Don’t racing Victoria already own RSN 927?
Owned by a variety of racing bodies - Greyhound, Harness etc
1 Like
So part owner then along with HRV and GRV then. What would they see in Crocmedia’s idea of a second station? Are RV that strong to go it alone?
1 Like
…or remember back when some other company tried taking on Sky Channel quite a few years back (or is that Racing.com?)
1 Like
Yes sorry, I should have mentioned TVN, the original breakaway racing network
3 Likes
I don’t see any debacle with the coverage between Racing.com and Sky Racing. They both show Victorian and SA racing, with Racing.com’s job being to spend more time discussing and promoting Vic and SA racing, while Sky’s job being to just get people to bet on anything and everything. They’re complimentary.
If Vic Racing do a deal with Crocmedia, I expect it will be the same situation. Crocmedia’s station will focus on Vic racing, while RSN will continue to cover everything for the benefit of the all the racing codes. It’s possible that on special occasions such as big racedays, Crocmedia will run different commentary as they already do (usually with Gerard Whateley) on SEN on occasion, just as ABC has its own call of the Melbourne Cup.
The only thing I see being a particularly noticeable change if Crocmedia and Vic Racing make their own station is that commercial radio syndication rights of the Melbourne Cup call will probably switch from Nine Radio to Crocmedia.
Its the individual racing clubs that have the shares in 3UZ (eg Moonee Valley Racing Club owns circa 10%), which would make consensus harder. The racing bodies collectively value 3UZ at circa $6.9M*. From what I read, the 2CH licence was sold for $5.6M in Jan 17 to EON, so the 3UZ valuation seems a little on the high side - even allowing for 3SR and their country narrowcast licences.
I suspect CrocMedia would want to retain the country licences, but a sale of the 3UZ licence in the current environment would be difficult without losing investment value. Makes it a hard proposition for CrocMedia to get over the line.
*per Harness Racing Victoria Annual Report 2019
1 Like
I would still argue it’s beneficial to have all racing covered in one location on radio, like it is now on Sport 927/Sky Sports Radio/RadioTAB. Having to flip between 927 and 1377 (presumably) to catch different race meet calls wouldn’t be a great outcome for a punter.
5 Likes
Wonder if Hutchy wants his hands on 927 so he can ditch 1377?
927 would certainly be a better signal than 1377. You can get 927 across much of the state IIRC. 1377 barely gets out of Melbourne.
3 Likes
Could do worse than moving SEN to 927 and racing to 1116 
It would make more sense for Hutchy to buy 3UZ including the country licences, relaunch it as SEN Racing and sell off 3MP.
1 Like
This is interesting for a number of reasons - namely how SENTrack will use some of the frequencies Crocmedia has purchased (657AM in Perth and 1575AM in Wollongong, NSW) in addition to SEN+ in Melbourne. Additionally, the linked press release confirms Crocmedia has plans to launch a national racing service later in the year
3 Likes
Can just barely hear 1575kHz in Wollongong. Is this SENTrack program feed the same as any of the online feeds from the https://www.sen.com.au/ website? Too weak for me to determine.
Schedule has SENTrack programs only airing 1-6pm tomorrow on SEN+ 1377; 657 Perth and 1575 Wollongong are running a different lineup of repeats/non-live racing content outside of those core live hours
2 Likes
News Corp reports RSN 927 is undergoing a comprehensive review of its operations in light of the coronavirus situation. The station is considering financial and programming models, including a doomsday scenario in which horse racing, harness racing and greyhounds were shutdown.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/superracing/rsn-looks-at-financial-and-programming-models-to-protect-longterm-future-of-the-station/news-story/1d54fe79948e1974c2ad13c6eec4b31d
3 Likes
perhaps with no other sport to talk about they could go back to a music format either their classic hits “Muzic” or country music - two formats they tried in the 80s before the racing clubs bought 3UZ to form the RSN of today.
1 Like
Tasmania has just enforced a shutdown of all racing effective immediately for the time-being. So there goes a few meetings already.
2 Likes
RSN have a mix of licences for which “racing radio” provides all sorts of exemptions. Ironically, if 3UZ Muzic was to return, they would probably face a few challenges with 3BT and 3SR requiring local content and a significant number of HPON licences unable to simulcast music content. So unless ACMA provide a waiver, it could cost them more to run!
2 Likes