CHRB APPROVES SANTA ANITA FALL MEET, SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION
SACRAMENTO, CA – The California Horse Racing Board notified the Stronach Group on Wednesday that its plan to offer free and total Internet access to HRTV programming during the upcoming fall meet at Santa Anita Park and to heavily promote this expanded distribution of the live signal is acceptable to the Board and the fall meet can open as scheduled September 30.
The free Internet streaming will be available to anyone with Internet connectivity regardless of device. It will be available on both Mac and PC computers. It will also be available to users of all mobile mainstream mobile devices, including iPhones and iPads, according to the distribution plan provided to the CHRB. The Stronach Group detailed a marketing campaign to promote the free steam that will include print advertisements in the Los Angeles Times and extensive use of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter.
The new distribution plan differs markedly from the one presented to the Board at the August 25 meeting, which was limited to PC computers and excluded Apple products and all mobile devices. Chairman Keith Brackpool noted at that meeting that mobile devices now dominate the market, so any plan that excluded iPhones and similar devices was unacceptable.
At that meeting, the Board conditionally approved the license of the Pacific Racing Association to operate a race meet this fall at Santa Anita subject to submission of a signal distribution plan acceptable to the chairman and executive director. In a letter to Scott Daruty of the Stronach Group, CHRB Counsel Robert Miller indicated the chairman and executive director “reviewed the distribution program subsequently submitted by the Pacific Racing Association and approve the expanded program. Therefore, the Pacific Racing Association has met the condition mandated by the Board and the application is approved in its entirety.”
The CHRB views the marketing and signal distribution plan for the fall meet as an experiment and not necessarily a template for future meets. “Be advised,” the letter continued, “the approval of the live racing signal program instituted by the Pacific Racing Association for the fall meet at Santa Anita is only applicable to the 2011 racing season.” Furthermore, the Board will expect future meets of the Stronach Group and other racing associations and fairs in California to provide the widest distribution possible of the live racing signal on all telecommunication platforms. Expanding the distribution of the live racing signal will increase the public’s financial participation in horse racing.
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http://www.chrb.ca.gov/press_release...ss_release.pdf
