Trackside (New Zealand)

Trackside is a twenty four hour free-to-air and pay TV channel, available on SKY Digital channel 063, Vodafone New Zealand TV cable channel 063 and Freeview channel 011. Trackside provides full coverage of all thoroughbred horse racing, harness horse racing and greyhound racing in New Zealand and many Australian horse races, up-to-date odds, field and dividend information. Viewer numbers average around 400,000 weekly. The Trackside live race day coverage includes up-to-date betting details, live interviews from the track, live footage of horses warming up and live coverage of races. A single continuity commentator presents the coverage from a studio, primarily as a voiceover. Between live races there is some combination of analysis from commentators, replays of previous races and recaps of betting odds. The race day coverage is presented, produced and co-ordinated from Avalon studios to be close to other Racing Board facilities such as Raceday Control.

Trackside began in 1992 as a limited coverage, free-to-air, part time UHF station. Since moving to an eighteen hour format in 2004 and a twenty four hour format in 2007, Trackside has launched other shows outside normal betting times such as racing replay, preview and review shows, as well as content from Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The channel started broadcasting in widescreen (16:9) on Monday 15 December 2008.^[1]

Radio Trackside is a race day programme on betting sports network Livesport and which previously aired on talkback network Radio Pacific. The programme airs between 12:00 and midnight weekdays and 11:00 and midnight weekends. It is produced by the TAB from Livesport studios in Auckland, with live crosses to races and live updates of betting odds. Before the launch of Radio Live on April 21, 2005, Radio Pacific was the twenty four hour MediaWorks news, talk and talkback network, and the TAB's contract was limited to the broadcast of live races and live betting odds for pre-determined, limited periods during the race day. The channel no longer broadcasts on analogue as of 31 July 2011.

From October 2013, the TVNZ metadata on the Freeview satellite service was changed to include the Trackside feed on the Sky service, so that certified, channel-locked Freeview receivers could scan the channel in.

From the 14 April 2014, Trackside will cease operations on Freeview. It will then only be available to Sky subscribers^[2]

Sister channel

A complimentary channel to Trackside is available on the Sky TV platform called TAB TV. TAB TV broadcasts international races as well as every New Zealand race. Whereas Trackside focuses mainly on New Zealand races, feature international racing and special interest racing programming.

External links

• Official website
• Trackside at LyngSat Address

References