US Nationals TV Schedule

[John 3 17]

I'd understand giving exclusive rights to IN for the LIVE broadcast, but I really wish/hope that UniSports could have gotten/get tape delay a few hours later.

-Bridget

[AJ Skatefan]

It's not 30 bucks a pop (competition) -- it's 30 bucks for the whole year.

Now, if you're only interested in one competition a year, it's not a very good deal.

But if you want to see regionals and sectionals and the various internationals that they cover as well as Nationals, then it is a good deal.

Assuming you can actually watch the coverage whenever you want. It was great for me last year.

This year they're using a faster transmission rate and my home DSL can't handle it, so I really only get value for the $30 when I watch from my office computer. If that will still be the same case next year, then I won't renew.

Icenetwork has been a great deal IMO. 30 dollars for a ton of skating is a bargain.

[triple_toe]

Does Icenetwork work for Canadian viewers? I know in years past coverage of Nationals wasn't geo-blocked, but I would like to find out before I shell out $30.

[FigureSpins]

I didn't renew IN this year, either. IN increased the annual subscription rate and Customer Service said they wouldn't offer a discount, yet they just knocked $10 off the rate.

Last year, I had a lot of trouble with my account being blacked out incorrectly.
With the USFSA raising the costs of coaching (CER), I decided that IN had to be crossed out in my budget.


It was nice to watch Universal Sports' live coverage of all the skaters last year, including the warmups.

[care bear]

Does Icenetwork work for Canadian viewers? I know in years past coverage of Nationals wasn't geo-blocked, but I would like to find out before I shell out $30.

I was watching it on Icenetwork in Germany yesterday.

[Cyn]

It's not 30 bucks a pop (competition) -- it's 30 bucks for the whole year.

Now, if you're only interested in one competition a year, it's not a very good deal.

But if you want to see regionals and sectionals and the various internationals that they cover as well as Nationals, then it is a good deal.

Assuming you can actually watch the coverage whenever you want. It was great for me last year.

This year they're using a faster transmission rate and my home DSL can't handle it, so I really only get value for the $30 when I watch from my office computer. If that will still be the same case next year, then I won't renew.

I had a subscription last year to watch the GP and Nationals, so I understand that it's not $30 per competition. Perhaps "a pop" wasn't the best choice of words.

This year, I opted to pay 14.95 for the Universal Sports online subscription to the GP as I was under the misconception that USport's coverage would be more than repeats of the NBC broadcast from Nationals. As we all now know, their coverage of Nationals this year is pathetic .

[bibi]

I can't access icenetwork?? Am i the only one??? why does this have to happen during the ladies sp !

[DickButtonFan]

I can't access icenetwork?? Am i the only one??? why does this have to happen during the ladies sp !

Sorry you were'nt able to get in, seems like some people got in and some didn't. I'm sure NBC will show the top sp highlights so you won't miss out.

[love skating]

I noticed that I can watch the Universal Sports repeat of the ladies free on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Pacific time. That's one hour earlier than the NBC tape delayed start time of 9:00 p.m. on the West Coast.

[RD]

I noticed that I can watch the Universal Sports repeat of the ladies free on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Pacific time. That's one hour earlier than the NBC tape delayed start time of 9:00 p.m. on the West Coast.

Wow, that is so funny. HA!

[AndyWarhol]

i just noticed on the IN site that with the long programs, only the earlier skaters will be shown, and the rest will be live on tv. Well, i live in australia, and it wont be on tv. It seems ridiculous to pay to watch the lower placed skaters, then have to wait 3 days to see the medalists.

I am outraged.

[Frau Muller]

i just noticed on the IN site that with the long programs, only the earlier skaters will be shown, and the rest will be live on tv. Well, i live in australia, and it wont be on tv. It seems ridiculous to pay to watch the lower placed skaters, then have to wait 3 days to see the medalists.

I am outraged.

Understandable. Let's hope that IN doesn't show live ONLY the first 2 groups of every discipline, then show on live TV only the LAST group. Which means that a talent-packed pennultimate group is seen NOWHERE LIVE...only 4 days later via on-demand. [Of course, we who'll be live in the arena will see all live...but people who paid their IN subscription thought that they'd also be enjoying seeing complete competitions live.] That's what happened last year.

Case in point: Sr. Pairs tomorrow morning. There's no conceivable way that any of the Pairs could be shown live in a telecast that begins at 3pm, EST....because the entire Pairs finals shall have ended before the next event, Sr Dance finals, which begin at 12:35pm on the same ice. So is IN planning to chack the live airing of any of Sr Pairs due to the NBC show four hours later? For Pairs, ALL should be shown live because there ain't no way that ANY of it could be shown live on NBC.

[rfisher]

I think IN is a bargain. Way cheaper than attending a live competition. I also buy Russian TV because I want to see Russian nationals. IN doesn't appear to have the rights for 4C or Worlds yet and I'm certain NBC will not show them either so Russian TV may be it.

Universal Sports has very limited coverage and that could be decreased by Comcast since they already have a sports channel. Shrug. I'm happy when there's a free internet feed, but I'll pay for a subscription when there is not. Life isn't free.

[bibi]

Sorry you were'nt able to get in, seems like some people got in and some didn't. I'm sure NBC will show the top sp highlights so you won't miss out.

I was able to access it for the last two flights ! I don't know what happened

[Frau Muller]

...I'm sure NBC will show the top sp highlights so you won't miss out.

Oh, "whoop-dee-doo" for that! And the more time that NBC spends showing SPs means less time for live LPs. There should have been separate shows for all championship-level SPs, like UnivSports offered last year.

[Theatregirl1122]

i just noticed on the IN site that with the long programs, only the earlier skaters will be shown, and the rest will be live on tv. Well, i live in australia, and it wont be on tv. It seems ridiculous to pay to watch the lower placed skaters, then have to wait 3 days to see the medalists.

I am outraged.

I am sorry you are surprised to find this out, but IN makes this pretty clear on their list of schedule times and it's been discussed multiple times in this thread (like in the 6th post). IN does not have the rights to broadcast the higher ranked skaters, NBC does. They aren't doing it to spite you.

[DickButtonFan]

I think we should all be happy skating is on at all on NBC this weekend.

[genevieve]

Even though it's annoying to have to switch mediums in the middle of a competition and there are going to be some (probably a whole flight) who don't get shown at all, the coverage and ability to see most of Nats is a zillion times better than it's ever been. I would much rather pay $40 for a season subscription than have to get cable just to see skating, which is what was going on in the last years of the ABC/ESPN contract. Of course I'd love for the full final 2 groups to be on the Universal Sports channel and just forgo NBC altogether, but I do understand why that's not how they're doing it (plus lots of people don't get the US channel).

[RD]

^ Good way to put things in perspective. Yes, having IN is real nice in the end, even with their issues.

[Cyn]

Case in point: Sr. Pairs tomorrow morning. There's no conceivable way that any of the Pairs could be shown live in a telecast that begins at 3pm, EST....because the entire Pairs finals shall have ended before the next event, Sr Dance finals, which begin at 12:35pm on the same ice. So is IN planning to chack the live airing of any of Sr Pairs due to the NBC show four hours later? For Pairs, ALL should be shown live because there ain't no way that ANY of it could be shown live on NBC.

You couldn't be more wrong if you tried. If you'd bothered to check the event schedule, you'd see that both the Pairs FS and the Free Dance have live coverage:

(all times mentioned below are Eastern Standard Time):

From 10:45 a.m. until 12:15 p.m., the first three groups of Pairs will compete in the Free Skate, which will be streamed live on IceNetwork. The first two groups in Ice Dancing will start immediately afterward, beginning at 12:35 p.m. and ending at 2:00 p.m., Again, IceNetwork will be streaming those first two groups live.

The Pairs Free Skate will resume at 2:25 p.m. Three teams will take the ice, then there will be an ice make, followed by the final four teams.

The NBC coverage begins at 3:00 p.m.

- When it starts up again with the penultimate group, there will be 6 minutes for warm-up, followed by
- Three teams at ~8 minutes for each (from their introduction through the announcing of their scores), totaling ~24 minutes. After that,
- The final group takes the ice for their warm-up for 6 minutes.

The above adds up to 36 minutes, give or take a minute or two. If the competition resumes at 2:25, that puts the final flight's start time at 3:00. However, if there's an ice make after Group 4, that will add another 15-20 minutes. If that were the case, the final flight would start at ~3:20, leaving open a 20 minute window during which Peter, C., Sandra Bezic (?), and that gasbag, Tom Hammond, to recap and show highlights from the Pairs Short Program.

Group 5, at ~8 minutes for each team, would take just under 35 minutes. If the start time for them is in fact 3:00, they would be done by ~3:35, which would leave around 50 minutes until the Free Dance resumes, during which time they could show several of Short Dances. If they do flood the ice, that time would be cut down to a half hour or so - still enough time to show at least 3 or 4 SDs

Ice Dancing would play out in a similar fashion. The Free Dance resumes at 4:25, with 8 teams remaining, the exception being that there would be no ice make between groups 3 and 4. There would be

- A 6 minute warm-up
- Four teams at ~8 minutes for each, totaling ~32 minutes. After that,
- Group 4 has their 6 minute warm-up, followed by
- Four teams at ~8 minutes each, totaling 32 minutes.

The above adds up to ~ 1¼ hours. If the Free Dance resumes at 4:25, it would be over at ~5:40, leaving times afterwards for interviews and/or highlights from the Ladies Short Program.

I've spent wayyyyy too much time analyzing this