Hold the phone, Tabcorp vision is going mobile

Live coverage from the Tabcorp-owned channel, which shows all of Australia's thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing, will be available to Optus 3G customers in time for the spring carnival.

The agreement comes two months after Telstra signed an exclusive mobile broadcast deal with ThoroughVisioN, a channel owned by racing clubs, for all Victorian and Sydney metropolitan racing.

While Optus customers watching Sky Channel will not see vision from any Victorian or Sydney races - only the audio call will be broadcast - Tabcorp Media chief operating officer Brendan Parnell said that represented only 8% of all races shown on the channel.

"You'll still see all the betting information, you'll still see the field, you'll hear what the tipsters have to say in those races but for the race itself it will be more of a listening thing than a visual," he said.

"While it doesn't have the TVN picture it has audio from TVN races and a really sophisticated mobile site, where you can have a look at odds, tips and fields, and it will put you straight through to phone TAB."

The deal with Optus is the second for Sky Channel, with 3 Mobile the other. Customers on 3 get unlimited access to Sky Channel, plus the accompanying mobile website with fields, odds and results, for $7 a month, with Optus likely to charge a similar amount. Telstra charges $9.95 a month for TVN.

The new Sky Channel services does not, however, enable customers to make bets - for that they must use either the telephone or the existing TAB Racing website.

The agreement with Optus marks the first time Tabcorp has made enough money from a "new media" deal to pay a dividend back to the racing industry, with racing clubs to also receive an ongoing share of the monthly subscriber revenue.

While TVN allows Sky Channel to broadcast Victorian and Sydney races on its main pay TV channel, TVN refused to extend that to mobiles, instead favouring the more lucrative, exclusive deal with Telstra.

"Our view's a little different to TVN, insofar as their focus has been maximising a rights fee but ours is (the number of) eyeballs watching racing and a younger demographic, so that racing participation and betting is maximised," he said.

"It's disappointing from our perspective but we're just trying to maximise betting, which the racing industry profits from."

Tabcorp said the Optus deal, when combined with 3, would give it access to about half the 3G phone users in Australia. Mr Parnell said Tabcorp hoped to announce two more Sky Channel deals in coming months.