Attheraces fans 'didn't interact'

Attheraces has been servicing 49 British race tracks

Satellite racing channel Attheraces goes off air at midnight on Monday, largely due to the failure of its interactive television betting arm.

An Attheraces director told the BBC that instead of using red buttons on their television sets to bet, viewers had turned to other services.

"It took.. time to get the technology right... In the meantime the betting exchanges took off," said Keith Brown.

Sky and Channel Four are terminating a £307m deal with the company.

The media partners had been hoping to make much more money from the Attheraces betting operation.

"People were watching the ATR (Attheraces) channel and using betting exchanges and telephone betting to place their bets," Mr Brown said.

More negotiations

"Therefore ATR never really recouped the amount of betting they hoped to getting in their original business plan."

Attheraces has been servicing 49 of Britain's racecourses.

It has said it plans to renegotiate separate TV rights deals with individual racecourses.

On Monday, bookmakers Ladbrokes announced that the rates of their telephone race commentary lines would drop from 60p to 10p a minute.

The company said a 10-year deal it had with a premium service provider had ended, allowing it to make the reduction.

"We understand people can't see the races on television, so the next best thing is to be able to listen to it on the telephone," a Ladbrokes spokesman said.

'Excellent service'

British Horseracing Board(BHB) chief Executive Greg Nichols said: "Attheraces has been of significant benefit to our sport, and has played an invaluable role in bringing British racing to new and diverse audiences.

"They have provided an excellent service and a great deal of entertainment to hundreds of thousands of viewers.

"Attheraces has contributed to record levels of both betting turnover and attendances on British racecourses and the current boom in the general popularity of racing, and for that reason it is unfortunate to see it go off the air."