1st Mar 2006 07:04
Arena Leisure PLC01 March 2006 ARENA LEISURE PLC ("ARENA") Notes At The Races Operational Review Arena Leisure Plc ("Arena") notes that At The Races ("ATR") has released anOperational Review for the year ended 31 December 2005 this morning. The full press release from At The Races is attached below. - ENDS - For further information, please contact: Arena Leisure Plc Mark Elliott, Chief Executive 020 7495 2277 Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial David Rydell / Zoe Sanders 020 7861 3232 PRESS RELEASE 1 March 2006 AT THE RACES ("ATR" or "the Company") OPERATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2005 At The Races, the UK and Ireland's most watched dedicated horseracing channel,today announced its operational performance for its financial year ended 31December 2005. In this period, ATR enjoyed significant growth and the Boardbelieves that progress will continue throughout 2006. HIGHLIGHTS • Strong financial outperformance with more than £2.5 million generated for racecourse partners in 2005 and over £3.5 million in total since the channel launched in June 2004 • Advertising and sponsorship revenues increased by 241 per cent compared to annualised 2004 • Board agreement to increase investment in ATR with particular emphasis in the areas of programming, marketing and international distribution • Channel officially recognised (BARB) as the UK and Ireland's most watched dedicated horseracing channel • Monthly UK audience reach of up to 1.2 million individuals (BARB) • Average UK audience during live UK and Irish racing of 40,000 - 50,000 viewers (BARB) • Ratings for January 2006 indicate excellent start to the current fiscal year. ATR's brand count - the number of different advertisers appearing on the channel - is up year-on-year by more than 50% • More than 1,000 UK and Irish race meetings broadcast in 2005. ATR holds rights to broadcast 55% of all UK fixtures in addition to 100% of all Irish horseracing fixtures • Media rights agreement signed with Doncaster Racecourse bringing the total number of UK racecourse partners to 29 • At The Races International continues to grow the popularity of UK and Irish horseracing overseas. ATR's racing product is currently broadcast to over 20 countries, comprising both fixed odds and pari-mutuel markets. More than £10 million has been delivered into domestic on-course tote pools through the March 2005 agreement with the UK Tote to commingle betting revenues • Interactive red button betting generated approximately £2 million turnover per week across horseracing, sports betting and gaming with double digit percentage growth forecast for 2006 •Continued innovation through cross platform products including the online streaming service Bet and Watch, the launch of At The Races 3G to a potential audience of six million mobile phone users on the 3 and Vodafone networks, live streaming to Vodafone 3G customers as part of the Sky Mobile TV package and the recent launch of Best Odds, our comprehensive odds comparison service Commenting on ATR's performance, Chief Executive, Matthew Imi, said: "2005 was an excellent year for At The Races and we start 2006 in an evenstronger financial and operational position. ATR is the UK and Ireland's mostwatched dedicated horseracing channel and we remain committed to growing thepopularity of UK and Irish racing both in the domestic and internationalmarketplace." - ENDS - For further information, please contact:Matthew Imi Tel: 0207 954 3000Chief Executive, At The RacesDavid Rydell / Robin Tozer / Zoe Sanders Tel: 0207 861 3232Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S REVIEW 2005 was the first full calendar year for At The Races following its launch inJune 2004. It was a year of significant achievement and, at the end of it, wefind ourselves in a strong financial and operational position. The aims of thebusiness remain simple; we are dedicated to growing the popularity of UK andIrish horseracing at home and abroad and maximising the value of the mediarights licensed to us by our racecourse partners. Operational Performance Official audience research by BARB shows that At The Races attracted an in-homeaudience of (as recorded by BARB) up to 1.2 million individuals per month in2005, making it the UK's most watched dedicated horseracing channel. The highestrecorded daily audience reach in 2005 was 360,000. We have an average of 40,000to 50,000 people watching at any time during live UK and Irish racing. Anecdotal evidence suggests that, as a result of such widespread audience reach,non-LBO off-course betting turnover on non-terrestrial racedays has increasedyear on year across ATR fixtures. On December 15th 2005 ATR concluded a media rights agreement with DoncasterMetropolitan Borough Council providing exclusive domestic and internationalrights to at least 25 Doncaster racecourse fixtures throughout 2006 and early2007. From June 1st 2007, ATR will enjoy exclusive rights to the entireDoncaster fixture list. This agreement effectively brought the total number ofATR's UK racecourse partners to 29. ATR has the rights to broadcast 55% of all UK fixtures in addition to all Irishhorseracing fixtures, broadcasting more than 1,000 UK and Irish meetings in2005. Over the course of the year there were only 13 days when ATR was unable toshow live UK or Irish racing. In addition, ATR broadcasts a variety of highquality racing from around the globe, including meetings from France, Italy,Australia, Dubai, Japan, the USA , Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore. ATR seeks to present horseracing in a way that appeals to expert punters andnovices alike. We believe that we have one of the best rosters of presenters andpundits in racing journalism which, in 2005, was further strengthened by theaddition of Mick Fitzgerald and Dave Duggan. The quality of ATR's presentationteam was demonstrated when Robert Cooper was deservedly awarded Broadcaster ofthe Year by the Horserace Writers and Photographers Association (with fellowpresenter Mike Cattermole also nominated) and Gareth O'Brien was a recentrecipient of the Irish Stablestaff's Racing Media Award 2005. Horseracing from Ireland continues to grow in popularity and throughout 2005 ATRundertook a variety of joint marketing initiatives with Irish racecourses. ATRis committed to further increasing the exposure of Irish racing during 2006through an increase of 50% in the number of outside broadcasts and theintroduction of dedicated helicopter aerials and graphics packages for eachIrish racecourse. Media rights payments back to Horseracing Ireland and theAssociation of Irish Racecourses enjoyed year on year growth in each quarter of2005, a year which the Chief Executive of Horseracing Ireland, Brian Kavanagh,has described as "probably the most successful year ever for Irish racing". ATR's media rights agreement with Magna Entertainment Corporation and ChurchillDowns Incorporated, covering horseracing from their 19 tracks, was not renewedat the start of 2006. At The Races, however, continues to broadcast between twoto four US race meetings per night and since 1st January 2006 has seen declinein neither audience ratings nor commissions generated from turnover on USproduct through UK bookmakers utilising TRNi's FastBet software to commingle UKbets back into the US pools. This confirms our view that the most effective wayfor an international rights holder to maximise product awareness and bettingturnover in the UK is via broad television distribution on ATR coupled withTRNi's bet capture system which, by turnover, over 80% of UK bookmakers have nowinstalled. Financial ATR's strong performance in 2005 led to more than £2.5 million being generatedfor our racecourse partners. More than £3.5 million has been generated since thechannel launched in June 2004. For 2006, the Board has agreed to increase investment in the channel withparticular emphasis in the areas of programming, marketing and internationaldistribution. ATR is committed to making its content available to as broad a televisionaudience as possible in order to provide the strongest platform to grow thepopularity of horseracing. An important part of the accompanying business modelis advertising revenue and, commencing January 1st 2006, Sky Media, theadvertising sales division of BSkyB, will be responsible for ATR's airtimesales. We anticipate that this appointment will enable us to grow this revenuestream further and has immediately improved the quality of advertising that thechannel attracts. ATR's brand count - the number of different advertisersappearing on ATR - has increased by more than 50% in January 2006. The potential for programme sponsorship on ATR has been greatly enhanced byrecent changes to Ofcom's Broadcast Code, which now allows Bookmakers to sponsorlive television coverage of racing. Since September 2005 ATR has concludedsponsorship agreements with William Hill, Ladbrokes and SkyBet for its live UKand Irish racing coverage. A number of other bookmaker partners have expressedan interest in showcasing their brand to the large and valuable monthly audiencethat ATR brings. International Maximising distribution and revenue opportunities worldwide through At The RacesInternational remains a real priority for the Company. Integral to the successof this is the issue of 48 hour declarations and, following the BHB's recentannouncement, ATR looks forward to playing its part in providing a more detailedevaluation of incremental revenue opportunities for flat racing should adecision be taken at the BHB's March 6th Board Meeting to sign off on 48hrdeclarations going forward. Innovation At The Races has embraced a cross-platform distribution strategy to maximise thevalue of its media rights and to give consumers more choice in how to enjoy acombined horseracing and betting service. Attheraces.com has quickly become the fastest growing domestic horseracing andbetting website and attracts more than 3000,000 unique users and 26 million pageimpressions per month. In January 2006, attheraces.com streamed over 240,000live and archive video streams. The Company has been very pleased with the performance of its recently launchedonline odds comparison service, Best Odds. The comparator allows punters tocompare the odds being offered by 15 betting partners, including leading fixedodds bookmakers, Tote pools and betting exchange Betfair and benefits from thecross promotion opportunities available via the At The Races broadcast channelwhich itself has an average daily audience reach of over 200,000 individuals. In 2005 we launched At The Races 3G to a potential audience of six millionsubscribers on the 3 and Vodafone mobile networks. All the channel's previews,news, analysis and UK and Irish horseracing content can be seen as a livebroadcast with full commentary. Live streaming of At The Races is available toVodafone 3G customers as part of the Sky Mobile TV service, which includes 19mobile TV channels across two genre specific packages. ATR's distribution onmobile platforms will continue to roll out across mobile networks, including inIreland, and we anticipate adding enhanced betting and research functionality indue course. The Company's online streaming service, Bet and Watch, is now available acrosssix bookmaker partner websites and enables punters to watch high quality videostreaming once they have placed a bet on an ATR broadcast race. ATR has seendouble digit percentage growth of downloaded streams on a monthly basis sincelaunch and will soon be announcing the rollout of the service across additionalbookmaker websites. Interactive red button betting continues to generate approximately £2 million ofturnover per week across horseracing, sports betting and gaming with doubledigit percentage growth forecast for the year. Legal The Company was successful in its legal action against the British HorseracingBoard ("BHB") over the licensing of pre-race data. In a landmark case,Mr.Justice Etherton ruled that the BHB had abused a dominant market position andpursued an excessive and discriminatory pricing policy against At The Races. TheBHB has filed an appeal against this decision. ATR's action against the RCA and various racecourses to recover rebates,following the termination of ATR's old media rights agreement with the RCA and49 racecourses, will be heard in the High Court in a trial commencing on 13March 2006. Outlook We start 2006 determined to build on our success of the past financial year. Weremain committed to making our horseracing product as widely available aspossible as we believe that this has a positive and quantifiable impact onbetting turnover, racecourse attendance and, in the medium to long term, fostersthe new generation of racegoers, viewers and punters so crucial to our sport. Welook forward to the year ahead and would like to take this opportunity to thankour racecourse, betting and industry partners for their continued support of thebusiness as well as the vast number of viewers and punters who regularlyinteract with At The Races across the multiple platforms at home and abroadacross which we operate. Matthew Imi Chief Executive This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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