Is Racing.com ready to embrace its audience?
The introduction of South Australian content was welcomed by the punters, but the new season killed off on-course coverage, which included pre- and post-race interviews, as the powers that be opted in favour of an in-studio setup.
To say that the punting public were angered by the move would be an understatement.
Lift your game Racing .com We the punters want live mounting yard,live after the race interviews not delayed coverage.
And Sam Hyland— MeanMrMustard (@philmatt4562) August 23, 2017
Prior to the commencement of the new season, the CEO of Racing.com Andrew Catterall stated that the company would be ushering in a new era of race-day broadcasting.
“Racing.com has long planned to evolve the race-day broadcast, introducing a studio base to provide enhanced form coverage and information on race days, plus allow for other programming opportunities,” Catterall said.
“Since launching in August 2015, Racing.com has essentially applied the same race-day broadcast model as TVN had implemented.
“our strategy has been to continue to improve race-day coverage, especially for weekday meetings and Sunday meetings from provincial venues, where our capacity to enhance on-course interviews with graphics and analysis tools for our hosts and form experts is limited by the outside broadcast format.”
It always read as a cost-cutting measure rather than an opportunity to build upon an already sound structure of raceday coverage, and the general populous agreed.
Best of luck for the future Sam, your after race jockey interviews were great. https://t.co/jDYYjhf1dI becoming really hard to watch.
— Kareeming ?? ? (@Kareeming_1) August 22, 2017
That is why the decision to bring back post-race horseback interviews raised the eyebrows of most enthusiasts. Has Racing.com already abandoned its self-proclaimed revolutionary studio format, or was this always the plan?
In a statement released on Racing.com’s website, the broadcaster admitted listening to the feedback from concerned parties.
“The helpful feedback from the VJA is that an unintended consequence of this change was that for days with a 30-minute gap, there is too much disruption to jockeys’ preparation for the next race,” the statement read.
“Our audience feedback is also that they would prefer seeing the post-race winning jockeys interviews as soon as possible, especially on Saturdays before we cross to South Australia.”
We think this is a great start but for racing to really thrive there needs to be a level of accountability from all ends. Punters hate being told what to think and they definitely do not like being left in the dark when it comes to horses, jockeys and trainers.
The pre- and post-race coverage provided a valuable insight into racing tactics, what went right and wrong on the day, and upcoming plans for a galloper. While the expert opinions of professionals in the studio can be beneficial to punters, they cannot provide the same level of intel as connections can.
Vic viewers Wait for leading jockey interviews Gotta go balalaika mounting yard frigging Joke racing. Com
— kevin kelly (@poki1947) August 16, 2017
Free-to-air coverage has been a godsend for racing enthusiasts since Racing.com’s inception. We just hope the broadcaster is prepared to yield ground and deliver the product the punters deserve.
Otherwise we could have another TVN situation on our hands – and we all know how that debacle turned out.