Sky Sports is to follow up last year’s move to thematic sports channels with a dedicated racing channel.
Sky Sports Racing will replace At The Races and will be available to all Sky TV subscribers in the UK and Ireland.
A ten-year deal with Chester Race Company has been signed to bring live racing from Chester and Bangor-on-Dee to Sky Sports Racing from March 2019. The oldest racecourse in the UK, Chester was established in 1539 and was awarded the ROA Racecourse of the year in 2015 and 2016.
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.”
The rebrand, expected to take place before the end of the year, will also see the channel broadcast in HD for the first time.
Its rival, the premium channel Racing UK, has broadcast in HD since March 2016.
Following the loss of the 26 Irish tracks to Racing UK earlier this year, At the Races has 23 UK courses. In contrast to Racing UK’s 37 UK courses.
