Effects of ISU's media deal - Figure Skating on CBC but not Eurosport | Page 24 | Golden Skate

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

cake

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 30, 2007
That I could hear random audience chatter during Anna S's performance and hardly her music at all was really disappointing. The only non-music I want to hear during a skate is the skater's blades cutting across the ice! 👿

Well at least we could clearly hear their enthusiastic reactions to the quads ;)
 

Rissa

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
The youtube stream was great. I'd just love to see it done at 60fps. I have found that you get a much more realistic feeling of the skaters' performance with a high-fps stream than the normal 25/30fps. In fact, I would prefer high-fps over hi-res.

Huh. Personally, I dislike high-fps because while sharper, the skaters appear slower.
 

ancientpeas

The Notorious SEW
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 11, 2014
I will miss the CBC highlight show with Kurt and Carol but at least we are getting the livestream and other than a few sound issue it worked well for me.

I do think that some kind of commentary between skates would be good for casual fans but I'm not sure how many casual fans are tuning in. Also if you do one you'd have to provide it in various languages to keep people happy and then you'd have to have split feeds and pay several people. It would get pricey.
 

pesto

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 30, 2016
It was all slightly cruddy. The music level kept dipping and rising. The inconsistent tech box and occasional lack of scores made it even harder to follow.

And that is apart from issues on site with weird delays before skaters etc.

I think you'd already have to be a diehard fan to persist in watching.

I wouldn't call myself a diehard, more of a mid-level fan. I like to keep up with it and watch at least highlights of events from GP level and up, but still struggle with technicalities, and can see that if this level of coverage continues, I will probably give up on the joyless experience.
 

Interspectator

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
With a VPN, the youtube stream has been working like a charm for me so far. I hope this continues for the whole season--and longer!
 

temadd

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 19, 2015
It was all slightly cruddy. The music level kept dipping and rising. The inconsistent tech box and occasional lack of scores made it even harder to follow.

And that is apart from issues on site with weird delays before skaters etc.

I think you'd already have to be a diehard fan to persist in watching.

I wouldn't call myself a diehard, more of a mid-level fan. I like to keep up with it and watch at least highlights of events from GP level and up, but still struggle with technicalities, and can see that if this level of coverage continues, I will probably give up on the joyless experience.

I was at SA and the music level kept dipping and rising in the arena too.
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Country
United-States
I actually loved the lack of a tech box.:laugh:

Didn’t have one in the 70s. Didn’t have running scoreboards in other sports either. Lucky we had a time clock.

Now let me go chase those kids off my lawn...:biggrin:
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
Everyone who's suggested Opera, thank you so very much. It works perfectly. :)
 

Miller

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
First impressions: The stream worked for me, so I could watch the Pairs' and Mens SP live, the quality could be a little better but I'll give them some time for improvements before I complain. What I don't like is that they upload the top three individual performances right after each segment, if I can't watch live I don't want to know the results before I watch it. Apart from that, please upload all skaters' performances if you're going to hunt down other accounts for posting them.

Sorry for everyone who can't see it though there's barely anything on TV in their country. :( ISU should at least make it available afterwards if the livestream is geoblocked.

Alternatively put timestamps/hyperlinks in the archived livestreams. Would really help in looking for specific skaters' performances after the event. Better still, do both i.e. timestamps and individual performances.

Agree with you re top 3, just have all performances in order skated, then can find out result for yourself (plenty of other sources for result).
 

Miller

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
Men's Short Program archive has now been blocked, in the UK at least, on copyright grounds by WMG music. I feared something like this would happen. Only way to see anything now other than top 3 is what other people have (illegally) uploaded.
 

Winnie_20

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 24, 2013
Two streams taken down (so far).
The Ladies FS has multiple issues where the video and sound just disappear altogether (including during Wakaba’s skate, argh!)
I am not amused. These archived streams are useless if they get axed due to music rights and are of such bad quality, and unfortunately we live in a world with different timezones, plus some of us have these pesky little things called real life and social life that usually don’t include watching figure skating, and certainly not live in the dead of night.

Meanwhile, just saw this news:
https://nos.nl/artikel/2307212-internationaal-schaatsen-ook-komende-vier-jaar-bij-de-nos.html
So, the NOS have secured international skating rights for pretty much all skating for the next four years... except for figure skating, of course, because that’s not proper skating here. Oh, I am lying: they are allowed to air summaries of the European and Worlds. Woohoo!!! (Read: we show you the winner of every discipline, aren’t you lucky?!)
Yeah, so nothing has changed there. At all.
So technically, not really news, then. Just another confirmation of what we already knew: nobody in the Netherlands has the rights for FS.
 
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skatingfan4ever

"Our blade takes us in the most amazing places."
Medalist
Joined
Nov 3, 2012
Country
United-States
What country do you set your VPN to to watch the ISU YouTube videos? I'm in the United States.
 

EVAMARIA

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 5, 2011
I live in Sweden and have to rely on the videos. On the ISU channel though all vids GEO blocked.

What a downgrade from Eurosport 😐
 

viennaskater

Medalist
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Two streams taken down (so far).
The Ladies FS has multiple issues where the video and sound just disappear altogether (including during Wakaba’s skate, argh!)
I am not amused. These archived streams are useless if they get axed due to music rights and are of such bad quality, and unfortunately we live in a world with different timezones, plus some of us have these pesky little things called real life and social life that usually don’t include watching figure skating, and certainly not live in the dead of night.

Meanwhile, just saw this news:
https://nos.nl/artikel/2307212-internationaal-schaatsen-ook-komende-vier-jaar-bij-de-nos.html
So, the NOS have secured international skating rights for pretty much all skating for the next four years... except for figure skating, of course, because that’s not proper skating here. Oh, I am lying: they are allowed to air summaries of the European and Worlds. Woohoo!!! (Read: we show you the winner of every discipline, aren’t you lucky?!)
Yeah, so nothing has changed there. At all.
So technically, not really news, then. Just another confirmation of what we already knew: nobody in the Netherlands has the rights for FS.

Bravo! to what you say here - although sorry to learn that your country does not have the rights for FS.

As I could not see all the events over the weekend, and then working full-time, I only watched the Pairs and Ladies Free last night, so yes it is important to have these archived streams. Right now I don't know how long they will stay on YouTube but it will be good if they can stay there for at least a week after the event, IF they have to remove them at all!

With regard to quality, so far so good.

What big question is in my mind is: Why didn't the ISU provide this service YEARS ago?? Over the last few years I've relied on my Eurosport Player subscription to get live coverage, also recorded coverage on the channels. But without that, I have struggled many a time to get a live link, and sometimes it's been hopeless.

Eurosport weren't 100% reliable on showing everything, but I miss the commentary of Chris and Simon and the other guys. Pity.
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
What big question is in my mind is: Why didn't the ISU provide this service YEARS ago??

Well, these are people who think that an athlete pool comprised for the most part of teenagers and young adults will be confounded by the difficulty of having to use such a strange and newfangled item as a USB stick to submit their program music on, remember. It takes them time to get their heads around the whole technology thing.
 
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