Seven tipped for new racing channel
Seven looks set for a dedicated racing channel, after reports they have won the broadcasting rights for Victorian horse-racing.
- Published by David Knox
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Seven looks set to confirm a new dedicated racing channel, after reports they have won the broadcasting rights for all Victorian horse-racing.
The Australian reports Racing Victoria, which represents regional racing, has recommended a Seven West bid over that of Tabcorp-subsidiary Sky Racing. Metropolitan clubs Victoria Racing Club, Melbourne Racing Club and Moonee Valley Racing Club are expected to back Seven by next Wednesday.
Telecasts would be expected to air nationwide on a dedicated digital platform, including on iPads, laptops and smart phones.
Coverage would inlude 520 race meetings including night racing from Moonee Valley, Cranbourne and Pakenham.
Seven could begin televising racing as early as August.
Seven discontinued its Fresh Ideas data-casting channel last year, which has been awaiting a channel relaunch since December.
20 Responses
When channel 78 was discontinued I retuned the TV and it was gone when surfing through the channels, however I noticed after a retune of my TV last night that Channel 78 is back (it had a simulcast of the AFL on). So I’m guessing they are readying that for the Horse Racing Channel, was a very patchy picture though (on a 48″ TV), though I guess if they get rid of the simulcast channels 70 and 71, then more bandwidth may be freed up.
The TV stations rorted a loophole to put home shopping on the datacasting channels which were reserved for community television, what loophole will Seven rort to get racing onto the community channels?
Community Channels? The Networks have licences for specific parts of the broadcast spectrum and can choose how it is used, within the current regulations. The definition of “datacasting” was stretched and approved by the relevant Minister to allow the creation of shopping channels.
If you had a “black box” you could pick up the “datacasts” from Sydney FM radio stations. Useful in the 90’s but now superceded by the Internet.
Who cares what about sorting out the Primary Channel and go HD
What a wonderful use of spectrum! [/sarcasm]
So all those pubs out there with TAB’s/Sports Bars and the stand-alone TAB’s will have to tune to Channel 7 now for Victorian racing, that’s a nice way for Seven to get eyeballs on adverts for their TV shows.
Will also be back to the early days of TVN when the proprietors of those venues had to go out and change the TV channel, or add an extra TV screen and rig up a way to switch from Sky Audio to Seven Audio between Races from behind the counter. Unless of course Seven allow Sky Channel to show the Victorian races in those venues like TVN eventually did at a cost (however not on the Foxtel version of Sky Channel).
Worth noting Mr Selfridge has moved from Seven to 7TWO next week to make room for Ascot Racing. So there will be casualties from Sport commitments.
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Bandwidth is the problem. Combining the 2 shopping channels will not make an SD channel, even if MT allows another “entertainment” channel.
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A b/cast fee of up to $60 million per year is a lot of ads, even if the TAB kick in a few million. I’m not sure that a racing channel with ads would qualify as “datacasting”. May have to go onto 7two. There’s no limit to the number of ads on mobile devices and a “Bet Now” button would bring in a few bucks. What happened to the Chinese language channel that was under consideration?
If you don’t want to watch horse racing GNPetrie, then you don’t have to, its your decision what you watch, but I think its great to have a free to air channel (which I presume it will be) than have to keep relying on Fox sport all the time. Although I am not a racing fan there are so many people that are. Lets hope we see more of this in the future as sport is really big in Australia to say that we don’t have a very large population in comparison to some countries.
It’s nice for them to cater for a niche market for those that are in that niche. However, we all know where the money to pay for this will be coming from. Look out for new programs Horse Rules, Betting Homes and Gardens, Escape to the Country Meeting, My Bookie Rules, World’s Greatest Horse Crashes, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (guess what’s on the menu?).
But just how will we be able see the horses through that highly-compressed, low bit rate former shopping channel?
Good news & perhaps one day there’ll be a dedicated 24 hr sports channel on FTA.
There used to be, called ONE, but apparently no one watched it.
if I want to watch horse racing, I would have signed up to FoxTel (sports channels) by now.
I would like a racing channel to be on Channel 78. I reckon that it will eventually replace Fresh Ideas TV since it discontinued last year.
It’s a great idea. Seven are really stepping up in covering a lot of sport and this is a huge deal and great for everyone who follows the sport.
Glad to hear this. I believe a racing channel will be far more beneficial than the previous Fresh Ideas TV channel.
Finally…sounds like some actual content coming instead of non stop informercials on those extra 2 channels. Why one of the others doesn’t do something like this already with some other niche content amazes me. I don’t do much betting but it’s great for those that do.