At The Races starts live coverage Friday 11th June.

At The Races today announced that it will start live coverage of UK racing on Friday 11 June.

It has also completed an agreement with SIS as its broadcast production partner.

Live coverage will commence with meetings at Chepstow and Southwell and will be available from launch to more than 9 million homes with no extra subscription required.

Announcing the developments Matthew Imi, Chief Executive of At The Races, said; 'We have a firm launch date. On Friday 11 June quality live UK racing will return on a channel dedicated to the sport, available at no extra cost, in over 9 million homes.'

'The countdown continues on schedule and exactly as we have outlined, consistently, to the racing industry. We are working with our racecourse and production partners and will deliver on our promises.

'We are delighted to be starting our coverage with meetings from Chepstow and Southwell and look forward to providing an average of two meetings per day in the summer months ahead.

'This is very good news for all the racecourses working with us and we are particularly pleased for all the viewers and punters who have been so supportive of At The Races over the years - they will soon have live racing back on their screens.'

Simon Clarke, Deputy Chairman of Chepstow PLC, said; 'We are pleased that Chepstow will be the first course to be live on the new At The Races service - subject to our expected favourable conclusion of the exclusive negotiations. We are looking forward to welcoming their cameras and their viewers to a great meeting on 11th June and to many more in the years ahead. It will be great to be back in business on the channel again.'

Ian Renton, Director of Racing at Arena Leisure, owners of Southwell, said; 'We are very pleased that Southwell will be seen on the first day of live racing and look forward to the extensive coverage that At The Races will provide from all Arena´s racecourses. The guarantee of quality coverage on a dedicated channel that can be seen at no extra cost in millions of homes from the outset is very important to us. We welcome the launch of At The Races and look forward to the benefits it will bring to racing.'

For At The Races, SIS have been contracted to produce live race coverage, live programming from the tracks and all studio programming. The channel´s emphasis will be on live coverage from the courses with production standards and editorial control resting with At The Races.

On the new production deal, David Holdgate, Chief Executive of SIS, said; 'We are delighted to be involved with At The Races in the production of the new service. Our preparations are already well in hand for the launch on June 11 and it´s good to be able to look forward to bringing back a regular live racing service, with very high standards, for millions of homes.'

AT THE RACES AGREES TERMS WITH NEWTON ABBOT RACES LTD.

At The Races has today agreed key commercial terms for media rights with Newton Abbot Races Ltd.

Today´s agreement brings the total number of UK courses working with At The Races to 26.

At The Races has now entered negotiations to conclude its discussions and looks forward to including race coverage from Newton Abbot in forthcoming schedules.

Live UK racing on At The Races will start on Friday 11th June and will be available from launch to more than 9 million homes with no extra subscription required.

Confirming the agreement, Pat Masterson, Managing Director of Newton Abbot, said; 'After many weeks of deliberation the Board of Directors at Newton Abbot Racecourse firmly believes that At The Races is the best way forward and very much looks forward to a successful partnership.'

Matthew Imi, Chief Executive of At The Races, said; 'We are delighted to have reached an agreement with Newton Abbot and very much look forward to their first televised meeting on the channel on Tuesday 15 June. For national hunt racing enthusiasts this is particularly good news as Newton Abbot offers great jump racing all year round.'

He continued; 'We remain in a serious and advanced state of negotiation with a number of other courses and are confident that we will be going to air on June 11th with more than the current number of racecourse partners.'