ATR Expands Commitment To Irish Racing The Executive Management team of At The Races, the UK and Ireland?s most watched dedicated horseracing channel, has completed a very productive week long visit to Ireland. The team met with a large number of Irish racecourses as well as senior representatives from Irish racing?s various governing bodies and are pleased to announce an expansion of ATR?s ongoing commitment to Irish racing. ATR is the most popular horseracing channel in the UK and Ireland with over 1.2 million individuals tuning in each month. It has secured the media rights to 27 Irish racecourses and 28 UK courses and started passing back media rights payments to Horseracing Ireland and the Association of Irish Racecourses from day one. In its first twelve months covering racing from Ireland, ATR?s primary objective was to drive awareness of Irish racing amongst the domestic audience focusing on delivering coverage in an entertaining and punter friendly manner for every type of racing enthusiast. It has introduced full time Irish presenters - Gareth O?Brien and David Duggan -as well as regular guests such as Kevin O?Ryan and Donn McClean. ATR currently covers racing from the vast majority of the Ireland?s 313 annual fixtures and has a live outside broadcast presence at 100. The channel provides extensive coverage of all broadcast race meetings including previews of individual races and meetings on the channel?s primetime programming. In addition, ATR has sponsored races at a number of courses and run successful radio advertising and print campaigns. Irish racing has also featured prominently on ATR?s international thoroughbred-only racing channel - At The Races International - which is targeted at existing and emerging pari-mutuel betting territories. Through this channel, and ATR?s agreement with SIS, Irish racing is seen in over 20 countries worldwide with plans for further expansion to numerous others. Going forward, ATR is committed to the following goals:? To develop a strong and direct working relationship with each Irish racecourse to support them in their objectives and to maximise domestic and international media rights payments.? To continue to work closely with representatives from Horseracing Ireland (HRI) and the Association of Irish Racecourses (AIR) to ensure mutually agreed objectives are hit on both the domestic and international front.? To produce a half hour documentary feature on each of Ireland?s racecourses.? To produce a helicopter aerials package for each Irish racecourse.? To increase the number of live outside broadcasts in 2006. Matthew Imi, Chief Executive of At The Races, said: 'Irish racing is a very important part of our business and, as such, we intend to continue promoting its numerous qualities both domestically and in the international marketplace. We have developed a very good working relationship with HRI and AIR and establishing direct lines of communication with each of the Irish racecourses will only serve to enhance this. ATR has a huge amount to offer as a media partner and the initiatives we have agreed to put in place demonstrate our ongoing commitment to Irish racing.'
