Telstra's sporting stranglehold grows

The deal with racing channel ThoroughVisioN (TVN) gives Telstra customers the opportunity to watch all Victorian races live on their 3G phones - including the spring racing carnival - as well as races held at the two major NSW venues, Randwick and Rosehill Gardens. Telstra BigPond group managing director Justin Milne said the TVN agreement was "another piece in the sports puzzle" for the company.

"We think sport is of fundamental importance to Australia, and the results that we're starting to get to (from) all of our sporting assets that we make available online and on mobile tend to support it," he said.

The "sporting assets" referred to include exclusive rights to broadcast AFL, rugby league and V8 Supercars, as well as the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Customers wanting access to live scores and video highlights must pay $9.95 a month for each sport on top of their usual phone bill, although BigPond internet customers get access to the sports coverage on their computers, including the live racing, at no extra cost.

Detailed information about subscription rates for the "sports packs" will be withheld until Telstra's full-year results announcement next week, although Mr Milne said the increase in network speeds and video picture quality had helped the division "hit a tipping point".

"All of these things together have conspired to mean that our numbers are way up, and continuing to head north at a really pleasing rate," he said.

Mr Milne was coy about how many customers had paid $9.95 for Olympic packs, but said it was already "about double" what the telco had aimed for.