Thousands of punters across Australia will be deprived of vision of Saturday's Rosehill and Flemington race meetings after a request from publicans in NSW and Victoria was knocked back on Friday by TVN.
Desperate for coverage, publicans associations in both states pleaded with TVN to allow those venues vision of Saturday's two all-important meetings.
It is believed that 50 per cent of pubs and clubs in Victoria do not have TVN or Foxtel and will be unable to view the races. In Sydney 370 outlets will have no vision of races in their home state or of Melbourne racing.
Stephen Ferguson, speaking on behalf of the Australian Hotels Association, said that his members were desperately upset by TVN's decision.
"The problem is, it's the battling punter in the bush that cops it again and it's the small end of town [which suffers], if we turn these blokes away they won't turn up," he said.
"It's EI [equine influenza] all over again, as soon as you stop giving people the picture and something to bet on they'll walk away. It would be 15 to 20 times more is earned by the industry on wagering ... than braodcast. The knock-on effect is going to be huge.
"All they've got to do is let Sky distribute the vision to the smaller clubs. We really commend them with what they've done with Foxtel, especially in getting the picture out to the other venues. But it's the small pubs from the bush that cop it again."
The proposed solution would be delivered by Sky infrastructure at no cost to the publicans and would get the vision to all venues. But the 11th-hour bid has been quashed by TVN, who refused the move.
The hotels associations have been making repeated representations on behalf of publicans to minimise the impact of the vision disruption caused by the Sky/TVN impasse.
"We want the racing back on TV. Our customers want the racing back on TV and the racing needs their product to be broadcast and promoted," Australian Hotels Association NSW CEO John Whelan said. "The Sky option is free and simple for our members, it has our support."
However Fairfax media understand that the TVN decision has infuriated all those associations across Australia and it would seem the beleaguered network has polarised itself from all punters seeking vision of Melbourne and Sydney races.
The offer, many believe, would have insured all Pub TABs in Victoria and NSW would be able to service their patrons.
But Fairfax Media understands that some TAB agents have erected TVN screens to accommodate their clientele.
It is also understood that NSW is still likely to break away from its joint ownership of TVN with the principal Melbourne clubs.
Many influential racing people are urging Racing Victoria to wrest back the vision rights from the clubs and try to broker a deal directly with Tabcorp.
As one senior executive said on Friday: "After two years of negotiating and they are still $10 apart, you wouldn't be a genius in suggesting that the principal body of the state, RVL, should be sitting at the table negotiating. They have a terrible history, probably the worst record in racing history at simply getting it wrong, so it may have just run its race."
