Horse & Country Acquires EQ Sports

Horse and country

Horse & Country TV, a London, United Kingdom – based equestrian sports network, acquired EQ Sports Net, a US equestrian streaming provider.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

Dedicated to producing multi-camera sports programming, EQSN provides live and on-demand coverage of some of the top competitions in North America, including the USHJA International Hunter Derby Championship, the Pennsylvania National Horse Show, the Great Meadow International Three-Day Event, and the National Collegiate Equestrian Association Championships.

In addition to live sports programming, EQSN subscribers will now also have access to H&C’s extensive library of more than 1,200 hours of quality equestrian content, and live streams from around the world, as well as exclusive training and educational shows, entertainment and documentary series.

North America is a big market. Of 20 million regular riders worldwide, 5.6 million are in the US and Canada, where the equestrian sector (excluding racing), contributes $50 billion a year to US GDP, according to the American Horse Council Foundation 2017 Survey.

Led by Heather Killen, CEO, H&C is an international equestrian sports network that currently brings viewers live coverage of events including the Rolex Grand Slam of Showjumping, the Longines Lumühlen Horse Trials, and the London International Horse Show from Olympia. The company’s content is available on more than 30 platforms worldwide, is available via connected TV, mobile and web subscriptions, including Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Amazon Prime Video, in the US, the UK, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Australia, as well as on pay-TV platforms in several of these key equestrian markets.

Commenting on the deal, Killen said: “Teaming up with EQ Sportsnet represents an opportunity for H&C to deepen its commitment to the North American market, in conjunction with the best production outfit in the sport today. We believe that combining EQSN’s live sports coverage with H&C’s multi-platform digital OTT services and deep content resources will offer fans of the sport an experience 1 American Horse Council Foundation 2017 Survey H&C TV-EQSN 2 unmatched by any other provider.

EQSN CEO and Co-founder David Qualls said of the merger: “Now our subscribers will be able to enjoy a 24/7 linear network in addition to top quality equestrian and lifestyle programming between live events. H&C’s international reach benefits our event organizer partners too, bringing their shows to new audiences in Europe and around the world. We look forward to working as part of the H&C team to expand our roster of shows and other specialty content.

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