Should HRV Pay to get Harness on Free-to-air TV like Netball has done?

Should HRV (possibly in partnership with other states) pay/produce their own coverage and entice a free-to-air channel to take it on?
Netball are going to do it:

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/netba...26-13q5aj.html

It might only be one major evening a week but with enough advertising it may attract viewers and increase turnover

It Ch10's One was reverting to being a Sport Channel it would be OK otherwise I might prefer 7TWO

Thoughts?

Not a bad idea at all, I'd be looking at getting involved with Netflix first/as well. As an aside, some of those Aust V NZ netball games in recent years on ABC/SBS have seen some great battles. I reckon I sat down two Sundays in a row and watched games decided by a point both times circa 2011. Helps when Renae Hallinan is playing, she is a pleasure to watch and is a pretty good netballer as well. Here is a copy of email I sent to HRNSW Executive email in November. Reid Sanders was the one who replied and he basically said HRNSW in progress of hiring Media Manager (is the Greg Hayes position?) and they would look at that type of stuff. He did CC Nancy Ogrady and John Dumesny in on the email so that was something.

I choose to send this to HRNSW as the controlling body in NSW is by far the most progressive board in Australia.

The Harness Media Centre and the use of twitter are some great examples to name but a few of HRNSW use of social media.

I believe there is potential for the use of social media to not only engage current participants, but to get a new audience.

One such platform to do this through could well be Netflix. My very limited knowledge of Netflix is users pay a small fee and garner unlimited access to TV Shows and Movies. Currently, Netflix is not available in Australia, but plans are in place for this to be established next March.

Stumbling blocks that immediately spring to mind are whether Netflix would want our content (sport let alone racing does not feature on Netflix currently. Perhaps they want it strictly entertainment). I am also unsure how it would affect current contracts with Sky Racing etc.

However, I believe the vast majority of advertising (including social media) is only targeted at our sports current audience. We obviously need to attract a new audience as well. It is only people who are already interested in the sport liking Facebook pages, following tweets, watching replays on Trots TV, flicking to the middle of the paper to read the form guide etc. People who are on Netflix are not necessarily interested in harness racing but if we can get in early we can reach millions of young Australians, that is millions of potential harness racing enthusiasts.

There is so much potential with going on Netflix, and it would not require to much extra work on behalf of racing. We are already producing interviews, race replays etc it would just be on a different format. Perhaps we could look into live racing as well - our own station, wouldn't that be a sight to behold. With the advent of Netflix many young Americans no longer own a TV and watch stuff on computers/laptops etc. The advent of Netflix could see this occur in Australia, do we want our medium of Sky Channel pretty much ruled null and void for younger generations - our future audience. There is also the issue of Netflix subscribers cancelling Foxtel subscriptions due to their favourite Foxtel programs being on demand on Netflix . Things at Foxtel could get pretty hard in years to come and as a by product of that our sport and Sky Racing could suffer. We need to get ahead of the game. We need to explore Netflix now.

Without question, if we could get a similar deal. Also relevant, I think, do we lack female presence in our media? Are we the only racing code who doesn't seem to think it's a good idea. And I'm not talking about looks or age. I know NSW has a couple of ladies on their media site and we had little snippets during the Melbourne carnival just recently but someone/s more permanent.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aussiebreno

Not a bad idea at all, but I'd be looking at getting involved with Netflix first. As an aside, some of those Aust V NZ netball games in recent years on ABC/SBS have seen some great battles. I reckon I sat down two Sundays in a row and watched games decided by a point both times circa 2011. Helps when Renae Hallinan is playing, she is a pleasure to watch and is a pretty good netballer as well. Here is a copy of email I sent to HRNSW Executive email in November. Reid Sanders was the one who replied and he basically said HRNSW in progress of hiring Media Manager (is the Greg Hayes position?) and they would look at that type of stuff. He did CC Nancy Ogrady and John Dumesny in on the email so that was something.

I choose to send this to HRNSW as the controlling body in NSW is by far the most progressive board in Australia.

The Harness Media Centre and the use of twitter are some great examples to name but a few of HRNSW use of social media.

I believe there is potential for the use of social media to not only engage current participants, but to get a new audience.

One such platform to do this through could well be Netflix. My very limited knowledge of Netflix is users pay a small fee and garner unlimited access to TV Shows and Movies. Currently, Netflix is not available in Australia, but plans are in place for this to be established next March.

Stumbling blocks that immediately spring to mind are whether Netflix would want our content (sport let alone racing does not feature on Netflix currently. Perhaps they want it strictly entertainment). I am also unsure how it would affect current contracts with Sky Racing etc.

However, I believe the vast majority of advertising (including social media) is only targeted at our sports current audience. We obviously need to attract a new audience as well. It is only people who are already interested in the sport liking Facebook pages, following tweets, watching replays on Trots TV, flicking to the middle of the paper to read the form guide etc. People who are on Netflix are not necessarily interested in harness racing but if we can get in early we can reach millions of young Australians, that is millions of potential harness racing enthusiasts.

There is so much potential with going on Netflix, and it would not require to much extra work on behalf of racing. We are already producing interviews, race replays etc it would just be on a different format. Perhaps we could look into live racing as well - our own station, wouldn't that be a sight to behold. With the advent of Netflix many young Americans no longer own a TV and watch stuff on computers/laptops etc. The advent of Netflix could see this occur in Australia, do we want our medium of Sky Channel pretty much ruled null and void for younger generations - our future audience. There is also the issue of Netflix subscribers cancelling Foxtel subscriptions due to their favourite Foxtel programs being on demand on Netflix . Things at Foxtel could get pretty hard in years to come and as a by product of that our sport and Sky Racing could suffer. We need to get ahead of the game. We need to explore Netflix now.

Great initiative and thought Breno. Well done. Totally agree Sky on Foxtel would/is rarely be even flicked past by the younger generation.

Issue might be that contracts are locked in with Sky but obviously that can be altered as Nine are showing the Inter this Sunday

Ah, just like the good old days of The Penthouse Club.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Escape Club

Ah, just like the good old days of The Penthouse Club.

This has been posted on here before I think but will bring back some memories for you Robert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJYJX5DlmXg

After comparing the 9/Win coverage with the sardine act at Sky, it is a NO BRAINER - we need a regular spot on a free to air Channel JUST TO BE RELEVANT - there is no future for us if Sky's coverage is all we can get for big meets

Quote:

Originally Posted by Messenger

After comparing the 9/Win coverage with the sardine act at Sky, it is a NO BRAINER - we need a regular spot on a free to air Channel JUST TO BE RELEVANT - there is no future for us if Sky's coverage is all we can get for big meets

Who will watch? Sure, there will be the harness fan like yourself Kev + the punter who bets only on trots like myself (also a fan without the punt I should mention) but I don't think that warrants a telecast on free to air, does it? Run of the mill punters wouldn't switch over cause they'd miss getting on the next at Bullamakanka and unfortunately those guys rule the roost. I love the idea and would have loved to have seen something like what 9 did (hats off to them by the way, I thought they did a good job) for the whole day but I just can't see it being feasible on non feature days/nights. Unfortunately imo we will simply be left with the sort of tripe we are being served up today.

Wow, it just got worse. The Bohemia flicked to Sky2 with no warning whatsoever where u could watch half a screen for the first 60 seconds of the race while a dog race was being broadcast. F*** ME!!