The judge has just handed down her decision and it's win of the two Sydney race clubs, so pending any other action, Sydney racing will now only be available on TVN.

In making her judgement, Judge Bergin observed that even if Racing NSW had the right they asserted, procedural fairness had not been observed in the decision making leading up to the court case.

with good will there is a way around it but good will is hard to find.

apparently sky channel sells its service to pay tv on the condition they do not show any vision from another source. tvn is another source so to show it would be a breach of the sky channel agreement.
perhaps something can be done.

but even so if the industry doesnt want to reach the majority of punters then they will pay a price for it. having said that i dont know how the numbers stack up in respect of the major viewing numbers.

its the price to pay for privatising horse racing. i think it should open to door to other interlopers to the racing industry.
so now what is wrong with betfair getting off the ground in australia.
apparently there is no loyalty factor anymore.
go for it.

Thank you for your query



TVN is owned by the AJC, STC, VRC, MVRC, MRC & CRV

These racing clubs are the rights holders of their product

They have signed their rights over to ThoroughVisioN P/L

In the case of the Victorian Clubs, TVN has had the rights for three years - and TVN negotiated a deal to sell the rights to Sky for a three year period

This deal ends tomorrow (Tuesday May 3)



Sky Channel has agreements in place with Foxtel, Optus & Austar that prohibits them from allowing another Horse Racing Channel on their platform

With the establishment of the Digital Pay TV service, the ACCC developed the "Open Access Regime" that provides for any group to access the Foxtel Digital platform as long as they can pay their way - In TVN's case, we are paying our way.



TVN has requested Sky & TABCORP to lift the restriction on the Pay TV carriers. Sky & TABCORP have refused and therefore restricting TVN access to a broader customer base.

TVN has written to the ACCC to investigate the situation - we are waiting for their findings.



Currently TVN has installed over 2200 Services to Public Venues throughout Australia

TVN is also collating a list of interested Industry Participants that if the ACCC Pay TV findings are negative, TVN will consider putting the commercial service into a domestic situation



I am not sure if you have access to Broadband, but TVN is available through Bigpond Racing

If you can access broadband, I suggest that you consider installing a Bigpond service (512k) and viewing the live and on demand services available.


email received from tvn

Let me get this straight...

i am a foxtel Digital subscriber...

do i get tvn automatically, or do i have to ring them up and ask about it?

You have to ring TVN (not Foxtel) and subscribe - the fee is $12 per annum up until May 2006.

And they (race clubs etc) argue against Betfair saying it will harm the integrity of racing & has no loyalty to punters. Yeah right. Anyone involved in the "blacking out" of certain races to certain areas really cares about the punter.

loyalty works both ways.we've been shafted by the greed of the racing industry.
we have acted in good faith to sign up for services.
we have also listened to the complaints of unitab and tabcorp regarding betfair and how it would damage the industry.
how does shutting out victorian and nsw racing from most punters affect the industry.
in tasmania here the catchcry has always been that we must be on sky channel to make racing pay so they moved to sunday.
how will taking sydney and victoria off most off us help make it pay.
without punters and then owners the industry is on a downer here.
it may have revenue from tv stations in the long run the public support from punters is what will make it pay.
we'll just watch this for awhile and see if they can do without us punters.
from now on. sydney racing is off my agenda.

I agree it is a raw deal and money has always been more important to them than the punters...even though we are the money....for the last five years i have only watched racing on TV at carnival time or when i pop in to the local tab....i enjoy listening to it on my pc....and i get to choose what station i listen to 2KY,ACT TAB Radio,QLD TAB Radio,Radio 927,WA Oz Bet Radio

when you ring tvn does the $12 get charged to your foxtel account or can you pay another way?? foxtel digital is not under my name so just want to find out.

i assume that $12 is monthly not annually.

one saviour could be the accc with the exclusive sky channel deal with austar and preventing any other provider being used by austar may be uncompetitive.
perhaps it will resolve albeit at a cost no doubt.