Friday, 15 June 2012: The Australian Turf Club has supported the announcement of a plan which would see NSW country and provincial racing associations join forces with the club and the Victorian racing industry to consolidate television broadcast rights.
The proposed deal, which will be subject to due diligence and requires approval by TVN shareholders, stakeholders and regulators will take effect following the expiration of the current agreement with Sky in December.
"The Australian Turf Club Board has always wanted an aggregation model combining our great races with other premium content to grow thoroughbred racing,” said ATC chairman John Cornish.
“This is the next stage in TVN's evolution. We are a 50% shareholder in this business so we have always wanted to see TVN evolve into a stronger and more valuable entity showcasing racing's best content.
“This process has been a long journey but we've always been determined to reach a solution that was in our best interests. This means an opportunity to leverage the new media opportunities plus global pooling from international dissemination of our vision.
“Today's announcement provides us with the opportunity to further improve TVN and focus on growing racing against other wagering options such as sports betting by aggregating our best content together and focusing on long term competitive improvements.
“The aggregation model will create economies of scale through consolidating production assets more effectively to increase return to shareholders and industry participants more broadly.
“The collaborative nature of this arrangement gives us a strong handle to grow our racing internationally to share in the opportunity of the burgeoning global racing market.
“Most importantly, this evolution would create a stronger asset for years to come.”
As it currently stands, the broadcast rights are split in NSW – with the metropolitan meetings being owned by TVN and country and provincial meetings owned by Sky Racing. If approved, TVN will hold the rights for all NSW and Victorian thoroughbred racing until 2028.
