Eurosport Updates
- Thread starter CaroLiza_fan
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- Joined
- Feb 4, 2012
Unfortunately the men's and pairs won't be with commentary this time, which is a shame as Savchenko/Massot are probably the only figure skating germans care about. If Shoma wins I guess at least his LP will be shown in the recap. I assume it's because it is in the middle of the night. We've seen that in the previous years.
Yep, only the Gala for Germany. *fuh* the Gala,
. I want the competition. I don't care for the Gala at all, argh! My only hope is that at least the rerun will have S/M and Shoma. But if neither wins, I'm not sure we'll even get that. But who am I to complain, you have it worse.
I'm not a Gala fan, either, because it's always the same people (really loved that one a few weeks ago, was it... Nebelhorn?).Yep, only the Gala for Germany. *fuh* the Gala,
It's not that I cannot see it, I do get the livestreams, and 30 euros for a full year isn't too bad for that. But I do kind of enjoy the commentary now and then.
But you know what? I'm actually seriously wondering why I am paying a lot of money every month now for "normal", old-fashioned television channels. Because the main reason I still have that subscription was to see the figure skating on Eurosport in high definition. But if they're not gonna bother to show any of it here... Maybe it's time to rethink my subscription and just pay for livestreams, and join the 21st century way of watching television.
Yes... I am having those thoughts too...It's not that I cannot see it, I do get the livestreams, and 30 euros for a full year isn't too bad for that. But I do kind of enjoy the commentary now and then.
But you know what? I'm actually seriously wondering why I am paying a lot of money every month now for "normal", old-fashioned television channels. Because the main reason I still have that subscription was to see the figure skating on Eurosport in high definition. But if they're not gonna bother to show any of it here... Maybe it's time to rethink my subscription and just pay for livestreams, and join the 21st century way of watching television.
Our cable TV subscription is pretty expensive, but we stuck with it because it is (or was) the "bundle" from our provider, that included British Eurosport 1&2 (and one or two other channels we wanted, like NHK World). But we have been watching the "regular" TV channels less and less, and in fact - not at all for the last few months
We have been using internet-based services instead (mostly Japanese TV). Eurosport Player has always been very good quality at my location too, and it includes the "extra" livestream channels that aren't available to us any other way... so it makes little sense to continue with our current TV subscription. Need to switch to a cheaper subscription, or a "freeview" box (for the "main" UK free-to-air channels like BBC etc).
The last thing in favour of keeping our cable access to Eurosport (vs Eurosport Player online), is the convenience of being able to schedule recordings on the set-top box, for when we are out/away. But that is never reliable anyway, you know how "volatile" the Eurosport scheduling is on the 2 terrestrial channels, right? So even that is probably not going to stop me switching to online Eurosport...
Exactly. And since we get like almost nothing of the figure skating events now on the terrestrial channels, there's nothing to record, either.
Honestly, the only other thing I ever watch these days is show jumping (and the occasional stuff like gymnastics if it comes along), and I already have two livestream subscriptions for that, too.
if I could figure out a way to record the Eurosport livestream and then watch it back on the telly, that would be nice, at least, but I'm not that smart, and anyway, why would I bother? If I miss events (and I will, because a., I'm not nocturnal, and b. late October/November is always filled with social engagements), I can just go to youtube and watch the videos from there, or, heck, wait a minute, aren't the streams supposed to be archived on the Eurosport player now, too? <----- did I dream that up, or is it really like that? Cuz I just realized, that would really, really make things a lot easier.
// Okay, not sure exactly what gets archived, but certainly *some* of the livestreams are listed in the archives (they don't have the 1 or 2 number in the E icon). So I guess that may work. Nice.
Yeah, it's not exactly clear to me what we can replay on demand, or for how long after the event... but if we can do that, for a day or so, then I won't want/need to record stuff anyway...
I use Bandicam to record live streams. Eurosport does not always archive every event it shows live, and I believe the archived videos are only available for 7 days (may have changed with the new player, idk.)
Although Eurosport does show all the grand prix events on Eurosport Player, I really do hope they show most of them on the linear channels with commentary (I really like Simon Reed) like they did last year. Seeing only that the men's short program will be the only live competition from the Rostelecom Cup shown on the linear channels does not give my hopes up. But then again it kind of conflicts with snooker this time.
The British coverage for Rostelecom is pathetic lol. I already pay for the channel, why do I have to then pay more to watch literally the only sport I follow closely?
I just discovered that if you have an Amazon Prime account, you can get a free 7 day trial, so that's this week sorted for me. I do hope the coverage for the other Grand Prix improves but I'm not holding my breath.
I just discovered that if you have an Amazon Prime account, you can get a free 7 day trial, so that's this week sorted for me. I do hope the coverage for the other Grand Prix improves but I'm not holding my breath.
You can already check out the coverage for week 2. You get all four UK-evening events live on E2, but not the four that take place during the night. You’re lucky. ;-)
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2015
As a small note on this thread, I'm not greatly encouraged that when exploring the archived clips in the Eurosport Player page, that figure skating is not only not listed as a category but that the likes of table tennis is. Is table tennis really considered a more popular and widely watched sport in Europe than skating?!?! Good grief...
german eurosport commentary is my favorite
they are a little grumpy and direct, but honest and not really nationalistic. It took me years, but once I 'got' their humor, they are hilarious it takes the live streams more than a minute to be converted into an archived stream, from experience about one day! So, if I didn't watch the livestream, but wanted to catch up a few hours later, I had to rely on youtube videos. Only after a day or at least a few hours later, I had access to the archived streams. Maybe this changed too, but I don't expect it...
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- Oct 25, 2012
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Figure skating was listed when the new look player was launched, but was subsequently replaced by squash.
Squash?! Like, what?!
The figure skating pages do actually still exist. Obviously, because they haven't shown anything yet, the On Demand page is empty. But, the schedule page has skating on it if you click through to Friday onwards.
ESP Player Figure Skating Schedule:
https://www.eurosportplayer.com/en/schedule/figure-skating/46
ESP Player Figure Skating On Demand:
https://www.eurosportplayer.com/en/on-demand/figure-skating/46
These links will re-direct to the version of ESP Player which is local to where the clicker is. So, for us, it will be British Eurosport.
By the way, I have posted half of my usual TV Schedule post (It is only half because I didn't want the computer on during Ophelia. But the rest will be put up this morning). And the British Eurosport schedule is one of the versions that is already in it:
https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/s...V-schedules!&p=1806178&viewfull=1#post1806178
Hope this helps
CaroLiza_fan
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2012
Table Tennis is pretty popular in Germany, definitely more than figure skating. Probably because there are a few succesful Table Tennis players and it is a sport that is widely accessable. Kids like to play it on schoolyards during the breaks, there were tables for Table Tennis at every school I went to.
It looks like all Eurosport UK will air of the upcoming Cup of Russia is the men’s short (live), men’s free, women’s free, the gala and highlights. So no full women’s short, no full short dance, no full free dance, no full short skate, no full free skate. Terrible coverage .
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If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times - Eurosport really needs to launch more linear channels if they are to be able to show everything they have the rights for.
But what really gets me this week is that the coverage of the English Open snooker is being simulcast on Quest. (Well, strictly speaking, Quest are only showing the afternoon sessions on the weekdays. It isn't until the weekend that they are showing both afternoon and evening sessions. Although, to be honest, looking at what they are showing, I can't see why Quest couldn't have shown all sessions for the whole tournament).
I know that the reason the English Open is being shown on Quest is that Eurosport want to raise the profile of the Homes Nations Series, which is only in it's second season. And showing it on a channel which is available on Freeview (the terrestrial TV service) is a perfect way of doing this.
But, why do they need to show it on British Eurosport 1 as well?! Like, it's not as if Quest is one of those channels that is on an HD multiplex on Freeview that not everybody can get.
What is stopping Eurosport from putting all of the English Open onto Quest, and letting their own-brand channels show the other sports that are happening this week?! Such as the figure skating.
Yes, I know that Quest is not available in the other countries that Eurosport broadcasts in. But, British Eurosport are also showing things (such as a tennis tournament) which are not being shown in other countries. So, could these things not have replaced the snooker, rather than replacing the likes of the figure skating?!
The decisions British Eurosport make on their broadcast schedule never make sense to me.
CaroLiza_fan
P.S. I have elaborated a bit on the World Superbike side of things in this post in the other thread.
Eurosport are just being very smart. Own the rights to show FS, barely show it on telly therefore make people pay extra to buy streams, and you need to hire fewer commentators because the non-lineair channels stream don’t have commentary. Brilliant.
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- Apr 18, 2015
Part of me is disappointed at the lack of coverage of the GP events but the other part is glad to have anything at all. I remember losing Eurosport for a couple of years and getting nothing at all and I remember times when there was little or no GP coverage there anyway. I know the BBCs coverage extends to showing maybe the LP of top two in each discipline after worlds in a very short highlights show if they feel like it. And at least there's YouTube for most of the programmes afterwards. I'm really trying to find a small bright side here!!!!
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Makes sense in theory.
But, Eurosport are having to pay the commentators for what little coverage they are showing on the linear channels anyway. So, why not try to get their moneysworth out of them?
The crux of the problem is that Eurosport can't decide whether they want to become a stand-alone premium sports network or not. So, to test the water, they are making us pay for a service which is useful but, frankly, far inferior to what other broadcasters are providing for free.
It is this half-way house that we have at the moment that is so infuriating.
Personally, I wouldn't begrudge having to pay a separate subscription (say, between £5 and £10 a month) to Eurosport on top of the Sky subscription if it meant that we got extra linear channels that could show everything they have the rights for in full.
But paying to watch the raw World Feed pictures with no commentary on the internet is ridiculous. On-screen graphics can only tell you so much. You need to have a human explaining what is going on to add to the experience.
Take a football match. A camera at the top of a grandstand showing 22 girls running around a green field. Even if you knew what everybody looked like, you can't make them out because the cameraman is trying to fit the whole width of the pitch into the shot to avoid making us sea-sick from constantly moving the camera and zooming in and out.
Streaming things online, or on "red-button" services, are a cop-out. Not everybody has a good enough internet connection to watch online streaming. And whilst red-button services at least get the stuff onto the TV, you can't record them to watch later on.
Eurosport could maybe get away with it if they had an On Demand service that worked the way archiving services are supposed to work. But they don't.
No, proper linear channels are the only solution.
And as for that On Demand service, well. It would be worth paying for if Eurosport made everything available, and made sure that the whole broadcast was actually within the archived video!
Look at the BBC iPlayer. It is the gold standard of On Demand services. Everything that is shown is archived within minutes of the broadcast finishing. And the videos are nicely trimmed. And it is absolutely free. With Eurosport Player, we are paying £5 a month for something which doesn't even come close to something that you don't have to pay for. (OK, so we pay for the BBC through the TV license fee, but you know what I mean).
What Eurosport need to do is to replace the current ESP1 and ESP2 with six or seven Free-To-Air linear general-sport channels showing the things that they have Pan-European rights for (and have the soundtracks for ALL languages available on each of these channels, which would save money as they would not have to pay extra carriage fees for duplicating channels).
Then each country can have a couple of premium linear channels that show things Eurosport only has national rights for (e.g. MotoGP, Bundesliga). And these premium channels can be bundled together with a Eurosport Player modelled on the BBC iPlayer for, say, between £5 and £10 a month (so, similar to what BT Sport are charging, but far less than the silly money that Sky Sports are charging).
This would successfully solve all the gripes that people have. Not only that, I can actually see this model attracting more people to sign up for their subscription service.
If they want to be taken seriously, Eurosport need to act like they are a serious player. At the moment, they are acting like Keystone Cops.
CaroLiza_fan
