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Sky Racing Company Profile

About Sky Racing

Sky Racing is a world leader in multi-venue, multi-channel race broadcasting, telecasting more than 70,000 races each year to millions of viewers in Australia and around the globe.

A pioneer of satellite television in Australia, Sky Racing transmits to more than 5,000 outlets across Australia, and into 30 countries around the world via satellite, cable, mobile and the Internet.

Sky Racing has a reach of more than two million Australian homes with the potential to more than double that figure in the near future.

With the launch of Sky Racing2 and Sky Racing World in 2010, Sky undertook an expansion of its network to give viewers the most comprehensive coverage of the three codes of racing anywhere in the world.

Racing fans watching racing in hotels, clubs, TABs or at home now have more choice and racing entertainment opportunities than ever before.

Sky Racing1 (Channel 519) is the long-established Sky Racing channel, which continues to give viewers comprehensive Australian thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing coverage.

Sky Racing2 (Channel 520) features all international racing, as well as offering viewers extended coverage and choice of Australian thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing. Sky Racing1 and Sky Racing2 are the core wagering channels and combined provide vision of all races that Tabcorp wagers on.

Sky Racing World (Channel 521) is the superior thoroughbred racing channel, capturing the best thoroughbred racing action from Australia and around the world.

Sky Racing is owned by Tabcorp – Australia’s premier gambling and entertainment group.

History

Sky Racing commenced transmission in 1985 when Australia's first domestic satellite was launched. This pioneering role created enormous interest in the possibilities for satellite narrowcasting, and a number of companies were formed to exploit the new technology.

Within two years operations merged into one entity - Sky Channel.

Launched into the home subscription market on FOXTEL, Optus Vision and AUSTAR in September 1998, Sky Channel was a primary driver of new pay television subscriptions in its initial years.

In 1998 the newly privatised NSW totalisator, Tab Limited, acquired Sky Channel for $260 million. Then, in 2004, Tabcorp secured Sky Channel as part of its takeover of Tab Limited.

In October 2009, Sky unveiled a new look and name under the ‘Sky Racing’brand.

The following year, Sky Racing heralded a revolution in the presentation of Australian racing, in partnership with Pay TV providers FOXTEL and AUSTAR, with the launch of Sky Racing2 and Sky Racing World to complement Sky Racing1.

Radio is also an integral part of the Sky Racing story.

Radio station 2KY, a Sydney broadcasting institution since 1925, was added to the Sky Racing media stable in 2001. Now known as Sky Sports Radio, it cemented Sky Racing’s status as a world leader in multimedia racing coverage.

The commitment

Sky Racing plays an important role in the prosperity of Australian racing.

Each year Sky’s parent company, Tabcorp, returns hundreds of millions of dollars back to racing. This, on top of the millions of dollars in rights fees Sky Racing pays race clubs plus the significant sponsorship of all three codes, clearly indicates the level of commitment Sky has to the industry.

Sky Racing also coordinates the scheduling of all races in Australia and New Zealand.

It integrates more than 15,000 international races into the Australian racing schedule with meetings from all corners of the globe including Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, South Africa, France and the UK.

The scale of Sky Racing’s operations is enormous. What viewers see across the three

channels is a momentous daily logistical achievement. On any given day, Sky Racing is receiving simultaneous transmission from up to 30 race tracks.

The picture

Sky Racing is also available live across multiple platforms, including Optus 3G and Hutchison 3 mobile telephones.

Sky Racing Active allows subscribers to use the red button function on their Pay TV remote to access real time wagering data, form, fields and results across all codes of racing. NSW and Victorian TAB account customers can also place bets using this service via their remote control.

Not only can you access Sky Racing anywhere, anytime on the ground, you can also watch Sky in the sky!

Sky Racing is live on Virgin Blue domestic flights through Virgin Live2Air, and before you depart you can catch Sky Racing in Virgin Blue’s ‘The Lounge’.

The world

Sky Racing's international services deliver substantial profits to Australian racing through international wagering on Australian events.

The global coverage reaches about 475 wagering outlets and on-course venues throughout North and South America, and is available to more than 250 million households.

A peak daily audience of more than 250,000 watch Australian racing in New Zealand, while the service is also broadcast and wagered on in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Austria, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea.

Driving the growth of international marketing of Australian racing is Tabcorp’s ability to co-mingle bets from various countries such as New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa into its betting pools.