Internet saved watching figure skating for me.

[spikydurian]

Thanks essence. But it says I need an invite from existing member to join this closed forum. Can you pm me an invite code?

[skatesindreams]

I'm a moderator there.
PM me, for the access code.
The invitation became necessary because of hackers, etc.

[PashaFan]

Eurosport and Eurosport 2 often don't show skating events or they show only parts of them. Other channels in the Netherlands mostly show nothing. (one channel does show worlds ladies free skate though but that's it). Yet I'm used to it more or less. In the '90s, when I just discovered figure skating I mostly watched it on Eurosport. Though they showed more skating then than now, even in those days skating fans here regularly missed out on great skating events. So I'm used to wondering how a certain competition went and only hearing weeks or months later how it was, mostly thanks to subscriptions of skating magazines, often never seeing the footage (or sometimes months/years later after buying a skating tape from a fellow skating fan).

Nowadays, with internet, at least the footage is always available sooner or later and there is instant information about every single event. I'm still amazed by it. Today I watched most of the Grand Prix Finale on internet. Even though I don't like the interruptions because of watching the programs on separate uploads, it's still so much better than not having anything to watch at all. But more and more people are uploading entire parts of competitions in one file now, so even that is become pleasant to watch. When you only want to save one or two programs from a competition, then the separate uploads are fine, and of course the smaller files are uploaded faster so I understand why most people still prefer to upload each of the programs separately. Having all that nowadays is still unbelievable for me sometimes.

I'm 35, I was about 15-16 when I began watching figure skating and I still marvell at how much the coverage has changed. I never thought one day I'd be watching more skating online than on television (or skating video tapes bought from people found on internet). I even watched the sp of Yuna Kim while watching the GPF. All this would have been impossible even ten years ago! I'm amazed and enjoying all this the same time. Even though television doesn't show that much figure skating, there never was more coverage than now. It's wonderful.

I'm only a year younger than you & also never thought that I would one day watch more online than on tv.
On the one hand Eurosports coverage of the Grand Prix Series has been wonderful as we went so many years without it. But I hate the fact that snooker, football & tennis always screw it up. So many times these sports run late (Can't be helped) but when they do, figure skating always gets pushed around or axed from the schedule. I find myself waiting hours for a sport to end only to find that skating is not being shown.
The Grand Prix Final last weekend on Eurosport was shocking. No Pairs or Ice Dance Short. Then on Saturday when the snooker finally ended what did Eurosport do ?, show the top two in the pairs free live then repeat the snooker they had just spent 4 hours showing. WHAT?!!!
Then they had scheduled during this week highlights of the Pairs & Ice Dance Free each lasting an hour but no, Eurosport decided that this would be far to good for us so instead repeated the Ladies free & Gala highlights again !.
To think that the only skating on any of the five main channels in the UK is Dancing On Ice is a sad fact of how far we have come since the golden days of Torvil & Dean.
Many people who watch Dancing On Ice think that's what skating is. Slow & dumbed-down. They should do what Strictly Come Dancing do & let Pro skaters skate to show how it's really done.

[lulu]

Without sounding too hyperbolic, I'm not sure if I'd still be a fan of figure skating to the same degree that I am without the internet. I only get NBC, so without the internet the figure skating programs I can see is very limited. Thanks to youtube and other forums, I'm able to see routines that 10 years ago-even when figure skating was on NBC, ABC ESPN, etc. I probably still wouldn't have seen.

But it's more than just getting a chance to see the current crop of skaters, there are so many skaters that I've "discovered" vis a vis the internet-like Alice Sue Claeys, and so many more programs that I get the pleasure of watching over and over again, anytime I'd like.

[PashaFan]

Without sounding too hyperbolic, I'm not sure if I'd still be a fan of figure skating to the same degree that I am without the internet. I only get NBC, so without the internet the figure skating programs I can see is very limited. Thanks to youtube and other forums, I'm able to see routines that 10 years ago-even when figure skating was on NBC, ABC ESPN, etc. I probably still wouldn't have seen.

But it's more than just getting a chance to see the current crop of skaters, there are so many skaters that I've "discovered" vis a vis the internet-like Alice Sue Claeys, and so many more programs that I get the pleasure of watching over and over again, anytime I'd like.

So true. I started watching skating in 1992 so missed Katarina Witt & Jill Trenery. Yet like you have spent many hours watching them online. Pure bliss !

[KingaG]

I'm only a year younger than you & also never thought that I would one day watch more online than on tv.
On the one hand Eurosports coverage of the Grand Prix Series has been wonderful as we went so many years without it. But I hate the fact that snooker, football & tennis always screw it up. So many times these sports run late (Can't be helped) but when they do, figure skating always gets pushed around or axed from the schedule. I find myself waiting hours for a sport to end only to find that skating is not being shown.
The Grand Prix Final last weekend on Eurosport was shocking. No Pairs or Ice Dance Short. Then on Saturday when the snooker finally ended what did Eurosport do ?, show the top two in the pairs free live then repeat the snooker they had just spent 4 hours showing. WHAT?!!!
Then they had scheduled during this week highlights of the Pairs & Ice Dance Free each lasting an hour but no, Eurosport decided that this would be far to good for us so instead repeated the Ladies free & Gala highlights again !.
To think that the only skating on any of the five main channels in the UK is Dancing On Ice is a sad fact of how far we have come since the golden days of Torvil & Dean.
Many people who watch Dancing On Ice think that's what skating is. Slow & dumbed-down. They should do what Strictly Come Dancing do & let Pro skaters skate to show how it's really done.

That's the most annoying thing about Eurosport. They seem to plan their broadcast without any logic....

When it comes to the Polish National TV, they stopped showing figure skating and I think that part of that decision was simply political. Figure skating broadcast used to be sort of 'obligatory' in the communism times (LPs only). But yet, people gladly watched it, even if they were only casual fans, not knowing much about it. After the communism broke, someone 'smart' thought - oh, it was so Russia-related competitions, lets get rid of them, none really liked it to start with. But that was simply not true! OK, now most of these casual fans can live without it, but still, if the broadcast is back, Im sure they would watch it. That is why, I think that part of the reason why figure skating becomes less popular is because the TV stations do not show it. What is even more sad is that our National TV has a sport channel, in which they often recycle old competitions in football or ski jumping, or they sometimes show strange non-olympic sports, that I believe people have much LESS interest in, when there is a live major figure skating competition (Europeans or Worlds). Yet, the figure skating is completely ignored, when Im sure that they could find a spot for it!!!
Sometimes I miss the communism times...

[sadya]

So many times these sports run late (Can't be helped) but when they do, figure skating always gets pushed around or axed from the schedule. I find myself waiting hours for a sport to end only to find that skating is not being shown.

Yes, I remember that during the GPF weekend the tv guide in my tv menu declared Eurosport would show more skating. So I waited and instead there was more soccer. Mind you, without Eric Millot on the ice with his football outfit and football.

And yes, same here PashaFan and Lulu, first thanks to buying skating tapes I got a glimpse of skaters competing before 1994 and then thanks to internet, I was able to watch everything. I remember trying to find any figure skating book. Most in Holland were older books, nothing written after the 80s, at least not from the ones I found with much difficulty in a Sports Library. But I was happy. They were fascinating, I loved the stories of the skaters and how the sport evolved throughout decades. I'd look at the pictures and read about the skating style and attitude of those skaters and try to imagine what their program might look like. I was so happy when I found fsvids.net and for me much later YouTube with so much skating from nearly every decade, finally discovering how those skaters I used to imagine on the ice really skated like and so much more. It was also great to find performances of current skaters which I had lost of hadn't seen in years.

We really are lucky. People say how times are becoming worse and everything was better many many years ago, they probably are right about many issues, but not everything. There are certain things which have improved in our time.

[PashaFan]

Yes, I remember that during the GPF weekend the tv guide in my tv menu declared Eurosport would show more skating. So I waited and instead there was more soccer. Mind you, without Eric Millot on the ice with his football outfit and football.

And yes, same here PashaFan and Lulu, first thanks to buying skating tapes I got a glimpse of skaters competing before 1994 and then thanks to internet, I was able to watch everything. I remember trying to find any figure skating book. Most in Holland were older books, nothing written after the 80s, at least not from the ones I found with much difficulty in a Sports Library. But I was happy. They were fascinating, I loved the stories of the skaters and how the sport evolved throughout decades. I'd look at the pictures and read about the skating style and attitude of those skaters and try to imagine what their program might look like. I was so happy when I found fsvids.net and for me much later YouTube with so much skating from nearly every decade, finally discovering how those skaters I used to imagine on the ice really skated like and so much more. It was also great to find performances of current skaters which I had lost of hadn't seen in years.

We really are lucky. People say how times are becoming worse and everything was better many many years ago, they probably are right about many issues, but not everything. There are certain things which have improved in our time.

True. But I'm still a very grumpy skating fan