by Thinus Ferreira
The SABC is adding a half-hour weekday horse racing show, Racing Today, to its SABC Sport channel from April that will run for 3 years, as well as 10 showcase horse racing events that will be shown in primetime on SABC3 after signing a contract with 4Racing.
Racing Today will be shown on weekdays for half an hour per day, Mondays to Fridays, over a three-year period, for 50 weeks a year, with 10 of South Africa's showcase horse-racing events that will be shown in primetime on SABC3.
The SABC's deal for a horse racing magazine show in the form of Racing Today, as well as the showcase horse-racing events from 4Racing, is separate from 4Racing TV's deal with MultiChoice.
4Racing is giving MultiChoice's DStv subscribers the same content in the form of showing the same horse-racing events to a pay-TV audience through the new Racing 240 TV channel that MultiChoice added to DStv in mid-January this year.
From April 2022 Racing Today will be on SABC Sport as the South African public broadcaster's digital terrestrial TV channel, also available to eMedia's Openview satellite platform, and on Telkom's TelkomONE vide streaming service, but not to MultiChoice's DStv or StarTimes' StarSat platforms.
Fundi Sithebe, 4Racing CEO, in a statement, says "We are delighted to partner with the SABC in this multi-year deal to ensure the sport of horse racing returns as a regular addition to the SABC's premier sports programming".
"Having the country's largest free-to-air broadcaster, with an audience reach of over 32 million across the country, helps us to fulfil our mandate to reach new audiences, grow participation in and knowledge of the sport, and make horse racing more accessible."
"Through the SABC's coverage over the years of legendary South African horses like Wolf Power, Horse Chestnut, Jet Master, Sea Cottage and Pocket Power, and jockeys like Felix Coetzee, Michael ‘Muis’ Roberts, Pierre Strydom and Jeff Lloyd, horse racing became a premier sport and those horses and jockeys household names across the country."
Gary Rathbone, the head of SABC Sport, says in the statement that "horse racing has long been a major part of the SABC Sport offering and after a long absence from our platforms, it's great to have the sport of kings back on air on the public broadcaster".
"Being able to feature South Africa’s best thoroughbreds and champions jockeys fighting it out in these iconic races on the annual calendar is something I'm sure will excite millions of South Africans who will now be able to access the best racing on offer live and free on the SABC."
Stephen Watson, head of 4Racing TV and Discover Digital executive director, says the "deal with the SABC is a significant one for us at 4Racing and for all current and prospective punters and racegoers who love the sport".
"We have been working with the SABC over the last year and this partnership has already seen live coverage of major race days such as the World Sports Betting Cape Town Met and Summer Cup and the L'Ormarins Queens Plate, while we've also assisted Gold Circle to get one of the country's biggest and most important race days, the Gold Cup, broadcast live on SABC3".
