TVN CEO Peter Sweeney To Explain Costly Deal With Channel Seven To Board

Outgoing TVN CEO Peter Sweeney "will front his board on Wednesday to explain the deal with Channel Seven that is costing the racing aggregator" A$2.2M ($2.3M) a year, while the free-to-air broadcaster pockets more than A$8M, according to Roots & Bartley of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Insiders have called it "the best sporting deal done by Channel Seven as the majority of production costs are covered by TVN." It "gets a clean feed of vision," and has been able to sign Australian bookmaker Tom Waterhouse to a A$5.5M advertising agreement. Waterhouse outbid entertainment and gaming firm Tabcorp "for the advertising rights to the coverage." Tabcorp "had a final-offer clause but would only go" to A$3M. The fact TVN pays Seven A$2.2M for the airtime for 27 meetings and does not share in any revenue "has TVN board members fuming." Sweeney "will be asked to explain the benefit of the Seven deal to TVN's bottom line and why there is not some revenue sharing written into the deal" (SMH, 2/19).