Racing television viewers are set to get the best of both worlds from December.
The New Zealand Racing Board will launch a second racing-dedicated channel before Christmas which should redress the balance between races needed to drive turnover and racing as an entertainment product.
And the second channel - with the working title TAB TV - will, like Trackside, be free to air.
With the massive increase in Australian and international racing being shown on Trackside television in the past five years many racing fans have complained about the lack of time given to major races, particularly post-race.
But the new channel will help ease that pressure, with basically a back-to-back racing format, similar to Sky Channel's racing-only channel shown predominantly in pubs in Australia.
That will free up time on Trackside to show more build-up and, on occasions, more post-race atmosphere from major domestic and Australian meetings.
TAB TV will also be used for the further internationalisation of racing coverage in this country, being filled with racing from Europe and eventually North America until the small hours of the morning.
NZ Racing Board bosses envisage a situation when TAB TV screens live racing with betting opportunities from possibly 7am to 3am daily.
NZRB chief executive Andrew Brown says the development of the new channel will have near-instant benefits for the racing industry without great further expense.
"We expect inside a few years the extra turnover opportunities created will result in another $4 million generated for the racing industry," Mr Brown said.
"And we can achieve that using mainly the same resources we use for Trackside now.
"We expect the initial set-up costs of TAB TV to be quickly paid back and we believe we can provide the best possible service for our customers."
At the moment Trackside can "squeeze" 10 races into an hour at its busiest times, but without the restrictions of guaranteed domestic lead-up times to races, TAB TV will be able to show up to 12 races every hour.
"I think it is a very exciting development for the industry because we will be able to showcase major race meetings better, as well as providing the constant racing coverage bettors want."
