Freeview Gone

[Leggy 4,101]

As part of planned improvements to the content of the two TAB racing channels, Trackside will be moved off Freeview and onto SKY from 14 April 2014.

This will allow us to broadcast new and improved racing content for your viewing pleasure - including magazine-style features, extended pre and post-race coverage for feature events, and additional races which are not currently shown on television.

For TAB customers who do not have SKY, we are offering a special deal - free installation of a satellite dish and SKY digital decoder and a free SKY package valued at $18.70 per month. This SKY package gives you access to the free-to-air channels and the two racing channels. The package is free until 31 December 2014 to TAB customers who watch Trackside via Freeview and who do not presently subscribe to SKY.

Customers who already have SKY and use the second household TV to watch Trackside on Freeview are eligible for a standard installation of a second Multiroom decoder for no charge and three months free Multiroom*.

To sign up for this fantastic offer, call 0800 96 96 96 and quote '4107' or visit sky.co.nz/tab.

You must sign up before 30 November 2014. For more information call SKY on 0800 96 96 96 or alternatively click here for FAQ.

The TAB Team

 

 

 

[deegee 2]

what will it cost after the 31 december

[GONSTA 1,148]

The end is nigh.

[lecithin 429]

$18.70 a month so less than $5 a week - reasonable if you ask me

[GONSTA 1,148]

What % of younger people (18-25ish) have sky? What % of older people ( 60-80+ ) have sky? They obviously aren't trying to attract youth / don't want to keep your regular retiree that's been punting his whole life and is not interested in getting sky or sitting at the tab all day to watch their punts.

Personally I've got sky, but quite often will watch races at friends house's that don't. I can't imagine these people being interested in investing on a product they won't be able to watch.

I will watch this "new and improved racing content" with great interest. Have they figured out how to run 2 channels properly yet? It's been a few years and they still have no clue how to do it properly. Absolute muppets IMO.

[Guest 2Admin2]

$18.70 a month so less than $5 a week - reasonable if you ask me

This is going to piss a lot of the old timers that I know.  They'd rather spend $20 a month betting and having freeview then spend $20 a month for Sky and not bet.

 

Seems Bankers and Accountants are in charge.

[Turny 1,224]

How not to grow your market - incredible

[crustyngrizzly 1,702]

Unbelieveable.

[chelseacol 2,488]

Not quite sure what to make of this...

 

The big question for me is why do you potentially cut people out of being able to view the races on tv - at a time when the industry is fighting a battle to grow/retain people with an interest?

 

No doubt there is a cost benefit analysis here - but feels a bit the same as raising minimums on phonebet etc - just alienates people which I worry about.

 

To be fair to the TAB -  the Sky offer to new subscribers seems pretty good (albeit a little annoying for me as I already have it + multiroom so no little freebies for me).

 

 

[lecithin 429]

This is going to piss a lot of the old timers that I know.  They'd rather spend $20 a month betting and having freeview then spend $20 a month for Sky and not bet.

 

Seems Bankers and Accountants are in charge.

 

Not saying I agree with the move, but given it has been fairly clear for some time that Freeview was not going to continue, I think the price is reasonable.

 

The thing I find absolutely incredible is that they announce this in the very week that they are launching the Triple Trio which I thought was trying to attract non-racing punters to invest.  I would have thought that ensuring everyone could view the racing would have been key to this strategy, but obviously not.....

[crustyngrizzly 1,702]

Idon't drink

Igave up watching rugby when it went to SKY and now racing will be going the same way.

Ihave replaced these other once interests with live concerts and travel and now i will be able to do more of both.

Sky and their monopoly have been the ruination of many sports but i ain't buying.

[GONSTA 1,148]

Idon't drink

Igave up watching rugby when it went to SKY and now racing will be going the same way.

Ihave replaced these other once interests with live concerts and travel and now i will be able to do more of both.

Sky and their monopoly have been the ruination of many sports but i ain't buying.

You don't need sky to watch sports crusty, all you need is a decent Internet plan. You can practically watch any live sport your heart desires. Fairly decent quality normally and if you have a fairly new TV it's not hard to get the picture on there.

[departed 155]

Australia doesn't have racing on free to air channels.  You have to get Foxtel to watch racing, and there are 4 channels of racing.  It hasn't done the Oz racing industry any harm.  What NZ urgently needs is an end to the monopoly of the TAB so that there can be some competition for the punter dollar.

[doric68 38]

Are they still going to show the races over the internet.If so no harm done.

[Portfolio 728]

What a bunch of whingers!!

So anybody that do not have sky..and I would say they are mostly the tight arses that just watch and don't even bet.....can get a free sky dish and Trackside and other channels for free until Dec 2014?? And then it costs $18 per month? Hell, how much are some of you punting if  18 bucks per month is going to make a difference??

 

It will not worry me as I have sky in 2 rooms, I think with all of the sport and racing recently it is great value for what I pay. I know many, many punters, and I do not know anyone that does not have sky???

 

And if you don't want it, and you have 50c in your TAB account, just watch the races on the TAB site for free, simple. User Pays.

 

Remember, just because you want to bet on the boxing, league, all blacks or whatever....You hardly ever get live sport on TV, unless you pay for it. And as others have said, you can watch a lot on the internet.

 

Think of a positive, what about all of those people in areas that you could get no signal unless you wanted to purchase sky...now you can hook up for free until Xmas!! Good On The TAB.

[Guest 2Admin2]

What a bunch of whingers!!

So anybody that do not have sky..and I would say they are mostly the tight arses that just watch and don't even bet.....can get a free sky dish and Trackside and other channels for free until Dec 2014?? And then it costs $18 per month? Hell, how much are some of you punting if  18 bucks per month is going to make a difference??

 

It will not worry me as I have sky in 2 rooms, I think with all of the sport and racing recently it is great value for what I pay. I know many, many punters, and I do not know anyone that does not have sky???

 

And if you don't want it, and you have 50c in your TAB account, just watch the races on the TAB site for free, simple. User Pays.

 

Remember, just because you want to bet on the boxing, league, all blacks or whatever....You hardly ever get live sport on TV, unless you pay for it. And as others have said, you can watch a lot on the internet.

 

Think of a positive, what about all of those people in areas that you could get no signal unless you wanted to purchase sky...now you can hook up for free until Xmas!! Good On The TAB.

 

Typical Accountants attitude - TAB keep disenfranchising an old long established clientèle - first upping the phone bet minimum and now removing the Freeview.  Most of them can't afford the broadband required to see the races.

 

And they wonder why they have lost 100,000 customers.

 

Oh and the magazine style features we will get will be more of the Breeder BS no doubt.

 

Cheers

[Turny 1,224]

What a bunch of whingers!!

So anybody that do not have sky..and I would say they are mostly the tight arses that just watch and don't even bet.....can get a free sky dish and Trackside and other channels for free until Dec 2014?? And then it costs $18 per month? Hell, how much are some of you punting if  18 bucks per month is going to make a difference??

 

It will not worry me as I have sky in 2 rooms, I think with all of the sport and racing recently it is great value for what I pay. I know many, many punters, and I do not know anyone that does not have sky???

 

And if you don't want it, and you have 50c in your TAB account, just watch the races on the TAB site for free, simple. User Pays.

 

Remember, just because you want to bet on the boxing, league, all blacks or whatever....You hardly ever get live sport on TV, unless you pay for it. And as others have said, you can watch a lot on the internet.

 

Think of a positive, what about all of those people in areas that you could get no signal unless you wanted to purchase sky...now you can hook up for free until Xmas!! Good On The TAB.

Good one Portfolio - have no issue with what you say BUT I just find it incredible that in a struggling market they will isolate and remove more customers. I just don't get it

[Guest 2Admin2]

Will we see what it really saves?  Probably only a couple of Exec salaries and travel expense accounts.

 

Oh well no more Grandchildren sitting with Granddad watching the racing while reading the form to him.  Another lost generation.

 

Actually there is an election vote winner for Winston - anyone with a Gold Card can still get Free to View Trackside.

 

In any case how much are they really saving?  The broadcast/transmission costs are not significant so they must be expecting to gain revenue to offset their increased production costs which are inferred from their "magazine style" programming.

[Ohokaman 5,854]

What % of younger people (18-25ish) have sky? What % of older people ( 60-80+ ) have sky? They obviously aren't trying to attract youth / don't want to keep your regular retiree that's been punting his whole life and is not interested in getting sky or sitting at the tab all day to watch their punts.

Personally I've got sky, but quite often will watch races at friends house's that don't. I can't imagine these people being interested in investing on a product they won't be able to watch.

I will watch this "new and improved racing content" with great interest. Have they figured out how to run 2 channels properly yet? It's been a few years and they still have no clue how to do it properly. Absolute muppets IMO.

I would have thought quite a few of the under 25's would have Sky for a number of reasons Reilly.

They are tech savvy however and there are plenty of ways of viewing online content without having Sky.

Agree with you though, if they are not into Racing early on, can't see this helping changing attitudes of any generation.

[GONSTA 1,148]

I would have thought quite a few of the under 25's would have Sky for a number of reasons Reilly.

They are tech savvy however and there are plenty of ways of viewing online content without having Sky.

Agree with you though, if they are not into Racing early on, can't see this helping changing attitudes of any generation.

I'm in the 'under 25' category and yeah I agree their are quite a few that do in fact have sky, but I'm guessing the majority (75%+) wouldn't have it. Mainly because of what you can access on the Internet these days. You can either pay $100+ a month for sky sports / movies etc or you can pay $100 for unlimited Internet and watch / stream whatever TV series / movies / sport you feel like without having to put up with the same repeated movie's sky continuosly show etc.

[von Smallhaussen 3,226]

[Ligerzero 34]

I’m a young person and a huge advocate of getting racing back into the mainstream. Losing Freeview coverage does seem like a loss, however if the promised "Improvements" happen, I assume a better service will exist (I hope). At least major events will remain free to air. I also think channel 7/9 style coverage of a feature meeting could be something that could be looked into.

 

From a new punter perspective, my main concern with the cut is whether [new] punters would bother to continue. Say they attended cup day (on course) with all available facilities, great. If they back their Day 1 horse on Show Day away from facilities, they would have limited options. Telling a new punter to tune into the radio isn’t really a classy look. There shouldn’t be an expectation of every punter to have an account or knowledge of racing. People (especially young ones) are always on the move, I think it’s also an unreasonable expectation to think someone will stay in a pub/tab to watch a race.

 

Trackside has been a great free service, I understand times are changing. But unsure whether this will positively affect its customer base. I also think a mobile application would be a good step ahead.

[Portfolio 728]

I’m a young person and a huge advocate of getting racing back into the mainstream. Losing Freeview coverage does seem like a loss, however if the promised "Improvements" happen, I assume a better service will exist (I hope). At least major events will remain free to air. I also think channel 7/9 style coverage of a feature meeting could be something that could be looked into.

 

From a new punter perspective, my main concern with the cut is whether [new] punters would bother to continue. Say they attended cup day (on course) with all available facilities, great. If they back their Day 1 horse on Show Day away from facilities, they would have limited options. Telling a new punter to tune into the radio isn’t really a classy look. There shouldn’t be an expectation of every punter to have an account or knowledge of racing. People (especially young ones) are always on the move, I think it’s also an unreasonable expectation to think someone will stay in a pub/tab to watch a race.

 

Trackside has been a great free service, I understand times are changing. But unsure whether this will positively affect its customer base. I also think a mobile application would be a good step ahead.

 

You can watch TAB live on your mobile device, as long as you have TAB account.

[Ligerzero 34]

You can watch TAB live on your mobile device, as long as you have TAB account.

Yes but only through access via the FULL site. It uses a huge amount of mobile data. A specific app would use sufficient data and be compatible with most devices. Not many smartphones can quickly access full webpages designed for PC's

[Portfolio 728]

Typical Accountants attitude - TAB keep disenfranchising an old long established clientèle - first upping the phone bet minimum and now removing the Freeview.  Most of them can't afford the broadband required to see the races.

 

And they wonder why they have lost 100,000 customers.

 

Oh and the magazine style features we will get will be more of the Breeder BS no doubt.

 

Cheers

 

So they lost 100,000 customers...and yet their turnover is increasing...mmmmm , sounds good business to me. Who cares what people are betting on, they just want turnover. Fair enough.