Satellite Information Services

Satellite Information Services (SIS) is a company which provides news gathering services, specialized broadcast solutions and provides content and production services to the betting industry; such as horse racing and greyhound racing, to betting shops in the United Kingdom and Ireland and other worldwide destinations.

It was formed in 1986 when bookmakers took the opportunity to broadcast live racing in their shops for the first time - previously only live audio commentary was broadcast to licensed betting offices (LBOs) and a 'whiteboard' man transcribed the shows and results in the LBOs. The service was launched initially in Bristol on May 5, 1987 and subsequently rolled out to approximately 10,400 bookmakers in the UK and Ireland.

SIS is owned by Ladbrokes 23%, Caledonia Investments 22.5%, Alternateport Limited 20.5%, William Hill Organisation 19.5%, Fred Done (co-owner of Betfred bookmakers) 7.5% and Tote 6%. Minor shareholdings are also held by Leicester Racecourse Holdings Limited, The Bibury Club Limited (Salisbury), Stratford-on-Avon Racecourse Co. Ltd., Thirsk Racecourse Ltd., Catterick Racecourse Company Ltd. and Frontrelay Ltd.

Shareholder bookmakers account for approximately 5,800 LBOs receiving the SIS service. Each of the bookmaker shareholders have board members representing them on the SIS (Holdings) Board in the form of Nick Rust (Ladbrokes), Fred Done (Betfred), David Steele (William Hill) and Joe Scanlon (Tote).^[2]

In 2008 Amalgamated Racing Limited (trading as TurfTV) entered the marketplace and is SIS's only competitor for the distribution of horse racing and virtual racing products to LBOs in the UK and Ireland. TurfTV does not distribute to any of the worldwide locations serviced by SIS.

History

1986

SIS was formed in response to the impending change in the law. Betting shops were able to have televisions displaying live racing action, replacing the previous Extel service of commentary over a loudspeaker.

1987

Service launched on 5 May. Supplied race coverage from two horse race and one greyhound meeting per day. Received by just 100 shops in Bristol with a target of 3,000 shops in its first year.

2002

Successfully renegotiated contracts with the UK and Irish bookmakers for a further five years. Appointed by the betting industry to manage its rights licence with 49 of the UK racecourses and to include those races within its services.

2003

The service supplies more than 1,200 UK horse race meetings per year, 1,500 greyhound meetings, 300 Irish and 300 South African horserace meetings and, as a response to the introduction of the National Lottery, a range of numbers betting products, including virtual horse and greyhound racing.

2008

On 1 April 2008, BBC Resources sold their outside broadcasting division (BBC Outside Broadcasts) to SIS, and on the 9th of September launched the new combined company, SIS LIVE.

Now received in virtually all UK and Ireland shops, together with 300 outlets in Western Europe - a total of 9,500 shops. It is also broadcast to betting outlets in the Caribbean, Sri Lanka, Italy and the former USSR.

2011

SIS becomes a partner with Peel Media for the operation of The Studios and associated post-production facilities at MediaCityUK - operating under the name of Media City Studios Ltd (MCSL), rebranded in 2012 to be known as Dock10.

2012

Moves their primary functions and Head Office to the MediaCityUK complex in Salford, Greater Manchester. Opens one of the largest Teleports in the UK. Currently broadcasts 80 hours of television for the betting shop industry every day from its facilities in MediaCityUK and also duplicated from its Milton Keynes base, together with the various satellite downlinks and uplinks for broadcastors around the world including European Tour Golf, Asian Tour Golf, BBC, ITV, ITN, Channel 4, Intelsat, British Sky Broadcasting - Sky News, Sky Sports, Sky Arabia & RRSat in Israel.

2013

November 2013 SIS announce the signing of a seven-year contract with ITV Regional News & ITN News, to provide HD capable SNG trucks using K_a band satellite capacity.

External links

• SIS Official site
• SIS LIVE Official site
• SIS and ITV / ITN sign 7 year contract SIS LIVE website
• BBC announces successful bidder for BBC Outside Broadcasts BBC Press Office
• BBC unit likely to be sold to Satellite Information Service Telegraph
• BBC Resources to be split up Guardian
• The Facts PressRooms

References