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With news that Racing Channel TVN was planning to move from Foxtel to free-to-air digital, I got a little bit excited.
Mainly due to the fact that there was talk that racing would become a permanent fixture on free-to-air television. As a passionate racing enthusiast it means that one of my favourite sports is going to be gaining a lot more exposure then it currently gets.
In fact it’s almost a certainty that the move to the digital spectrum would bring about the largest exposure that the sport has ever had, and with the media company owned by the Australian Turf Club it’s time that it takes advantage of this opportunity.
As it stands TVN costs $20 million each year to run. It is failing miserably by only reaching 30 per cent of their audience through Foxtel. The good news out of all of this is the contract is set to run out at the end of next year’s spring racing carnival.
They also have a partnership deal with Channel Seven that allows the free-to-air broadcaster the opportunity to broadcast 20 meetings during the spring carnival. These are generally feature race days, and give those who can’t afford subscription TV to watch the best races Australia has to offer.
There is no way that TVN can continue in its current format on Foxtel paying the amount that it does to receive such little viewership. Plus with the growing number of free-to-air channels it is unlikely to cause any problem to the current viewership of Channel Seven.
Any decision though will have to be made by their new chief executive Bruce Mann who brings a vast amount of experience in negotiating television rights. My biggest concern however is whether TVN is capable of doing justice to its coverage.
At the moment prior to races TVN is interested in showing runners in the mounting yard, which is all well and good, but in that time there is also enough opportunity to get a good word out of the trainers prior to the race.
Furthermore the broadcaster signed an agreement to the rights of provincial races in NSW in June 2012 which took until December 24 to finalise. Yet to this day TVN still haven’t taken over the broadcasting of these races.
While I’m excited about the possibility of racing transitioning onto free-to-air television, I’m also wary that TVN has a long way to go before they finalise the move to the digital landscape.
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