Cheltenham Festival IPTV UK 2026: Full Streaming Guide | Xstream

What The Cheltenham Festival Is

The Cheltenham Festival is the biggest week in British and Irish jump racing, held every March at Cheltenham Racecourse in Gloucestershire. Over four days it stages 28 races, all but a handful of them Grade 1 or Grade 2 quality, drawing the best National Hunt horses, trainers, and jockeys from both sides of the Irish Sea for a meeting that regularly outdraws every other jumps fixture in the calendar bar the Grand National itself.

For UK racing fans, Cheltenham week is appointment viewing — multiple races a day, several with major betting and prize-money significance, spread across an afternoon schedule that runs from early lunchtime well into the evening.

UK Broadcast Coverage: ITV vs Racing TV

ITV holds free-to-air rights and covers the festival's most significant races each day, typically starting early afternoon and running through the last big race, with expert analysis and full replays. For viewers who want every single race across the four days — including the smaller handicaps and novice races that ITV doesn't have room for — Racing TV carries the full card from the very first race of the day.

This is where most people miss races without realising it: ITV's headline coverage genuinely doesn't include every race, so relying on it alone means missing several contests a day that serious racing followers specifically tune in for.

Both broadcasters run their coverage with a similar rhythm — extended paddock analysis before each race, then live coverage of the runners going down to post, the race itself, and post-race reaction from the winning connections — so switching between the two feeds for different races doesn't mean missing the build-up either.

The Four Days & Headline Races

The Gold Cup: Why It's the Highlight

The Cheltenham Gold Cup, run on the Friday of Festival week, is widely regarded as jump racing's most prestigious individual prize — a true test of stamina and jumping ability over three and a quarter miles with 22 fences. It's the race that defines a National Hunt horse's career more than any other, and the atmosphere in the closing stages regularly produces some of the loudest crowd noise of the entire jumps season.

Unlike the faster, more tactical Champion Hurdle and Champion Chase earlier in the week, the Gold Cup rewards stamina over the final uphill finish that Cheltenham's course is famous for — a punishing climb that has decided the result of more Gold Cups than any single fence on the track.

Irish Raiders vs British Trainers

One of the storylines that makes Cheltenham compelling television is the annual battle between Irish and British stables — Irish-trained horses have dominated the overall winners' table in recent years, turning what used to be a largely British affair into a genuine cross-Channel contest. Commentary teams on both ITV and Racing TV track this 'prizemoney table' throughout the week, and it adds a narrative layer to races that might otherwise be watched purely for the individual result.

The Roar and the Atmosphere

The opening race of the Festival is traditionally greeted by what's known simply as 'The Cheltenham Roar' — a wall of noise from the crowd as the tapes go up, often audible clearly on the TV broadcast itself before a single fence has been jumped. It's one of the reasons Cheltenham week draws viewers who don't follow racing at any other point in the year; the atmosphere alone, captured well by both broadcasters' coverage, is part of the appeal.

Best Devices for Watching Race Day Live

Common Streaming Issues on Peak Race Days

Restarting the app well before the headline race, rather than mid-race, avoids the risk of a reload missing the crucial closing stages.

How Xstream 4K IPTV Covers the Festival

Xstream 4K IPTV includes both ITV and Racing TV as standard in its channel package, so you get the free-to-air headline races and the full every-race Racing TV feed through one single app — no need to juggle a separate racing subscription alongside your regular IPTV service during Festival week.