SOURCE: Press Association

William Hill became the latest bookmaker to show the breakaway racing channel Turf TV.

The high street and internet betting group is now broadcasting the channel, which carries exclusive footage from 31 racecourses including Aintree and Ascot, in all of its 2,275 branches.

It means Turf TV, which was set up in 2006 when the courses banded together to broadcast their own footage, is now being shown in more than 8,400 betting shops around the UK - an estimated 90 percent of the market.

Earlier this month, Ladbrokes - a shareholder in the rival broadcaster Satellite Information Services (SIS) - dropped its opposition to the new channel.

Alan Morcombe, chief executive of technology firm Alphameric, which launched Turf TV, said: "William Hill's decision to contract with Turf TV is extremely pleasing."

William Hill's contract with Amalgamated Racing, which trades as Turf TV, runs for five years.

It means the bookmaker can now show footage from the channel's courses, as well as the 28 other courses shown by SIS.

Along with the UK's other big two bookmakers, Ladbrokes and Coral, Hill had been an opponent of the new channel.

But the major bookmakers have had little choice but to accept the new channel for fear of not getting pictures from major race meetings.

Before Britain's biggest bookmaker Ladbrokes signed up to the new channel earlier this month, deals had been done with Coral, the Tote, BetFred and smaller firms such as Stan James. Mr. Morcombe said Hill's decision marked a "milestone" for Turf TV.