Irish tracks which rejected new €47 million-a-year media rights deal press minister to intervene

The five tracks which rejected the €47 million-a-year media rights deal for Irish racing have sought government intervention by writing to Charlie McConalogue, the minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, asking him to ensure small racecourses receive a fairer share of the pie. 

United Irish Racecourses (UIR), which is made up of Kilbeggan, Limerick, Roscommon, Sligo and Thurles, voted against the five-year deal being offered by Sports Information Services (SIS) and Racecourse Media Group (RMG) at an EGM of the Association of Irish Racecourses (Air) on Tuesday. 

UIR says it is not happy that almost €7m of the deal goes directly to Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), and a statement from the group voiced frustration that the tracks owned by HRI – Fairyhouse, Leopardstown, Navan and Tipperary – "look set to earn seven figures from the deal". 

UIR reiterated that trust between its members and HRI has broken down in light of what it describes as HRI’s failure to make good on an undertaking in 2016 to facilitate an independent review of the allocation of media rights monies and to ensure that all funds derived from that deal would go towards current or capital expenditure.

In light of this breakdown in relations between UIR and HRI, Paddy Dunican, secretary of UIR and managing director of Kilbeggan, has written to McConalogue to request his intervention to address the group's concerns, so that "small racecourses will receive the maximum market value for their media rights".

UIR is also asking the minister to review the applicability of section 10 of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act 2001, which stipulates that HRI's media rights committee is authorised to negotiate these deals. UIR contends that is unconstitutional and amounts to an infringement of the property rights of racecourse owners because it "bestows a sole right on the state agency to negotiate the property rights of each racecourse".

It also stated that "the fact there is no appeal mechanism in place inflicts another injustice on racecourses seeking to challenge their designated allocation of funding from media and data rights".

Dunican said: “UIR racecourses have decided to withdraw from a media rights agreement that simply does not represent the interests of the membership. Our concerns at the inequitable distribution of funding under these deals have not been addressed, despite pledges from HRI to conduct a review into allocation, as far back as 2016.

"UIR wants what is best for racing and racegoers; parity of treatment, exposure of the sport, and enhanced attendances. To that end, HRI has an additional onus on it to derive the best possible deal, while transparently delivering value to all courses in a fair and equitable way."

Paul Hensey: Air chief executive focusing on the positives

After the five tracks rejected the SIS/RMG deal on Tuesday, Paul Hensey, chief executive of Air, said he would have preferred unanimous agreement from the 26 tracks but focused on the positives and stressed that only 56 of approximately 400 fixtures would not be shown on Racing TV in 2024 after 21 tracks voted in favour of the deal. 

It is increasingly likely that live pictures from the five tracks will return to Sky Sports Racing in 2024 as a separate deal with Arena Racing Company (Arc) will now have to be negotiated. 

It is understood that UIR received "an unsolicited offer" of €100,000 per fixture from Arc in March, but, unless McConalogue gets involved in the process, the five tracks now have to request HRI's media rights committee to negotiate another contract for them.

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Irish racing could return to Sky Sports in 2024 after five tracks reject RMG/SIS media rights deal

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