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In general, the normal guy wanting to watch racing, cannot sit all day Mon-Fri and watch it….so surely paying 30-40 quid is pure madness for them? If all Irish racing is going to be put behind a paywall, then those normal working people are lost. Unless they cough up an exorbitant amount. Is this wise?
Twitter: Jackh1092
Hindsight is 20/20 so make the most of it!David Cleary (arguably one of the most boring pundits) just now said “John constable would probably have a better chance if he was getting a stone from Buveur D’air in a handicap”
This is the type of waffle I was referring to in previous posts
You need to understand David Cleary’s dryness, Wex.
What should Cleary have said? “BVD has plenty in hand”? “Plenty” means nothing – different things to different people, could be 5 lbs or 20 lbs+. Saying it as Cleary did emphasises just how much Buveur D’air should have in hand today. How is that wrong?
Value Is EverythingSounds like he understands it fine. If he actually said that, “Waffle” is a more generous word than I would have offered.
Yeah wex that was sort of my point aswell, they talk more but its for the most part just waffling
And no jack, it definitely is not wise atall, i only watch ruk if i absolutely have to i could understand why people either dont want to pay or cant afford to pay. Its not a good move for the general population for racing.
Only the diehards will cough up the fee, the people who watch a couple times a week here and there just simply wont pay, its a bit like BT sport taking over the champions league, the majority of sky customers just will go without because its not free, obviously i. football these things dont matter, but it does with racing, it will surely turn off thousands of people from atleast maintaining an interest.
steveh31, this is my concern as well. The growing imbalance between the two channels will eventually I fear mean the end of ATR. And then what will happen to the smaller courses? If everything is on just one channel then they simply aren’t going to get any coverage most of the time. Those courses will then start to fail themselves since attendance numbers alone won’t be enough for them to keep going.
Can you imagine what coverage is going to be like on Boxing Day or New Year’s Day? Horrendous with nothing getting the amount of coverage it should, not even the big races.
If Sky incorporate racing into their sports channels that’ll simply cut off more viewers. I don’t have Sky Sports since I’m only interested in watching ATR. No way would I pay more to access just that – in the same way I won’t pay again to access RUK.
This is very sad news for me personally and I’m afraid it’s going to turn out to be very bad news for Irish racing.
I can understand people who only have the opportunity to watch a couple of times per week not wanting to shell out for RUK, however, most of these folk would only have the chance to watch on the weekends and they’ll still be able to do so on RTE, therefore, Irish racing may lose the interest of less than you think, Ham.
Miller is racing on RTE every weekend? (Dont actually know the answer, up in Northern Ireland and do’t tend to watch it much)
Twitter: Jackh1092
Hindsight is 20/20 so make the most of it!No, Jack, but it has just signed a deal for increased live coverage, up to 27 days per year – not so much as I thought really.
Absolute stupidity by ATR’s so called experts on going totally OTT on Total Recall.
Irish rules allow the horse to run off 125 in a hurdle, a mark 22 lbs below what he won the “Hennessey”, 147. Yes, he won despite not settling today, but only because he’d been thrown in off a silly weight. Had he run off the same mark as Newbury (which isn’t even that of a top class racehorse) would’ve been well beaten… And yet the trio on ATR were talking about “winning anything he runs in” due to this performance, Stayers Hurdle and Gold Cup mentioned. I repeat, this was a mark of 125 for…!
As far as the Grand National is concerned: If he’s to get the trip will need to settle a hell of a lot better than today off a mark at least in the high 150‘s. He’ll be on a mark over 2 stones worse than here – where would he have finished with a mark over 2 stone more today?
Poor analysis by ATR’s men, who don’t know their form book as well as they should.
Value Is EverythingHe would have to settle much better, i am sure they said that didn’t they?
To be fair he was thrown in off the weight, but he did do it the difficult way…
I wonder what there target will be for him at the festival?
Twitter: Jackh1092
Hindsight is 20/20 so make the most of it!Has anyone seen/watched ‘Racing UK Extra’? I wonder in time if this could become Racing UK 2 and perhaps show some of the lower class or Irish racing leaving the main channel to show the principal action?
If ATR does have to close hopefully this will mean the end of the majority of the interminable US and Australian racing, add Dubai and this would be even better!!
Nobody knows what “50,000” people watching RUK/TV are like. Calling them/us “snobs” and judging racegoers on what they wear and drink – says more about you than them, Strawbear.
Its the way they act that i judge them on. You may be happy with the stag and hen do crowd that invade racecourses these days but i am not
So, Really ginger, what does it say about me ?I apologise for the using the word snobs.
I haven’t actually watched RUK Extra for more than a minute or two, Phil, so I don’t know what the coverage is like, a lot of silent camera shots I imagine when the main channel is elsewhere. It increasingly seems to be available for all the day’s RUK meetings (will be handy when there is one Jumps card amongst a lot of dross…sorry, I mean Flat!) but, as far as I’m aware you can only access it via the website.
The website can be unreliable, an HDMI cable did not last long, so I prefer to watch on an internet-ready TV – much bigger picture too :) I think, and a story on the RP site confirms, that RUK will give all Irish racing the same status as they are obliged to for British. RUK will want to retain Irish racing beyond the contract just signed. RUK will try to cram it all in, and with a bit of co-operation from the courses (some Irish ones will have to change their attitude) it will try to avoid the dreaded split screen. I can’t envisage a red button service or multiple channels on the non-website platforms (i.e. TV) though it would be nice if there were.
I expect/hope, if the above scenario is correct, that international racing will become more and more marginalised onto RUK Extra. Most of the good Sunday action at Auteil might be unaffected but I will be glad to be rid of the bulk of the sandy stuff from France, Dubai and Hong Kong.
However, if ATR goes belly up and RUK gets all the British courses there will have to be a rethink.
If the 2019 fixture list mirrors that of 2018 the Cheltenham Festival will still only be interrupted by the unnecessary meeting at Huntingdon on the Wednesday. It would not be so favourable for the Aintree equivalent. In 2018 we will have to put up with Taunton on the Thursday and endure a Flat meeting at Leicester on the Friday. Added to this in 2019 could be Limerick (Thurs) and, worst of all, Leopardstown (Sat). The latter may be one Irish meeting that is shunted onto RUK Extra but overall how Irish fixtures are scheduled (lots of big meetings on Sundays) may compliment RUK’s coverage more than detract from it.
This is seriously bad news, too much racing on one channel just doesn’t work.
Racing UK may well be planning a second channel to spread out the coverage (remember they did initially have a second “Racing World” channel for the foreign racing).
Unfortunately for those of us who can only get RUK through Virgin Media, you can be certain we won’t be able to get the second channel for a year or more after Sky. We couldn’t get RUK for almost a year when it first started broadcasting and we still haven’t got the HD channel yet!
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
Watching ATR today, it might almost be worth switching to RUK to get rid of Des
What?
Des is not employed by ATR he is the course commentator and will be used by any channel who has the tv rights.Its the way they act that i judge them on. You may be happy with the stag and hen do crowd that invade racecourses these days but i am not
So, Really ginger, what does it say about me ?I apologise for the using the word snobs.
Am not keen on anyone that drinks too much and/or acts badly; but they are from all backgrounds – not what you suggested in your original post, Strawbear.
Value Is Everything
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