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New Friday Harness Channel- Any Thoughts?

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New Friday night Harness TV Channel

18 May 2022 , News

A channel broadcasting harness racing, and only harness racing, will be launched this Friday.

For every Friday night for the next six weeks Trot Night will be broadcast on Sky Channel 83 from 5.30pm to 10.30pm. It's a trial its backers hope will become permanent.

This week it will feature the two meetings at Alexandra Park and Addington, with all races broadcast live.

"Your Friday nights won't be the same," says Jamie MacKinnon, the Auckland Trotting Club president who's behind the new show, "there'll be no greyhound racing or racing from unknown parts of the world. It will be wall-to-wall harness for five hours."

MacKinnon's been working on the concept since 2019.

"Ideally we want every Friday night to have a live harness race every 15 minutes just like the thoroughbreds have on a Saturday afternoon."

Trot Night will feature co-hosts, Karen Teague and Jason Teaz backed up by reporters Jo Stevens at Alexandra Park and Nigel Armstrong at Addington.

The TAB have agreed to allow the show to tap into Craig The Whale’s preview of every race, as well as broadcast each domestic race live (complete with dividends). The show will also be available on Facebook and Youtube.

Trackside will broadcast the two meetings as per usual.

The new show will be funded by the ATC, HRNZ and sponsors Woodlands Stud and Stonewall Stud.

At the end of the six-week trial an in-depth review will be conducted with the clubs involved, HRNZ and the TAB.

“If we are successful in attracting and growing the audience expectations are that Trot Night will become a regular Friday night event,” says MacKinnon, "but we realise that six weeks is not long to build an audience."

The next 6 weeks looks like this on Sky Channel 83 from 5.30pm - 10.30 pm.

May 20 – Alexandra Park and Addington

May 27 – Alexandra Park and Addington

June 3 – Cambridge

June 10 – Alexandra Park

June 17 – Addington

June 24 – Addington

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Would love to watch but don't know if we can. We only have the Trackside Sky package and Freeview on the tele and don't really feel like using up my data to watch the full show via my phone

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2 hours ago, Nelli said:

Would love to watch but don't know if we can. We only have the Trackside Sky package and Freeview on the tele and don't really feel like using up my data to watch the full show via my phone

The article states it is available on both Facebook and You Tube so should be accessible to most.

 6 weeks is quite a short trial , but it starts with a Group 1 night and better fields than recent weeks.

Every race will have extra lead in times for people to have a bet.

The new channel probably won't be shown in TAB's and Sports Bars  and may give folk even less reason to go to the races.

But on-course attendances often quite bleak in winter.

 

 

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48 minutes ago, eljay said:

Are the ATC encouraging patrons NOT to turn up to Alex Park?     

Cheer up eljay......more time and information etc available to encourage more betting !

I heard the cameras will be scanning around the oncourse crowd to see the happy folk enjoying their night out with special focus on your lounge and in particular your table to gain some insightful comments on each horse's chances.

So have a shave ,wear your best threads and take your trial notes along and remember to smile !

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Face tv I th

2 hours ago, Thejanitor said:

I don't have Sky so I won't watch it. I shall continue to watch harness racing on the TAB website. I prefer that anyway cos you only have to tune in just as race starts. Miss all the whale garbage!!!

Face tv  is I think a freeview channel but like all channels they are on skys platform

Done some research  seems it's not freeview as such but free on the sky platform only, I could be wrong though.

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13 hours ago, tasman man said:

Cheer up eljay......more time and information etc available to encourage more betting !

I heard the cameras will be scanning around the oncourse crowd to see the happy folk enjoying their night out with special focus on your lounge and in particular your table to gain some insightful comments on each horse's chances.

So have a shave ,wear your best threads and take your trial notes along and remember to smile !

OK TM.     I presume you will be dodging the cameras.     No doubt you will in the TAB where they can't find you.   Or the Lone Star?        

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this great news . First real  promo to help keep harness racing alive. instead of the wiping of any form of visibility eg. friday flash.gone,newspaper fields and results long gone, radio broadcasts, gone hr weekly, gone...TABs closed or closing. (the accountantseducing costs and ignoring the damage to peoples interest in ownership/sponsorship and of course punting. BIG THANKS TO THOSE INVOLVED 😁

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11 minutes ago, john legend said:

this great news . First real  promo to help keep harness racing alive. instead of the wiping of any form of visibility eg. friday flash.gone,newspaper fields and results long gone, radio broadcasts, gone hr weekly, gone...TABs closed or closing. (the accountantseducing costs and ignoring the damage to peoples interest in ownership/sponsorship and of course punting. BIG THANKS TO THOSE INVOLVED 😁

I won't watch because I can't but it still a great idea. Harness needs to be marketed far better than at present. There are so many good things in the industry, newsworthy and interesting personalities but none are promoted and they should be household names. Just a few I can think off the top of my head: Michael House, clever, innovative and intelligent man, the glamorous Tomlinson sisters, Luk Chin... a legend what a story!! There are many more...

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Wobbly start but bits ok. Hopefully the team recorded their show and they watch it on an ordinary tv as I think they will see and hear a few easy fixes they can do. The live video resolution was ok on phone but poor for TV, and weather didn't help the audio. Wishing them well for next week.

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The only way anything like this works is if you have more content than time available,  two people at a desk filling time isn't enough.

The goal of the show should be to provide pre-race interviews, stables, parade ring and aftermath. Not a bad start I guess... 
 

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Guys it's their first show, how bout we give em time to find their feet, they've got 6 weeks lets just see how it pans out....watched replay of last nights effort once they get on top of their technical issues reckon they'll come good, those interviews from the stables were magic loved it....

 

Cheers Iraklis

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