ARE.L Regulatory News (ARE)

2 Feb 2007 11:48

Arena Leisure PLC02 February 2007 ARENA LEISURE PLC Arena Leisure notes the following announcement this morning from At The Races inresponse to the Court of Appeal judgment on its case with the BHB: 2 February 2007 AT THE RACES ("ATR") AT THE RACES TO APPEAL TO HOUSE OF LORDS FOLLOWING COURT OF APPEAL RULING The Case The claim related to the supply to ATR of "pre-race data", information onrunners and riders that is necessary to enable bookmakers to take bets on horseraces. ATR pays the Press Association ("PA") for the supply of a pre-race datafeed for ATR's service to overseas bookmakers, with the BHB having a separateagreement to supply the data to PA. The BHB demanded that ATR enter into anadditional licence with the BHB to pay for database rights in the data. After the European Court of Justice ruled in November 2004 that the BHB had nodatabase rights in the data, ATR asked the BHB to clarify the basis on which itsought payment. In response, the BHB said that unless ATR agreed to pay licencefees to the BHB, it would instruct PA to terminate its supply of pre-race datato ATR. ATR then brought proceedings, claiming that the threat by the BHB to prevent PAfrom supplying pre-race data to ATR constituted an abuse of a dominant positionunder EU and UK competition laws. In December 2005 Mr Justice Etherton found in ATR's favour, ruling that the BHBhad an effective monopoly, that the BHB's conduct was an illegal refusal tosupply ATR; that pre-race data is an "essential facility" controlled by the BHB;that the licence fees proposed by the BHB were excessive and unfair; and thatthe BHB was discriminating against ATR. The BHB appealed the findings of abuse to the Court of Appeal. The decisionhanded down today by the Court of Appeal has allowed the appeal, finding thatthe BHB had not abused its market dominance. Matthew Imi, Chief Executive, ATR said: "Given the emphatic nature of the ruling in ATR's favour back in December 2005and following successful injunction proceedings before the Vice Chancellorearlier in 2005, we are very surprised and disappointed with the Court ofAppeal's ruling today. We continue to believe that the BHB's treatment of ATRwhich triggered legal proceedings was unfair, discriminatory and abusive and,given the clear public interest element in this landmark case, we will beseeking leave to appeal to the House of Lords." - ENDS - For further information, please contact: Matthew Imi/ James SingerAt The Races Tel: 0207 954 3000 Dan de Belder/ Andrew BenbowBell Pottinger Corporate & Financial Tel: 0207 861 3232 About At The Races • At The Races ("ATR") is the UK and Ireland's most watched dedicated horseracing channel. It launched on June 11th 2004. • At The Races won 'Best Specialist Channel' at the prestigious Broadcast Digital Channel Awards 2006. • Attheraces.com, run in partnership with SkySports.com, is the fastest growing domestic horseracing website, with over 400,000 monthly unique users and over 33 million monthly page impressions. • In December 2006 Mike Cattermole was awarded Broadcaster of the Year by the Horserace Writers and Photographers Association • It is a joint venture between BSkyB, Arena Leisure plc, Ascot Racecourse, Northern Racing and several other racecourse partners. It has agreements with 29 UK racecourses and all 27 Irish racecourses. • Broadcasting 24 hours a day in basic subscription packages, At The Races is currently available to over 11 million multi-channel homes across the UK and Ireland through Sky, NTL, Chorus, Telewest and NTL Ireland. • Over 1.4 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 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 broadcasts racing from over 1,000 UK and Irish meetings, holding the rights to broadcast nearly 60% of all UK and 100% of Irish fixtures. It also broadcasts high quality racing from the USA, France, Italy, Spain, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Dubai and German This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange