There will be hosts and handicapping advice, odds and results, horses and races galore. That won't leave much time on TRN Canada for a television staple - ads.

TRN Canada has a business plan that is unique among the new digital channels. Subscription revenue is important, as it will be to everyone. But no ad-sales team exists. With up to four thoroughbred tracks and three harness tracks on the go at any one moment, there just isn't time. And making sure viewers are informed is key to the central mission of TRN Canada - getting people to bet.

Woodbine Entertainment Group owns 90 per cent of TRN Canada (Bell Globemedia holds the other 10 per cent), and it also owns 100 per cent of Horseplayer Interactive, a telephone betting service. A busy horse-racing fan might make it to the track only five or six times a season. But with TRN Canada and a Horseplayer Interactive account, they might squeeze in a few hours here and there and multiply their betting transactions many times through the course of the year.

TRN Canada has actually had a bit of a head start on its digital brothers. It began two years ago as a pay-per-view service, first on a proprietary saucer-shaped satellite dish and, a few months later, on Bell ExpressVu. Fans pay about $25 a month for four channels - one that shows dozens of live races from noon till midnight every day, another that displays odds for the tracks in progress, a third that gives the in-house feed from a Canadian track, usually Woodbine, and a fourth that offers the in-house feed from a U.S. track, usually Saratoga or Belmont Park.

The digital service will offer only the first two channels, but that will still be enough to feature every race at every major North American track throughout the year: Belmont, Saratoga, Aqueduct, Gulfstream Park, Santa Anita, Del Mar, Hollywood Park, Woodbine, Churchill Downs, Keeneland, Arlington Park and, for harness fans, Woodbine, Mohawk and the Meadowlands. Australian racing is featured in the winter and the channel also has coverage of major international classics such as the Dubai World Cup, the Melbourne Cup and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Horse racing's television/Internet market in the United States is crowded, and TRN Canada's U.S. affiliate, The Racing Network, recently folded. It had been butting heads with Gemstar-funded and industry-backed TVG, and an earlier casualty, Trackpower. There is also Internet giant Youbet.com, which shows races via the Internet and offers on-line betting. TVG also offers on-line betting. Frank Stronach's Magna Entertainment Corp. is widely expected to offer its own television/Internet, betting/broadcast entity in the coming months.

All this competition makes it confusing for fans, because different companies have the right to broadcast, and offer bets on, different tracks.

But TRN Canada has the Canadian market to itself. Federal regulations means the Woodbine Entertainment Group can directly offer account betting in only what is known as its home-market areas, around Woodbine in Toronto and Mohawk in nearby Campbellville, Ont. But the company, formerly known as the Ontario Jockey Club, also has contracts with many other Canadian tracks to offer its advanced phone-bet service and is developing an Internet service. Woodbine plays host to many of the betting pools in Canada, so revenue comes from that stream as well. And the company is expected to acquire Hastings Park in Vancouver soon. That would give Woodbine Entertainment Group control of Canada's two biggest betting markets, Toronto and Vancouver.

Industry changes during the past 10 years have turned the racetrack into more of a television studio than a sports stadium, as fans went first to conveniently located off-track betting restaurants and now to their living rooms. Certainly, revenue from food and beverage has been lost (admission to most tracks is free these days), but home betting is much more profitable for the tracks because the system is automated - that means expensive tellers don't have to be paid.

As this change has taken place, the television departments at tracks have become remarkably more sophisticated. A decade ago, Woodbine had a few employees working in television. Now there are more than 100 people churning out broadcasts for other racetracks and various sports networks. So when TRN Canada launches as a digital channel, it will hardly be starting from scratch.