Racecourse Media Group (RMG) has revealed that the 34 UK racecourses that are affiliated with them will be granted a total of £85.5 million (€100.9 million/$110.1 million) in media rights payments for last year.
The amount of £85.5 million is a 6% increase on the previous year and all payments are due to be made via license fees and dividends.
RGM, which serves as the holding company for a number of media and data rights covering the racecourses, revealed that payments were generated from various sources which included Turf TV, a betting shop service provider to licensed betting offices (LBO), as well as multi-platform subscription channel, Racing UK, and digital bet-to-view streams.
Payments were also generated by international television betting and picture service GBI Racing, non-betting television sales overseas, a terrestrial television deal with Channel 4, a commercial broadcaster as well as the Racecourse Data Company, which licenses pre-race data.
Simon Ellen, Chairman at RMG, commented that the highlight of last year has been the strong growth in performance for their businesses with a considerable step up from the performance that was recorded in 2015. He added that the combined effect of strong performances from their LBO, streaming and international businesses has demonstrated, yet again, the benefits of aggregation for their shareholders.
Ellen went on to say that the increase in license fees was important in enabling their courses to maintain a progressive policy in expanding prize money in a difficult Levy environment. He also said that the 34 RMG racecourses’ executive and sponsorship contribution to prize money rose by £3.3 million in 2016.`
