A question.
If Sky is available on Foxtel Digital, then how are they allowed to have TVN? Was it not in their contract as well? I don't understand how they can have both channels yet Austar cannot...

I think the mounting yard coverage is great, and necessary. I think hearing someone frantically say "All in at Caulfield" then a flash to starting stalls, followed by Greg Miles saying "racing!" with which we stay for 90 seconds before the original voice again says "Set Launceston!!!" and we switch to another set of stalls where someone else says "Racing!" with which we stay for another 90 seconds, and so on, is rubbish! It's just a pokie machine! People forget about the other parts of horse racing - the yard, how they look etc.

Bring on TVN!

Some of us just want the choice. I cannot view TVN and many others are in the same boat.

I for one am going to find it very very hard to even want to bet in a place that I cannot even watch the racing which I guess now means I will not be betting in Melbourne or Sydney. I can put up with losing Sydney I for the most part really do not like betting there but Melbourne is another story especially racing at Flemington I usually go very well there regardless this is a ridiculos situation that just goes to show all anyone cares about is money which I guess is nothing new at all is it.

It's quite interesting how all parties to this dispute are united in their opposition against betting exchanges.

But they seem to have ignored the damage their dispute will do to racing, where owners, trainers and punters are not able to view all live racing from the comfort of their homes. Nor the financial damage done to owner operated TAB agencies who now have to pay two parties to get live races.

If not quickly resolved the damage to racing will be far greater than any damage these parties have estimated, rightly or wrongly, will be done to racing by allowing betting exchanges.

BJ: There is a lot of confusion about all of this and rightly so, you've got to be a bit of a bush layyer to work it all out.

But just to set the records straight I will try and explain why the current unsatisfactory situation has arisen.

When the federal government gave permission for Foxtel to roll out digital tv, the ACCC placed a restriction on them, which was that Foxtel had to make available their digital infrastructure to any third party providers. TVN are a third party provider so that neither Foxtel or Sky could stop TVN using the Foxtel network.

However, both Optus and Austar had previously signed long-term exclusive agreements with Sky that didn't allow a third party provider such as TVN to be use the Optus or Austar networks.

This current situation can be resolved by either of two things occuring:

a) Sky agreeing to allow TVN to use the Optus and Austrar networks, or
b) the ACCC stepping in and making Sky allow TVN to use the Optus and Austar networks.

I suspect that the latter is the more likely as I know for a fact that the ACCC are monitoring the situation and that they have a some of their staff working on resolving this issue.

Hopefully any resolution will be sooner rather than later.

Duritz,
I understand what you are saying and I know there are punters out there that want to watch the mounting yard and whether the nag is pretty or not, but there are a lot of others like me that just want to see them going into the barrier and knowing when to put the bet on.
I can watch whether a nag is playing up and the start is delayed or not.
With the way I find my selection starts happening about 15 mins before the start of a race and I follow odds, books and tabs, alternating web page to web page and if anything of interest shows up start writing odds down.
If I have a selection I am interested in the last 30 secs to the jump are paramount to me, because that's when everything just about sorts itself out.
When I say follow odds I don't always mean the shorteners, more often than not I am on something that blows.
I have seen many many times the market change after jump time when there is a nag playing up and the start is delayed.
The difference to me is to bet or not to.
All I want to go back to is just being able to watch the start, whether I watch the race or not I don't give a damn because I can't change the result.
It has cost me money this week and I am not a happy camper.

Cheers

Can't see this issue of live television broadcast being resolved anytime soon. Seems such a retrograde step, difficult to come to terms with to the average punter, especially in an era of vastly improving technology.

Now, those of us fortunate to have access to both Sky and TVN now have to flick between channels every 10 or so minutes. Pain the the ass. But, at least we're able to do so. Not so fortunate our country counter-parts. They are simply kept in the dark.

While not assuming a great degree of understanding of the issues involved here, it seems to me that the Melb/Vic and Metro NSW Race Clubs feared the loss of control of their 'product' to Sky/Tabcorp.

They, rightly or wrongly, felt that Sky/Tabcorp was usurping their product and doing with it whatever they (Sky/Tabcorp) thought fit. Sky/Tabcorp called the shots, so long as they owned this content. Should Sky/Tabcorp prefer to cover/show a dog/harness meeting in preference to a throughbred meeting then that choice would always remain their's. The Race Clubs had limited or no say at all as to whether or not that was the case. They provide the venue and the content, but had no control as to how it was used.

Seems to me (and somewhat understandably) that this got up the nose of many Racing Club's, in particular Victorian and Sydney metro ones.

Accordingly, as their contracts expired with SKY/Tabcorp these same clubs elected to take back control by setting up their own broadcasting medium in TVN.

While it's a short term hassle for us throughbred punters, I reckon that eventually we'll all be better off.

Eventually, Adelaide, Brisbane etc rights with Sky/Tabcorp will expire and we'll have a dedicated Throughbred TV service showing all throughbred races.

Sky will be left with the dogs and harness and maybe a bit more, and in the process struggle to survive.

As I've said before, monopolies breed arrogance and I believe that Sky in their
arrogance fell for this old trick.

My prediction is that eventually, as this debacle plays out, TVN and the Racing Clubs will wrestle back control but in times to come they too will abuse the monopoly they will enjoy in the same way that TAB/Sky did when they enjoyed it.

It's the way of things.

__________________
Bazza's Best

Mate it is going to be awhile before the other states join Tvn as they have all signed with Sky for a long period.
My read of it was that the Thoughbred people wanted all the meetings covered by Sky to the detriment of the other codes.They did have a pretty good coverage to my mind and all country cups including Edenhope who have 1 or 2 meetings a year was shown.
Perhaps one answer would be to go back to racing Gallops during the day and Harness and Greyhounds sharing the nights so then both codes would be happy.Harness could race on Monday afternoons which was traditionly theres anyway and perhaps Tuesday but not the other afternoons as they do now.