Lucky escape for Channel 4 because no one watches racing outside the Grand National
thats a lie,
Not really. The figures for most of the non grand national races have been in freefall since C4 became the exclusive rights holder.
Good bit of business for ITV
People are watching the racing by other means, on Tables, or on the net or in the shops. But to say no one watches racing is not true. The challenge for ITV is to win back the viewers, and why do many punters dislike Ch4 racing coverage.
The challenge for ITV is to win back the viewers, and why do many punters dislike Ch4 racing coverage.
They haven't always. Ch4 coverage was consistently more appreciated by punters than the BBC coverage. So Ch4 got rid of that production company and replaced them with key figures from the BBC coverage when they won those rights. I suspect the plan was to try and make the coverage more approachable to the average viewer, which alienated the regular viewers, but ignored the fact that the general public are unlikely to be interested in the 3.25 from Chepstow on a rainy February afternoon so won't be tuning in either.
Not really. The figures for most of the non grand national races have been in freefall since C4 became the exclusive rights holder.
Good bit of business for ITV
People are watching the racing by other means, on Tables, or on the net or in the shops. But to say no one watches racing is not true. The challenge for ITV is to win back the viewers, and why do many punters dislike Ch4 racing coverage.
Betting shops are closing down in their dozens. Online viewing is for the hardcore only.
Betting shops are closing down in their dozens. Online viewing is for the hardcore only.
Thats because its moving on line,
A good number of shops which are closing were only created in the first place when the rules changed. Ie supply and demand: Before a bookies could open a new shop there had to test the water etc now bookies like paddypowers are just opening everywhere and anywhere mainly for the dam FOBT.
And as its been said why would anyone care about the 3.25 from Chepstow on a rainy February afternoon. The whole thread is about the hardcore viewers only.
The Grand National has seen a similar slump. You can't argue that nobody watches the sport apart from one race when that race has the same viewing trends as the rest of the offering.
Racing itself has probably had some of it's strongest stories over the last few years with Frankel and AP McCoy especially. As somebody who has long defended C4 I really do think this is the right move for racing - C4 made a mistake in ditching their production company at a time when it had the opportunity to shine and Nick Luck and the like just are not appealing to a wider audience. I'm not a racing fan but would often find myself watching the old C4 Racing team when channel hopping. Now I tend to hop right past.
Likely to be massive consternation among horse racing fans in Ireland if RTE (who have dropped nearly all GB racing coverage bar Aintree and Cheltenham in the past decade or so) don't pick up the slack. (Or unless these rights include Ireland).
Likely to be massive consternation among horse racing fans in Ireland if RTE (who have dropped nearly all GB racing coverage bar Aintree and Cheltenham in the past decade or so) don't pick up the slack. (Or unless these rights include Ireland).
That could be interesting as this is something which would work well on UTV Ireland I'd have thought.
