Sky Racing will cease broadcasting Victorian thoroughbred races from next Monday unless a new long-term deal can be struck between Tabcorp and the industry in light of Racing Victoria recommending Seven West Media as its preferred broadcast partner, reports racing.com.

Tabcorp, which owns Sky Racing, released a statement on Tuesday morning, acknowledging that RV’s preference is for Seven to broadcast the state’s thoroughbred racing and says the current interim broadcasting arrangements will end within a week, putting the ball in the Victorian industry’s court to broker an alternative solution to preserve Sky’s coverage.

“Tabcorp notes the announcement by Racing Victoria Limited on Saturday, June 6, 2015, that it is recommending to its four member racing clubs that its preferred outcome for the broadcast of Victorian thoroughbred racing is to partner with Seven West Media,” Tabcorp said in a statement.

“Tabcorp made a Formal Offer on June 1, 2015, in accordance with a timetable agreed with RVL. At the same time as submitting its Formal Offer, Tabcorp gave notice that the current interim broadcasting arrangements with Victorian thoroughbred racing will cease on June 15, 2015.

“Tabcorp has not received a decision from RVL and its member clubs in relation to its offer.”

This means if a new arrangement is not reached within the week, Victorian thoroughbred racing won’t be seen on any of the three Sky Racing channels, which includes the service fed into TABs, pubs and clubs.

Regardless of the outcome, access will continue via Racing Live on Racing.com as well as through Sportsbet.

The on-going media rights saga escalated in December when there was a two-week blackout of Victorian and NSW races on Sky Racing which precipitated the break-up of thoroughbred broadcaster TVN.

An interim arrangement with Sky was put in place at the end of December and has been running since then.

Final proposals for a new media rights arrangement were made to the RV board earlier this month - one from Tabcorp and one from Seven West Media.

The Tabcorp deal offered $300 million over 10 years for exclusive rights while the Seven proposal would see a Victorian racing broadcast on a dedicated free-to-air channel.

The RV board has recommended to the Victorian racing clubs, who control the rights, to take the deal with Seven West Media.

The clubs are expected to make a final decision in the next week.