Sky Racing picks up New South Wales racing rights

Australian pay-television horse racing broadcaster Sky Racing has agreed a 10-year rights deal with racing authorities in the state of New South Wales.

The agreement appears to bring an end to a dispute over the rights to horse racing in New South Wales, although it is unclear when the contract will commence.

Sky Racing said it will have the domestic and international media rights, as well as non-exclusive digital rights, for all New South Wales thoroughbred racing, “as soon as the rights become available.”

Sky and fellow pay-television broadcaster TVN last month struck a temporary truce to their dispute over the sport’s rights in the states of New South Wales and Victoria.

Sky Racing, which is owned by gaming company Tabcorp, and TVN, which is owned by various entities in the Australian racing industry, had earlier severed ties leaving Sky without rights to broadcast all race meetings in Victoria and New South Wales. The interim deal resulted in broadcasts being restored in Tabcorp retail outlets and hundreds of pubs and clubs throughout the country.

The Racing NSW organisation has since ended its links with the TVN joint venture allowing for the Sky deal to go ahead, although the Mumbrella website said the new contract cannot start until TVN has been officially disbanded.

Tabcorp added that it is also in separate rights negotiations with Racing Victoria, which also has to agree to disband the TVN venture.