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In Channel 4 Racing, our sport has a great opportunity to draw in new fans.
What aspects do you think should be promoted/featured that’d have the most impact in terms of drawing in newcomers?
Assuming that he did parade before his race, I would have thought that they would have showed Monets Garden yesterday, if only for a few seconds
. The point I’m trying to make is that it’s important that people who don’t usually watch racing understand how much we care about the horses.
I don’t think Channel Four showing racing will have much of an impact in attracting new racegoers.
Many of us on this forum, especially us older ones, certainly were attracted to the sport watching it on either Grandstand or World Of Sport – but times and society was different then, there were fewer diversions from television, we didn’t have computers and game boys, there wasn’t the consumerism shopping culture and if the weather was bad there wasn’t even playing outside as an alternative option – so Saturday afternoon television was the easy option.
Nowadays there are zillions of channels, other sports are more aggressively marketed, kids don’t want to spend Saturday afternoons watching racing, they want to play with their iPads, PS189’s or whatever number it’s reached now. The chances of catching casual viewers is remote.
Even the show-piece events like the Grand National and Derby will, I believe, suffer. If either attracts more than 2m viewers on C4 I will be delighted but absolutely flabbergasted at the same time.
So to answer the question I don’t think it will matter too much what Channel Four do, they will not attract that many new viewers ….. indeed I believe there is a bigger danger of alienating existing fans if they start introducing gimmicks and begin to detract from the core aspects, they should concentrate on showing the runners in the parade ring and showing the racing without fancy camera shots.
It needs to be remembered not all racing fans are prepared to pay for an RUK subscription and / or are not prepared to give money to Murdoch and pay for Sky so they can see ATR.
They need to make sure they keep those fans who rely exclusively on "terrestrial" television.
I think Channel 4 has the potential to attract up to 20 new fans to racing, and with the inspired appointment of Clare Balding, I’d expect that figure to rise to at least 14.
Horses walking around the paddock and horses going to post.
Yup. **** Skyfall, if that doesn’t convert them in their millions we might as well all go home…
Mike
So to answer the question I don’t think it will matter too much what Channel Four do, they will not attract that many new viewers ….. indeed I believe there is a bigger danger of alienating existing fans if they start introducing gimmicks and begin to detract from the core aspects, they should concentrate on showing the runners in the parade ring and showing the racing without fancy camera shots.
That already happens, alienating existing fans, has done for years. I know many people who no longer watch racing on C4 or previously BBC, myself included. Not watched it live for 3 years on C4 or BBC although do record quite a bit to keep in touch with their efforts.
Not impressed, for all the reasons you state.Many are living in cloud cuckoo land if they think there’s an audience out there just waiting to be tempted into the sport and what do they think the BBC & C4 have been doing for the last few years?
Their coverage has been aimed at attracting this "new" audience, has it been successful?I wouldn’t expect much to change with the "new" regime at C4.
I fell in love with racing when I went to the track and experienced the excitement and passion first hand. This piqued my interest in the sport and I have followed it ever since. What I have learnt about it since has come from reading racing papers and going racing. People need to go racing. My kids went to Ascot and have talked of little else since. They are 3 and are hooked (I hope!). If people fall in love with racing by going they will watch it on TV.
I can’t watch BBC because I hate the fact that they pander so much to the unitiated, assuming that most of the audience are watching it for the first time. This really grates on me. You don’t hear John Motson explaining the offside rule every time it happens in a game of football and yet this is exactly the type of patronising rubbish they serve us with.
To be honest I don’t think there is much C4 can do to "attract" new viewers but what I hope they can do is help to augment the interest of people who are already interested. Racing is something you are either going to love or not so make the programme about…..wait for it…..HORSE RACING. Yes let’s see the horses in the paddock. Let’s see their form, some previous runs. Let’s hear from connections about the chances. Keep us informed of the betting as most of the audience will be interested in that but don’t make it the complete focus. I would rather something like a tipping competition with weekly prizes and perhaps even a running one that goes throughout the season with a big prize at the end. This might encourage viewers to watch every week.
So, for me, I don’t want glam or glitz or Emma with tassles on her bra (though thinking about it……..). I want good old fashioned coverage, informed opinions, enlightening interviews and, most importantly, a sense of excitement from watching horses race against each other.
"this perfect mix of poetry and destruction, this glory of rhythm, power and majesty: the undisputed champion of the world!!!"
Many are living in cloud cuckoo land if they think there’s an audience out there just waiting to be tempted into the sport and what do they think the BBC & C4 have been doing for the last few years?
Their coverage has been aimed at attracting this "new" audience, has it been successful?
I wouldn’t expect much to change with the "new" regime at C4.I couldn’t agree more, Yeats.
It’s a minority sport and it’s crazy to pretend anything different.
I come into contact with a lot of young people and nobody is remotely interested in racing. Even my dad says: "I can’t see the attraction of watching a few horses running around a track every half hour."
He changed his tune a bit and claimed to have enjoyed it when I paid for him and my mum to go racing for the first time.
But there’s nothing "cool" about racing, especially as most young people don’t understand the first thing about betting.
No real inroads have been made by Channel 4 over attracting new viewers since it took over racing so why on earth should anyone think a new, re-tread team, and no doubt a few fancy new graphics and probably a new theme tune, will have them queueing up to take time out of staring at their mobiles to watch TV racing or go racing?
As has been predicted on this forum before, it’s highly likely that TV audiences for Royal Ascot and the Grand National will actually plunge when they are on Channel 4 next year.
The point was made previously that, if people can press a button to watch the BBC, they can press a button for Channel 4 to watch the big races previously covered on the BBC.
But many people watched the Grand National because it was on the BBC, rather than in spite of it, and rightly or wrongly, they trusted the Beeb. Many people regard Channel 4 as a backwater and a minority channel.
Racing is a minority-interest sport and it will never attract big TV audiences. That’s just how it is.
Its image as, at one end, an elitist, posh people’s sport and, at the other, a working-class, downmarket, seedy betting shop-oriented sport all play against it to different potential audiences.
No amount of repackaging and attempts to appeal to younger people will make a blind bit of difference. That’s just how it is.
Buf look at what Sky’s sexier coverage of football did for that one-time ailing sport. Couldn’t a similar makeover have an effect on racing’s popularity.
Buf look at what Sky’s sexier coverage of football did for that one-time ailing sport. Couldn’t a similar makeover have an effect on racing’s popularity.
Not to mention the darts!!!
How about we add the word "strictly" to the title and cram it full of celebs. Look what that did for ballroom dancing!
"this perfect mix of poetry and destruction, this glory of rhythm, power and majesty: the undisputed champion of the world!!!"
As has been predicted on this forum before, it’s highly likely that TV audiences for Royal Ascot and the Grand National will actually plunge when they are on Channel 4 next year.
The point was made previously that, if people can press a button to watch the BBC, they can press a button for Channel 4 to watch the big races previously covered on the BBC.
But many people watched the Grand National because it was on the BBC, rather than in spite of it, and rightly or wrongly, they trusted the Beeb. Many people regard Channel 4 as a backwater and a minority channel.
Racing is a minority-interest sport and it will never attract big TV audiences. That’s just how it is.
Bet next Grand National Day, BBC1 will get more viewers for their extended "Final Score" (now a poor man’s Soccer Saturday), then tune into CH4 for the National itself.
Buf look at what Sky’s sexier coverage of football did for that one-time ailing sport. Couldn’t a similar makeover have an effect on racing’s popularity.
Football will always be in a different class from racing as far as being one of our national sports is concerned.
Racing is a minority sport, as opposed to football being a mass appeal sport. Not many men, apart from me, are not interested in football in some way and even fewer will admit to not being interested in it.
You’re highly unlikely to find a man who isn’t interested in football in some way and virtually none, apart from me, who claim not to be interested. It engenders a blokeish bonhomie, made worse by virtually all men I know insisting on calling each other "mate".
Racing can’t match this interest.
Hardly anyone I come into contact with, of either sex, young or old, outside racing circles is remotely interested in racing.
No amount of makeover will alter the fact that most people are interested in racing only once a year, for the Grand National, and the overwhelming majority would never consider watching it for entertainment on the television.
No point living in a fool’s paradise and a belief that, if only racing was marketed in an attractive way or television coverage was jazzed up, new people would flock to the sport and "discover" it.
It’s the same with David Cameron and other politicians. They can never accept that the product (their policies) isn’t of interest to the overwhelming majority of people.
It’s only ever that it isn’t being
"presented"
in the right way to make people realise how great it is and what a great deal they are really getting, if only they could realise it.
"Yes, I accept that we need to explain this better," Cameron will say.
It’s absolute hogwash.
Just accept realities. It’s all very worthy and well-intentioned trying to drum up extra interest in racing and its television coverage, but sometimes you have to live in the real world and accept that some things are just not high on people’s priorities.
Buf look at what Sky’s sexier coverage of football did for that one-time ailing sport. Couldn’t a similar makeover have an effect on racing’s popularity.
I would argue that opening the league up to allow unlimited overseas players to sign for the big English teams is the factor that injected new life into football. The best players brings in the fans and the sponsors. At one time this was prohibited by what was called ,the "Three Foreigners Rule", apart from Scotland, where it was known as the "Eight Diddies Rule"
I believe that racing suffers because it is seen as cruel by many. I have seen friends recoil in disgust when the whip is pulled and on the occasion when a horse breaks down in a race it is hard watching for anyone, let alone the casual viewer or younger person watching. That type of person simply isn’t going to tune in, even if the show is sexed to the max.
Racing is also a minefield for the casual punter. With so many opportunities to lose your money in the High Street today it is perhaps unsurprising that Horse Racing is getting a smaller slice of the cake. By the time a person finds which race is on next and then tries to fathom out distance, going, jockey, trainer, draw, form and odds, they have probably given up and shoved the money on lucky 7 in the roulette machine. Racing may need betting but it is becoming much less the case that betting needs Racing. There is too much racing and far too much of it is low quality dross that smothers any chance of a fire being ignited. I believe it will remain a niche sport for the diehard viewer and will either plod along in the same fashion or fade away.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
I believe that racing suffers because it is seen as cruel by many.
Racing certainly isn’t cruel but, as with so many other areas of life, the overly emotional, burst-into-tears, risk-averse bleeding hearts have been allowed to take over.
Nothing risky, potentially dangerous or potentially unexpected or upsetting is allowed to happen these days without the health and safety brigade trying to legislate it away or control it so zealously that it becomes a pale, risk-free shadow of its former self.
The growing fashion for getting all upset, tearful and emotional in public is another reason the Grand National on Channel 4 will be watched by a greatly reduced TV audience next year.
I believe that racing suffers because it is seen as cruel by many.
Racing certainly isn’t cruel but, as with so many other areas of life, the overly emotional, burst-into-tears, risk-averse bleeding hearts have been allowed to take over.
Nothing risky, potentially dangerous or potentially unexpected or upsetting is allowed to happen these days without the health and safety brigade trying to legislate it away or control it so zealously that it becomes a pale, risk-free shadow of its former self.
The growing fashion for getting all upset, tearful and emotional in public is another reason the Grand National on Channel 4 will be watched by a greatly reduced TV audience next year.
That post made me cry!!
"this perfect mix of poetry and destruction, this glory of rhythm, power and majesty: the undisputed champion of the world!!!"
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