The Seven Network and Racing Victoria have confirmed details for it’s new free to air television channel launching this weekend devoted to Victorian thoroughbred racing.
The new channel – Racing.com will be broadcast on Channel 78 in metropolitan areas and Channel 68 in regional locations. Seven has been broadcasting a temporary service over the past six weeks in the lead up to this weekend’s official launch with coverage of the Group 1 Memsie Stakes Day from Caulfield.
Bruce McAvaney will host this very first broadcast for Racing.com.
McAvaney will be joined by racing hosts Jason Richardson and Shane Anderson and form analysts David Gately and Warren Huntly as the key presenters on the new channel. They will combine with former AFL footballer and racehorse owner Campbell Brown, Channel 7 presenter Hamish McLachlan, and Hong Kong-based form analyst Clint Hutchison.
The new Racing.com channel will broadcast 520 Victorian race meetings per year as part of a 5-year deal that includes night meetings from Moonee Valley, Cranbourne and Pakenham. This website has previously reported that Racing Victoria has agreed to fund the establishment of the new free to air racing service via a 10 million dollar commitment.
The Racing.com channel will also feature three magazine programs as part of its initial content offering. Launching in early September will be a Thursday night preview show titled Get On and a Sunday morning review show Correct Weight, whilst the weeks following will bring The Carnival, described as ‘an entertaining and informative look at Victoria’s Spring Carnival’.
This website understands Foxtel is continuing its negotiations with Seven to provide the service to its customers, a Foxtel spokesperson recently telling this website. “We are in negotiation to carry the channel and hope to have a favourable resolution shortly.”
Racing Victoria’s Chief Executive, Bernard Saundry adding, “Seven’s discussions with Foxtel around extending the Channel 78 broadcast to their pay-tv platform are progressing.” ‘Our goal remains to have our racing available to the widest possible audience across a distribution model that incorporates free-to-air TV, pay-tv and digital platforms.”
Chief Executive Officer of Racing.com, Scott Perrin, stated at the launch event: “This coming Saturday is day one. We have exciting plans for the evolution and development of this partnership over the coming 12 months. Victoria has the best racing product in the country and we are thrilled to be able to promote and grow it. This is the start of a new channel and we look forward to working to build our content over the coming months. We are also proud to have CrownBet as our premier partner.”
Seven’s CEO Tim Worner adding, “This is an important new partnership for our company. We are the home of horse racing on broadcast television and we are committing our company to building an increasing presence for horse racing in Victoria across our expanding presence in all forms of content delivery. Our Racing.com partnership joins our portfolio of major sports and we are looking forward to working with Racing Victoria in ensuring the future growth and success of horse racing in this state.”
