Remember The Heavy 10 In The Middle Of July

So what do you think of the VRC again treating the punters like second-class citizens throughout the Melbourne Cup carnival?

I’m referring of course to the exclusive live race telecast rights granted to and paid for by Channel 7.

Here we have the punters and addicts who watch the dedicated racing channels Sky and TVN, day in and day out, all year long, having to flick to Channel 7 if they want to see the race live or sit through the indignity of a call without vision waiting for delayed coverage. It’s a slap in the face for the people who fuel racing’s engine room 363 days a year.

TABCORP, which relies on profit from wagering and gaming, owns Sky. The VRC is part-owner of TVN, at much expense to the racing industry. Ironically, it contrives to deprive even its own flesh and blood of live broadcasts in the biggest week of the year.

Let me emphasise, it is wonderful that this magnificent racing festival is available free-to-air. It serves racing very well in that the coverage reaches, potentially, everyone, especially those who do not subscribe to pay-TV. Channel 7 presumably pays millions for these rights so I imagine they drive a hard bargain in nailing down the terms. But what's being gained by disenfranchising Sky and TVN pay-TV viewers?

Channel 7 aims to maximize its audience by inducing people to watch. Fair enough. It sells a suite of expensive advertising around the whole week, aimed right across the consumer base. It can claim to its advertisers, rightly, that it’s the only medium where the races can be seen live, except on-course, and it achieves ratings, especially on Cup Day itself, which justify the advertising rates.

Then there are the Sky and TVN viewers. I suppose some are happy to watch wall-to-wall Channel 7 on these four days, concentrating on just the one meeting, and do make the switch. Not too many I'm picking.

What’s left are we addicts who don’t give a rat’s what Simon Marshall’s kid is wearing to the races or which Channel 7 ‘celebrities’ or other products of indulgent parents are fart-arseing around in the marquees.

In our homes and in the pubs and clubs, we stay stuck to our Sky or TVN, two channels which between them, by the way, can barely sell a non-industry advertisement, such is the narrowness of their viewer base. We do anything to avoid the non-core fare served up on Channel 7 because, for the most part, we find it nauseating. At the death, as the last horses are loaded into the gates, we flick over to Channel 7 to watch the race live. As soon as John Letts has done his bit with the winning jockey we flick back again, hoping to get some insightful analysis from our trusted presenters.

Therefore, we haven’t seen a single Channel 7 advert or piece of self-promotion. Deliberately and happily. There’s not many of us anyway. If there were, Sky and TVN would be able to convince more of the commercial world to buy advertising space. We statistically insignificant people are the ones the VRC and Channel 7 punish for our intransigence. If we are statistically insignificant, what difference would it make if we were allowed to see the races live on the racing channels? It would hardly send Channel 7 out of business. Sky and TVN aren't Nine or Ten.

Melbourne Cup week is one of the world’s premier sporting occasions. It reaches deep into the social fabric of the Australasian community and enjoys an ever-expanding international awareness (witness the lead items on several overseas sports news services, for example).

The proprietors of this festival hold the whip hand. Possibly outside the Olympics once every four years, there’s not another sporting product to rival it. They ought to be doing that little bit better for the loyal customers who are still with them when it’s a Heavy 10 in the middle of July.