Simon Bazalgette: “I think we’ve gone for the best offer”
REACHING out to more people and engaging them with the sport was the “fundamental” reason behind racing’s decision to switch broadcast partners to ITV from next year.
Simon Bazalgette, chief executive of The Jockey Club, said on Monday that several strong bids had been made to secure racing’s broadcast rights for the next four years, including a “very tempting” offer from Sky, but the digital reach, enthusiasm and ability to engage more people was what swung the decision makers in favour of ITV.
“ITV clearly have greater reach than Channel 4 and they are very excited about the sport,” Bazalgette said. “Channel 4, to be fair to them, did a huge amount. They put in more money and younger people and a lot of work. Some of the big events haven’t done as well as we would have liked them to but if you look overall at audiences they have done pretty well.
“ITV have huge experience with other sports and we think they’ll do at least as good a job if not better and reach more people – and they have a bigger digital reach. This is important nowadays as it’s not all about television.”
‘Great stories’
With Jockey Club Racecourses announcing record attendance figures for 2015, Bazalgette believes racing is engaging with people as a leisure and sporting activity, as well as a betting product, and ITV need to ensure that people are switching on to watch the action and taking an interest in the sport’s “great stories”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5Live, he said: “We were in a great position of having two or three very good offers. [The decision was] really around how do we build the reach and engagement with the sport – that’s fundamental. It’s all very well relying on the betting or the day out [to engage people], but ultimately people only watch because they’re interested in the sport and you need a broadcast partner that’s really going to drive that. I think we’ve gone for the best offer.
“There are so many great stories in racing and it carries on right throughout the year. Having a bet is very much part of enjoying [racing] on the day but increasingly people bet on all sports so you don’t have to go racing to have a bet. Racing needs to stand on its own two feet as a sporting spectacle and a great day out and the [attendance] figures show this is working incredibly well.”
Racing’s TV future
Former champion jockey and ex-Channel 4 presenter John Francome stated in Monday’s Racing Post that the latest television contract may be racing’s last with a terrestrial broadcaster, and Bazalgette did not rule out the prospect of the sport moving to satellite television in the future.
“We have a couple of listed events that have to be on terrestrial television but Sky made a very interesting offer that was very tempting and this time it didn’t quite get over the line compared to what ITV were offering,” he said. “But the world is changing and people are watching in more ways and in different ways.
“Audiences are fragmenting and more people have satellite and cable. There’s every opportunity in the future but for the next four years I think ITV are going to do a great job for us.”
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