Agreed. Can get lost watching replays and finding horses to watch for hours on RTN. Their user interface screens are simple and quick.

I personally believe the future of televised horse racing will flow through gaming systems like PS4. For example, Sony is working on an Oculus Rift type virtual reality gaming mask called Morpheus. Jockeys will wear helmet cameras that pipe the live feed into your mask and YOU will be able to ride the horse you bet and truly experience the excitement of racing. Maybe add some wearable technology like a vest that rumbles along with the hoof vibrations, sensing increasing or declining speed.

If exchange wagering ever becomes a reality, this idea goes up another step function. Betting against your friends and then donning the mask and racing each other.

After a few beers one night, I sketched out a very rudimentary business model of this concept for tracks if anyone in that part of the industry is interested. This type of thing might get them out to the racecourse to try it out this new exoerience, maybe in some 4D cinema chairs with a betting console in front of them, with a bar and a stage.

This idea will likely filter into all live sporting events. Would you like to be Tom Brady or Russell Wilson? Working title: Immersi-cam

Cheers!

O

With no cable or dish, I have an HRTV subscription, I chrome-cast to the TV.
With TVG now pretty much a monopoly I'm wondering if I'll be stuck with
the lower level tracks.
Anybody know if TVG has or will offer subscriptions? If so can it be streamed to a big screen?

HRTV President Scott Daruty on ATR 9:30 with as many answers as can be addressed..

What would be cool for one of these stations to do, is to have a half hour show here or there, during non racing hours, that showed replays of various great performances, be it big stakes, or impressive obscure performances from ages ago, etc. Even maybe take in requests from fans/customers.

Hopefully they'll take nepotism to the next level and give Jake Romans a job as handicapper.

In all seriousness...he should be hired.

Jake would have no interest.

Yeah that clarifies things:zz: Corporate Babble. Lot's of words wtithout saying anything specific that we are looking for.

Will there now be two channels branded as ‘TVG’?
The current plan is to continue to distribute both TVG and HRTV under their respective brands and to create a unified customer experience between the two networks. As our integration continues, customers will notice that the two networks will be well-coordinated and drive viewers to bring more audiences to races on each network. There’s been no determination on branding; now we’re focused on integrating operations.
How soon can we expect to see those changes?
Changes will occur gradually over the next 45 days.
Has there been a determination made on what specific content each channel would provide? (i.e., “A” and “B”-level tracks on one platform, “C” and “D”-level tracks on the other?)
We’ve been working on schedules and are confident that both channels will feature very compelling racing. There are great potential benefits for racing fans here because of the opportunities this presents for us to eliminate duplication and tape delay and to show more races live.

Fans can only hope that of the two formats, they choose the non-clown format for both networks.

30+ min. visit with Daruty covering merger, Vegas, Mid-Atlantic
http://www.thoroughbredracingradione...d=25&Itemid=41

The production & broadcast facilities at TVG tower over HRTV . Without a substantial capital investment, the above is simply untrue. Unless of course they plan on broadcasting derby preps from what is essentially an SD cable access channel, that the majority of subscribers don't have access to, compared to TVG's distribution..

From TVG:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aIaO9cjbkE

I sent an email to HRTV early in 2014 regarding getting their streaming product on ROKU. I was told they were working on it and it would be in place by the end of the year. I was skeptical, and they have yet to put their product on ROKU. It seems to me that the perfect platform for TVG/HRTV are streaming devices like ROKU, Apple TV, and Amazon's Fire TV products. Many cable companies don't offer both channels, and if they do, they require an extra subscription. By making their streaming products available on these streaming devices, they would be able to reach a much larger audience. Personally, I do not want to watch the races on a computer. I have tried the HRTV to Chromecast thing, and while it works. the quality of the stream on the Chromecast is not that great. I have a ROKU device and subscribe to both NBA League Pass, and MLB Extra Innings, and the quality is excellent and it's in very good quality HD. If TVG/HRTV wants to get an HD signal out to customers, make it available on these streaming devices. It's a no brainer.

great the toolbags from tvg who have given us a reason to get hrtv now run the whole show..rtn..could be the only way out..if they keep shrupp and corrothers and **** can anyone from hrtv..its a criminal act..wonder how the people at xpress bet slept last night?

I can't get HRTV on DirecTV - so just the fact that I am sitting here watching Gulfstream makes me like the deal. Same for when Santa Anita starts.

some people will complain, even if you hang them with a new rope.

Does anyone know what is going on now? I only receive HRTV in my cable package. AT&T U verse. HRTV seems to be streaming Gulfstreams signal with no other hosts. No other tracks or explanation. Whats up?

they r going to work on it over the nex 45 days, which channel gets what trackswhen, assume they put gp up as the most desireable track today. listen to the atr interview which steve posted here

Late this afternoon I happened to turn to TVG, and lo and behold, there were races from Gulfstream. Since HRTV is not part of our cable menu, this is a good thing. I'll withhold the rest of my reaction until the entire merger shakes out.

I can't wait for Saturday when the clown car pulls up at Santa Anita and out hops Matt Caruthers, Paul LoDuca and that Scott guy with big floppy shoes, funny hats and round red noses. Pick 4 tickets all day. Wink-wink, nod-nod. Inside jokes and just plain goofy fun. It'll be a riot. It's not the racing that's fun, it's our guys.

Meanwhile Jeff Siegle and Adam Veracruysse will be on HRTV this Saturday to give you their "Daymakers" at Parx and Mahoning Valley. Brad Free will help you play the Pick 4 at Sunland Park and Laffit Pincay will be on later for the Turf Paradise card.

Frightening development and bad for horseplayers.

Here is elephant in the room that nobody sees. TVG is bundled on many sports packages for cable and satellite. It is also included gratis on many cable packages. HRTV is not. They listed how many homes TVG is in, but I bet 95% of those homes have never watched it, maybe more. And never will. HRTV has many more customers who have paid for it specifically and watch it. I'm one. So I think those numbers mislead to the popularity of TVG. Everyone I know who has both has always watched a majority of time on HRTV.

Matty, you need to invest in a remote control with a mute button. They are fairly cheap these days. I could care less who is talking between races, the sound is only on when they go in the gate at my house, for both channels.

Despite all the consternation over who will be on the air, the best news associated with this deal is that the bigger tracks will be shown on the channel with the better picture. There is no comparison in the video quality on my cable system when they are both showing the same race, so if Gulfstream is showing up on TVG already, that is nothing but a good thing. I applaud their effort to try to push horse racing into the HD world and I thank the tracks that have already made the investment in their in house video equipment to facilitate this move out of the SD world.