First Word

ITV racing enjoys Xmas high

Despite the year that 2020 threw at us, the channel has gone from strength to strength

THE LAST RIGHTS had long been administered to terrestrial TV. First, courtesy of the arrival of Sky, then with the advent of freeview and even more multi-channels, followed by the digital explosion of online viewing, social media, Netflix and the growing transitory nature of the younger generation of viewers who pick and choose what they want, when they want and how they want to view.

The static nature of a TV set working to a year’s worth of planned scheduling by the TV companies is now out of kilter with the incessant right-left scrolling of a mobile phone as it picks up endless and multitudinous entertainment options from around the globe for demanding users.

And if terrestrial TV has only just been able to lever itself away from the grave of long-lost technologies, hanging on by its plug sockets to avoid the fate of such as the Fax machine and the round-dial phone, sport was deemed to be the first to tip the balance into the oblivion.

Outside and live sports coverage is expensive and difficult to produce, its days are unpredictable and, aside

from the god that is football (but whose rights are generally too expensive for terrestrial), many sports are of niche interest to a small collection of anoraked fans, and too long in the running to hold the gaze and attention spans of the millennials. And of all sports, racing was deemed the worst of the lot. Racing has long been believed to be unintelligible for most with its bizarre and strange lingo, and in the UK was perceived to only involve two sets of participants – a group of oddly small and often sullen athletes and a Downtown Abbey-esque class set left in limbo from a bygone pre-war era.

For TV producers racing also came with a growing audience dislike of whip use, as well as the ever-present threat of injury to horses which, aside from the “live” TV sadness that could cause, was likely to result in a wave of protest letters and emails.

Aside from bookmakers the sport was losing out as a suitable advertising medium and sponsorship for a commercial TV station.

The last day of “normal” ITV Racing coverage in 2020 was on Gold Cup day, the team seen here interviewing Paul Townend after Al Boum Photo’s victory. ITV has to be appauded for its coverage throughout the rest of last year which, despite the difficulties, continued to build on its viewership growth achieved in 2018 and 2019

ITV’s subsequent initial deal in 2016 was to cover the poster fixtures, including the Cheltenham Festival, Grand National, the Derby and Royal Ascot on its main channel with an additional minimum of 34 days annually on the main ITV channel, with another 60 shown on ITV 4. With hindsight, the deal really was a pivotal point for racing, particularly with background of increasing calls from the anti-racing lobby.

We could be literally looking at a very different level of exposure for racing, merely limited to the industry channels and with only a few blue-chip meetings reaching the big screen, and an overwhelming negative public attitude. The triumphs of ITV Racing’s producers and its presenters, headed up by Ed Chamberlin, should not be underestimated, and should be rightly applauded.

ITS achievements through this very difficult 12 months meant that the team was able to boast a Boxing Day King George viewership of 1.4 million, the latest positive result on the back of 18 months of improved viewing figures.

The easy argument that there has been little else for people to do through the on-off lockdown year of 2020 (something seeping in to the first quarter of 2021, the trend of moving bloodstock sales days has already been resumed) so the bored population has had to “resort” to watching racing. But there is more to it than that.

The footings were put in by ITV Racing in 2017, the team finding a way to interest and engage the Saturday viewer. Crucially, the show started to tell more stories, and for all who are involved in marketing now know, content marketing and story telling is now king.

These stories are away from the more concentrated gambling content that Channel 4 had become a little fixated upon, have opened up the sport so that viewers can gain a closer understanding and empathy with racing’s stories.

The show talks to all – from the lad leading up his or her pride and joy, to the one-horse owner nervously biting finger nails before the off, to the trainer with his first chance of a Saturday horse to the industry-scale ownership and bloodstock vehicles of the Coolmore and Maktoum entities.

The need to keep the entertainment flowing has meant that new racecourses and lesser races and lesser name jockeys and trainers have found their time on terrestrial TV.

The lockdown world of zoom conversations has also been enlightening. Obviously, these live zooms are often with people in the team’s contact books because there is a need to get on air who they can – there are no on-track owners with the fancied horses to encircle in the parade ring. It means these interviews are often with connections whose horses are not always the highest-profile in the field.

A case in point was Nina Carberry’s live owner’s interview before her Dinard Rose ran at Cork in the New Year. The meeting was only on screen due to other cancellations, the producers rightly feeling that coverage of live sport is preferable to a show of New Year replays.

Carberry was interviewed ahead of the race, her horse sent off a 13/2 chance. She explained why she still owns the

The last published statistics by the BHA from 2018 show that, of the 93,004 runners that year, 202 horses were fatally injured, 0.2 per cent of runners. Of course, any number above zero is still too high, but a fatality level of less than one per cent is probably a far lower figure than many would have believed

Champs Elysees mare (Irish-owned horses are not always sold on for massive profit) and that the horse had a chance but it might not be her day. The exchange will have meant that many will have kept their eyes on the five-year-old who, though not devoid of ability with a useful rating 121, came home beaten 21l by the winner. Such coverage just makes racing all the more real. The breadth of the coverage that the sport has shown on ITV Racing through lockdown and in recent weeks, in particular, also has to have beeen a good thing regarding welfare perceptions.

I don’t have the statistics to hand but my understanding would be that the big days of racing lead to more injuries. Then the horses and jockeys are running and riding to the edge of their athletic capabilities, taking legitimate chances in the hope they can get a winning edge for the big prize.

Whilst it is not to say that anyone is trying any the less on the more “normal” days of racing, but the usual Saturday and mid-week races are just less pressurised.

IT MEANS that if only the big days are on TV, viewers will just have a greater chance of seeing an injured horse. However, watching the sport this autumn, thankfully, viewers will have seen few bad injuries. Perhaps this could lead to a greater realisation that this is actually how day-to-day racing operates?

The published statistics by the BHA from 2018 show that, of the 93,004 runners that year, 202 horses were fatally injured, 0.2 per cent of runners. Of course, any number above zero is too high, but a fatality level less than one per cent is probably far lower than many would have believed.

The focus of broad coverage on just the big days leads to an unbalanced view of the sport. Showing the “lower grade” days is no less the spectacle and, if properly managed, with well-produced and good stories told, will still give enjoyment and entertainment to the casual and regular viewer. It might even just entice a few into ownership as viewers can see that owning racehorses is an achieveable goal, is not just the preserve of the uber-wealthy playing at the top, that ownership can be fun lower down the grades.

Furthermore, the mystic, magic and attraction that racing offers, which had perhaps started to dwindle with the sport seen just as a betting format or a drinking day out, will return.

ITV Racing succeeds in doing a difficult job well, and with a simplicity that lets the sport do the talking. The recent post-Christmas Tier 4 coverage, with the presenters based at Kempton behind podiums, away from the action, and without resort to glitzy studios or pre-recorded features, proves that gadgets and drum rolls are not required for a talented team who knows its job.

With a deal done between ITV and the Racecourse Media Group until 2023, it seems everyone is a winner, the TV company seemingly confident in its commercial ability of racing to enable it to pay off its investment.