Sky to take control of At the races

Sky has taken a majority shareholding in At The Races and the channel is likely to be rebranded as Sky Sports Racing, The Times can reveal.

In a deal completed this month, Sky and Arena Racing Company (ARC) effectively flipped their respective stakes in the company. It is understood that ARC, which owns 27 courses in Britain, held a 52 per cent interest with Sky holding 48 per cent.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/sky-set-to-put-name-to-racing-channel-after-upping-stake-s8srpwtmn

any link to the story please?

Keep up!

Ta Ramruna

"got to be a big improvement" in what way?

Will it now be part of the sky sports package and therefore clearly subscription based, rather than the insidiously subscription based as part of whatever tripe package it was thrown in previously?

HD for a start, no more split screens, live pictures,

Thread been up over 45 mins and nobody's asked if we'll be getting faster pics

live pics huh

You'd hope that Sky would want similar picture quality to its other sports channels. Which would at least mean that the pics are no longer delayed that little bit extra to allow time for someone to run the film through a bowl of dishwater before broadcasting it.

On the other hand, if the delay is the same as on the other Sky Sports channels, it would still be unworkable for serious in-running. Might be a reduction from 7 secs to something like the old 5 secs, which might make betting to small stakes in the first half of NH races a possibility again.

At least with better-quality pictures we'd be able to see what had actually happened in the races, which is a luxury denied to users of both ATR and Betfair live video at the moment.

So we might get clearer visuals, big deal. I'd imagine everyone would be happy enough with the current pic standard if it meant the "live pics" weren't 2 furlongs behind..

I can also see clearly what happens in races on ATR. As ProSniper says, we need faster pics and not HD.

same as RUK would do me

see hayley in HD

Actually the most important question hasn't been asked

Will this become a subscription channel?

Don't hold yer breathe
Sky DEMANDS profits

How long before LAMPUS has to stop claiming that ATR is, "Free."?

NEVER  NEVER  NEVER  not in my lifetime

maybe arc need the money as they are doing fortunes with TRP

Any chance someone can post full link as it only lets me read one paragraph on that link, tia

Sky has taken a majority shareholding in At The Races and the channel is likely to be rebranded as Sky Sports Racing, The Times can reveal.

In a deal completed this month, Sky and Arena Racing Company (ARC) effectively flipped their respective stakes in the company. It is understood that ARC, which owns 27 courses in Britain, held a 52 per cent interest with Sky holding 48 per cent.

Today’s racecards

“We have been long-term partners and investors in At The Races and have decided to strengthen the partnership further, by incrementally increasing our shareholding,” a spokesman for Sky said yesterday.

Sky would not confirm details of the likely name change. However, its branding and marketing expertise is renowned and the benefits for the sport should prove significant.

Meanwhile, James Ridley, an amateur jockey, was banned for 28 days yesterday after he mistook where the finishing post was at Newbury aboard clear leader Lookslikerainted (33-1) and started to pull up half a furlong out, finishing third behind the winner, Triangular, in the hunters’ chase.

Stewards gave him the maximum ban available after finding him guilty of “failing to ride out on a horse that would have finished first”.

Ridley said: “I did mistake the winning post and it wasn’t until they came past me I realised. I’m gutted and it’s gutting for the owners and trainer. It’s not a mistake that should be made.”

Thanks Tom

Iwould gladly pay for it if it was like ruk pics 1.5 secs behind live

hopefully this will be part of the now tv sky sports package

Would happily pay £100 or even more per month for a service similar to RUK online, I almost bet exclusively on AW so having these clowns in charge of all but 1 of the AW course costs me at least twice that a week let alone a month.

they want more of your money the greedy right wing tory loving bastards

Worst news I have heard.

Sky has done more harm to sport than you could shake a stick at. They will be looking at Arc's race courses next.

... exactly mr salmon, if murdochs got anything to do with it it can only end one way .... costing the customer more.

Free for Sky Sports subscribers.. minge bags will have to pay. That what I'd do anyway

With the shambles the Post site has become let's hope they keep the ATR site as it is and just change the name....

Will Boyce still be able to carry on his reckless betting during racing with scant regard to supplying his customers with the latest info?

JetLoneStar 25 Mar 17 14:57 

Would happily pay £100 or even more per month for a service similar to RUK online, I almost bet exclusively on AW so having these clowns in charge of all but 1 of the AW course costs me at least twice that a week let alone a month.
-----------------------

I'll have a hefty bet that YOU would be the ONLY ONE who would pay that daft amount.

The circle of three adverts might change.
We might also see a more up to date graphic than Sprinter Sacre beating Sizing Europe in 2014.

I am no fan of SKY and sports subscriptions.
We now live in a world where young football fans think the game started in 1992, Rugby League teams are known by suffixes just like gridiron ,and artificial events are constantly being created in Union and Cricket to fill these channels up.

I do not think ATR will get better , far more likely to get worse.

surely a perfect time for betfair to approach them and see if the pictures can be speeded up. Sky on their own platform could be a possibility?

Why on earth do people think that this might lead to faster pics. It was because of ATR's connection to Sky that the pictures were slowed in the first place. They demanded it apparently.

All that will happen is that we will pay more for the same.

I don't think anyone thinks it might lead to faster pics,,, but it would be a good time to broach the subject because it was a brick wall response with ATR.

This means a new website for ATR.

Bookies betting IR would have to lead to quicker pics. SIS putting GPS in every saddlecloth very shortly.

I can't see how SIS can do betting in running. I used to work in a bookies. Guy put a bet on late, just as he handed the cash over (£500) it fell at the first fence. He wanted his money back and threatened me .

The Evil Triangle between sport , tv and gambling just got a little bit tighter.

Sport's primary function in the modern world is to create gambling opportunities.

Sky cannot even get the football live as it always seems a good few seconds behind as regularly the market will be suspended long before the ball hits the back of the net.

sixtwosix 28 Mar 17 13:59

I do not think ATR will get better , far more likely to get worse



No fan of Sky myself but ATR so bad i dont put it on May-September despite doing this full-time...terrible pic quality, pics so slow as to be pointless for IR, relentless adverts bad for yr mental health, several unwatchable presenters/pundits..hard to see how can get worse

I agree about the ATR picture quality. I'm convinced that the reason the delay was increased from 5 secs to 7 secs was because of the time it takes to do something to the pictures to make them look that bad. Pakistan Super League cricket on Pakistan channel 792 is the only live sport I've ever watched on Sky with a similar picture quality to ATR (and a similar delay, funnily enough).

Surely pictures from UK racecourses can't naturally be that poor.

You'd hope that integrating the channel into the Sky lineup will result in better pictures, even if they're still delayed.

The raw feed pictures from atr tracks are perfect quality so it's down to them.

duncan idaho 01 Apr 17 10:33 Joined: 08 Mar 03 | Topic/replies: 21,433 | Blogger: duncan idaho's blog
relentless adverts bad for yr mental health

Couldn't agree more, soul destroying!

unfortunately , ATR own the rights to stream from the 27 or so tracks over the internet .

efforts have been made to ask them to speed pictures up, but they do not want to , there mentality at the moment is " we own the rights and no one else and there is nothing you can do about it . it is either take what we give you, or don't take anything "

speeds and picture quality can be better , but ATR do not want us to have them .

SKY may think different , but I doubt it .

At the current rate, ATR will soon own the rights of nothing.  All the big meetings today and what do they do - totally fck it up.  Imi must be the wisest fool in christendom!

Id imagine sky havnt given a seconds thought about speed or IR
Its about the vast majority of viewers who watch racing, lose and buy whatever tat is advertised between losing bets.

all about SKY BET