TVG, America's horseracing television network, today announced that HRTV, which it acquired in February 2015, is being rebranded as TVG2 effective Oct. 28. Correspondingly, HRTV.com will be renamed TVG2.com. The move allows TVG to better leverage its television production infrastructure to provide improved horseracing television products to consumers and television distributors alike.

Already since the merger of TVG and HRTV, dramatic improvements in televised horseracing have occurred:

The output of both networks is in high definition utilizing TVG's state-of-the-art television studios in Los Angeles;

TVG and TVG2 (HRTV) are on-track to televise over 40,000 live races in the first year after the merger, compared to less than 30,000 unique live races prior to the transaction.

TVG has developed and implemented a system with premium track operators that allows for cooperative post time coordination across the country and real-time track to track alerts of late post time changes, significantly improving the viewer experience.

TVG simulcasts TVG programming on TVG2 (HRTV) during hours when live racing was not previously available on that network (leading to 396 hours of additional live racing programming on TVG2 (HRTV)), or more than 1,000 additional live races.

“We've made good progress in integrating the two television productions, and integrating the brands was the logical next step in the process to optimize television coverage for horseracing. Our goals have always been to provide a better fan experience, increase our appeal to distributors, and drive revenue to the industry,” said Kip Levin, CEO of TVG. “Importantly, having TVG and TVG2 allows us to better utilize TVG's state-of-the-art television facilities to deliver a premium product for both networks. We look forward to continuing to work with our important track and distribution partners to deliver more races and higher quality broadcasts to racing fans like never before.”

Soon after the February merger, TVG and its partner tracks undertook steps to better coordinate post times at major North American racing venues to avoid conflicts.

The aggregate audience of TVG and TVG2 has grown to 56 million homes, all of which can now access more live racing than ever before. The combined social media reach of TVG and TVG2 is now over 1 million people, helping to drive viewers and wagering.

“Our content and reach means we can help the sport directly grow viewing and legal wagering numbers.” Levin added.

For more information about TVG, visit: tvg.com

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