Irish commercial broadcaster TV3 has entered into a long-term rights partnership with Racecourse Media Group, the holding company responsible for a range of media and data rights involving 34 of the UK’s premier racecourses.
The four-year partnership begins with the January 1 meeting at Cheltenham and runs until the end of 2020.
Under the agreement, the TV3 and 3e channels will broadcast exclusive Irish free-to-air coverage of leading horseracing events across 50 days of the year.
Events covered by the partnership include the Cheltenham Festival, Grand National Festival, Epsom Derby and Oaks, and Royal Ascot.
Other events include the Guineas Festival at Newmarket, Lockinge Day at Newbury, Qatar Goodwood Festival, Ebor Festival at York and British Champions Day at Ascot.
TV3 secured the Irish rights to the events ahead of public-service broadcaster RTÉ. Group head of RTÉ Sport, Ryle Nugent, told the Irish Independent newspaper: “Obviously we’re disappointed to lose the rights, but frankly the requirements to do the number of days of UK racing that were being asked was more than RTÉ could square away.”