Tellytrack press release

Sylvester Wrote:

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> i am sure it is not about money for multi choice
> but about quality of service, quality of end
> product.


it's always about money - (performance means viewership I presume not the quality of the product) After all they do allow ISIDINGO and the BLACKBELT CHANNEL which both can lead to drug abuse or brain damage if you watch for more than 10 minutes

mr hawaii Wrote:

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> fogwils Wrote:
>

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>

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> > I don't buy the excuse 'Multichoice is entitled
> to
> > terminate the broadcast of Tellytrack if it
> > believes that the channel is not performing to
> its
> > satisfaction'. IMO Hibs has it correct wrt the
> > personal likes of the Owner of MultiChoice. IMO
> TT
> > were/are preforming a LOT better than some of
> the
> > KRAP presently on DsTV. Would it not be
> fantastic
> > if just for once the truth be told but I guess
> > that is wishful thinking.
> >
> > When I was young, yes a long time ago, there
> was
> > no live Racing on the Radio and no TV full stop
> > but I still punted and WILL continue to do so
> even
> > if it means going back to the DARK ages, I just
> > love it too much & IMO Sports Betting just
> cannot
> > compare. I can get the Results from TAB online
> so
> > to me it is not the end of the world BUT the
> end
> > of my DsTV subscription because they do not give
> a
> > farking hoot for us Racing fans. Sure I will
> miss
> > the Sports but not as much as I will miss the
> > Racing. My dear Wife & Mother In-Law will also
> > just have to adapt or die.
> >
> > I wait in ANTICIPATION whether to buy a TOP TV
> > modem or whatever U call it.
> >
> > Carry on Punting Clanners because we LOVE this
> > game.
>
>
> But Bekker has retired and he does not "own"
> Multichoice - It is a listed company (or is part
> of one - My late mother had shares in them ) Why
> on earth would a person kick out something that
> was bringing in subscribers UNLESS they believed
> another channel would bring in more. I'm sure DSTV
> have data on who watches what and know when a
> channel is not performing. And the notion that he
> killed Racing in Newspapers also does not hold
> water with me or the Citizen would never be
> available at my Local Cafe as it is the only paper
> in Gauteng with any Racing coverage worth looking
> at. Racing like the drive-inn or Roadhouse ,
> Icerink etc has been a victim of the mindset
> change of South Africans.

Mr H,

I can vouch for the fact that Nasionale Pers took a firm decision against racing, a number of my friends were employed in the racing departments of their newspapers, beeld, oosterlig, die burger and so on. At the time, probably already 7,8 years ago, when Bekker was indeed calling the shots, newspapers were starting to suffer at the hands of the free flow of info on the internet.

The first step they took was to cut their papers down in size, from (for example, 40 to 30 pages daily). Then, they looked at dumping anything in the papers that took up too much space. The argument was that anay available space had to be used for as much advertising as possible to make up for serious declines in copy sales.

Racing came under fire quick. At the time Beeld was carrying a full page and more of fields and results every day, and not bringing in a shred of advertising. Soon they cut racing coverage to half a page, then claimed to have done a survey that showed little interest in racing- then dumped it as a whole nationwide in all their products.

There was a little outcry from regular readers and then they started carrying a racing page in 'Die Son' - not sure if that's still going. It was common knowledge among members of the racing media that the Nasionale Pers chairman (or board, by implication), were anti-gambling and racing. This was confirmed when around 2004 (when I was editor of Racing Express), Phumelela approached Beeld to do an Afrikaans version of RXP - the editor vehemently dug his heels in using his superiors (Bekker, Ton Vosloo and the board) as excuse. Nothing ever came of it.

So the opportunity opened for the Citizen (owned by Caxtons and not Nasionale Pers), to expand and promote racing which they have been doing well ever since because it does make a difference to their copy sales.

Bekker only steps down at the end of March - for a one-year sabbatical and then to become Chairman of the group instead of CEO - and by all accounts still pulls most of the strings at NPers and Multichoice and will continue to do so. The man is a multi-billionaire, do you think any littloe pipsqueak will dictate to him going forward? Of course not. Whether he had anything to do with this latest shock I don't know, but that he and some of his fellow bigwigs dislike racing is an open secret, no, not even, it's common knowledge in media corridors.

Newspaper racers can thank their lucky stars that Piet Greyling (former part-owner of Nhlavini and friend of Markus Jooste), runs things at Caxtons and when last I heard remained pro-racing. Not sure if he's still at the helm.

Where there's smoke there's a fire. One cant point fingers without proof, but I am a part of the breed and I know how their leaders think and operate - ruthlessly, with only their own agendas at heart and normally not flexible. My view - there is probably more to this than meets the eye. Whatever the case, it's potentially very damaging to racing, let's hope they can come to an agreement.

"Racing came under fire quick. At the time Beeld was carrying a full page and more of fields and results every day, and not bringing in a shred of advertising. Soon they cut racing coverage to half a page, then claimed to have done a survey that showed little interest in racing- then dumped it as a whole nationwide in all their products."


but Charl surely he realized then that Racing was not selling Newspapers and that space could be used to gain revenue (i'm sure the shareholders were happy) - Again if he was so much against Racing why did it take so long to hoof it off the bouquet?
The question must be asked (obviously I love racing or I would not be on the site but does the rest of the population feel the same) does Racing actually feature in your average man's list of things to do? The answer is NO or Teletrack would have been one of the most popular channels and advertisers would be knocking down the door to sponsor races. Have a look at some of the threads on people trying to find a Computaform and you'll see that many, many shops no longer stock it. Why are there no Radio stations that carry Racing? I know because their listeners complain when they interrupt a program for a race. I think the only way forward is to go it alone as the general public have no desire to see or hear Racing. Even when I worked for Computaform it was always a battle to find advertisers outside of the industry - Let's face facts - Racing is an acquired taste - I have been to Casino's many times to watch a show etc but I cannot get myself to do more that one pull on the Million machine yet others can spend days there - Different strokes now that there is more than one game in town to spend your money on.

Mr H, cant dispute your views, just told what I knew happened to newspaper racing at the time.

Still, can't figure out why DSTV would dump a channel that undoubtedly has a solid following, or at least a solid enough 'niche' following?

Surely DSTV pay standard royalties to the likes of National Geo, CNN, MTV etc - to lure subscribers who appreciate those channels. Is Tellytrack's viewership so poor that it's not worth their while keeping it on air? Jeez, I wouldn't think so. There's something else brewing here, probably to do with royalties, money, greasing of the right palms...

Hope all the facts are revealed. Almost certain, however, that this is not a run-of-the-mill decision by DSTV just to dump what they deem a non-performing channel. Doesn't make sense. They should be paying Tellytrack a royalty, because there most definitely are thousands who subscribe to their bouquet mainly for racing.

Will be following what is fed to the racing public with interest. There are vested interests at stake here - problem is, the noble sport of thoroughbred racing will suffer again because in reality there are not many left who give a damn about it!

I agree with you Mr H. Racing is a relic of the past in SA. If you are a race goer you feel a little ashamed to admit it to our friends and family....so you do our thing in the quite. Nobody in the general public talk about it or care who's running in the triple crown etc. In the Uk it worse....betting shops are full of old men in trench coats (ok some Indian, Pakistanis, West Indians and Irish) We are a niche crowd and so we must accept it. Maybe the Joostes can put some money into a separate channel. It would require significant investment for little return.