STRONG ATR AUDIENCES IN 2013 DESPITE WEATHER ABANDONMENTS

ATR not experiencing the same year on year ratings decline as Channel 4 Racing

At The Races, the UK and Ireland's largest and most widely distributed dedicated horse racing channel, today released its official audience data for the first quarter of 2013.

The data, compiled by BARB and Nielsen, showed ATR continued to deliver robust audience reach figures in the UK and Ireland of around 2 million viewers each month during the period. This performance is despite a significant increase in fixture abandonments in Q1 2013 versus Q1 2012 which hampered ratings delivery. The actual average monthly reach January-March 2013 was 1.96 million viewers versus 2.05 million in the same period in 2012. The number of races from ATR tracks lost to abandonments in Q1 2013 was up more than 180% on Q1 2012 (315 versus 112). That figure represents 16.85% of the total scheduled races in the period versus just 6.39% that were abandoned in Q1 2012.

Matthew Imi, Chief Executive, At The Races, said "We are pleased with this Q1 performance given the exceptional circumstances we've had to cope with early in the year. From this position we are targeting a full year 2013 average monthly reach of over 2 million viewers and we expect to exceed our peak monthly reach from last year which was 2.15 million. The data confirms that ATR enjoys a loyal and passionate fan base. We're able to deliver consistently large racing audiences across platforms."

           

Notes to Editors

At The Races

● At The Races is the UK and Ireland's most watched dedicated horseracing channel. It launched on June 11th 2004.

● It is a joint venture between BSkyB, Arena Racing Company and other racecourses.

● Broadcasting 24 hours a day, At The Races is currently available to over 13 million multi-channel homes across the UK and Ireland through Sky, Virgin Media and UPC.

● The channel regularly reaches over 2 million individuals monthly in UK and Ireland households with Irish viewing adding 20% to UK audiences (BARB & Nielsen).

● attheraces.com attracted an average audience of 1.66 million monthly unique users during the three months June-August 2012 with users spending on average over 25 minutes on the site each visit (Google Analytics).

● At The Races serves over 4 million video streams each month with instant race replays available free of charge on attheraces.com

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● At The Races is distributed into 5,800 commercial premises by Sky.

● Outside the UK and Ireland, At The Races distributes its content into over 30 countries by means of GBI Racing, its joint venture operation with Racing UK.