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

sequinsgalore · Oct 16, 2019

Any Danes here?

I just tweeted with Viaplay. They will stream it on their platform. You have to buy the package "Viaplay Sport" which cost 309 DKK/month - which I find pretty steep. Not sure if it will be available on demand later. For now I can see that they will stream all of Skate America.

TryMeLater · Oct 16, 2019

Winnie_20 said:
If they have the rights, then I am pretty sure they will provide a livestream for FS.
But I somehow doubt they have the rights.

Sometimes, they do sell the rights in a package deal.
At least for TV, it's quite common to condition the sell of a popular TV show with buying a less popular show.

DenissVFan · Oct 16, 2019

Aren't kids more likely to stumble across a YT stream or video? Skating is shared via YouTube videos anyway.

I've only watched figure skating on TV once since I got back into it 2.5 years ago as I don't own a TV anymore. I don't know many people my age or younger who regularly watch actual TV. Everything's on the internet and it's easy to transfer it to your TV if you want to.

I understand that people are used to certain commentators but I believe this move is a step in the right direction. YouTube is the way to go in this day and age.

Cutting the ice · Oct 16, 2019

So I just checked the link https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figureskating/broadcast and so far, the only figure skating streaming listed for the CBC on-line is the Ontario Sectionals Series Octoberfest competition this weekend. No mention yet of Skate America. But WTH, lots of time to update still - almost 48 hours.

Bluediamonds09 · Oct 16, 2019

I live in America and unfortunately will not have any access to the livestream, right? Hopefully our European friends will post videos.

pearly · Oct 16, 2019

All the people who will be geoblocked, this is still somewhat good news. The fact that some people will have a free youtube stream and some will have streams via NBC, Channel 1 and the channels in Asia only means that there are many sources from which these streams will be mirrored by fans to a non-blocked stream. You'll need to track these links and accounts over various platforms, but they will get posted on forums and https://soyouwanttowatchfs.com/ as they appear.

SnowWhite · Oct 16, 2019

surimi said:
As long as the streams are archived, okay by me. But the music copyright for public comps is such utterly absurd nonsense, why would someone whine about their music being promoted this way to fans like me who don't listen to the radio or watch music vids at all. Especially if said music comes cut or shortened, and is interspersed by the sounds of skates scratching, audience clapping/cheering, commenter announcing stuff...
Yes, skating will be accessible to everyone this way, all over the word, and for free, and will be accessible even to technology illiterate folk who balk at the idea of getting VPN. But I agree that renewing some deal with the TVs for next season sounds like a good idea. People who aren't already fans likely won't bother finding a YT channel to watch FS, and some people of the older generation, like my gran who doesn't have a PC at all, are cut off FS this way.

I think people who aren't already fans will be more likely to find it on Youtube than on TV, especially younger generations. Most people my age (university age) don't watch much on traditional TV anymore. Even when I watch tradition TV shows, I normally do it online. So in terms of attracting a younger generation, Youtube is better than TV. I watched some of the gymnastics at Worlds recently because the FIG Youtube livestream came up as a suggestion (I don't subscribe to the FIG page or watch gymnastics on Youtube previously).

Winnie_20 said:
I wonder how this works behind the scenes, though. Are we talking a package deal? I mean, did the NOS have to buy the rights for all skating in a single package? Or are we thinking they do not actually own the rights for figure skating at all, but because it’s too complicated to change the geoblock per event, youtube will just be geoblocked for everything skating? Or... maybe hopefully they really will only block the speed skating events, and the FS can be watched okay?

I don't think that's true. There are Youtube channels that I can only view some videos, but not everything in Canada (I know because I could see everything when I was in Germany). I' pretty sure you can set the geoblocking for each stream/video.

I don't think they used the word "could" to really mean "for sure will". It may depend on whether the National providers want that enforced or not, and what events they have the rights for (e.g. in Canada CBC may not ask for it to be enforced like in the past, but CTV/TSN could just for SCI, since they have rights to that). So if some national providers don't have figure skating rights, I wouldn't assume that it'll be blocked.

el henry · Oct 16, 2019

Bluediamonds09 said:
I live in America and unfortunately will not have any access to the livestream, right? Hopefully our European friends will post videos.

The live-stream is in part, for those who do not have access to NBC Gold. Everyone in the US, for a fee, has access to NBC Gold. The payment is minimal and worthwhile, IMO.

If you do not want to pay for NBC Gold, I suspect our Chinese octopus and perhaps the YouTuber who runs Match may provide a stream.

IndiaP12 · Oct 16, 2019

What about New Zealanders like me? I’m assuming I will be able to access the YouTube stream? (Because when it was streamed on Eurovision last year I could and it was also streamed on my country’s TV service). I also have a friend’s NBC login and VPN if that doesn’t work [emoji28] which is good because they’re streaming practices only on there

ladyjane · Oct 16, 2019

TryMeLater said:
Why don't you contact NOS and have them stream it on their website?
Channel 1 in Russia live streams the events on their website.

I have contacted NOS (or NPO as it's called nowadays) and asked them this. Well, I actually asked them what kind of deal they have, and whether I will be able to watch Figure Skating at all due to the fact they will only broadcast speed skating in any case. Or whether they will at least put up a lifestream of FS events so that at least the fans can watch it. We'll see what happens.

Harriet · Oct 16, 2019

IndiaP12 said:
What about New Zealanders like me? I’m assuming I will be able to access the YouTube stream? (Because when it was streamed on Eurovision last year I could and it was also streamed on my country’s TV service). I also have a friend’s NBC login and VPN if that doesn’t work [emoji28] which is good because they’re streaming practices only on there

New Zealand isn't on the list of countries that have broadcast deals, so you're presumably in the clear for YouTube, just like us Aussies!

thatbeatingheart · Oct 16, 2019

Surprisingly my country isn't on the "list of territories where geo-restrictions could apply" but I don't want to get my hopes up too high yet. I'll believe it when I see the livestream work.

Jammers · Oct 16, 2019

Jammers said:
So besides the GP series are all the big events going to be on the ISU Youtube channel such as 4CC, Europeans and Worlds?

So i spent all that money for a subscription to NBC Sports Gold for nothing? :palmf:

Colonel Green · Oct 16, 2019

Jammers said:
So i spent all that money for a subscription to NBC Sports Gold for nothing?

No, Americans won't be able to use the YouTube account (not without a VPN, anyway).

auser · Oct 16, 2019

Cutting the ice said:
So I just checked the link https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figureskating/broadcast and so far, the only figure skating streaming listed for the CBC on-line is the Ontario Sectionals Series Octoberfest competition this weekend. No mention yet of Skate America. But WTH, lots of time to update still - almost 48 hours.

The ISU "where to watch" saga is maddeningly confusing :giveup:

blue_idealist · Oct 16, 2019

There was a Facebook post from International Figure Skating that said CBC had cut a deal for a livestream (GP, except Skate Canada, as it's on CTV, and Worlds), but I don't know about TV. It said the schedule would be available Thursday.

Noxchild · Oct 16, 2019

The ISU never geoblocked Canadians from watching the Eurovision stream even when CBC had streaming rights to competitions, and I hope they don't geoblock Youtube either... I am not a fan of the CBC livestream at all. Youtube is far better...

ice coverage · Oct 16, 2019

auser said:
The ISU "where to watch" saga is maddeningly confusing :giveup:

Hi, auser. :ghug:

The CBC streaming schedule for Skate America is in this tweet from a few hours ago:

https://twitter.com/CBCOlympics/status/1184599669684486145

ETA:

And Skate America streaming times have been added to https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figureskating/broadcast.

Miller said:
It's a mistake to show everything on the Skating ISU Youtube channel. Instead there should be a separate one for figure skating Grand Prix (just like the junior one), and then further ones for speed skating/short track etc. That way, theoretically, it should be possible to geo-block different type of events for the same country e.g. speed skating in The Netherlands blocked, but not necessarily figure skating.

I do not think that geoblocking is an all-or-nothing feature that must be applied to an entire YouTube channel???

Is it not true that the owner of the YouTube channel can choose geoblocking (or not) for individual videos???

Winnie_20 · Oct 17, 2019

I have decided that I don’t need all this stoopid drama in my life... and got myself a VPN. Been holding it off for years, but it was high time. So far, lookin’ good. Congrats, ISU, money was spent... but it didn’t go into your pockets. Oops!

Miller · Oct 17, 2019

ice coverage said:
I do not think that geoblocking is an all-or-nothing feature that must be applied to an entire YouTube channel???

Is it not true that the owner of the YouTube channel can choose geoblocking (or not) for individual videos???

Yes, but will they, or will they just block willy-nilly according to their countries list? Separate channels would at least get them to pay more attention to this sort of thing and maybe not block figure skating where they’ve only sold speed skating rights (though it does sound as if all skating things have been sold together i.e. speed skating + figure skating and you can’t separate one out from the other).

Also the Skating ISU channel is likely to get clogged up with all sorts of other things like general news, plus other skating sports videos. Of course there’s playlists like they have for the Junior Grand Prix, but from a searching for old events point of view I would have thought it far easier to have separate channels, plus the blocking aspect may be possible to get more accurate, as above.

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

sequinsgalore

TryMeLater

DenissVFan

Cutting the ice

Bluediamonds09

pearly

SnowWhite

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.

IndiaP12

iliabot wakabot gumennikbot team korea stan

ladyjane

Harriet

thatbeatingheart

Jammers

Colonel Green

auser

blue_idealist

Noxchild

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605

Winnie_20

Miller

Similar threads

Connect with us