Sky has confirmed it’s to replace At The Races with a new Sky Sports Racing channel which will be available to “every Sky TV customer in the UK and Ireland at no extra cost”.
Also available in HD, the new channel will bring live racing from over 650 UK fixtures, “as well as high quality exclusive international race meetings.” To help boost content, Sky has signed a ten-year deal with Chester Race Company to bring live racing from Chester and Bangor-on-Dee to Sky Sports Racing from March 2019.
Managing Director of Sky Sports Barney Francis said: “We’ve seen a great reaction from our customers to launching dedicated sports channels and this takes us to another level.
“Horse racing is a massive sport that Sky has been involved in for two decades, now we will have a channel to give our customers more of what they love every day.
“Adding Chester and Bangor-on-Dee is fantastic news and we look forward to making Sky Sports Racing a new home for racing fans.”
Chief Executive of Chester Race Company Richard Thomas said: “We know Sky Sports will move the dial in the way our racing is covered but more than that we are excited by the prospect of how we can communicate and promote racing and the Chester brand further.
“We see real value in what the partnership can bring across TV, digital and social media, for us and for our sponsor partners.
“There is a lot of crossover between our core audiences and an opportunity to extend our reach more broadly via the Sky family of channels including Sky Sports News.
“We will be working very closely with the teams at Sky Sports and ATR in what will be a genuinely collaborative relationship.”
