Sovereign Series Left at the Start As Bidding War Fails to Materialise

An ambitious attempt to repackage the Flat racing season as a high-profile televised league is likely to unravel today when initial bids for the rights are opened, with broadcasters set to tell organizers to rethink their plans.

The Sovereign Series was designed to provide a narrative to the season, taking in 10 races including the Epsom Derby, Ascot's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Champion Stakes at Newmarket, and bring racing to a younger and more mainstream audience.

It was hoped that the new series, due to begin in 2010 with a £10m prize purse, would prompt a bidding war between rival broadcasters eager to capitalize on its appeal. The series has to be shown on terrestrial TV, partly because the Derby is a protected event and partly to maintain exposure for sponsors and bookmakers.

But Five and ITV are not believed to have submitted bids, leaving only the existing players BBC and Channel 4. And it is believed that both broadcasters were angry at being left out of discussions about the future of the sport on TV, viewing the Sovereign Series as a fait accompli.

Both saw the idea of sparking a bidding war, particularly in the current economic climate with Channel 4 facing an advertising downturn and the BBC dealing with a tough license fee settlement, as fanciful.

Far from welcoming the plan, as Racing UK and Ascot had hoped they would, the broadcasters remain non-plussed at at the idea. The BBC is committed to the Derby and the Grand National but doesn't see racing as a huge priority beyond those big audience pullers. While Channel 4 remains committed to the sport for now, in 2005 it came close to ending its long-running association before agreeing an innovative deal that saw sponsors contributing to production costs. Their concerns do not appear to have reached those involved.

Charles Barnett, chief executive of Ascot, said yesterday: "I thought the broadcasters had showed some enthusiasm for it. The feedback we got is that racing has been crying out for a bit of storytelling. This is an attempt to introduce it." But he added: "I wouldn't be surprised if there are things that need looking at. This is a staging post. We need to know what the broadcasters are saying."

Launching the plan in July, Simon Bazalgette, the Racing UK chairman who last week took up his new role as chief executive of the Jockey Club, said the Series would "capture the imagination of a new generation of sports fans who have never been interested in racing".

He predicted that within five years it would stand alongside Wimbledon and the Open as a key fixture in the sporting calendar. But one TV executive, who is not bidding, said the organizers were "living in cloud cuckoo land" and predicted that the sport was destined to end up with its major races on the BBC and everything else on a dedicated channel.

One solution might be to split the rights to the races between broadcasters, but this would undermine a key stated aim of the Series - to establish a narrative for the sport across the season.

"We want to get the public to follow Seb Sanders in the same way as they follow Frankie Dettori," said Barnett yesterday. "They will follow the colors or follow the name of the horse [from race to race]. We've got to give it a go. I think it stands a very good chance of being successful."

The scheme is a joint venture between Racing UK, the subscription channel that is co-owned by 30 racecourses, and Ascot, which has bundled its three biggest Flat races into the Sovereign Series. The rights to its other meetings have also been thrown into the pot, for Racing UK to negotiate.

Racing UK, Channel 4 and the BBC all declined to comment.