Court gamble over racing data
A LEGAL challenge has been launched against the British Horseracing Board's monopoly on racing data.
Attheraces, which supplies information on meetings and runners to television and websites, is suing the BHB, racing's governing authority, in what is seen as a test case for the industry.
According to the High Court writ, a row erupted after the BHB charged Attheraces £782,550 for information supplied between June and December 2004 and threatened to withdraw all future data if the company did not enter into a licence agreement within a fortnight. But the European Court of Justice ruled in November last year that companies could re-use sports fixture lists without paying a licence fee.
Attheraces - jointly owned by racecourse operator Arena Leisure and BSkyB - is seeking an injunction against the BHB banning it from ordering the Press Association, the largest distributor of the data, to cut off the flow of information.
And it is also seeking declarations from the courts that the BHB has no database rights in pre-race data, no copyright in pre-race data, and is not lawfully entitled to require the company to enter into such an agreement.
The BHB expects to receive £600m by 2010 selling the rights to racing data, though the writ states the cost of producing it is only £4m each year.
If UK courts follow the European ruling, it is doubtful that the BHB could attract such high revenues. If the court rules that BHB's data is protected, it could eliminate Attheraces from the market.
SEPARATELY, Channel 4 executives say talks, mainly with leading bookmakers, on the future of racing coverage on the station are going better than reports suggested, writes Jon Rees.
Channel 4, which lost £10m covering the sport last year, wants the industry to pay it £8m for coverage.
The station will unveil record profits of about £70m this week while still insisting it faces a £100m funding shortfall. Channel 4 is likely to announce that its profits have risen by about 50% in the year to the end of December, 2004. In 2003, it posted profits of £45.3m.
