ISU figure skating streams might be switched to pay-per-view platform

[TallyT]

And it's for the better, the sport will never have a successful future under the current international quotas system and it needs an alternative, a fully commercial figure skating league, not based on country quotas, but on individual athletes representing their training clubs/their own names, imo.

With all due respect, the only people who EVER suggest this seem to be those who clearly believe that this will let the Russian ladies (and maybe some of the others disciplines, not the men) swamp the available places and awards and also like to imagine that this will magically make other countries - you know, the ones where the popularity of the sport is a worry - more inclined to want to watch them do it.

That would be a great idea.

There could always still be a championship based on country quotas, but why not a world championship event each year where the best 12 highest ranked skaters in the world are selected.

I repeat...

In any case, this has been suggested (by people of the same mind) since well before I even joined the sport.

 

[pearly]

I lol’d!

You've been there

 

[skatedreamer]

Looks like Reddit denizens ain’t happy, either.

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

 

[surimi]

It sounds like this plan is based on an assumption that most people will want to watch only one or two events. Clearly whoever came up with this has never met or talked to a figure skating fan. We want to be able to see EVERY competition, with options for live stream AND replay where a competition is not in our time zone. A flat fee system, not geoblocked, for every ISU-sanctioned competition, with livestream and replay, would be the way to go.

For a person who is already a fan, it should be doable in most cases, but like someone said, I'm afraid new fans will be even more scarce as the options to encounter and fall in love with FS will become much more limited than currently. Looks like no more randomly suggested videos on YT because many would be paywalled...

This whole idea sounds like something Elon Musk would do if he took over the ISU As he hasn't to my knowledge, maybe it's an act of internal sabotage by Alexander Lakernik...

This. Pure gold.

I don’t think they will do this for countries that currently purchase footage.

I'm doomed then. My country's TV has bought rights for GP, EC and WC in the last couple of years, and they believe it's a-okay to show some stuff through their livestream only, which doesn't get archived anywhere.

It was the first time in recent history when the JWC wasn't televised in the US and Europe, and the likes of Fuji TV and Okko sport were able to acquire the broadcasting rights at a discount.

Uh, no? At least definitely not all countries in Europe. Mine has never bought TV rights for JWC. IDK about Eurosport but I've never seen it there, either, and JWC has always been non-geoblocked for me on ISU channel, which means noone has been buying the rights for junior events in my country for years.

 

[SmileHappy34]

Is it all bad the Recast ? I would be more concern about no Junior Figure Skating events shown on the Recast and only Speed Skating and Synchronized Skating. The poster here claim bad, why? Only Speed Skating or synchronized skating fans, . People pay pay per view or pay in person. I don't watch speed skating at all especially juniors. I pay a little attention to synchronize skating but not much. Would I use the service or recommend it to others ? Probably Not. Would my nieces and nephews go out of way to watch, No. If ISU want to receive more income, why not . Keep up to date with digital world and how they view their sports. It too much fuss over something u use anyway for movies, shows, and other things. For those who say no , ur opinion but don't stop others that want to or belittle them. Ur adamant in ur opinion of why not. Let me keep my dissenting.

 

[beachmouse]

Just give me an all I can watch on my own schedule option at a reasonable price and I’ll sign up for it already. Sigh. My number of streaming packages is already out of control.

I’m actually currently also watching Tirreno-Adriadco on Global Cycling+, which costs me $50/year for pretty much every race I’d want to watch except for the handful of races that NBC has rights to. Given the short season for figure skating, give me a $25 option that includes archived competitions I can watch at my leisure instead of getting up at 3:30am local and I’d be all ‘here’s my credit card; take my money already’.

 

[pearly]

Well I've tried it since there's skating currently on.

Signing up earns you 25 credits. Email address is required. Completing your profile (name, sex, ZIP code, country and phone number) is not mandatory, but earns you another 50 credits. ZIP code and country do not require verification. They request texting to verify your phone number, but I chose "cancel" or "later" expecting it to cancel the entire process, but it did not and I earned 50 more credits.

A total of 75 credits is currently the price for watching an event. I presume that for synchro that is currently on this means 75 for the short and 75 for the free. The event is longer than 75 minutes, so they are currently not charging 1 credit per minute.

Initially it displayed a message that the secure stream is not available in my browser (Chrome on Mac) and to try Safari, but then it started.

The quality of video is good, like on Youtube, but I can't rewind to the beginning of the event, only 5 or so minutes back. It is similar to Eurosport Player in that way. Youtube lets you rewind all the way to the beginning of the event.

(A junior synchro team is skating to Schindler's List, who made this call?)

The event is not yet finished, so I'll check in a few hours to see if I can watch it on demand without additional payment.

Obviously, the system as it is right now would let you create multiple single use accounts, but i wonder how long that will last.

And the stream just died.

 

[4everchan]

Well I've tried it since there's skating currently on.

Signing up earns you 25 credits. Email address is required. Completing your profile (name, sex, ZIP code, country and phone number) is not mandatory, but earns you another 50 credits. ZIP code and country do not require verification. They request texting to verify your phone number, but I chose "cancel" or "later" expecting it to cancel the entire process, but it did not and I earned 50 more credits.

A total of 75 credits is currently the price for watching an event. I presume that for synchro that is currently on this means 75 for the short and 75 for the free. The event is longer than 75 minutes, so they are currently not charging 1 credit per minute.

The quality of video is good, like on Youtube, but I can't rewind to the beginning of the event, only 5 or so minutes back. It is similar to Eurosport Player in that way. Youtube lets you rewind all the way to the beginning of the event.

(A junior synchro team is skating to Schindler's List, who made this call?)

The event is not yet finished, so I'll check in a few hours to see if I can watch it on demand without additional payment.

Obviously, the system as it is right now would let you create multiple single use accounts, but i wonder how long that will last.

And the stream just died.

Reminds me of those online games where you need to add friends or send requests to other players so you can get lives or gold... meh.. not for me. but the mike drop is your last sentence...

 

[pearly]

Reminds me of those online games where you need to add friends or send requests to other players so you can get lives or gold... meh.. not for me. but the mike drop is your last sentence...

Exactly. Oh but wait until you hear about ways to earn free credits by watching ads! Maybe it's a browser issue (I just edited it to describe what happened), however Chrome should NOT have any issues.

Update: still getting black screen on Safari, but I did not get the compatibility issue notification there. I was able to log in and it did not ask me to pay again for the stream I already paid for.

They're currently ice resurfacing so maybe that's why, but I don't think they showed the scores for the Schindler's List team before it went black - not sure.

Tried to report it, it just says that the stream is being provided by the publisher (ISU?) and Recast do not control the set up or management of the stream.

 

[skatedreamer]

Reminds me of those online games where you need to add friends or send requests to other players so you can get lives or gold... meh.. not for me. but the mike drop is your last sentence...

To me, it sounds like a version of a chain letter...or maybe even a Ponzi scheme? Regardless of the analogy, I think it all comes down to a con game that won't win any new friends for figure skating, much less the ISU.

edit/new idea: Can figure skating file for divorce from the ISU?

 

[purplecat]

I'm watching it now. I watched enough ads to "pay" for it. I got a couple of jerky/screen freeze moments. I'm unsure if it's the quality of the stream or my internet/equipment.

 

[pearly]

I'm watching it now. I watched enough ads to "pay" for it. I got a couple of jerky/screen freeze moments. I'm unsure if it's the quality of the stream or my internet/equipment.

Did you have the black screen during ice resurfacing or did you see it?

 

[purplecat]

Did you have the black screen during ice resurfacing or did you see it?

I just signed on and at first I did have a black screen and thought there was something wrong... maybe that's what happened.

 

[Dreamer57]

That would be a great idea.

There could always still be a championship based on country quotas, but why not a world championship event each year where the best 12 highest ranked skaters in the world are selected.

Isn't this the grand prix series? It's based on rankings.

If the ISU cannot guarantee a high quality stream whilst charging for it, then I won't pay them a penny. And they can lose all hope of gaining any casual viewers!

 

[snowflake]

It has been so good having the junior gps for free on youtube. Nice start of the season, having it in the background sometimes doing other (haha more important) things. I wonder which conclusions ISU made from these 5(?) years of free stream with Ted?

So now what?

I'm not on social media and can't imagine sending links/sharing stuff to people that are not the least interested in figure skating. So probably ISU will loose me watching figure skating if it costs to much. Back to the old days then; watching mostly GPS, Euros and Worlds(that I can watch on viaplay).

I've tried 'recast' for junior synchro today. Didn't have to pay. Just give away some (false) private information. I can rewind from start. Don't know if I can watch on demand.

Anyway, I like watching synchro so for today it's good

 

[alexocfp]

Pay steams only mean your main revenue broadcasting stream will come from the hardcores.

Mikaela Shiffrin leveled one of the sports records thought to be untouchable a generation ago and will break it, if not tomorrow, then at worst next week or early next season, and only the die hard alpine ski fans in her home country got to see it.

I’m not against paying for a sport I love, but at least consolidate it. You need 3 subscriptions to watch the full ski season in the USA.

If ISU wants to go this route, they need to have value for money and show all the events under their jurisdiction live. That includes all their challenger and smaller events, and national championships.

If you are going to fleece the hardcore supporter base, at least fleece them correctly.

I will gladly pay for a service like this, but obviously not now. And it will also be contingent on events being archived and available on demand after the fact, so they need to address their music right issues.

 

[CoyoteChris]

I have given this more thought. I think ISU is concerned with the costs of production but does not want to get into the subscription business. It was easy for them to hand the mess off to "Recast" "Figure Skating Channel" but the path to haides is paved with good intentions.
Recast violated the "Kiss" principle. If I can purchase what the ISU now offers via VPN, live and on demand youtube streaming at the current quality, for $20 or so bucks a month, unlimited access, that would be fine. For five months, that would be $100 for many hours of skating.
But it sounds like the Recast player is flawed, and is not revelant to our sport...and the per credit/minute idea is not what I am looking for. And I have no idea how it handles poor internet connections. I dont know how long the contract is with Recast or if there is a get out clause, but it is clear that if the ISU ran this through a focus group, they elected to ignore the threats of tar and feathers and push on and take the money and run. And that is sad. I now have lots more sympathy for Pirates....Harrrhhhhhhhhhh.

 

[CoyoteChris]

Just give me an all I can watch on my own schedule option at a reasonable price and I’ll sign up for it already. Sigh. My number of streaming packages is already out of control.

I’m actually currently also watching Tirreno-Adriadco on Global Cycling+, which costs me $50/year for pretty much every race I’d want to watch except for the handful of races that NBC has rights to. Given the short season for figure skating, give me a $25 option that includes archived competitions I can watch at my leisure instead of getting up at 3:30am local and I’d be all ‘here’s my credit card; take my money already’.

Exactly...the number of streaming packages is out of control....just keeping track of the minor ones I use is a chore....

 

[CoyoteChris]

Looks like Reddit denizens ain’t happy, either.

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

All, the comments at this link are interesting as it includes comments from people who have used recast for awhile to watch curling, etc. BTW, recast will use your data for marketing/data mining....I never give out my real birthday to sights like this.

 

[snowflake]

Pay steams only mean your main revenue broadcasting stream will come from the hardcores.

Mikaela Shiffrin leveled one of the sports records thought to be untouchable a generation ago and will break it, if not tomorrow, then at worst next week or early next season, and only the die hard alpine ski fans in her home country got to see it.

I’m not against paying for a sport I love, but at least consolidate it. You need 3 subscriptions to watch the full ski season in the USA.

If ISU wants to go this route, they need to have value for money and show all the events under their jurisdiction live. That includes all their challenger and smaller events, and national championships.

If you are going to fleece the hardcore supporter base, at least fleece them correctly.

I will gladly pay for a service like this, but obviously not now. And it will also be contingent on events being archived and available on demand after the fact, so they need to address their music right issues.

This... but it won't happen for figure skating either. Some ISU figure skating competitions already on solidsport(Nordics and I think Challenge cup?)

Shiffrin is awesome! She and figureskating in the same stream I'm paying for