@tonypaley Thu 12 Jul 2018 09.51 BST Last modified on Thu 12 Jul 2018 10.59
Newmarket’s July meeting, one of the undoubted highlights of the summer racing programme, begins on Thursday with Ed Chamberlin and Francesca Cumani on hand to add polished presentation and glamour to proceedings on ITV. But will this fixture, or any horse racing for that matter, still be on the channel in 2021?
The At The Races channel is to relaunch as Sky Sports Racing in January and Tuesday’s announcement that Ascot had signed up with Sky was the conclusion of the first significant skirmish on the way to the looming battle between the digital broadcaster and ITV for the exclusive rights to the sport when the contract comes up for renewal again at the end of 2020.
The move by the Berkshire track to switch away from Racing UK to its rival racing channel was clearly not welcomed by the incumbent racing broadcaster, with a source at ITV reported as saying: “The timing of the announcement and also Ascot’s decision itself to switch is seen as bizarre within ITV.”
Juliet Slot, the chief commercial officer at Ascot who was at the forefront of the track’s rights review, made some interesting remarks in explaining why Ascot had jumped ship. “We have decided to [join] Sky Sports Racing because of the significant investment and commitment to the sport they have demonstrated, their reach capacity on the basic package [a potential 14 million viewers]. and the brand alignment and cross-promotional opportunities that came with the major sports that Sky cover.”
Does that reasoning seem ‘bizarre’? Chester and Bangor have also announced they are moving to the new channel and Matthew Imi, chief executive at At The Races, said: “For the first time, racing will be positioned and heavily cross-promoted shoulder to shoulder with the other key domestic and global events Sky Sports showcases across its other ten channels.”
Developments over the next two years will be keenly watched by racing and TV sports broadcast professionals alike.
Surely no more bizarre than ITV showing racing in the first place.
Also ATR presentation is far closer to ITV than the far more pompous stuff on RUK.
It is strange the use of the word 'bizarre'.Surely no more bizarre than ITV showing racing in the first place.Also ATR presentation is far closer to ITV than the far more pompous stuff on RUK.
Home / Channels / Freeview / News / ITV3 officially moves to new Freeview frequency ITV3 officially moves to new Freeview frequency MARCH 28, 2018 CHANNELS , FREEVIEW , NEWS
UPDATE | A frequency change which has resulted in more Freeview users being able to access ITV3 has been completed.
ITV3 is now broadcast alongside the signal of the main ITV channel (STV in Central and Northern Scotland). This frequency change means its Freeview coverage has increased to around 98.5% of the population.
Previously, ITV3's Freeview service was bundled with lower coverage commercial channels, reaching 90% of the UK population.
During February and March, two copies of ITV3 - on both the old and new frequencies - were broadcast, appearing on channel 10 and 788.
Then two technical changes took place:
On 28th March 2018, after nearly two months of dual-running, ITV swapped the old copy of ITV3 with the new copy. On 3rd April 2018, the old copy was turned off. A retune message appeared in its place for a few weeks, before being removed. Viewers who haven't retuned, or haven't retuned correctly may see a 'channel not available' or other error message.
Viewers have been advised they may need to do a full retune, or first time installation or factory reset on some older devices to reinstate the channel.
A 'new channel scan' or 'add channels scan' may not restore the channel.
The changes are separate to the national programme to change Freeview frequencies in preparation for 5G mobile services, which has resulted in some users having had to retune their TVs already in recent weeks.
Also on relays With the change, ITV3 is now universally available from all Freeview relay transmitters.
Viewers who receive a reduced channel line-up from a relay transmitter (i.e. without access to commercial channels such as Dave, Sky News and 4Music) should check to see if they have ITV3 on channel 10 - if not, they should retune.
Home / Channels / Freeview / News / ITV3 officially moves to new Freeview frequencyITV3 officially moves to new Freeview frequency MARCH 28, 2018 CHANNELS , FREEVIEW , NEWSUPDATE | A frequency change which has resulted in more Freeview users bein