Ch 10 poised to take Melbourne Cup TV rights

CHANNEL 10 is poised to snatch the broadcast rights to the Melbourne Cup with insiders confirming a contract could be signed as early as this weekend.

The move would be a blow for Seven which has shown the iconic race since 2002 but would be a major boost for Ten after it lost the rights to Big Bash League cricket recently.

Ten's offer which is believed to be somewhere between $5 million to $10 million per year would reportedly also cover the Victoria Derby, Oaks Day and Stakes Day and include mobile and digital rights.

Last year's telecast of the Melbourne Cup race averaged a whopping 1.797 million viewers across the five capital cities.

The result was the lowest ever for "the race that stops a nation" but Seven has said that race day saw a massive amount of live streaming.

A Ten insider confirmed that the deal is on the cards but said that it is "early days" as far as signatures on a contract.

Seven is on the record as saying that it will only pay big money for sports rights if a deal makes commercial sense.

That corporate philosophy allowed Nine to swoop and secure the rights to Australia's summer of tennis, including the Australian Open, for $300 million recently.

Seven recently joined forces with Fox Sports to secure a landmark cricket rights deal worth $1.182 million.

In May, the Victorian Racing Club put the Melbourne Cup Carnival broadcast rights out to tender for the first time in 16 years.