16th Dec 2005 07:04
Arena Leisure PLC16 December 2005 16 December 2005 ARENA LEISURE PLC ("ARENA") At The Races Statement Arena Leisure Plc ("Arena") notes that At The Races ("ATR") and DoncasterMetropolitan Borough Council have announced that they have they have agreedterms for At The Races to secure media rights to broadcast racing from DoncasterTown Moor Racecourse, home of the world's oldest classic, the St. Leger. The full press release from At The Races is attached below. - ENDS - For further information, please contact: Arena Leisure PlcMark Elliott, Chief Executive 020 7495 2277 Bell Pottinger Corporate & FinancialDavid Rydell / Zoe Sanders 020 7861 3232 AT THE RACES PRESS RELEASE 16 December 2005 AT THE RACES CONCLUDES MEDIA RIGHTS AGREEMENT WITH DONCASTER RACECOURSE At The Races (ATR), the UK and Ireland's most watched dedicated horseracingchannel, and Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council are pleased to announce thatthey have agreed terms for At The Races to secure media rights to broadcastracing from Doncaster Town Moor Racecourse, home of the world's oldest classicand the last in the British flat racing season, the Ladbrokes St. Leger. The agreement commences immediately but shall be subject to certain rightsreserved to Racing UK until May 2007 when the racecourse's current media rightsagreement with Racing UK expires. There are currently 28 meetings per year atthe course. Doncaster Council has launched plans to undergo a major redevelopment of itsracecourse facilities which will make it into one of the premier race venues inthe world. During the redevelopment, all fixtures, including the LadbrokesSt.Leger, will be relocated to other racecourses. In the event that suchfixtures transfer to racecourses affiliated to ATR then the broadcaster willhave exclusive domestic and international media rights. Doncaster Racecourse will greatly benefit from exposure on the UK's most popularhorseracing channel which attracts over 1.2 million different viewers eachmonth. ATR is committed not only to raising the profile of the racecoursedomestically but also increasing levels of awareness on the international stageas racing from Town Moor will be broadcast around the globe. The increasedexposure that Doncaster will receive means that the racecourse is likely to seeits revenues grow further through additional advertising and sponsorshipopportunities. In addition, as well as the substantial benefits received as part of agreeingthis deal with ATR, a compromise has been reached between ATR and DoncasterMetropolitan Borough Council in respect of the ongoing rebate claim which ATRhas been pursuing under its old media rights agreement. Matthew Imi, Chief Executive, At The Races, said: "We are delighted to have reached this agreement with Doncaster MetropolitanBorough Council. We look forward to working with them and Arena Leisure tofurther develop the profile of the racecourse as well as playing our part indriving their incremental revenues domestically and from the investment we aremaking in our expanding international business. Upon completion of itsredevelopment programme Doncaster racecourse will be one of the top racingvenues in the world and with ATR as its media partner can be guaranteed a broadaudience reach for its high quality dual code fixture list." Mayor of Doncaster, Martin Winter said: "These are exciting times for Doncaster with the redevelopment in the pipeline.Ensuring that racing from Doncaster has good media coverage is crucial and weare very confident that ATR will greatly increase the exposure of the courseboth here and abroad." - ENDS - For further information, please contact: Matthew Imi, Chief ExecutiveAt The Races Tel: 020 7954 3000 David Rydell / Zoe SandersBell Pottinger Corporate & Financial Tel: 0207 861 3232 NOTES TO EDITORS • At The Races ("ATR") is the UK and Ireland's most watched dedicated horseracing channel. It launched on June 11th 2004. • It is a joint venture between BSkyB, Arena Leisure plc, Ascot Racecourse, Northern Racing and several other racecourse partners. It has agreements with 28 UK racecourses and all 27 Irish racecourses. • Broadcasting 24 hours a day in basic subscription packages, At The Races is currently available to 10 million multi-channel subscribers across the UK and Ireland through Sky, NTL, Chorus, Telewest and NTL Ireland. • Over 1.2 million individuals tune into the channel every month. An average of 40,000 to 50,000 are watching at any time during live UK and Irish racing with a record 360,000 different individuals tuning into the channel on one day. • Outside the UK and Ireland At The Races distributes its content into over 20 countries by means of its own international channel - "At The Races International"- and through its agreement with SIS. Territories include Holland, Germany, the Caribbean, Sri Lanka, the UAE, Italy, South Africa and Australia. • At The Races broadcasts racing from over 1,000 UK and Irish race meetings per year and is the only UK channel broadcasting live racing from the USA on a daily basis. It also broadcasts high quality racing from France, Italy, Spain, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Dubai and Germany. • In addition to its broadcast activities, At The Races generates up to £2 million per week in turnover from interactive red button betting on the Sky platform alone. An interactive betting service recently launched on the NTL cable network and ATR also has an agreement with Telewest to quickly develop a similar interactive betting application. • In May 2005, in partnership with William Hill, At The Races was the first UK broadcaster to launch a live, daily sports service to 3G mobile users in the UK. • Attheraces.com, run in partnership with SkySports.com, has quickly established itself as the No. 2 domestic horseracing website, behind RacingPost.co.uk, with nearly 300,000 monthly unique users and over 20 million monthly page impressions. • At The Races also successfully launched its branded casino and poker sites - attheracescasino.com and attheracespoker.com - with the objective of occupying the position of 'racing's online casino'. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
ARE.L