Effects of ISU's media deal - Figure Skating on CBC but not Eurosport | Page 32 | Golden Skate

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

NaVi

Medalist
Joined
Oct 30, 2014
This was my comment after the GPF

Going from memory, Chris seemed a bit rusty during his first day commentating but I enjoyed him afterwards. I do wish there was a no commentary option somewhere but I'm glad they brought him in.

The Eurosport/Chris's style commentary does a good job at amplifying the emotion of the moment, being informative without bogging down with information that switches the audience into a more logical(rather than artistic/emotional) mentality, and being a kind of promoter of the sport and skaters. The latter is important because being too critical may make the audience wonder exactly why they are watching this.

I didn't watch the Youth Olympics coverage except for a few clips, but a lot of people(most of whom I find absolutely toxic) were on twitter raining down hate on him for his commentary there. Calling him biased and racist which I found weird consider he said he preferred the American free dance with Jeffrey Chen to the Russians who won.


The guy they have doing commentary at Euros is ok but he's not nearly as good as Chris with amplifying emotional affect and with promoting the skaters. I watched something yesterday where I found the Euro's commentary to be a bit of a buzzkill while the Boikova/K FS he was OK because he barely talked. I honestly don't mind Chris's talking in comparison to other commentators during programs.
 

Edwin

СделаноВХрустальном!
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Jan 5, 2019
Why is NBC's Olympic Channel so restrictive with its coverage of US Nationals? Money? Pride? Fear?
 

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode
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Jan 1, 2013
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Why is NBC's Olympic Channel so restrictive with its coverage of US Nationals? Money? Pride? Fear?

Definitely money. Why make a sport accessible when you think you can force people outside the US to pay $60USD for one competition?
 

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode
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For me peak commentating would be during the 2008 Brazilian Formula 1 Grand Prix (“Is that Glock?! Is that Glock?! It is Glock!!”)

*saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad*

Actually I hated that; the English commentators knew fine well that their commentary was going to other countries as well and that not everyone was on the Hamilton kool-aid. For most of us, I daresay, Massa's victory was the preferred one. But poor Timo Glock got a lot of unjustified hate. I don't think it was his fault - he did outstandingly to be where he was - but I do wish he'd managed to hold on one more corner. Or crashed into Hamilton. Massa is the better person and fully deserved that championship.
 

McBibus

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 7, 2019
Italian State TV is goinf to broadcast Dance and Ladies tonight after 1:00 AM and gala tomorrow at 23:14, not just on tv but even on the web.
Rai Sport has 3 web channels (1st being a mirror of the air broadcast) but apparently no space for the most looked up events.
I hope to find some not geoblocked source.
ISU of course is satisfied with the deal and will geoblock his youtube broadcast.
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
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Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
Of course I did ;)

I’m not gonna lie I cried. The last corner of the last lap of the last race of the season. You couldn’t make that up, pure magic!

Agreed, it was an epic race. It is always exciting when the championship goes down to the final race. But you can't get more dramatic than one of the challengers coming from behind and it going to the final corner.

Whereas it was obvious that Hamilton was a real talent that would have plenty of chances of winning the Championship, I think everybody realised that this would be Massa's only chance. So, that just made it all the more disappointing that he didn't do it.

Although I am not a fan of Hamilton now, I did actually like him back then. So, it wasn't anything personal against him. I just really liked Felipe.

Actually I hated that; the English commentators knew fine well that their commentary was going to other countries as well and that not everyone was on the Hamilton kool-aid. For most of us, I daresay, Massa's victory was the preferred one.

That is one thing I don't like about sports commentary on most British channels - they take the attitude that everybody is supporting the British representative. I cannot stand watching sports on the BBC because the commentary is always so biased.

It is really unfair for sports fans from Northern Ireland, because we usually have athletes representing various countries (not just the obvious ones - for example, we have won Olympic Gold Medals representing Canada and South Africa). But it is only the ones that represent Great Britain that get any coverage from the BBC.

That is why I like the style of commentary used on Eurosport. As the British ESP commentary is also going out internationally on the English audio feed of Eurosport International, the commentary is hardly ever biased towards the British. It fairer and more balanced. Which is probably why the ISU chose one of the British Eurosport guys to commentate on their international stream when they decided to have commentary on it.

That is what angers me about the British Formula 1 commentators (I normally watch the Sky coverage but, having listened to them when they were on the BBC, I suspect that the Channel 4 commentators are still like that too). Like the Eurosport commentators, they know that they are also going out to an international audience; yet they still show bias towards the British drivers.

But poor Timo Glock got a lot of unjustified hate. I don't think it was his fault - he did outstandingly to be where he was - but I do wish he'd managed to hold on one more corner.

Oh, I totally agree with you that it was not fair that that Glock got a lot of abuse for what happened. He did the best he could with the car he was in.

That is what I don't like about this social media era. That sports people have to deal with abuse from "fans" when a result goes a way that they don't like. And figure skating is a sport where this happens far too often. No wonder the ISU turns off the comments on their YouTube videos.

As for the next sentence of your comment, I am not going to dignify it with a response.

CaroLiza_fan
 

DSQ

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Country
United-Kingdom
Italian State TV is goinf to broadcast Dance and Ladies tonight after 1:00 AM and gala tomorrow at 23:14, not just on tv but even on the web.
Rai Sport has 3 web channels (1st being a mirror of the air broadcast) but apparently no space for the most looked up events.
I hope to find some not geoblocked source.
ISU of course is satisfied with the deal and will geoblock his youtube broadcast.

Would you rather have access to the ISU YouTube stuff even if it’s in English.

*saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad*

Actually I hated that; the English commentators knew fine well that their commentary was going to other countries as well and that not everyone was on the Hamilton kool-aid. For most of us, I daresay, Massa's victory was the preferred one. But poor Timo Glock got a lot of unjustified hate. I don't think it was his fault - he did outstandingly to be where he was - but I do wish he'd managed to hold on one more corner. Or crashed into Hamilton. Massa is the better person and fully deserved that championship.

Saying you hoped they crashed is psychotic tbh. People have died, you don’t have to like Lewis but that’s over the line.

But we’re drifting off topic.
 

NAOTMAA

Medalist
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
I don't understand the need to block the youtube videos of performances, even the ones of the ISU's official page. It's beyond idiotic :disagree:

I remember years back when a Jason Brown performance went viral on youtube and he gained greater popularity because of it. Many people probably became skating fans because of it. Now something like that can probably never happen again because NBC has all the videos blocked. They even block the videos of this year's Euros pairs competition and neither NBC or NBC Sports aired it all!

If NBC thinks it will make people pay for their lousy "special" services, or whatever it is, they are delusional. They may convince a small few but the majority of people will simply do without stop watching and gradually lose interest. Skating in America will just keep bleeding fans.
 

brightphoton

Medalist
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
95%+ of the GP, Euros, Nationals, and probably Worlds performances are or will be blocked on YouTube due to copyrights. It's really short-sighted. Makes you wonder who was at the negotiating table and brokered this deal.
 

Miller

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
ISU’s latest guide to watching Championships, this time 4CCs.

https://www.isu.org/figure-skating/...e-skating-championships-2020?templateParam=15

As expected less TV coverage in Europe, with many countries having the ISU livestream as well.

However be aware that 4 streams from Europeans – RD, Pairs Short, Men’s Short and Men’s Long have now been blocked, and there’s nothing to indicate anything will be different for 4CCs.

Hence get your viewing in early, do downloads etc. I do wish the ISU would get to grips with this, it’s crazy only having streams available for 2 or 3 days, plus the RD and Men’s Free were blocked within hours at Europeans.

I don’t know if some sort of blanket exemption that could be worked out e.g. Youth Olympics seemed OK albeit there’s fewer skaters there.

Similarly you come across videos where the sound’s been muted wherever there’s been some sort of copyright violation, but then carries on once you’ve got past the ‘offending’ part. I don’t know if this is a music company option in which case there’s probably not a lot you can do, but if it’s something for the uploader e.g. ‘do you want the sound to be muted wherever there’s a copyright violation’, then this has to be a whole lot better than the alternative.

Also there has to be somebody at the ISU running the Skating ISU channel, and receiving the notifications. Surely they must be able to talk their bosses about the problems and what if anything they can do about it, but it’s been happening all season right through from the Junior Grand Prix to now the Championships.
 

pesto

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 30, 2016
Is there any information about who will be doing the ISU commentary for 4C?
 

Tutto

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Guys I'd like some advice on how to salvage something out of this unfortunate situation with no TV coverage, so far I have been watching only now and then the ISU channel and deeply unhappy - it is okay I guess if you are able to watch live (no comparison to TV coverage I could record and watch at my leisure on the big screen with perfect sound and a nice commentary!!!), but once archived the live streams seem to disappear pretty rapidly. Given the Worlds in Canada this year and the time difference I again won't be able to watch most of it live. What bothers me amongst other things is that when you look for a specific event which took place lets say last night for an argument sake, the first thing you see is either the interviews with the medallists or their programs singled so immediately it spoils everything. How to avoid this? Thanks in advance!
Another thing I want to say that probably not many people are watching 'Dancing on Ice' this year, but the guy we all know as a BESP commentator, Mark Hanretty is through to the semi-finals with a paralympian Libby Clegg who is practically blind! I think she is totally amazing and so is Mark who bravely took on a challenge of coaching a visually impaired person to skate on ice, a bit more about it:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowb...xplains-really-doesnt-think-shes-special.html
 

Miller

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
Guys I'd like some advice on how to salvage something out of this unfortunate situation with no TV coverage, so far I have been watching only now and then the ISU channel and deeply unhappy - it is okay I guess if you are able to watch live (no comparison to TV coverage I could record and watch at my leisure on the big screen with perfect sound and a nice commentary!!!), but once archived the live streams seem to disappear pretty rapidly. Given the Worlds in Canada this year and the time difference I again won't be able to watch most of it live. What bothers me amongst other things is that when you look for a specific event which took place lets say last night for an argument sake, the first thing you see is either the interviews with the medallists or their programs singled so immediately it spoils everything. How to avoid this? Thanks in advance!

If you check out Randomfan's post at the top of Page 29, apparently there is a Watch Later feature of Youtube whereby you can put livestreams on there and then watch the (now archived) livestream without having to go through all the spoilers.

I've never used it (have been able to watch everything I've wanted to live, so it's not been a problem - until now), but it may be worth investigating. Also we don't know if the BBC will yet have coverage on its Red Button (Sky channel 981 etc., but I don't know if you get this in Ireland, but they had extensive coverage last year), in which case the ISU livestreams may well be blocked in the UK (but it may well be that you get them, plus maybe the Red Button also!).

Hope this helps for the time being, though I don't know any way round the problem of streams being blocked by music companies within a few hours - it happened within a few hours for a couple of the European ones, but 4CCs was fine. I guess it's just a case of being as quick as you can.
 

Winnie_20

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 24, 2013
Yes, that Watch Later feature works perfectly to avoid spoilers. Just add the streams to that List (the streams are listed days before the actual events take place!), et voila. Highly recommended!!
 

Tutto

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
If you check out Randomfan's post at the top of Page 29, apparently there is a Watch Later feature of Youtube whereby you can put livestreams on there and then watch the (now archived) livestream without having to go through all the spoilers.

I've never used it (have been able to watch everything I've wanted to live, so it's not been a problem - until now), but it may be worth investigating. Also we don't know if the BBC will yet have coverage on its Red Button (Sky channel 981 etc., but I don't know if you get this in Ireland, but they had extensive coverage last year), in which case the ISU livestreams may well be blocked in the UK (but it may well be that you get them, plus maybe the Red Button also!).

Hope this helps for the time being, though I don't know any way round the problem of streams being blocked by music companies within a few hours - it happened within a few hours for a couple of the European ones, but 4CCs was fine. I guess it's just a case of being as quick as you can.

Many thanks! I'll try and see if that Watch Later thing works for me.
BBC Red Button generally not available for ROI but there is a way round to watch it unfortunately it is impossible to record those programs alas... but thanks for reminding me of that I quite forgot at least something to hope for. And the highlights with Robin Cousins of course!

Oh and I meant to tell another story which I sense Caroliza_fan might appreciate. After the last increase of Sky subscription of which they didn't even bother to notify me I decided that enough is enough and with departure of FS from Eurosport I could downgrade and pay less, rang Sky after some 40 min in queue pretended that I wanted to cancel altogether, pointed out that new customers get a great deal while the loyal ones have to pay more & more, and had the price reduced by €14 a month. Not bad I thought, very pleased with myself until the moment I turned on my TV and and saw that not only Eurosport not there anymore (as expected) but o horror all my recorded programs of FS blocked too! Of course anyone with a bit of brain would expect that but somehow I didn't, and the reason being I have a recording of a movie on the channel which does not exist anymore (again without any notice from sky, it is just disappear one day) but the recording is there, so I though that what recorded already would be okay. Anyway back I had to ring Sky, only this time I was like 1 min in queue (why? because I was UPGRADING) and back to my old package (managed to get €8 a discount for 12 months though) only for the privilege to watch my recorded programs (I have about last 5 seasons). Aren't they clever?!
 

DSQ

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Country
United-Kingdom
You can record your programs on to a blank dvd and that way the encryption doesn’t work.
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
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Oct 25, 2012
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Okay, I'm confused by your title Effects of ISU's media deal - Figure Skating on CBC but not Eurosport - sounds like it's a go on the CBC, plus I saw it advertised. Here is the CBC TV schedule:

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figureskating/broadcast

Sorry, that was my doing. :eek::

This thread was created way back in September, when one of the Canadian members saw a post on Twitter saying that a deal had not yet been done with CBC to show figure skating this season.

Then a British member discovered that the same was the case with Eurosport. So I amended the title to include both channels:

"Effects of ISU's media deal - No Figure Skating on CBC or Eurosport"

Since then, CBC did do a deal (albeit not as comprenhensive as before), but Eurosport didn't. But since the discussion in the thread had been about both channels, it would have been strange to cut CBC out of the title. So, to update the title to reflect the new situation, I just made a couple of minor tweeks to the wording:

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

Sorry that this has caused confusion. But, it was all down to trying to keep the title up to date with an evolving situation.

CaroLiza_fan
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
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If you check out Randomfan's post at the top of Page 29, apparently there is a Watch Later feature of Youtube whereby you can put livestreams on there and then watch the (now archived) livestream without having to go through all the spoilers.

I've never used it (have been able to watch everything I've wanted to live, so it's not been a problem - until now), but it may be worth investigating.

I meant to reply to that post, as well as your's, but I never got the chance to at the time. And then completely forgot about it.

So, I will now.

Why don't you try using the Playlist feature of Youtube, there's one per event and that way you don't have to plough through all the other stuff on there. However it doesn't solve the problem of the top 3 finishers, plus if a stream's been blocked you'll only find out about it when you click on it - such videos don't appear in the Videos list.

The ISU posts the streams on their youtube channel a few hours before each event. So you can try putting them on Watch Later (yes that thing people don't really use but should), so the next time you pull up youtube, you can go straight to your Watch Later playlist and click the now-archived stream without having to go through spoilers or speed skating. :thumbsup:

Thank you both for the suggestions. The thing is, the only time I ever sign into YouTube is when I am uploading a video. Frankly, I don't want Google knowing what I am watching. So, although the "Watch Later" tool would be useful, I wouldn't be using it.

The Playlists, however, would work for me. I have to be honest, whenever I go to a YouTube channel, I usually click straight through to the videos page. Unless I am there to open a livestream (which are listed at the top of the page), I don't normally stay on the channel's home page for more than a second. So, because they are listed further down the home page, I had completely forgotten about playlists.

Also, if you want to really tear your hair out, look at the Video Archives section of the ISU’s home page (it’s at the bottom right hand side). Follow it through and you’ll come to this page https://www.imgreplay.com/search/re..."INTERNATIONAL SKATING UNION"&spellCheck=true where you’ll find World Champ videos going all the way back to 2006, the last 2 or 3 years of Euros, 4CC, Junior Worlds + GPF, plus starting this year the GP series. However it’s for corporate customers only! I can’t see any way of a personal customer using it, and if you try to register it wants all sort of details of your company name etc. etc. Now if that archive, which looks as if it’s going to built year on year and replace the Eurovision one, was to be open for individuals as well...

That would be perfect! Come on ISU, do something similar on your own website!!!

So, I take it this means that ISU has been using IMG for their events since 2006. So, given how experienced IMG are in covering sporting events, it begs the question as to why the coverage has been so bad this season.

Also we don't know if the BBC will yet have coverage on its Red Button (Sky channel 981 etc., but I don't know if you get this in Ireland, but they had extensive coverage last year), in which case the ISU livestreams may well be blocked in the UK (but it may well be that you get them, plus maybe the Red Button also!).

Nearly all of the channels from the UK's Public Service Broadcasters that are broadcast on Astra 28.2E are Free-To-Air (the exceptions being 3 of the STV HD regions, which are Free-To-View). So, although only BBC1 NI, BBC2 NI SD / BBC2 Eng HD, and BBC4 are included on the Sky EPG in Southern Ireland, the other channels are able to be manually tuned.

(In case you are wondering why the whole of Ireland gets the English region of BBC2 HD, it is because BBC2 NI HD is not broadcast on satellite, due to the BBC not wanting to pay for the extra transponder space needed for it).

Many thanks! I'll try and see if that Watch Later thing works for me.
BBC Red Button generally not available for ROI but there is a way round to watch it unfortunately it is impossible to record those programs alas... but thanks for reminding me of that I quite forgot at least something to hope for. And the highlights with Robin Cousins of course!

Yes, it will be interesting to find out if the BBC are showing anything this season. However, I don't hold out much hope.

You see, the reason the BBC were able to show it in previous years was because the ISU had sold the pan-European rights to the EBU, of which the BBC is a member (along with RTÉ, ARD, ORF, etc.) And since the EBU no longer has the rights, I doubt if the BBC will pay for to show it themselves.

Oh and I meant to tell another story which I sense Caroliza_fan might appreciate. After the last increase of Sky subscription of which they didn't even bother to notify me I decided that enough is enough and with departure of FS from Eurosport I could downgrade and pay less, rang Sky after some 40 min in queue pretended that I wanted to cancel altogether, pointed out that new customers get a great deal while the loyal ones have to pay more & more, and had the price reduced by €14 a month. Not bad I thought, very pleased with myself until the moment I turned on my TV and and saw that not only Eurosport not there anymore (as expected) but o horror all my recorded programs of FS blocked too! Of course anyone with a bit of brain would expect that but somehow I didn't, and the reason being I have a recording of a movie on the channel which does not exist anymore (again without any notice from sky, it is just disappear one day) but the recording is there, so I though that what recorded already would be okay. Anyway back I had to ring Sky, only this time I was like 1 min in queue (why? because I was UPGRADING) and back to my old package (managed to get €8 a discount for 12 months though) only for the privilege to watch my recorded programs (I have about last 5 seasons). Aren't they clever?!

This is why I would never attempt to make changes to the package that we have been on since we got HD. Because there have been changes to the structure of the packages since then, meaning that if we changed to one of the newer packages, we would lose out on things that we do actually use.

Back in the early 90's when Sky was in it's infancy on analogue, we took out the full package. But, in the mid-90's, we realised that we didn't really watch the Sky Movies and Sky Sports channels, so got rid of them and just kept the Sky Multi-Channels. And although the way we receive the channels may have changed during the next 25 years, we have been on what is essentially the same package ever since. The only change we have made since then is that we added the High Definition channels in 2012, purely because that was when Sky Sports F1 launched, and it was bundled in with the HD package. If it hadn't been, we would probably still be watching in Standard Definition.

And that is the reason why we wouldn't change our package now, because we would lose Sky Sports F1 if we did. When Sky Sports gave their channels a revamp in 2017, the F1 channel was moved to the Sky Sports package. If you already had it, they let you keep it. But if you wanted to get it, you had to take it along with at least the 2 general sports channels. Which, of course, cost a lot more. :mad:

They're a bunch of crooks! And the same is the case with BT!

I don't know if you heard, but a few years ago Sky and BT fell out big time, and Sky took all their channels off the BT TV version of YouView (the service that allows you to receive pay TV channels via the internet to your digital terrestrial box). But, they've kissed and made up now, and did a deal to cross-sell their channels. As a result, on Sky you can now get BT Sport and Sky Sports bundled together; and on BT TV you can now get all the Sky channels via the Now TV service.

BT are now encouraging their customers to switch from the old YouView service to the new Now TV service. HOWEVER, if you do that, you lose roughly 20 other channels that are on YouView but not on Now TV! Of course, this isn't being publicised, and you only find out after you switch. :mad:

Oh, and talking about losing channels, do remember that you need to re-tune your Saorview box(es) / TV(s) next Wednesday (4[SUP]th[/SUP] March 2020). That is when the dual-transmission phase of the 700MHz clearance ends, with the old frequencies of the terrestrial channels being switched off and only the new frequencies remaining.

To be honest, I thought it was easier the way we did it in the UK. We had no dual-transmission phase, so it was just a case of switching off the old set of frequencies and immediately switching on the new set of frequencies.

And it would have been handy if you guys Down South had done the same thing at the same time as us Up North, because that way those of us that receive both Freeview and Saorview would only have had to re-tune once. As it is, practically everybody on the island will have had to re-tune twice!

CaroLiza_fan
 
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