ARE.L Regulatory News (ARE)

15 Jul 2005 16:19

Arena Leisure PLC15 July 2005 15 July 2005 Arena Leisure Plc At The Races Statement Arena Leisure Plc ("Arena") notes today's announcement by At The Races ("ATR")detailing today's injunction against the British Horseracing Board. The judgmentensures that At The Races will continue to promote racing to 1.2 million viewersa month, provide financial returns to the racecourses and help boost prize moneylevels through the Levy due to the increased betting turnover for all bookmakersderived from the At The Races channel. The press release from At The Races is attached below. -ends- For further information, please contact: Arena Leisure PlcIan Penrose, Chief Executive 020 7495 2277 Bell Pottinger Corporate & FinancialDavid Rydell / Zoe Sanders / Paddy Blewer 020 7861 3232 At The Races Statement AT THE RACES ATR SUCCESSFUL IN INJUNCTION APPLICATION AGAINST BHB At The Races ("ATR"), the UK's most watched dedicated racing channel, is pleasedto announce that its application to the High Court for an injunction to stop theBritish Horseracing Board ("BHB") instructing its suppliers to switch off thesupply of pre-race data has been successful. The Court decided to grant aninjunction following which the BHB gave undertakings in the same form as theinjunction to the Court. This will ensure that At The Races continues to receivepre-race data from the PA and SIS and the quality of its broadcast service willnot be impacted, pending trial. A trial date has been set in October where the issues raised in the injunctionapplication will be heard. In the meantime, the BHB has been ordered to make aninterim payment of £50,000 to ATR on account of its costs within the next 14days. Matthew Imi, Chief Executive, At The Races, said: "At The Races provides unrivalled exposure and promotion of horseracing in thiscountry, and significant media rights payments to racing. It is sad that,contrary to our wishes, the BHB chose to pursue this legal route, but we arepleased that the Court has decided to grant an injunction and the BHB threat iswithdrawn."We can now continue to promote racing to 1.2 million viewers a month, providefinancial returns to the racecourses and help boost prize money levels throughthe Levy due to the increased betting turnover for all bookmakers derived fromthe At The Races channel." - ENDS - For further information, please contact: Robin Tozer / Paddy BlewerBell Pottinger Corporate & Financial Tel: 0207 861 3232 NOTES TO EDITORS • At The Races is the UK's most watched 'real' dedicated racing channel which started broadcasting in June 2004. • It is a joint venture between BSkyB, Arena Leisure plc and its race course partners. It has agreements with 28 UK race courses, including Ascot, and 27 Irish racecourses. • Broadcasting 24 hrs a day in basic subscription packages, At The Races is currently available to 10 million multi-channel subscribers across the UK and Ireland through Sky, NTL, Chorus, Telewest and NTL Ireland. • Over 1.2 million individuals tune into the channel every month. An average of 40,000 to 50,000 are watching at any time during live UK and Irish racing with a record of 360,000 different individuals tuning into the channel on one day. • Outside the UK and Ireland At The Races distributes its content into over 20 countries by means of its own international channel - "At The Races International"- and through its agreement with SIS. Territories include Holland, Germany, the Caribbean, Sri Lanka, the UAE, Italy, South Africa and Australia. • At The Races covers over 1,000 UK and Irish race meetings per year and is also the only UK channel broadcasting live racing from the USA on a daily basis. It also broadcasts high quality racing from France, Italy, Spain, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Dubai and Germany. It has not had a blank day since August 2004. • In addition to its broadcast activities, At The Races generates up to £2 million per week in turnover from interactive red button betting on the Sky platform alone. Another service recently began on NTL and it also has an agreement with Telewest to quickly develop a similar interactive betting application. • In May 2005, in partnership with William Hill, At The Races was the first UK broadcaster to launch a live, daily sports service to 3G mobile users in the UK. • Attheraces.com, run in partnership with SkySports.com, has quickly established itself as the No. 2 domestic horseracing website, behind RacingPost.co.uk, with nearly 300,000 monthly unique users and over 20 million monthly page impressions. • At The Races also successfully launched its branded casino and poker sites - attheracescasino.com and attheracespoker.com - with the objective of occupying the position of 'racing's online casino'. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange