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I have heard the Racing Channel is closing after this afternoons output? I have also heard that GGMedia are also about to close? If this is correct what happens to coverage from the GG courses?
Surely what we need is all UK racing on ATR and a subscription to get rid of the adverts and the doomed pool betting.
It looks to me as if the media rights cock up from football is now having similar effect in racing and the rights are not worth anything like the fees charged. I still cannot understand how the executives at ATR who prepared a business plan based on pool betting, especially via the Red Button can be so wrong. It is so obvious these plans cannot work.
Keep it simple, racing fans will easily pay £20 per month for uninterupted racing with no frills, no adverts and rid us of most of the overated pundits.
W.
Without Irish racing, they were always going to be a spent force. But i’m against a subscription for ATR. £20pm may not be a lot for some, but on top of the £35pm Sky already charge, it’s a substantial increase. Now if they included it as part of the Sky Sports package that would be another matter.
Wallace……I thought you where bringing bad news until i read it was the racing channel….who will miss it?
Has for ATR offering full coverage……..it would be logical and whilst you will happy to pay 20 quid a month for an uninterupted service i will pay 100 if they get rid of all the muppets.
ps….Offer doesn’t stand whilst we have no real racing!!
It’s official …<br>Afternoon coverage gone from tomorrow<br>PM (USA) coverage gone from 31/01/03
Can ATR please start showing the US coverage in 16:9 format now!<br>The 4:3 picture on a 16:9 screen is bloody annoying LOL<br>At least TRNI show it in 16:9 ratio.
Yep, we’ll call him ‘Scoop’ from now on LOL Well done Wallace :)<br>I suspected TRC would go down the tubes as soon as I heard they had lost the Irish racing. It unfortunately just had to be. Unfortunate indeed, but market forces don’t have boundries.
Happy New Year everyone.<br>  I have to say the a most telling remark came when The Racing Channel opened for business on Tuesday, when Dave Compton informed "us" (or should that be "me"?) that we "only had to wait 3 and a half hours" before the first live action from Greyville I think. <br>  The Racing Channel had made scary, perhaps cult viewing for some since Attheraces launched- it has had the look of a Marie Celeste for some time. Its only saving grace was its TRNI service, which was gaining popularity before Attheraces ruthlessly jumped on the American bandwagon. The loss of Irish racing was the final nail in the coffin. <br>  So what for the 10 courses who steered clear of ATR? Difficult to say, but one must hope that ATR keeps its head above water for the well being of the sport. Let’s also remember what a groundbreaking concept The Racing Channel was at the time- the forebearer to… better things? Time will tell. Meantime, R.I.P. T.R.C.
I think most folk seen it coming..hopefullty ATR will ask Dave Compton to join them as he is better than some of the presenters ATR have.
Nice on Wallace as it’s always good to land a scoop for the forum!
What will this mean for GG.Com and will the 12 breakaway courses now panic by going begging to let them back in to the fold? Those 12 must be kicking themselves for choosing the betamax as I read there races will only be shown on SIS now in the country.
I’m very sad its going, though hardly surprised.
A lot of the people who didnt susbscribe didnt see the channel at its peak, when it took to the time to concentrate on the Athletes – horses and riders, and trainers rather than ATR which in my view is far too punter biased (I mean by this betting)
I miss the stable tour features, the reviews which included head on replays (which were very useful), and they can take credit for introducing UK punters to point to pointing, US racing and South African to "stay at home" or less abled punters like myself.
I like ATR, however whenever I watch it I do get he impression that if they had the choice they’d concentrate on whatever gained them the most revenue, rather than focusing on the sport as a whole – Sometimes I feel they need reminding that the stars of the future could be racing in points and hunter chases but the "ordinary punter" won’t even know because these horses wont even get a mention…. For a while they did on The Racing Channel.
<br>P.S. If ATR is really interested in broadening its appeal, they should consider employing Dave Compton, even if its to cover the US angle <br>
Quote: "If ATR is really interested in broadening its appeal, they should consider employing Dave Compton, even if its to cover the US angle"  <br>———————————————————
"Now, TRNi is going into partnership with Attheraces, and will be responsible for its US coverage from February 1, using the data and graphics presentation so far seen on the Racing Channel. <br>   <br>  Hogwood said: “Attheraces approached us and we’re setting up a joint venture, in which wewill handle the signals and transmission, while Attheraces does the production. We will also provide the gateway to co-mingle bets into the pools in America.â€ÂÂ
Rook – I’d forgotten about the Point to Point on TRC. I remember watching one of their presenters at Tweseldown – it was amazing, he was doing all his work on his own, with just an automatic camera pointing at him!
The end at about 3pm today was quite sad really, I felt very sorry for the people there. Richard Pitman was wibbling away as usual, and a few minutes from the end he inexplicably put a wig on.
At the end he whipped the wig off, said "goodbye" and the screen cut to black, and then a caption saying "The Racing Channel has Ceased Broadcasting" came up, together with some moody classical music. A real shame.<br>
I thought it would take off too. I much prefer point-to-point to attending a stuffy regular NH meeting. I bet the pointing purists loathed the idea of television sticking their beaks in though.
Wouldn’t you rather be sussing out the Irish horses for Cheltenham over the next few Sundays?
 What will happen in the summertime, what will get shunted- the American or dare I say it, the evening racing?<br>  The "Racing Review" segments on Attheraces, particularly over the jumps, seem to be getting thinner and thinner, more so now the American racing has kicked off.<br>  And what has happened to the coloured caps during the Lunchtime races? Such a simple yet effective idea out with the washing already.
Hi Judge,
I share your concern about the UK coverage.
I hated the idea of single coloured caps, for the following reasons:
1) it might work when there are always six runners, ie in dog racing, but I don’t think it helps much in horse racing, where there could be loads of runners, and there’s no way I can remember the cap colour for (say) number 13.
2) I don’t find it very easy to identify caps on TV anyway; it is more the combination of all the colours, plus the colour of the horse (except for Chestnuts of course), and the horse’s headgear.
3) It is moving dangerously towards the idea of uniform colours for all numbered horses; "come on the 4 horse"!
4) It’s just plain dumbing down.
5) If I were an owner who had carefully chosen a really nice set of silks (like Daylight has!), I’d be bloody annoyed when a red and green striped cap gets stuck on the top of it, just to help some "novice punters" who are supposed to be watching on channel 4, but aren’t because neighbours is on BBC 1 (probably).<br>
RichK you couldn’t echo my thoughts more.
With abhorrence I view the increasing Americanisation and arcade-stylisation of horse racing which this CH4 lunchtime show brings. It’s a horse race, not a game, not a greyhound race, and horses have names, interestingly enough.
They try and attract people to racing by making it intensely boring – showing a low grade race, colour coding the runners and using their racecard numbers as reference. If this ever snowballs then I’m out!
American racing is OK when it’s BC time, or the Triple Crown, or when something interesting is going on, but showing each and every race from each and every track is over satuaration.
ATR. <br>Several of you have highlighted my gripes about ATR.
When they launched attheraces, its principal objective was to increase live coverage for British racing, by raising its profile and popularity across the widest audiences by breaking down traditional barriers and demystifying betting.
However they are in danger of making a fundamental mistake, by assuming that racing is SOLELY about punting. It isn’t.. it never has been and never will be.
There is a large core of the racing populous who would go to the bookies and have their occasional 50p double and chat with their friend(s) who were busy betting on almost everything that moves.
They’re not interested in what Betfair does – aren’t interested in getting the best value, and not solely interested in the performances of Rock of Gibraltar and Best Mate. These people wonder why ATR focuses on the All-weather daily yet didn’t show all of the jump races held over the Bank Holiday period… (so what’s new neither do the bookies)
They’re not encouraged to go racing by ATR, because ATR always speak about going into Members or Tatts… These people would happily go into the Silver ring… if they were made aware of how good value some of these enclosures were (although very basic – a separate issue).
A large core of their possible audience, (like me) are from the ethnic minorities, yet so far they haven’t yet made any real attempt to appeal to this group… If they were surely a programme appealing to that audience (and for that matter OAP’s) would be a step in the right direction, although having seen some of the more recent rather "cheesy" "let’s Go Racing" features I’m not sure that is necessarily a bold step – the recent feature on French Breds revealed how little some of them knew – the influx didn’t begin with MCP but he always gets the credit.
I hope they’ll spend more time on doing this in the short term.. though I’m not holding my breath
LUNCHTIME RACES<br>As for the lunchtime race – Having watched a bit of the US stuff I would have thought using large coloured number cloths would be far more attractive to the eye… however I totally agree with those who believe that newcomers should be encourage to build affinities with the horses .. and not their number.
I dont know if you’ve ever seen racing in Dubai but they tend to use very large number cloths (yellow) with big bold numbers. the numbers are very visible to the eye and I’m surprised that large number cloths aren’t simply introduced … if cash is the issue get someone to sponsor them for all races (unless a race sponsor expressly wants to have his own).
THE WAY FORWARD<br>I want to see more emphasis on the horses in both spheres. Although I am primarily a jumps fan I do see the value of following certain stables juveniles.. however when did you ever see that sort of interest in the future chasers who run in bumpers/PTPs <br>These horses didn’t suddenly involved from nothing… They’re being broken, placed in Livery, raced in PTPs in the UK, Ireland or France, or are racing in these countries, plus Germany and Poland, and soon the Czech Republic. (I’m fairly certain this country is about to become very fashionable)<br>If say for example Viaduct wins the Foxhunters, when did ATR intend to let you knew he even existed… ditto how many people knew about Bolt Action before he won at Chepstow.<br>Both could win at the Festival however they’ve not "tipped you the wink" . If you focus at the top, you have no idea what’s bubbling below and the beauty of trainer files were that you’d have known about these.<br>Ditto PTP – Castle Mane came to prominence whilst The Racing Channel plotted his progress, and if ATR had kept in touch They’d have known not to judge Horus on his run in The Foxhunters, rather his PTP form which included four scintillating wins ion Open company.<br>Irish Racing will be on the station, but will probably not be shown midweek, unless its important, I suspect the level of punting may determine whether Evening racing gets given prominence over USA. French racing will be shown when its important, which means that the classics will be shown plus the big jump races (which will be a step in the right direction) <br>I won’t mind in one way if they dont do this because I’ll find ways of watching what I want… Not everyone has that luxury…
There I feel better now.. I’m of for a lie down. :) <br> <br> <br>
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