TVN (Australia)

TVN (Thoroughbred Vision) is an Australian thoroughbred horse-racing channel. It is available on Foxtel, Austar and Optus TV as a premium channel option. Content is also available online Via TVN's website and Telstra's BigPond Web Portal. The channel was set up Victorian thoroughbred racing industry and Sydney metropolitan racing clubs as an alternative to Sky Racing and as an attempt by the racing clubs concerned "to capture the valuable assets of racing media rights and leverage them to the benefit of racing". [http://www.stc.com.au/media_room/coverage.html ] Sydney Turf Club. Retrieved July 15, 2007.]

TVN is 50% owned by Victorian racings organisations Melbourne Racing Club, Victoria Racing Club & Moonee Valley Racing Club & Country Racing Victoria and the major Sydney metropolitan clubs Australian Jockey Club & Sydney Turf Club and was launched in May 2005 and holds the broadcast rights to their race meetings.

Prior to the launch of TVN Sky Channel purchased the rights to broadcast race meetings from almost all racing clubs across the country and then resold the rights to pubs and clubs, back to the venues and also to DTH subscribers.

TVN was formed after TabCorp, the owner of Sky Racing pulled out of plans it was developing with Racing Victoria Limited in February 2005 to launch a dedicated thoroughbred racing channel apart from Sky Channels other broadcasts which also included harness racing and greyhound racing stating that it didn't believe the service was viable Fact|date=July 2007. Victorian racing clubs planned to continue launching the service and won the support of the Australian Jockey Club & Sydney Turf Club when they announced their intention not to re-sign with Sky Channel when their contracts came up for renewal in March 2005. Both the AJC and STC supported TVN and a partnership was formed with Racing Victoria Limited. In May 2005 existing contracts between Victorian raceclubs and Sky Channel ended and these were then signed over to TVN. [http://www.theage.com.au/news/Horse-Racing/TVN-under-the-microscope/2005/06/07/1118123836976.html 'TVN under the microscope'] Tony Bourke, The Age Online, Melbourne, June 8, 2005. Retrieved July 15, 2007.]

The service was initially only available on the Foxtel platform Sky Channel has exclusivity agreements the broadcasters had with Sky Racing. In August 2005 Sky successfully obtained an injunction against TVN and pay TV carrier Austar stopping Austar from broadcasting TVN [http://www.tabcorp.com.au/news_mediarel_detail.aspx?view=180 'Sky Channel successful in NSW Supreme Court against TVN and AUSTAR'] Sky Channel Media Release, August, 12 2005. Retrieved July 15, 2007.] however broadcast agreements were eventually extended to Austar and Optus.

TVN's focus is extended coverage of the three main Australian thoroughbred race meetings each day. This typically consists of the major meeting from the states of Victorian, New South Wales and Queensland. Additionally, the channel occasionally broadcasts racing coverage from Darwin, as well as international meetings such as Hong Kong and Singapore. A favourite segment of raceday coverage is Richard Wade's round-up of all the fashions in the field highlights: "Tricky Dicky's Marvellous Scenes".It is also considered that TVN's Singapore coverage is the most comprehensive on Australian television.

On 3 July 2007 TVN announced that it had purchased the racing magaines Best Bets and Winning Post from by On Notice Pty Ltd and Outbound Software Pty Ltd, companies owned by Melbourne businessman and thoroughbred racehorse owner, Peter Sidwell. TVN had previously obtained Form_%28horse_racing%29 information and services from Best Bets. [www.thetote.com.au/articles/article.aspx?id=6240 'TVN acquires top racing puiblications'] Peter Staples, TheTote.com, July 4, 2007. Retrieved July 14, 2007.]

External links

* [http://tvn.com.au Official site]
* [http://bestbets.com.au Best Bets site]
* [http://winningpost.com.au Winning Post site]

References