True
Absolutely hilarious having this even existing on Melbourne Cup day, hopefully they register an asterisk.
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Why? Plenty of race meets are held on Melbourne Cup Day across the country.
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I just think it’s not right, Melbourne Cup day is Melbourne Cup day. From a TV perspective at least.
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Its one of the biggest days of racing we have (not just at Flemington), its not all that surprising that its an day that Seven want to cover
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Says who?
Neither the VRC nor TAB/Sky Racing nor Nine have a monopoly over the broadcasting of horse racing on Melbourne Cup Day. At the end of the day, the VRC has made decisions that left a window open on the main FTA broadcaster of horse racing (Seven) which another racing authority (Racing NSW) has taken advantage of and both parties have every right to do what they’ve done.
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Its not really a new thing…. They have just taken a old race day and done it up a little to make it a bigger event. The only real difference now is its one tv along with some other race meetings.
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“Channel 7 slammed…”
They don’t have the rights to the Cup, what did people want them to do? Display an on-screen bug saying “To watch Flemington/Melbourne Cup please switch to Ch9”…
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It seriously just looks like a copy and past job. 
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In all seriousness, is there anything that would (in theory) stop Seven from being able to put up a slide “to watch the Melbourne Cup, switch to Racing.com on Channel 78/68 now”?
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This isn’t on Seven at all. Not their problem the few percent are incapable of searching up the TV guide. They seem to find other events that switch networks. Why is the event so different?
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I would imagine that to the very casual viewer that might tune in to the big races and that’s about it (and doesn’t really know their Randwick from their Flemington)- they would see that Seven has horse racing and make the assumption that’s where the race will be.
Not entirely unreasonable given Seven has most of the other horse races outside of the Melbourne Cup Carnival and also has a long history with broadcasting the Cup as well. Not everyone is as attuned to the changes in broadcasting rights as those of us on here, after all.
Would be a bit different if it was The Chase on as usual on Seven- that would be pretty obvious straight away that there’s no Melbourne Cup being broadcast and to look for another channel.
I’m not sure why Seven even bothers with a main channel broadcast of these races (rather than on 7two or 7mate)- the majority of the people that are interested in horse racing will be either watching the real thing on Nine or in the case of the more diehard fans, watching Sky or RDC. Would think that the regular programs would rate a lot better especially since horse racing is something that is arguably declining in popularity.
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Seriously, this belongs on Media Watch, complete with the simultaneous reading of the articles…
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Doesn’t even have to be that. As has been said, just look up the EPGs.
Nine (and before that, Ten) has it fully written out. If some didn’t see it, it’s on them.
Seven has no obligation to redirect them towards those broadcasters. It also needs every eyeball it can get, “mistakenly” or not.
Some went as far as demanding an apology from Seven. Just beyond parody stuff.
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Look, I’m not saying that their complaints are fully justified, these people do need to take some responsibility for not paying close enough attention (and the idea of Seven apologising is certainly over the top)- it’s just that I can understand how it could happen when Seven is also showing the same type of program. If they had The Chase or Winning Arvo or whatever they normally have on, that would be a different story (it would be pretty bleeding obvious that they don’t have the rights).
Not everyone will go hunting through the EPG, especially if they’re in a hurry and/or just got home/turning the TV on. Got to remember that a lot of people only tune in for the one race- again it’s not entirely unreasonable to expect that some will look first to the channel where most of the other major horse races are broadcast, see horse racing and go “that makes sense”.
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Peter V’Landys and Racing NSW would have ensured main channel coverage as a contractual clause. The Big Dance is a $3 million race with a huge marketing budget.
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