IS THERE ACTUALLY ANYONE MANNING THE TELLYTRACK PRODUCERS' DESK?

IGN, Tellytrack's parent, was a subscription service and betting turnovers fell sharply. Hence, Tellytrack, a "free" service, was quickly born. Tellytrack's demise will be just another nail in racing's coffin.

In all this excitement we are missing an important point :

We are already paying both Multichoice and the operator for Tellytrack; so talk of this service being 'free' is nonsense.

Nobody that I know has Tellytrack without buying a decoder and connecting to one of the Multichoice bouquets. So you first pay Multichoice for connectivity.

Few, if any, of the posters on this site do not punt at all. Every time you strike a winning bet with a bookmaker 3% of your winnings are returned to the operator. In the case of Tote bets this figure is far higher. Out of that revenue the operator funds Tellytrack amongst other horseracing activities. We provide the funding so we most definitely pay for it.

The operator makes a business decision to provide the 'picture' so as to promote betting. But nothing about that picture is actually free if you end up participating in the sport.

i believe that racing was hurt big time when mainstream radio refused to air it - if teletrack is eliminated from DSTV then say goodbye - Teletrack is the Ngong of the DSTV bouquet and with all the complaints leveled at it on the forums and in the totes the Ostrich Jockeys continue to ride the product into the ground simply because they JUST DON"T CARE.

Its been said before but when SA eventually upgrades to the digital signal by the end of 2013, T Track will probably move off of the DSTV bouquet and there will be better chance of a second channel. Multichoice has the monopoly at the moment but when the public broadcaster goes digital, then there ill be 100's of available channels probably at a reasonable price and this is where T Track will be able to jump in.

So baring the end of time 12-12-2012, we may end up with a superior racing channel. I just wonder if T Track has the infrastructure to capture in the image in HD and broadcast in the digital format?

A channel for the track feed would be great

My ideal Christmas present would be to be able to pick what I want to see on TT - and I would pay extra for that priviledge - imagine a menu like the following:


Live local racing (able to choose venues) Y/N
Canter pasts Y/N
Pre race presentation/Tips Y/N
Post race interviews Y/N
Overseas racing (able to choose venues and/or meetings) Y/N
Chariots Y/N

Replay Y/N
Head-on Y/N

The technology to do this is out there already IMO. SMART TV's have the ability through the Internet to do this. our problem is bandwidth restriction I would guess but in saying that I believe that Multichoice through Sentech must have huge bandwidth requirements and therefore it may be less of an issue than we think. Anyone with a PVR will have full movie's stored on the drives. Downloaded as data via satelite.

We have all seen security cameras, multiple cameras on one screen. The user can choose to split the screen across all cameras a few cameras or the camera of their choice. Of course the broadcast option would still be available for the totes.

I have spoken about a "You are the producer" on this forum before. This is the future of TV. The next generation wants control over what they see and this is where we will end up.

It will take a bit of vision to get a channel like T Track there. I don't think that they have the funding or inclination to investigate this option. It would throw water over a lot of negativity, however. For me this is the investment that should be making. They should be taking the lead on a project such as this and not wait for Supersport or someone else to show them how after they have already invested in older technology and then be left to reinvest again later.

The above might not be possible in SA but is anyone from the channel asking the questions?

scotia Wrote:

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> A channel for the track feed would be great

That would be decade's worth of Christmas presents rolled into one. No more quarter screen races while horses walk around at the start at Melton or while we get selections for the Southwell PA stuck on the screen for an eternity. The babbling is easily solved by the use of the mute button, but there's bugger all we can do about the often ghastly visuals.

There is no bigger irritation than staying up for "Race day" and then it is from the day before........what a bunch of idiots!..........

There is an awful lot of positive comment circulating on this thread. I don't know if I'm completely different from other viewers but this is how simulcasting has evolved for me over the years :

Before IGN/Supertrack/Tellytrack ( IST ) I went to the races regularly. I raced solely in Cape Town and knew little about other centres and Gauteng racing in particular.

My exposure to other centres was via SABC and almost exclusively centred around big days. Consequently we got a fair amount of Durban in the winter but not that much of Gauteng. Possibly this was because they have always struggled to decide which was their 'big race' of the season and their season also effectively comprises two separate and ever changing parts.

Tellytrack opened my eyes to UK flat and jump racing. My previous exposure to this medium was via the once-a-year flighting of the Grand National. In the early days they showed the jump races from start to finish without interruption on the full screen and with the highly informative and entertaining UK race callers. For me it was great stuff and completely re-ignited the passion for horses and racing which had been steadily fading in recent years.

Jump racing opened my eyes to a lot of what I believe is amiss with South African racing as visual entertainment. The steady closure of our local courses resulted in tedious 'rote like' racing at the same old venues. Listening to some of our callers you could also be fooled into believing we were seeing the same race on a loop repeated many times over. I also found the decline of Durban as a developer of really top horses rather sad. It left a gap which has not , in my humble opinion, ever been truly filled. Possibly the vacuum is now being addressed by out of town trainers establishing yards there.

Regrettably Tellytrack have in recent times treated anyone 'playing UK racing' with as much disrespect as they can get away with. On one hand their figures tell us that international turnovers are rising steadily. Yet on the other hand they provide the picture of the action almost only when they have nothing else to flight. And then they will ALWAYS give a Southwell seller precedence over a Grade 1 jump race from Ascot.

So I find myself in the position of having been hooked whereas now my merchant restricts or 'cuts' supply at every opportunity!

I often wonder if it would not benefit everyone in SA racing if UK racing were better flighted and promoted. If more comprehensive ante-post discussion and previews were flighted would not this centre evolve further and provide even more funding for the local fare? I also have to wonder exactly how locals make informed selections given the paltry information they are provided with. And then having to suffer the indignity of waiting ( sometimes in vain! ) to see their selection run.

It really is remarkable how long suffering these customers are!

Can we ever get sectional timming