First Saturday of TVN-Sky impasse already worrying country officials

By Adam Pengilly and Matt Jones
Updated December 26 2014 - 10:08am, first published December 20 2014 - 7:36pm

The first Saturday of TVN running wall-to-wall coverage of racing throughout NSW and Australia has already spiked concerns with country racing officials after chairman Bob Pavitt urged the issue needed immediate attention. The TVN-Sky impasse forced NSW's bush TAB meetings at Albury and Moree to be squeezed into the broadcaster's coverage,  which is usually reserved for extensive analysis of the Sydney and Melbourne metropolitan meetings. TVN juggled six meetings on its broadcast from the country's two premier racing states on Saturday. "Obviously it will have an effect on turnover and this is the first Saturday and we're not getting the broadcast we're used to," Pavitt said. "It's of great concern how it goes down the track, particularly for those Saturdays. We're talking about coverage all over Australia and TVN isn't the highest rating channel. The picture might be on TVN, but it's not getting out everywhere. The bread and butter of turnover is the TAB in pubs and clubs. We would hope everybody is making every effort to have it fixed up and consult between each other." Small pubs and clubs across regional areas in the country without access to Fox Sports weren't able to watch any races from NSW and Victoria on Saturday. Racegoers at Rosehill weren't overly affected with the Australian Turf Club switching a majority of screens dedicated to bookmakers odds to TVN to complement minimal Sky coverage. "We haven't had any negative feedback and there shouldn't have been any less TVs with the vision of the races," an ATC spokesperson said.

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