Effects of ISU's media deal - Figure Skating on CBC but not Eurosport | Page 5 | Golden Skate

Effects of ISU's media deal - Figure Skating on CBC but not Eurosport

Edwin

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Jan 5, 2019
That would have been because free livestreaming conflicted with pre-existing broadcasting agreements in those countries.

And even this is mostly a futile attempt with VPN services available to almost anybody.

Rights holders are struggling to keep up with technology, while at the same time aiming for as wide a coverage as possible. Sometimes, parties of 'lesser interest' can strike a deal on the cheap.

And the deals ISU might be proud of (in their financial advantage that is) may mean nothing for us, i.e. selling subscription package deals while you are only interested in certain events and are willing to pay-per-view for those.
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
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Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
Someone on a Facebook group actually wrote to ISU and she received a reply.
Here I copy - "Hello, it is true that Eurosport will not be broadcasting Figure Skating, because we are trying to make figure skating more accessible to everyone. There will be an announcement very soon about the new broadcasting, as soon as the negotiations have been finished in all territories, and we are sure you will not be disappointed" :shocked:

Well, I do hope what they say is true. Although one has to wonder why they geoblocked their own streaming in most countries in previous seasons, IF they are aiming for wider accessibility as they say. :scratch:

This is not good.

I think the best case scenario is that the ISU does a deal with the EBU, so that Public Service Broadcasters (such as the BBC, RTÉ, RAI, ARD, ORF, etc.) are given the option of showing it. But, given that figure skating is not a mainstream sport in many of those countries, I don't think the coverage would be terribly extensive.

In terms of the UK and Ireland, I would imagine the BBC would put the raw World Feed coverage on their website, and leave it at that. I can't see them putting anything on the main linear channels (maybe something on the Red Button channel if there is nothing else to show). But I doubt if they would go to the expense of hiring commentators for what is a fringe sport.

What I fear will happen in the British Isles, though, is that Sky Sports will pick up the rights through now having common ownership with NBC Universal. And beacuse it is such a fringe sport here, Sky will just use the American coverage. If we are lucky, they might put the figure skating onto the "taster channel", Sky Sports Mix. Which would be fine, as it is included in the main package (just like Eurosport). But if they put it onto one of the premium sports channels (probably Sky Sports Action and Sky Sports Arena), that will be the end of most figure skating fans in the British Isles watching. Including me.

I wish somebody would hurry up and announce what is happening. It's getting too close to the Senior GP Series starting.

CaroLiza_fan
 

MGstyle

Crawling around on the ice after chestnuts
Medalist
Joined
Sep 1, 2015
This is not good.

I think the best case scenario is that the ISU does a deal with the EBU, so that Public Service Broadcasters (such as the BBC, RTÉ, RAI, ARD, ORF, etc.) are given the option of showing it. But, given that figure skating is not a mainstream sport in many of those countries, I don't think the coverage would be terribly extensive.

In terms of the UK and Ireland, I would imagine the BBC would put the raw World Feed coverage on their website, and leave it at that. I can't see them putting anything on the main linear channels (maybe something on the Red Button channel if there is nothing else to show). But I doubt if they would go to the expense of hiring commentators for what is a fringe sport.

What I fear will happen in the British Isles, though, is that Sky Sports will pick up the rights through now having common ownership with NBC Universal. And beacuse it is such a fringe sport here, Sky will just use the American coverage. If we are lucky, they might put the figure skating onto the "taster channel", Sky Sports Mix. Which would be fine, as it is included in the main package (just like Eurosport). But if they put it onto one of the premium sports channels (probably Sky Sports Action and Sky Sports Arena), that will be the end of most figure skating fans in the British Isles watching. Including me.

I wish somebody would hurry up and announce what is happening. It's getting too close to the Senior GP Series starting.

CaroLiza_fan

Totally. I would like to know at least. Personally I would prefer pay per view, this way I am paying for exactly what I am interested in. I can accept Sky Sport if there is an option to subscribe only during the winter sport season, I am NOT going to pay for an annual subscription, as it will be totally useless for at least 6-7 months of a year and all the "fringe" stuff I have no interest in whatsoever.
But definitely we need to know ASAP, this last minute anxiety attack is killing me - if I have to resort to the Russian streaming, fine, at least I will know and get some peace of mind, even if grudgingly.
 

surimi

Onward and forward, Sota!
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2013
What would work best for me is a stream/archived stream on ISU website, or them selling rights to individual state TVs which would work just fine for me to watch online. I'll wait for more info. But I cannot understand why this couldn't have been sorted out much earlier, why we get this last minute chaos.
Maybe the ISU should split into a FS union, and speed skating union. That way we could be sure that someone who cares about FS is in charge, and actively trying to make the sport more popular.
 

Ruthypegs

On the Ice
Joined
May 5, 2017
Country
United-Kingdom
I have written to Eurosport again to see what they say this time (last time they assured me that they would be broadcasting all the main events...
 

LynsJ

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 13, 2018
I have written to Eurosport again to see what they say this time (last time they assured me that they would be broadcasting all the main events...

They also assured me of the same so I will be writing to them again too
 

rain

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
I managed to finally get a straight-up reply from CBC, and here it is. Read it and weep, folks. No figure skating coverage for Canadians this season:

At this time, CBC does not own the broadcast rights to the ISU Figure Skating season. We will continue to follow the stories of Canada's athletes through our editorial and social platforms and should we be successful in reacquiring the rights, we will ensure everyone is made aware.

Best,
Tanya
CBC Audience Relations


I suggest more people write in to complain. If there's enough audience reaction, maybe we can get something going.
 

lariko

Medalist
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
Country
Canada
I managed to finally get a straight-up reply from CBC, and here it is. Read it and weep, folks. No figure skating coverage for Canadians this season:

At this time, CBC does not own the broadcast rights to the ISU Figure Skating season. We will continue to follow the stories of Canada's athletes through our editorial and social platforms and should we be successful in reacquiring the rights, we will ensure everyone is made aware.

Best,
Tanya
CBC Audience Relations


I suggest more people write in to complain. If there's enough audience reaction, maybe we can get something going.

Ye gods. :(
 

Supernovaimplosion

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 13, 2018
Hello, it is true that Eurosport will not be broadcasting Figure Skating, because we are trying to make figure skating more accessible to everyone. There will be an announcement very soon about the new broadcasting, as soon as the negotiations have been finished in all territories, and we are sure you will not be disappointed"

Who knows, maybe it'll be a youtube stream with the b.esp guys commentating. :laugh:
 

Edwin

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Record Breaker
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Jan 5, 2019
I managed to finally get a straight-up reply from CBC, and here it is. Read it and weep, folks. No figure skating coverage for Canadians this season:

At this time, CBC does not own the broadcast rights to the ISU Figure Skating season. We will continue to follow the stories of Canada's athletes through our editorial and social platforms and should we be successful in reacquiring the rights, we will ensure everyone is made aware.

Best,
Tanya
CBC Audience Relations


I suggest more people write in to complain. If there's enough audience reaction, maybe we can get something going.

No reason given? Can we assume it was about money? CBC probably isn't poor, so this doesn't bode well for other broadcasters. Will ISU be so foolish to try selling their rights to commercial payed subscription services? Some other governing bodies made the same choice and saw their contracts not renewed since the subscription service ran into a loss because too few people wanted to subscribe at their terms (which usually force a package deal on you and me customer, which most of us aren't interested in at all).
 

ramurphy2005

Unabashed Mainer
On the Ice
Joined
Feb 12, 2014
Country
United-States
I managed to finally get a straight-up reply from CBC, and here it is. Read it and weep, folks. No figure skating coverage for Canadians this season:

At this time, CBC does not own the broadcast rights to the ISU Figure Skating season. We will continue to follow the stories of Canada's athletes through our editorial and social platforms and should we be successful in reacquiring the rights, we will ensure everyone is made aware.

Best,
Tanya
CBC Audience Relations


I suggest more people write in to complain. If there's enough audience reaction, maybe we can get something going.

Argh!!!!!!!

CBC comes with our cable package, so I've had two TV sources of skating for awhile. I don't know what other parts of New England might have the same sort of thing, but it's available in a good portion of Maine.

I think the streaming wars across all sorts of platforms are going to come to a head at some point, so who knows what that's eventually going to mean for skating.
 

Lunalovesskating

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Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 3, 2018
Someone on a Facebook group actually wrote to ISU and she received a reply.
Here I copy - "Hello, it is true that Eurosport will not be broadcasting Figure Skating, because we are trying to make figure skating more accessible to everyone. There will be an announcement very soon about the new broadcasting, as soon as the negotiations have been finished in all territories, and we are sure you will not be disappointed" :shocked:

Well, I do hope what they say is true. Although one has to wonder why they geoblocked their own streaming in most countries in previous seasons, IF they are aiming for wider accessibility as they say. :scratch:

Nooooooooooo. The commentary of the German Eurosport commentators was my highlight at every competition. How am I going to survive this season without them?! :(
 

rain

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
I've now also contacted the ISU to state my displeasure. Everybody should do the same. What with their war on Youtube, who knows if I'll even be able to find videos of the competitors after the event? They need to get their crap together. They surely cannot hope to win new fans to the sport if it is this hard to find a way to watch. I told them as much.
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
This all is just horrible. Dutch Public television only shows soccer/football and speed skating, and I used to have Eurosport to fall back on (even if they tended to prefer showing snooker, aargh). I had planned to renew my paid subscription to watch the GP's, Euro's, 4 CC and World's but this changes everything. I have asked them, while mentioning that my sole reason for getting a paid subscription is figure skating, nothing else. Let's see what they say now....not really hopeful.
 

ElSoteroLoco

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 24, 2018
Wow! I used to think in the United States we got short changed on figure skating in seasons passed.... I'm feeling super thankful for NBC now. I still love to listen to the different commentaries from CBC and Eurosport ...provides such varied insights.
 

LaArdilla

Medalist
Joined
Sep 21, 2017
This is downright ridiculous. They are still negotiating two weeks before the GPs start?! Isn't it a tad too late? Announcing whatever deal they will come up with early enough would ensure them getting more money, wouldn't it. I mean, TAKE MY MONEY! I will happily pay for some sort of stream, I just need to know what to buy! I loved Eurosport Player - a good app for mobile devices, no commercials, no commentary if I grew tired of Polish uncles, great quality, ability to rewind or watch again. For weeks following each competitions I didn't even use to watch YouTube, because I had it all on the Player.
 
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