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I can’t understand why we give all our rights to ATR. For me it doesn’t make much sense to have Ireland’s Top races overlapped with Garbage from Lingfield and Wolverhampton.
I find the ATR "thing" very tedious and boring….a "tired" layout.
Why can’t we do a RUK…pay a small fee each year for a channel maybe 25 euro or something and use some of the Subs from the Goverment to pay for it. The Aga Khan has already giving HRI a big sum in the Stand House Hotel. Advertisements from Studs etc could give the Channel the ammo to pay for it.
At the moment we have the Guineas Weekend coming up…we prob wont even get to see the horses in the paddock. We can see them parade in front of the stand we can’t see anything. Is this a Show we want to sell to British audiences and World audiences. Because unless you have RTE tuned into Sky you get dire coverage through ATR and poor Gary O Brien trying to get a few words in before we go to a selling race at Ripon. Why do we settle for this?
You could have different panels for each race day and only broadcast on Irish Racing Days. People like Ger Lyons etc come in and promote themselves and give views on the racing. Broadcast on Track with the masses of Irish Racing Journalist. Brian O Conner would be perfect personally to anchor the show. Jockeys etc would be more than willing to sell themselves to Trainers. Have stud programs’s….all the opportunties that exist in Irish Racing to promote itself yet we continue to slave away with the tedious ATR where half the time its well behind British Racing in Preference.
Very disappointed that not one Racing mind has had the balls to tackle the HRI and the Turf Club. Incredibly frustrating having to be treated like 2nd class citizens on ATR "bleak coverage"
I am sure the British Audience would like to get to know more of the Characters in Irish Racing and more of the tracks/Layouts. Hopefully a change is coming soooner or later
Totally agree with you, however I don’t think there are enough people who want all an Irish racing channel, and would be willing to pay for it, for someone to create a channel.
Phil but the thing is it wouldn’t need to fit Demand/cost benefit Criterion.
It would be channel purely to promote Irish Racing. Obviously you could link with France and RUK for some of the biggest meeting and vice versa.
If it makes a Loss who cares….but their would be at least 100,000 subs in Ireland and Ex Pats could make another 30,000 easily at 25 euro a bob and the product their just needed to exploit it.
Hmmm
Interesting suggestion. I’m not sure whether it could work but I suppose RUK manages to sustain itself with 30 tracks so maybe 26/7 Irish tracks could be workable.
Perhaps the could work something with Setanta Ireland. There’s also been talk within the last few years of a GAA channel so some sort of partnership with that could be another avenue to be explored.
It think ATR do a decent job for what it’s worth. Obviously it would be much better if there were less adverts and there’s nothing more annoying than trying to watch a good novice hurdle/chase up in the corner of a screen because they’re loading for the 1:15 at Wolves, but I can recall a time when there were only four or five Irish meetings on the box each year.
I enjoy RTÉ’s coverage as well and I think it is far superior to their terrestrial counterparts in England. Bob Hall and Ted make a good team even if they’re both pushing on a bit at this stage. You can tell that Gleeson loves his racing. His enthusiasm is infectious. Tony isn’t the best caller anymore and should be replaced by Jerry Hannon IMO. Tracy Piggott can be a bit of a pain too but it can make for good viewing when the likes of Weld and Bolger patronise and talk down to her when she interviews them at the Curragh or Leopardstown. I hope they lock that Marietta one away in some cupboard in Montrose very soon though!
Their is so much more to Racing that just the 2.30 at Fairyhouse. Their should be a Horse Racing channel that show the Apprentice’s in Kildare to Coolmore to the small owner breeders to the big Point to Point meetings.
Everything is there we just need to exploit it.
And how would such a venture be funded? It could not be funded by subscriptions alone, IMO it is not commercially viable.
JohnJ
I wouldn’t put any great trust in HRI trying to achieve something like that though Wally. Their state funding has taken a massive hit now that racing men like Charlie McCreevy, John O’Donoghue and Joe Walsh are gone from the cabinet. Gormley and the Greens are hardly going to support the state subsidising HRI either.
The responsibility for the horse and greyhound racing industries was moved from the Department of Sport to the Department of Agriculture at Biffo’s recent cabinet reshuffle. It’s clear from this that they’re going to be concentrating their efforts on trying to breathe new life into the breeding industry (excuse the pun!) which is being lost to France.
I think HRI should be concentrating on getting more people through the gate. There should have been 25,000+ at Punchestown every day last week, not just on Friday. Look at what Limerick racecourse achieved a few weeks ago by thinking outside the box.
Nice idea, I think we’ve all had enough of 27-runner maiden hurdles at Thurles with 2 triers restricting our vision of 7f sellers at Wolverhampton.
It can be funded if easily if they think outside the box.
Giving all rights lock stock and barrel to ATR is not the way to move forward thats for sure.
Also does it have to be commercially viable?
Its promoting Irish Racing from P2P…to Goffs. Its a tool in it self and a nominal fee for it could be a bargain if it is well thought through.
Also does it have to be commercially viable?
Its promoting Irish Racing from P2P…to Goffs. Its a tool in it self and a nominal fee for it could be a bargain if it is well thought through.
It still has to be funded, the costs of running a TV station are extremely high. Perhaps we can get an Irish version of Injury Lawyers commercials using Gabriel Byrne instead of Johnny Allen.
JohnJ
Surely there’s a negative argument to this, and that is British punters who currently bet on Irish Racing (along with the other rubbish) might not be prepared to pay for another channel, and that’s before you consider whether they’ll turn over to watch anyway, so therefore the overall amounts being bet will be less.
Personally, I don’t think Irish Racing always does itself favours for broadcast space. The amount of needless clashes through a year do my head in. On some days they can’t be avoided – on others you wonder if anyone running the sport in Ireland had ever noticed the sport exists in Britain on the same channel their racing is broadcast on. There’s no point competing head to head with British racing; ATR just revert to a split screen more often than not where no one sees anything.
I seem to remember watching the Irish Festivals "properly" a few years ago on an Irish Channel – don’t recall what it was called – but don’t think it was just a racing one. Agree how frustrating the recent one was with all the others being shown too – I like seeing the runners in the paddock and connections etc being interviewed.
Don’t know why ATR can’t just put each meeting on a "red-button" channel with all races on the main feed. Sky already use the technology on Champions League nights.
Irish racing channel just not commercially viable IMO.
No way will 100,000 people pay a subscription to watch documentaries about apprentices down in Naas.
Their has got to be another option than ATR.
You can still feed all Irish Racing pictures to the Bookies and Betfair but sidetrack ATR.
I guess its a long shot but something new and fresh is needed
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