Effects of ISU's media deal - Figure Skating on CBC but not Eurosport | Page 9 | Golden Skate

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

litenkyckling

Final Flight
Joined
Jun 6, 2018
I wish that they'd sorted this out sooner - who doesn't have their contracts in place the week of the events starting? Such poor poor organisation.

I'd actually quite appreciate it if they went down the Amazon Prime route like with some of the tennis tournaments because at least its easy to navigate AND you can include it with a package that has other uses.

I'm also really going to miss Eurosport commentary (mostly because I like how they tend to cheer for everyone) - I know not everyone likes it but I think that if you want to grow the viewership of a technical sport, you need knowledgable people commentating and explaining to make it easier to understand in layman's terms.
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
I wish that they'd sorted this out sooner - who doesn't have their contracts in place the week of the events starting? Such poor poor organisation.

I'd actually quite appreciate it if they went down the Amazon Prime route like with some of the tennis tournaments because at least its easy to navigate AND you can include it with a package that has other uses.

I'm also really going to miss Eurosport commentary (mostly because I like how they tend to cheer for everyone) - I know not everyone likes it but I think that if you want to grow the viewership of a technical sport, you need knowledgable people commentating and explaining to make it easier to understand in layman's terms.

It's like what Tony Robinson said when he was presenting "Time Team": (paraphrasing) he didn't want to alienate people by using terms that went over people's heads. He wanted it to be archaeology for Beano readers.

The best presenters and commentators are those that can make the complicated accessible to anybody. And that is what the British Eurosport commentators are good at.

That is what I don't really like about the BBC commentary. Robin Cousins is very knowledgable (having been there himself), but what he talks about often goes over my head. He hasn't mastered that art of explaining things so that anybody can understand it. And Kat Downes just hasn't a clue.

In an ideal world, if British Eurosport was to lose figure skating, I would love to see the BBC take not just the rights but also the commentators. Because, let's face it, what use does British Eurosport have for former figure skaters on the payroll if they don't have any figure skating rights?!

But, I will really miss Simon Reed commentating on figure skating. And, although she hasn't been on the figure skating coverage for long, Catherine Whitaker as well.

One thing that would make up for losing them, though, would be if the BBC brought Sue Barker back to covering figure skating. Because, for a tennis player, she sure knew what she was talking about!

As for Amazon Prime - no. Apart from the fact that I don't have it (and don't want it), I have heard an awful pile of horror stories about things going wrong with their tennis coverage.

CaroLiza_fan
 

madraykin

Rinkside
Joined
May 31, 2018
One thing that would make up for losing them, though, would be if the BBC brought Sue Barker back to covering figure skating. Because, for a tennis player, she sure knew what she was talking about!

CaroLiza_fan

Both Sue Barker and Clare Balding did this weird thing that seems to have fallen out of fashion where they'd actually do some research on the thing they were commentating on so they knew what they were talking about even if it wasn't a sport they were usually involved in...
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
It's https://www.eurovisionsports.tv/isu/figure-skating/. It's the ISU's official skating channel linked to from their isu.org homepage. ...

As CL_fan said, what will become of the Eurovision page is not at all clear. :(

For many days now, the specific page for figure skating has had a large still of speedskaters at the top. Maybe not an end-of-the-world gaffe, but I find it strange that Eurovision can't even be bothered to show a still of figure skaters on its figure skating page.

If(?) the Eurovision streaming were to be discontinued, I really hope :pray: that the years of Eurovision archiving will not be taken down. (Certain competitions, such as Junior Worlds, were not geoblocked in the U.S.)
 

brushalley

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Country
United-Kingdom
In an ideal world, if British Eurosport was to lose figure skating, I would love to see the BBC take not just the rights but also the commentators. Because, let's face it, what use does British Eurosport have for former figure skaters on the payroll if they don't have any figure skating rights?!

But, I will really miss Simon Reed commentating on figure skating. And, although she hasn't been on the figure skating coverage for long, Catherine Whitaker as well.

One thing that would make up for losing them, though, would be if the BBC brought Sue Barker back to covering figure skating. Because, for a tennis player, she sure knew what she was talking about!



CaroLiza_fan

Please no Clare Balding RC or Sue Barker:disapp: Simon Reed Chris Howarth and Catherine are the best.Heck bring back Nicky Slater too hes great for the Ice Dance.
 

medoroa

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 30, 2017
I had a US friend buy the NBC Sports Gold figure skating package for me, and I'll be watching the GP events through a VPN or proxy. It's cheaper than Eurosport Player and much cheaper than Viaplay even if I have to pay for a VPN. As a bonus, the US Classic and US regionals are available unblocked. I really think this was a bad move by ISU even if they might profit from it in the short run, but we'll see when their contracts expire in four years.
 

Miller

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
As CL_fan said, what will become of the Eurovision page is not at all clear. :(

For many days now, the specific page for figure skating has had a large still of speedskaters at the top. Maybe not an end-of-the-world gaffe, but I find it strange that Eurovision can't even be bothered to show a still of figure skaters on its figure skating page.

If(?) the Eurovision streaming were to be discontinued, I really hope :pray: that the years of Eurovision archiving will not be taken down. (Certain competitions, such as Junior Worlds, were not geoblocked in the U.S.)

That is weird (and a very good spot).

I've been kind of hoping that the Eurovision site would still carry on no matter what, or as a fallback position if all else fails, and that it might just need extending to include the Nordic countries alongside the ones that are already geo-blocked like the U.S. (I've always found the videos afterwards to less geo-blocked - I'm in a Eurosport country and can always see videos of things that I couldn't see via streaming).

However we'll just have to see what happens, and yes let's hope the videos don't go if the Eurovision site does go, they provide an invaluable archive, and especially in these days of mass Youtube deletions.
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
Please no Clare Balding RC or Sue Barker:disapp: Simon Reed Chris Howarth and Catherine are the best.Heck bring back Nicky Slater too hes great for the Ice Dance.

Nah, Sue was actually really good when she was commentating with Robin in the past. But I don't want Clare Balding anywhere near figure skating. I just cannot stand her.

I agree on your point about how good the Eurosport team are. But, Simon and Catherine won't be going anywhere because they do the tennis coverage on Eurosport. And as for Nicky, I think he is enjoying life over in Canada too much to be coming home to commentate. And anyway, there would be complaints if the BBC was paying to fly him back and forth just to do commentary. Come to think of it, that would be the same situation with Chris, since he lives in America.

But, the other Ice Dancer in Eurosport's team, Mark Hanretty, wasn't so bad either. And during the streaming of the British Championships last season, we discovered some real commentary stars in Phil Harris and Jenna McCorkell.

Just so long as Joanne Conway doesn't make another comeback.

CaroLiza_fan
 

Ryan O

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
Canada
I’m like 99% sure it does. I believe the language in the contract is anything that occurs on Canadian soil is CTV.

That's interesting.

I thought CTV just had the rights to Skate Canada & Canadian Nationals.

If they can broadcast Worlds in Canada then at least we'll get to see Canadian coverage of Worlds in March.
 

SLIVER

Spectator
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Nah, Sue was actually really good when she was commentating with Robin in the past. But I don't want Clare Balding anywhere near figure skating. I just cannot stand her.

I agree on your point about how good the Eurosport team are. But, Simon and Catherine won't be going anywhere because they do the tennis coverage on Eurosport. And as for Nicky, I think he is enjoying life over in Canada too much to be coming home to commentate. And anyway, there would be complaints if the BBC was paying to fly him back and forth just to do commentary. Come to think of it, that would be the same situation with Chris, since he lives in America.

But, the other Ice Dancer in Eurosport's team, Mark Hanretty, wasn't so bad either. And during the streaming of the British Championships last season, we discovered some real commentary stars in Phil Harris and Jenna McCorkell.

Just so long as Joanne Conway doesn't make another comeback.

CaroLiza_fan

OMG Sue Barker was abysmal. Her commentary was so inane, the music 'was beautiful' and the programme 'was nice', she knew nothing about the sport.
Eurosport originated in 1989 with commentary from Chris Howarth and Simon Reed. Chris a former British Champion is the star commentator, who understood the rules, explained things so succinctly, yet had a brilliant chemistry with Reed. They were the only commentators till the late 90's when Nicky Slater was brought on, when Simon Reed was commenting on the Australian Open tennis. Nicky a former ice dancer rambled a bit and didn't follow the rules as well but still was quite enjoyable and knew a lot about dance.
As the new judging system was brought in, Simon Reed totally lost his way and didn't keep up his education of the sport. The COP is inherently harder to explain and not as spectator friendly anyway.
Lately the best commentator has been Mark Hannrety a former British dancer who knows the rule book inside out and is very aware of all things on social media and what is trending. He is aware of all the different happenings in each country, US, Russia and Japan etc..
Simon Reed and Catherine Whitaker are not a good combination at all, neither know the rules and whilst Catherine does her best in terms of doing her homework, you cannot have skating commentary these days without an ex skater or someone from the sport, it's simply too complicated to explain or put across.
Having said all of this, I would take any combo over the US rambling commentary, which is just awful!
 

Edwin

СделаноВХрустальном!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Both Sue Barker and Clare Balding did this weird thing that seems to have fallen out of fashion where they'd actually do some research on the thing they were commentating on so they knew what they were talking about even if it wasn't a sport they were usually involved in...

They were great on ball games, horses, swimming and many other sports, and not only in the Olympics ...
 

Noxchild

Medalist
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
Country
Canada
God forbid anything happens to the Eurovision feed or I will raise major HECK, I swear ... 🤬
 

Lunalovesskating

Moonbear power 🐻
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 3, 2018
I hope ISU makes a statement soon or the broadcasters responsible for airing the GP this season. Neither German 1TV nor Eurosport have Skate America listed in their new programs for next werk... I am losing hope :(((
 

NaVi

Medalist
Joined
Oct 30, 2014
I really wish there was more transparency about why this is happening and the reasons and justification for choosing Infront. Does the ISU just get a flat rate of money from Infront and Infront tries to make it back? Insidethegames.biz says that "Infront claim consolidates its position as the main commercial partner of the seven Winter Olympic International Federations" which makes me think that Infront may be trying to force bundles on whomever they partner with... which would be terrible for figure skating's exposure considering it's still gets higher ratings than the other Olympics sports. I can't help but think media rights is one area figure skating would be better off with it's own federation because too easily I could see speed skating's priorities take precedence.
 

litenkyckling

Final Flight
Joined
Jun 6, 2018
At least British Eurosport are finally replying to tweets confirming that they won't be broadcasting any figure skating, see ya subscription :shrug:
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
I hope ISU makes a statement soon or the broadcasters responsible for airing the GP this season. Neither German 1TV nor Eurosport have Skate America listed in their new programs for next werk... I am losing hope :(((

And I've tried multiple times to get an answer from SBS about whether they'll be streaming anything on OnDemand, but so far a resounding silence is the only response. I'm taking it to mean no.
 

Ryan O

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
Canada
So can anyone confirm whether CTV will be broadcasting Worlds in March since it takes place on Canadian ice?
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
Update for Australians: apparently SBS is still in negotiations and nothing is confirmed yet, but they might end up streaming something. They're cutting this awfully fine...
 
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