In what I would describe as an embarrassment to their professionalism, the management at SKY should be asking some hard questions in regard to their programming and station schedules from the weekend just passed.

SKY Racing World, which is supposed to be showcasing the best of local and international racing, pretty much ruined the coverage of the biggest race day in South Australia, by choosing to also show races from Narromine.

I could not believe that just a few minutes before many black-type events being run on Adelaide Cup Day, viewers were subjected to watching runners misbehaving behind the barriers at this country circuit.

Mounting yard vision from Morphettville was being hastily replayed just seconds before the race was due to start. In fact, TVN was the main station showing live pictures from the mounting yard for many races at Morphettville yesterday, but naturally, under the licensing restrictions, was being narrated from the studio.

Any reasonable racing fan could see that Narromine belonged on SKY 1, and SKY 1 alone.

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Perhaps things may improve if the reported possible takeover of SKY by TVN goes through? But perhaps it may not be any better under TVN anyway, where presentation has been on the slide over the last twelve months.

The over-the-top reporting of the bookie-sponsored Market Mover has got a little out of control, especially for Sydney viewers. TVN contuinues to makes one glaring error every raceday – it mistakenly assumes that every viewer watching has backed the short-priced, heavily supported favourite in every race.

Those who haven’t backed their Market Mover or the short-priced favourite when it wins are made to feel like fools for not getting on. And when it gets beaten, TVN commentators are quick to assume that everyone has missed the winner!

The biased focus on the Market Mover has been a talking point of punters everywhere, yet the management at TVN appears to be the only ones who do not realise how annoying their presentation has become.

It was disappointing to hear Bruce Clark tell a viewer on Racing Review that “if you don’t want to watch, there is a simple way of solving your issues, then don’t watch!”. While Bruce was right to defend his own panel, this arrogant attitude was pleasingly missing from TVN in years gone by, but a lot has changed recently.

It is has not become unnoticed by viewers that the outspoken comments from the leading TVN presenters have gone missing in recent times.

By Kevin Skene, reprinted with permission, See Trackdata.com.au for the full story