By Bill Finley
When the television network HRTV shut down, the result of a merger with TVG, its owner, the Stronach Group, wasn't about to get out of the business of providing racing programming. It just had to find a new way to do so.
The result was the creation of XBTV, which began with trial runs at the 2016 Triple Crown and is now at full operation. It is not HRTV or TVG, but something racing has never had before–a website devoted to online videos designed to educate and cultivate existing horseplayers and, perhaps, create new ones. With fewer and fewer eyeballs watching television by the day and more people relying on their computers for entertainment and information, XBTV is something the sport clearly needed.
“As we move into the future with media going more and more online, we wanted to be part of that movement,” said the Stronach Group's Scott Daruty, who runs XBTV. “XBTV doesn't compete with TVG. It is supplementary.”
While XBTV does show the occasional live race, particularly from the Stronach-owned tracks, that's not what it is about. It is more or less an online library, where you can watch videos of important horses working in the morning, hear the handicapping thoughts of some of the sharpest minds in that realm of the business and get previews of the major stakes races coming up around the country.
“When we were still operating HRTV, we had online programming but our primary focus was on putting on a 24-7 linear, traditional television network,” Daruty said. “As part of our transaction with TVG we retained the right to have an online presence. The content we are producing now, by and large, is not live. So people can watch what they want when they want, whether it is works from Santa Anita or works from Gulfstream. If they're not interested in something they don't have to watch it. It's not our job to tell people what to watch and when.”
Daruty also ran HRTV and said one of the biggest frustrations of his job then was dealing with complaints from viewers. When HRTV showed a live race from Track X he would be inundated with complaints from people who wanted to watch a live race from Track Y. When it showed a live race from Track Y, the fans of Track X were quick to squawk. He complimented TVG, where the primary emphasis is on showing live racing, for how it juggles all the tracks it covers, but seems relieved he no longer has to deal with such headaches.
Instead, he can focus on creating programming that is geared to encouraging racing's customers to consume more of what the sport is really selling, which is betting.
“We want to do everything we can to encourage people to bet, whether it's through (the Stronach owned) Xpressbet or on our tracks through any mechanism or ADW,” Daruty said. “The way to do that is not with fluff, but by giving them good information so that people are more confident and more comfortable when making a wager. NBC is something different. There is lots of fluff and I understand why. TVG does not have fluff, but what they are really all about is showing a lot of different races from a lot of different racetrack. We looked to find a niche, to come up with a lot of good content that would help and educate the customer. The feedback so far has been very positive. What we hear most often is the appreciation people have for our talent. The feel that they are knowledgeable, know what they are talking about and bring something to the table, insight you cannot get anywhere else.”
Their lineup includes Jeff Siegel, Zoe Cadman, Millie Ball, Richard Migliore and Aaron Vercruysse.
Daruty said he did not readily have available numbers detailing how many hits and unique visitors XBTV was getting, but said the “numbers are good and they are growing.” He added that he can also tell, by the number of hits and how long people are staying tuned in to a particular video, what is and what isn't working.
While XBTV could always look to show more live races, Daruty said that is not the plan. For instance, the company made no attempts to acquire streaming rights for this week's GI Pacific Classic and the return of Arrogate (Unbridled's Song). But he believes anyone looking to bet on the Pacific Classic would be remiss if they didn't check out XBTV.
“We will have tons of coverage and good information leading up to Pacific Classic,” he said. “I believe every work Arrogate has had over the last few months has been shown on HBTV and is still available and that's an area that was never really available to the consumer before. You could read about a work and get a time for it but that only tells you so much. To actually see it tells you so much more.”
With XBTV having caught on, Daruty's next task is to figure out how to make it profitable. It is a free site. He said advertising is one area where revenue could come in and he would not rule out some day making it a pay-per-view site, but added that is neither imminent nor something the Stronach Group is seriously considering at the time. Then there are other economic benefits that are yard to measure. Are people betting more through Xpressbet because of the content on XBTV? Are they betting more on the Stronach tracks? Daruty believes they are.
Daruty and his team have time to figure those things out. For now, the emphasis remains what it has been from the start for XBTV, giving the consumer good programming, great information and building a strong platform in the growing world of online media.
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