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19 Mar 12
02:34
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By Marcus Townend, 19 March 2012
The BBC's dwindling portfolio of live sports rights has taken another massive hit with confirmation that the iconic Royal Ascot, Derby and Grand National meetings will switch to C4 from next year.
Despite the BBC reducing the volume of its horseracing coverage, the biggest race meetings of the season have remained among the jewels in its sporting crown alongside Wimbledon, The Open Golf and Six Nations.
Their loss will hit the BBC particularly hard in the post-London Olympic era.
Loyal viewers, especially those brought up listening to the mellifluous commentaries of Sir Peter O'Sullevan, the man dubbed the voice of racing, will be horrified that, like Test cricket, the BBC's involvement in live horseracing, stretching back over 60 years, is to be consigned to history.
Racemail understands the key to the four-year deal, believed to be worth over £20million, was an assurance from C4 that the integrity of the Royal meeting in June would not be compromised.
The Queen's favourite fixture remains the only race meeting in which no sponsor can add its name to the most famous races.
Yet in 2013, C4 will intersperse coverage with regular advertisement breaks.
A source said: 'C4 were forced to give assurances to Ascot that the integrity of the Royal meeting will be protected. That was the difficult one. They were more wedded to the BBC than anyone else.'
The sport has subsidised C4 to broadcast racing in recent seasons, to ensure its bread and butter fixtures maintained a foothold on a terrestrial platform.
It has shown 180 days a year with last week's Cheltenham Festival at its heart.
But racing, dramatically enhanced by horses like Kauto Star and Frankel, is now much more commercially attractive for broadcasters since bookmakers have been allowed to advertise.
The risk, particularly for next month's Grand National which was first shown on the BBC in 1960 and last year attracted 8.5million viewers, the biggest annual audience for racing, is that the switch to C4 could hit its profile.
It was the subsequent BBC-driven publicity for AP McCoy after his 2010 Grand National victory on Don't Push It that enabled him to be the first jockey to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
In the light of C4's error-strewn coverage of last year's World Athletics Championships, there will be some nervousness, but its 28-year association with the sport does offer firm foundations upon which to build.
Both fears were dismissed by Professor Simon Chadwick, Director of the Centre for the International Business of Sport (CIBS), who said: 'This is a significant coup both for horse racing and for C4.
'Continued coverage of the sport on terrestrial television will ensure that horse racing is prominent in the minds of fans and viewers alike, something that is especially important in an increasingly crowded market for sport.
'Moreover, the length of the deal will provide a strong platform for horse racing to move forward to build profile and presence with the broad, but also young audience that Channel 4 attracts.'
C4 is expected to revamp its coverage and has promised to 'creatively enhance production values'.
The channel is understood to be keen to lure BBC racing anchor Clare Balding to its team. She will present the Paralympics on C4 later this year.
Jamie Aitchison, C4's Sports Editor, said: 'This is an opportunity for us to work together to grow the sport, painting the full picture of both the Flat and Jumps seasons to attract new viewers whilst rewarding those loyal viewers we value so highly.'
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘The BBC are proud of their long heritage of broadcasting horse racing and did put in as competitive a bid as possible in the current climate.
'We are of course disappointed that we have lost the rights, but we are pleased that all the races in the contract remain free to air.
‘We of course still look forward to broadcasting the Grand National next month and then of course the Derby and Royal Ascot which have special significance in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/racing/article-2116775/Last-Grand-National-BBC.html#ixzz1pWQZsJmi
The BBC's dwindling portfolio of live sports rights has taken another massive hit with confirmation that the iconic Royal Ascot, Derby and Grand National meetings will switch to C4 from next year.
Despite the BBC reducing the volume of its horseracing coverage, the biggest race meetings of the season have remained among the jewels in its sporting crown alongside Wimbledon, The Open Golf and Six Nations.
Their loss will hit the BBC particularly hard in the post-London Olympic era.
Loyal viewers, especially those brought up listening to the mellifluous commentaries of Sir Peter O'Sullevan, the man dubbed the voice of racing, will be horrified that, like Test cricket, the BBC's involvement in live horseracing, stretching back over 60 years, is to be consigned to history.
Racemail understands the key to the four-year deal, believed to be worth over £20million, was an assurance from C4 that the integrity of the Royal meeting in June would not be compromised.
The Queen's favourite fixture remains the only race meeting in which no sponsor can add its name to the most famous races.
Yet in 2013, C4 will intersperse coverage with regular advertisement breaks.
A source said: 'C4 were forced to give assurances to Ascot that the integrity of the Royal meeting will be protected. That was the difficult one. They were more wedded to the BBC than anyone else.'
The sport has subsidised C4 to broadcast racing in recent seasons, to ensure its bread and butter fixtures maintained a foothold on a terrestrial platform.
It has shown 180 days a year with last week's Cheltenham Festival at its heart.
But racing, dramatically enhanced by horses like Kauto Star and Frankel, is now much more commercially attractive for broadcasters since bookmakers have been allowed to advertise.
The risk, particularly for next month's Grand National which was first shown on the BBC in 1960 and last year attracted 8.5million viewers, the biggest annual audience for racing, is that the switch to C4 could hit its profile.
It was the subsequent BBC-driven publicity for AP McCoy after his 2010 Grand National victory on Don't Push It that enabled him to be the first jockey to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
In the light of C4's error-strewn coverage of last year's World Athletics Championships, there will be some nervousness, but its 28-year association with the sport does offer firm foundations upon which to build.
Both fears were dismissed by Professor Simon Chadwick, Director of the Centre for the International Business of Sport (CIBS), who said: 'This is a significant coup both for horse racing and for C4.
'Continued coverage of the sport on terrestrial television will ensure that horse racing is prominent in the minds of fans and viewers alike, something that is especially important in an increasingly crowded market for sport.
'Moreover, the length of the deal will provide a strong platform for horse racing to move forward to build profile and presence with the broad, but also young audience that Channel 4 attracts.'
C4 is expected to revamp its coverage and has promised to 'creatively enhance production values'.
The channel is understood to be keen to lure BBC racing anchor Clare Balding to its team. She will present the Paralympics on C4 later this year.
Jamie Aitchison, C4's Sports Editor, said: 'This is an opportunity for us to work together to grow the sport, painting the full picture of both the Flat and Jumps seasons to attract new viewers whilst rewarding those loyal viewers we value so highly.'
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘The BBC are proud of their long heritage of broadcasting horse racing and did put in as competitive a bid as possible in the current climate.
'We are of course disappointed that we have lost the rights, but we are pleased that all the races in the contract remain free to air.
‘We of course still look forward to broadcasting the Grand National next month and then of course the Derby and Royal Ascot which have special significance in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/racing/article-2116775/Last-Grand-National-BBC.html#ixzz1pWQZsJmi
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The channel is understood to be keen to lure BBC racing anchor Clare Balding to its team.
Had to be a downside  |
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i think it's bad for the national, wont get half the viewers on c4 but for racing generally it makes not difference at all
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as long as they dont get Carson and Parrot on board i'll be a happy chappy
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Why will the National ... "wont get half the viewers on c4."?
Do you think people simply sit in front of their televisions - and just watch the channel that they first started on all day? Some probably do ....................... If they cannot find the remote. |
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i don't understand it but that's the way it is, sports get a lot more viewers on bbc1
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ah for the great days of royal ascot, wilson, rock, o,sullivan,lindley,pollard
 , piggott, cecil, vincent, the old stand , arcadian heights 25/1, shavian 12/1, piccolo 33/1, |
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In general terms it has to be good news, given the poor quality of the coverage on BBC.
My main concern with C4 is that it seems to be slowly moving down the BBC route, by including sentimental garbage and irrelevancies. Let's focus on the racing, the form, the horses, owners and trainers. There is plenty of scope to add new features, but hopefully they will dump the reading of poetry and the overkill of talking about one horse in the big races, almost to the exclusion of everything else. The objective of attracting new people to the sport is a worthy one, but faces big challenges - particularly for jump racing. Who can forget the BBC One show in its infancy doing a long running feature of a horse on the build up to the National (McKelvey), only for it to receive fatal injuries in the race. All of us who know racing are aware of what can happen, but families watching this sort of stuff are potentially put off racing forever. So, all in all. it is necessary to focus on the racing as a whole, the form, the betting etc and don't make the mistake of trying to turn every big race into some Seabuscuitesque story. I hope C4 steer away from what I thought was exclusively a BBC track, but unfortunately I fear the worst. |
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Losing the BBC is a calamity for racing.
I'm sure the coverage of the Grand National or Derby will survive but Channel Four cannot run the trailers either side of Eastenders that put these iconic races in front of the non-racing public. |
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Clare Balding would a good addition especially as it would mean the end of the useless Ms Graham and we would see less of Thompson and the fat oaf.
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or as i say trebble the whammy blah blah blah mammy
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khyber kim 19 Mar 12 08:49
Clare Balding would a good addition especially as it would mean the end of the useless Ms Graham and we would see less of Thompson and the fat oaf. I agree, she is world class television presenter much like Nick Luck and if it meant the end of Graham & Thompson then that's fine by me. |
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Anything that sees the end of the Parrot/Wiltshire combo has to be embraced.
Sad for Clare but she has other interests anyway. |
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A source said: 'C4 were forced to give assurances to Ascot that the integrity of the Royal meeting will be protected.
All the issues facing racing, we have crap like this. |
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BBC made a big deal about reporting casualties last week at Cheltenham. I can see them making a bigger deal of it now
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What happens in regards to the Arc meeting.Will Channel 4 take over the coverage of this event ???
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Must be a good opportunity for C4 to purge some of their team - Graham, Thompson,Down,McCririck well past sell by date.
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But does that mean BBC will still have the rights to show the slowmo highlights at 12:05 o´clock in the morning, like they do with the F1.
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Coverage schmoverage.
Pretty indifferent really as to who covers it and C4 have at least got some passion for the sport, unlike the BBC, for which racing has been merely tolerated for many years now (decreasing coverage of meetings, no results given on radio during sports bulletins etc) I would question the firt 'B' in BBC though, given horse racing is the most popular (by attendance, never mind betting shop patronage) sport in the country (cue irate posts from the fishing lobby) and, I would argue, the most egalitarian in terms of socio-economics. Still, as long as the petrolheads are catered for, eh? |
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bbc letting sport down again time to end spoty they dont show any sport anymore
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I'm glad that these big race meetings will still be free to view on TV,
and C4 do have a passion for racing, the only 2 things about C4 racing is all those bloody adverts, and maybe a couple of the team have reached their sell-by date, like Thompson and Graham. |
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the bbc isnt free to view
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Just as well AP got his Sports Personality award in two years ago - wouldn't have a hope in hell now.
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It's a bit ironic now that the BBC show SPOTY considering they virtually show no sport now.
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chrisg
19 Mar 12 11:01 Must be a good opportunity for C4 to purge some of their team - Graham, Thompson,Down,McCririck well past sell by date. ...and add to that list Plunkett, Tom Lee, Emma, Francome, Tanya, in fact this is their best opportunity for the long-overdue clear out. Dread the thought of Thompson larking about in Bechers Brook on National day. |
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SPOTY is increasingly becoming a non event, not because of any lack of achievement, but due to the BBCs general lack of interest in sport throughout the year.
The achievements of those involved in sport are rightly regularly celebrated on a day to day basis by the channels that show most of it (SKY) and to a lesser extent C4. |
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SPOTY is increasingly becoming a non event, not because of any lack of achievement, but due to the BBCs general lack of interest in sport throughout the year.
The achievements of those involved in sport are rightly regularly celebrated on a day to day basis by the channels that show most of it (SKY) and to a lesser extent C4. |
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Thommo will want to remember where he is when he goes sticking his mic under some of the public's nose they're not exactly a Royal Ascot crowd ..issit
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thompson and mccririck have ruined atr royal ascot coverage for years hopefully they ruin c4 coverage instead so at least the atr stuff will be almost bearable
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I understand that terrestrial coverage helps to make a sport popular, but the BBC have dumbed down everything they cover for the last 10 years (Greg **** was the chief culprit) and any serious sports fan surely watches Sky, RUK, ATR etc. Channel 4 are OK when Big Mac is absent from the team but I still prefer RUK when they cover the same card.
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Thommo at Aintree 'Ladies' Day would threaten cringeworthy records!
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nobody mentioned the best thing of the bbc losing tv coverage,
NO MORE CROC. |
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While glad that the bigger meeting remain on terrestrial TV, the BBC should hang its head in shame.
Not willing to pay the going rate for sporting jewels like Royal Ascot, Grand National and the Derby but willing to throw crazy money at the likes of Richard Hammond, James May and Dermot O'Leary.... The country's f**ked right enough. |
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Cattermole in his top hat & tails doing his lame James Bond impressions at Royal Ascot
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YouTube Clip - John McCririck - Bill Grundy
This is what can happen with Big Mac at Royal Ascot in front the camera live on TV: "F@CKING FORGOT THE HORSES NAME !!!" |
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why are the bbc so interested in F1 these days?
it's fu kc ing sh it |
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This is the best thing for racing, BBC have been letting us down for years and they made a complete shambles of last years National. What I don't understand is how they can let something that draws in 8 million viewers and yet keep other sports that will not draw anywhere near that. Hopefully c4 can take it seriously and have a good clearout.
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They're prepared to spend millions on Formula 1 for highlights mostly but can't put their hands in their pockets for some of the greatest sporting fare this country produces.
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Downside yes indeed. No Thankyou.
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