Eurosport let down

[Morelli]

Is anyone else copmpletely cheesed off with Eurosport, their increasing lack of committment to skating, and their habit of changing their scheduling at the last minute.

I set the recorder for the Gala on Sunday afternoon and got tennis and football. I checked the teletext TV guide last night and reset the recorder for the gala that was scheduled for 8.30 CET today and got.... football!!! And according to the TV guide now, they don't seem to plan to show it in the next few days.

I turned up to this year's Europeans hardly knowing who many of the lower ranked skaters were because Eurosport have showed only top groups over the last year or so.

[eleonorad]

I am very disappointed, I paid for the online player and hoped to see full Euros

[elfenblüte]

I cant believe Eurosport cancelled the Gala for football 2 times. Yesteray the Gala was scheduled live for 15:30, then it has changed to 16:30 and then they showed nothing! The Gala was also scheduled for today morning, so i thought i could watch it today, but they cancelled it in the last minutes, i am really disappointed. I dont know where i can watch Figure skating in Europe, since Eurosport gave up on Figure skating.

[LLOS]

I'm also very dispointed! I start to hate Eurosport because they also skipped snooker lately they always showed in the past.
BUT there are so many nice people out there in the world capturing the whole competition from other channels so I didn't miss anything. I don't even care to watch Eurosport for a couple of the top skaters. What I hate most is when commentators talk as they do a great coverage and excuse there is not more because there are also other great sports they must show

But it is strange though why they suddenly dropped skating, even the gala.

[hanca]

Should we all write a complaint to Eurosport? If they get a lot of emails complaining, maybe they will re-think next time. Does anyone have their email address?

[MarieM]

The more you write them, the less they care ...

[Laney]

Well, I wrote them, because I was also so pissed they didn´t shown the gala and only the top 3. I understand it´s an EUROPEAN channel and the I get AUSTRALIAN Open and AFRICA Nations Cup in soccer and no EUROPEANs in Figure Skating. While I can understand to show the Australian Open I don´t understand to show soccer. There are so many channels out there that show soccer only, let them show this competition... The German commentator said they didn´t show that much of Europeans because they showed the COMPLETE Grand Prix Series. I must have missed something, because on MY EuroSport they DIDN´T show everything. They startet quite good with Skate America but on the other competitions they started to show less and less and less. And from what they showed: you could see it´s not good to show it live. On Friday they wanted to show the FD but they didn´t show the british couple, no final standing but 10 minutes the ice rink... And at the ladies FD they showed Kiira a second time but stopped in between the program and showed other sport clips... So on Friday, from the 75 minutes skating was 10 minutes ice rink + several commercials - congratulation! I hope we get MUCH BETTER coverage at Worlds. If not, thank´s to Russia2 to show it online!

[Laney]

Sorry, mistake, I means it´s not good to show it NOT live!

[nuge]

I'm too at ES .
Today they are showing repeats of Australian open which was on gazillions of hours yesterday

Again showing repeats of pairs mens so why can't they show gala ?

It's not that I can't live without seeing the gala as very kind people post vids /YT etc but it's the way they are treating the fans of Figure Skating.

Let's hope for better coverage at Worlds.

[KingaG]

Well, I wrote them, because I was also so pissed they didn´t shown the gala and only the top 3. I understand it´s an EUROPEAN channel and the I get AUSTRALIAN Open and AFRICA Nations Cup in soccer and no EUROPEANs in Figure Skating. While I can understand to show the Australian Open I don´t understand to show soccer. There are so many channels out there that show soccer only, let them show this competition... The German commentator said they didn´t show that much of Europeans because they showed the COMPLETE Grand Prix Series. I must have missed something, because on MY EuroSport they DIDN´T show everything. They startet quite good with Skate America but on the other competitions they started to show less and less and less. And from what they showed: you could see it´s not good to show it live. On Friday they wanted to show the FD but they didn´t show the british couple, no final standing but 10 minutes the ice rink... And at the ladies FD they showed Kiira a second time but stopped in between the program and showed other sport clips... So on Friday, from the 75 minutes skating was 10 minutes ice rink + several commercials - congratulation! I hope we get MUCH BETTER coverage at Worlds. If not, thank´s to Russia2 to show it online!

I so agree with you!! It is actully the first time that I had to watch Europeans on my computer screen.
Throughout the years Eurosport was quite reliable in showing Europeans. It was sort of a stellar position in their broadcast. Sometimes they had sloppy coverage, but nevertheless, it was acceptable. This year is a disaster. How much of tenis can you bare?? They repeated the same games over and over again on both channels!!!!! Africa cup of nations was always annoying me to no end, it often managed to disrupt the schedule. Why dont they show this one delayed and immensely chopped instead??
What is the point in showing GP series? Well, it seems that when they needed to fill their empty schedule between summer and winter season, figure skating was a great tool to do that. But when the winter season started, they even did not bother for GPF. The whole situation makes me VERY angry.
Even more so when you think about the quality of what they decided to show. Once you decide to do something - DO IT right! They start with pairs LP - the battle for the 3rd place between B/H and S/K. What do we see? When B/H bow to the audience after finishing the LP.
Free Dance? Wow, that was beyond me. We see P/B, B/S, R/T (who battled for bronze (we see they dropped to 5th place)) and then we see a lithuanian team who drops to 8th. And that's it. No final score, no other teams who apparenltly fought for bronze. That was pathetic. They ruined the joy and tension of the competition. I had to check on internet that I/K won the bronze with 0,04 marigin... I did not see anything of that!!!
And then chopped LP of men and ladies...


Laney, would you mind sharing the eurosport email address you wrote to? I remember, few years ago, I wrote them when they had extremely sloppy broadcast (but I dont have that address any more and I cannot find it). It was 75 min of pairs LP, which included 3 pairs and complete ice resurfacing which they did not bother to cut out. I was mad and wrote to them. They were actually very embarassed and apologized to me.

[Morelli]

I would love an address to write to if anyone has one. I tried to find one on-line, but couldn't.

It is all very well of them saying that they didn't show too much of the Europeans because they showed all the Grand Prix series, but that too was unreliable in its scheduling and I missed much of it as it was on Eurosport 2, which I can't get through the free satellite. I really don't want to have to pay for a subscription to numerous Sky TV channels that I don't want to watch every month just to get unreliable skating coverage on Eurosport a few times a year. Nor do I want to watch skating on my PC.

The other grumble against them showing the Grand prix instead is that you are seeing the same top skaters numerous times instead of seeing interesting programmes and skaters that don't reach the top 5.

I am sure with other winter sports, they still show the whole thing rather than the top few, and I'd love to know how many people in Europe actually got up to watch African Nations football this morning.

[viv]

Well, I wasn't so much annoyed yesterday when they cancelled the gale because of the epic tennis match between Djokovic and Nadal (Australian Open final), and the Ski Jumping World Cup event in Sapporo (Ski jumping being one of the most popular winter sports in middle and eastern europe). But I was completely p* off when they cancelled it aigain this morning.

[Zemgirl]

I can't blame ES for showing tennis or other winter sports live. I am far less enthusiastic about the soccer and the non-live broadcasts.

Still, I wonder if it might not be more effective to lobby the ISU to have Euros in early February. This would not be unprecedented (IIRC, the most recent February Euros were in 2004) and there would be fewer scheduling conflicts.

[LLOS]

I think they don't care what we are writing to them, I guess they get millions of e-mails complaining that they didn't see THEIR favorite sport. I guess only if 100.000 write, it would have an effect.

[Laney]

I wrote the email to info@eurosport.com So if more people are writing, maybe we´ll be successful and/or they understand that it really was very bad coverage. I can watch it online but I also would like to tape it and watch some programs again and again, and not on youtube but on TV. And the skijumping they showed after the tennis amtch wasn´t life! Would have been a problem to show the gala instead? I had in my magazine that the gala was supposed to begin (on TV) at 3.45 pm. Tennis was over at 4pm and then they showed ski jumping instead of the gala which would have been no problm to show life - in my opinion... One hour is better than nothing! Oh well... Hope it will be better at worlds (on Eurosport International, not Eurosport 2) but there´s not much hope... What´s a pity is that I know many skaters by name but have no clue how they look like and skate because they aren´t shown anymore on TV. And to search every skater on youtube is something I don´t do because I don´t like to sit too much time in front of my laptop in my free time...

[gruber]

we should complain to Anonymous

[LLOS]

And to search every skater on youtube is something I don´t do because I don´t like to sit too much time in front of my laptop in my free time...

I understand that this isn't very nice. I do it a bit different, I have a big computer screen that is like a tv screen and watching the videos there, no matter it's source, youtube or downloaded, it is a joy. Thats why I don't need it on tv. I use my computer as TV. I noticed, if you want to see more skating, this is necessary. TV coverage in Europe and North America gets less all the time, so as a skating fan you have almost no choice...

[Morelli]

I can watch it online but I also would like to tape it and watch some programs again and again, and not on youtube but on TV. .

This is why I don't want to watch on-line. I make a DVD each year of favourite programmes and have been doing since 1982 (was video back then!). And the best programmes aren't always the top skaters. My favourite dance this year was from the Azerbajan couple down in about 10th place. I won't be getting an internet capable TV until the existing one breaks, and I don't want to sit in my office chair for 4 hours watching on-line. I will be e-mailing them to make my views known about the Gala, and the sloppy editing that became aparent today when I watched what I had managed to record.

[JP1]

I emailed them yesterday at the address given above . Got a reply back to day.
I wrote in English and got a reply back in German
Ran it through a translator and basically they said that they could tell I was very angry at the lack of coverage but hoped that I would understand their reasons.
They didn't show the Gala because of an epic tennis match which muddled up the schedules. Then the director decided to give priority to sport (ski jumping ) rather than a show which by then was no longer Live .
They were unable to show the gala the next day because once the coverage is not shown " it is gone " !!! So that's it .
They hoped I will enjoy their coverage of Worlds which will be up to Eurosports usual standard.
( Well...... we will wait and see )

[love_skate2011]

They hoped I will enjoy their coverage of Worlds which will be up to Eurosports usual standard.
( Well...... we will wait and see )

this is not looking good