Luckily for everyone, I am not. You wouldn’t want to give someone as corruptible as me any political position anyway.Are you by any chance a carrerr politician?
Luckily for everyone, I am not. You wouldn’t want to give someone as corruptible as me any political position anyway.Are you by any chance a carrerr politician?
Not going to get involved in the debate, because I would basically just be repeating what most of you guys have been saying. (i.e. "I'm not paying!"; "the ISU haven't a clue!"; and "the governing of figure skating needs to be split from the governing of speed skating!")
But, I just went to the IFS Magazine's Twittter page after seeing a post in another thread, and I found something interesting. Their most recent post (from 17th February) was a link to the ISU's Annual Survey (didn't even know they had one!)
https://survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90524447/ISU-Fan-Survey-2023-Newsletter
Sorry, but it was only open from 09:00 GMT on 16th February 2023 to 17:00 GMT on 23rd February 2023.
Realising that this latest development was probably related to it, I decided to go through it, out of curiosity.
Sure enough, one of the pages was entitled "Watching Ice Skating". And went as follows:
- "How regularly do you currently watch Ice Skating events live?"
(Please select one option)
- Every competition
- Just highlights
- More than 5 events a season
- Between 2 and 5 events a season
- Less than 2 events a season
- Just the Olympic Games, every 4 years
- Never - Why?
If you picked anything other than "Every competition", "Just the Olympics" or "Never", the following question appeared:
- "Which ISU events do you watch regularly?"
(Select all answers that apply)
- World Cup
- Junior World Cup
- Grand prix
- World Championships
- European Championships
- World Junior Championships
I take it "World Cup" is the Senior GP Series; "Junior World Cup" is the Junior GP Series; and "Grand prix" is the GP Final.
But, imagine an official survey from the sport's governing body not getting the names of the events that are held in their name correct!
The next two questions only appear when you select something other than "Never" for question 1.
- "How do you watch Ice Skating?"
(Select all answers that apply)
- TV
- YouTube
- Recast
- Streaming platform - Please specify
- Other - Please specify
- "Have you heard about the Ice Skating Channel on Recast?"
(Please select one option)
- Yes
- No
The next question was always on the page:
- "Would you like to have access to one destination for all Ice Skating coverage?"
(Please select one option)
- Yes
- No
And this final question appeared if you selected "Yes":
- "Would you be prepared to pay an annual subscription or would you prefer to pay event-by-event?"
(Please select one option)
- Subscription
- Pay per view
Notice also that they did not acknowledge that there are other services that skating gets streamed on, such as DailyMotion or National Federations' own services. It's only YouTube or Recast.
So, it looks like they have been planning this for a while, and decided to use this survey as a means to find out what people thought of it. But, without giving us the option of saying "No, we want it to stay free on YouTube"
CaroLiza_fan
F1 is a great example of how even dinosaurs can evolve. They were even less computer savvy than the ISU, but finally realized that having race highlights online isn’t the destruction of the universe.Look at Formula 1, where the rights holders know that hey, it’s a truly global sport in the 21st century and their fans simply need to be able to watch races on demand over breakfast rather than get up at 2:30am local to watch live coverage from Austin or Singapore or Bahrain.
The short track and speed skating disciplines have events throughout the year, and in the USA they are on NBC’s service.I don't watch speed skating, but I could imagine there are world cups instead of GPs in speed skating?
Of course fans will want it free and of course they want to make money. So far it's clear. What they don't seem to take into account is any kind of long term planning. Short term they will get money for streams that were formerly free. Longer term the interest in the sport will sink further - and since that is already a huge problem, as can be seen e.g. in the attendance of competitions, I would definitely go another way as a federation, but well. They are either very desperate or very greedy.
OK, so no VPN?The Synchro events are there to replay on Recast... at least for now.
So the WMG (Warner Music Group) has blocked the full event rebroadcasts of the Women's free for the Jr. Worlds.
"Warner Music Group Corp. is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the global music industry, after Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Wikipedia"
So a skater used the wrong music and you have to "travel to NL" to watch it.
So how is "recast" gonna handle this in the future? Does it work without a VPN and has anyone seen a rebroadcast of say Synchro or ?
Seems like if you dont need a VPN, then they would get hammered like Peacock and the ISU.
It was too good to last.This might be really bad news...
https://isu.org/media-centre/libraries/iceskatingchannel
Have you ever farmed advertisement or hunting stupid surveys most of which you are ineligible for to get so called ‘free’ stuff? Topping up the wallet will be the only viable way.I read the title and thought they'd do something silly like charge people $20 to watch a tournament.
But this idea doesn't seem too bad, it's still free, you just have to help them promote it a little by sharing links.
I put the ISU events on as something I watch while doing other things. It's been great, I've become familiar with some skaters I would otherwise not know of. If it wasn't free and on anything other than Youtube I just wouldn't watch. I would make no effort to watch. So that's one less viewer and fan they have by making it slightly difficult to watch. I can watch the best women on Earth from September to March for free on Youtube every event, so there's no real reason to pay for ISU events.
The ISU seems to be in some kind of death spiral at the moment and need money, help with promotion, probably out of ideas and trying something different hoping it works. Hopefully they can turn it around, but they seem actively working against the sport and athletes at every turn.
Worlds will get huge crowds because it's Japan, but outside of that it's looking dire for them.
At this point, I wouldn't mind a DVD for fs. And I say this as someone who has grown up in the digital age. While DVDs might not be as convenient, once you have them, you have them - always.Remember when the DVD season review was the only way to watch race highlights?
No VPN needed. I just needed to watch enough ads to earn enough credits (75 needed) to use on the event.OK, so no VPN?
In Canada, I could watch the whole US Women's Natonals Freeskate on Icenetwork. (The second group was blacked out in the USA).Icenetwork was amazing.
Regarding the Asian skaters one aspect I feel they are failing at is spreading their skaters' stories to the public. I know the skaters from competitions, but I hardly get to know them or their coaches as people (unless it is Lambiel or Orser).)
Overall I think restricting access to viewing is never a good idea for any sport. Popular sports can get away with it, but even for them it remains a problematic step. It's better to increase interest and get more sponsors that pay more, and to sell merchandising.
Will this change affect our 2023 Senior Worlds viewing at all (i.e. Netherlands VPN for the ISU YouTube Stream)? I'm hoping that if this is going to happen, 2023 Worlds will be as usual and we'll have the whole off-season to decide what to do, figure it out, etc, in time for next season.
Still, the question remains of how to attract new fans. At least some of the videos would need to be available for free on major sites - social media, YT...