Balding signs new two-year Channel 4 deal
Bafta award-winning presenter Clare Balding has been signed up to lead Channel 4’s coverage of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games as part of a new two-year deal with the broadcaster.
Balding will also continue to host Crufts in 2015 and 2016, as well as leading coverage of the Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot in 2015.
Balding said: “I have been lucky and honoured to work as a racing broadcaster for the past twenty years and will continue to promote the sport on and off screen.
“I look forward to working with the enormously talented Channel 4 Racing team at Cheltenham and Royal Ascot next year and, of course, to the Paralympics in Rio in 2016.”
Ed Havard, Channel 4’s Head of Live Events, commented: “Clare is a broadcaster at the very top of her game, and I’m delighted that we will be continuing to work with her on our racing coverage and the Rio Paralympics in 2016.”
The new contract will see Balding, who was one of the lead presenters of Channel 4’s London 2012 Paralympic Games coverage, scale back her anchor coverage of racing after Royal Ascot.
Channel 4 said it is still adding to its new racing team, having unveiled top jockey Frankie Dettori as a new addition in June.
The channel will reveal full details of the presenting team for the 2015 Crabbie’s Grand National Festival early next year.
