LONDON (Brand Republic) – Channel 4 has threatened to pull TV coverage of horseracing at UK racecourses that have backed out of negotiations with Go Racing, the consortium which is battling to win the TV rights to horse racing in UK.
It is understood that 10 smaller UK race courses have entered into negotiations with the rival GG-Media consortium, which is backed by investment bank Fleming Family and Partners.
The GG-Media bid, tabled to 26 smaller courses just two weeks ago, is worth £67m over five years. It does not include coverage of racing on terrestrial TV. However, racecourses will receive a payment of £100,000 on completion of a deal.
Some of the smaller courses were said to be unhappy with the Go Racing bid. They believed that larger courses fared better than smaller courses under the terms of the bid.
As well as being backed by Channel 4, the Go Racing consortium comprises BSkyB, NTL, and UK racecourse owner Arena Leisure.
Go Racing will issue contracts to racecourses on April 27 and the courses will have 10 days to respond. The deadline for the GG-Media bid is midnight tonight.