THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - THE PICTURE IS NOT SO BRIGHT BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

By Graham Potter | Sunday, March 24, 2013

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily

TV rules OK … or does it?

It is a fact of life that different sporting codes throughout the world juggle their timeslots on a daily basis in order to satisfy the requirements of television channels so that the latter can maximise its audience which then naturally increases its advertising revenue streams.

But sometimes all is not well behind the smiling face on the screen.

Take the case of TVN, the racing industry owned television channel.

In a recent managerial reshuffle it was announced that John Hartigan, a former CEO of News Limited, would become Chairman of the Board. Hartigan is a man of obvious significant experience and business savvy and his input into furthering the cause of the promotion of racing was keenly awaited, but the story took an unforseen twist this week when Hartigan suddenly withdrew from the position.

His reasons for doing do were particularly damning of the current situation at TVN at executive level.

These reasons included, as reported by Fairfax, … "The level of mistrust at a board level is something that has manifested itself in a shareholders agreement which has shackled the business and caused it to be unable to properly exploit the commercial opportunities on a day to day basis.”

Hartigan further stated that he felt … “any real growth won't be realised until the board modifies the shareholder agreement to allow an incoming chief executive and the executive team to be free of burdens of being tied in knots by a dysfunctional board.

And then, … "finally, despite being nominated to serve on a subcommittee of the board to select a new chief executive, I felt I did not have the confidence of all board members to act in a professional, competent and non-biased manner."

Hartigan’s view is one man’s assessment and, in fairness, you have to allow there is sure to be some counter argument but, that said, Hartigan should at least be complimented for giving a brutally honest, no hold barred assessment of the situation he was faced with and for then refusing to become part of the game.

Clearly, he was not prepared to waste his time and dance around in circles.

If all is not well at TVN, as Hartigan strongly suggests, it certainly doesn’t do anyone else in racing any good either.

But the first step in solving any problem is to recognise that you have a problem and the value of the exercise here for racing in general is that a problem can often be more easily identified by an outsider rather than by those who have a close up and personal involvement in the issue under scrutiny.

No matter how strongly worded the content might be, constructive criticism from a respected source (remember TVN executives thought enough of Hartigan to want to install him as Chairman) should be taken on board and acted upon where appropriate, not just by TVN but by racing authorities throughout the country.

Some, given their standard knee-jerk reaction to criticism, might find that difficult to do but the responsibility of their office demands they shred the old manual and initiate a new strategy that will ensure that vital feedback does not fall on deaf ears.

That would be a very important consideration for all concerned.

More articles