The blackout also applies on Kayo as well.
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Good thatâs itâs blocked on Fox and kayo.
Tony jones wearing some sort of ridiculous hat. Looks stupid.
Disappointing that they donât have 9 branded mic socks.
Overall decent coverage.
Learning from 10 on making lower 3rds âmiddle 3rdsâ to avoid obstructing the screen at bottom.
Never mind it probably wouldnât if they remain at their original place.
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Eddie is such a great host. Thank goodness the producers didnât ask TJ to be hosting
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You really will criticise him for anything, wonât you? As someone who is fair skinned, I would rather look stupid in a hat than look stupid with sunburn/ skin cancer.
NINE TALENT ON TRACK AT DERBY DAY
Itâs a case of being dressed to the nines at Howden Victoria Derby for the 9Networkâs talent, with the 2025 Melbourne Cup Carnival officially underway at Flemington racecourse, today - Saturday, November 1.
Trackside at the Nine marquee is Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo (Today Show), Rodger Corser (The Floor), Sam Armytage (The Golden Bachelor), Ariarne Titmus (Swimming), Sylvia Jeffreys (Today Extra), Ryan Papenhuyzen (NRL), Jaime Chapman (NRLW/State of Origin), Richard Wilkins, Clint Stanaway and Alison Piotrowski (Weekend Today), plus Tom Steinfort and Alicia Loxley (9News Melbourne) amongst a stellar line up of 9Network talent.
Howden Victoria Derby Day is the first of four huge days of live and free coverage of the 2025 Melbourne Cup Carnival available on Channel 9 and 9Now.
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Things Iâve learnt today;
â Thompson Thoroughbreds Australia (@TTARacing) November 1, 2025
Channel 9 canât do racing
Channel 7 do racing really well
TAB canât do quality Sky streaming
Channel 9 are way behind being live TV
Switching channels constantly sucks
I watched all races via Sportsbet
Shame - Such a great days racing!
Fix it!
Seems that many people agreed with this based on the amount of replies on X.
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The thing that gets lost in a lot of these complaints is that the people making them are seasoned racing watchers, and the Melbourne Cup Carnival FTA coverage is not really aimed at these people.
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Exactly, same with betting. For many if not most, it was always a once a year thing, special occasion.
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I also canât wait for the yearly clickbait article on late Tuesday arvo, saying that âsome viewersâ were watching the horse races on Seven, not knowing that the Melbourne Cup is on Nine.
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Even though they only got the rights in 2002 and it was Ten who for many years were known as the broadcaster.
I think itâs only since the Racing .com era partnership, as well as getting the MRC and interstate meets as well, that viewers have associated Seven properly with horse racing.
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The confusing part for viewers, however, is turning on the TV to Seven and seeing horse racing on Tuesday - that has been a recent development. Prior, there was only one channel with racing coverage.
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A situation that exists for two clear reasons:
- Peter Vâlandys deliberately stoking animosity within Racing NSW toward Racing Victoria â and, by extension, the VRC and other southern bodies; and
- Seven West Mediaâs determination to rival or surpass Nine, driven by frustration over losing rights they never fought hard enough for in the first place.
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It must be driven by Kerry or Ryan Stokes. Or maybe Angus Ross. Some high power that has been there for decades.
With multiple CEOs who couldâve changed culture and their ways, I canât believe SWM are still that resentful or childish. Well, Nine are having the last laugh, theyâre pretty much dominating everything from an audience performance and cut-through perspective of the FTA landscape and have the assets of newspaper, radio and paid streaming to boot.
People who regularly tune into racing watches Racing.com or Sky Racing and Nine caters for those once-a-year-punters. Since last year the Racing.com coverage on Foxtel/Kayo is blacked out
Seven were never going to get the Melbourne Cup Carnival rights because the previous VRC management (i.e., before Kylie Rogers became CEO) that signed off on the current TAB/Nine deal wanted Seven to exclusively focus on the Carnival and not show any NSW racing during that week:
It was a demand Seven couldnât accept in light of not only their NSW Racing rights but doing so would go against the ethos of their horse racing coverage.
It should also be noted that according to The Australian, TAB, Racing Victoria and the Victorian government all preferred Seven to have been awarded the Melbourne Cup Carnival rights but the VRC preferred to go with Nine. One of the likely reasons for that preference is Nine doesnât have an issue with the VRC taking over producing coverage of the races - something some network executives thought was âunworkableâ during the rights negotiations:
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I was actually referring to the 10/Paramount era â when Seven essentially allowed the VRC to move to Paramount without opposition â and later lacked the ability to fight aggressively to regain the rights, since they refused to negotiate with Tabcorp.
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10/Paramount significantly outbid Seven to gain the rights.
They didnât refuse to negotiate with TAB. As I outlined above, the sticking point was the VRCâs demands and overall preference (contrary to the rest of the Victorian racing industry) to go with Nine.
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I do believe seven and 10 didnât want to work with tab controlling the coverage so that only left 9. It couldâve been restraining on collecting revenue by tab controlling all aspects of the broadcast. 9 donât even have their own branded mic socks.
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