Victoria Racing Club still holding out for money from Racing Victoria before signing off on TV rights

• 9 HOURS AGO JUNE 17, 2015 7:52PM

RVL chairman David Moodie and chief executive Bernard Saundry began talks with VRC officials to broker an agreement at 2.30pm on Wednesday.

Preliminary tote figures suggested wagering turnover at Geelong on Tuesday was down on average 10 per cent each race from the preceding week. Source: Getty Images

VICTORIA Racing Club was still locked in negotiations over its TV rights on Wednesday night, ensuring the Sky Channel blackout would extend to a third day.

The club is believed to be seeking $8 million from Racing Victoria before handing over its vision rights as part of a deal with the Seven Network for the next five years.

It is also believed the VRC, which stages the Melbourne Cup, was seeking a slice of profits from race-fields revenue — the money bookmakers pay to access fields.

Once the VRC signs the deal, TV rights will be handed to Seven, which has indicated it can telecast Victorian races on Channel 78 almost as soon as the deal is done.

Melbourne Racing Club, Moonee Valley Racing Club and Country Racing Victoria have already signed off on the deal.

MVRC chief Michael Browell said he hoped for a resolution to the TV rights talks before Saturday’s meeting at the Valley.

“We are hoping come Saturday that Seven will be set to go, but we don’t hold out much hope that the meeting will be on Sky Channel,” Browell said.

MVRC chief Michael Browell hopes Seven’s coverage will be up and running by Saturday. Picture: Norm Oorloff Source:News Corp Australia

“If it’s not on Channel 7 or definitely not on Sky Channel, we would expect a slight ­decrease in wagering on the day, but it’s short-term pain for a very long-term gain for us.

“But there are plenty of other ways punters can see the vision of Victorian racing.”

Tabcorp said it would continue its blackout until the VRC had reached an agreement with the RVL.

The wagering giant has not shown images from Ballarat and Geelong meetings in the past two days, outside its 92 TAB agencies, and was unlikely to show vision today from Seymour.

Racing fans have been able to stream vision from Racing.com.

It is believed Tabcorp offered to pay RVL $22 million for exclusive rights for domestic vision for the next 10 years, but RVL has opted for a free-to-air model.

RVL said the blackout’s ­impact on wagering would not be fully known until Friday.

Key observers questioned preliminary tote figures published by Racing.com on Tuesday night that suggested wagering turnover during the Geelong blackout was down on average 10 per cent each race from the preceding week.

One observer claimed turnover on races from the corresponding meeting last year was up as much as 16 per cent.

Originally published as VRC still holding out for slice of pie