pay-television
rights-holder for the British event.
A Word from Matthew Imi
Speaking to the media, Chief executive of At the Races, Matthew Imi, said: “Sky Sports Racing
has been a real success in just a year and a half and our partnership with Ascot Racecourse has
been an important factor. [Some] 3.3 million UK viewers tuned into the channel between April
and June and over 1.9 million on average each month this year, despite the obvious impact of
Covid-19 on domestic racing.
“We have helped Ascot grow some of its key media rights revenues in a short time and we will
continue to use our pay-TV and digital platform as well as the support of Sky Sports and Sky Sports News to drive profile and exposure for all Ascot events. ”Arena Racing Company and Sky Sports are reported to be in a joint partnership in the channel. The Sky Sports Racing deal with Ascot Racecourse was made official right after ITV announced the renewal of their exclusive free-to-air broadcast right deal for the popular horse racing events, which will last till year 2023 after prolonged negotiations.
This new three-year deal agreed will be set to kick off in 2021, which was negotiated with the
right-holders the Racecourse Media Group, which includes both Ascot and Arena Racing Company.
You can follow Ascot Racecourse on Twitter @Ascot and Sky Sports Racing @SkySportsRacing
