UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 has opted to drop coverage of horse racing showpiece the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, citing an escalated rights fee.
Channel 4’s announcement means UK viewers without access to pay-television channels At The Races or Racing UK are set to miss coverage of this year’s meeting, which takes place in France on October 1-2.
“We are not going to be showing the Arc,” a Channel 4 spokeswoman told the Racing Post newspaper. “As the race is this year being staged at Chantilly there were inflated media rights costs. Channel 4 therefore took the decision not to cover the race and to instead focus on British racing.”
Channel 4, which took over coverage of the Arc in 2013 – having also broadcast the meeting between 1986 and 1995 and then again in 2001 – in January lost its contract to televise British racing to rival commercial broadcaster ITV.
ITV has secured a four-year deal, from 2017 to 2020, to show British horse racing on free-to-air television. ITV will show nearly 100 days of racing each year, including all the marquee events on its main channel, such as the Cheltenham Festival, the Grand National, the Derby, Royal Ascot, British Champions Day, Goodwood Festival, Ebor Festival and the St Leger.