I've got a feeling TPTB don't even watch figure skating. In fact, I'm wondering if there are even enough figure skating fans to effect the market, or the bottom line, or profit, or whatever they're after. They don't seem to care that we can't watch it on TV any more. I've been following what's being shown on NBC in the US. For both Skate America and Skate Canada they only showed ladies and men, and not all of them. No pairs or dance. Might be better than the nothing we're getting in Europe, but not much.
I think they just misjudged Eurosport completely, and also didn't realise what impact its takeover by Discovery might be having.
Anyone who watches Eurosport knows it's a cheap as chips operation, basically its sports are cheap to buy, go on for a long time and hopefully attract some sort of audience, hence the endless snooker, and cycling (I like cycling, but their mass of coverage is too much even for me).
Also the channel has been changing following the Discovery takeover, more low level motor sport, like a lot of the other providers, plus trying out more minor Olympic sports e.g. Fencing, Judo, Archery, Shooting etc.
Hence the ISU has probably really misjudged its bargaining position as Eurosport is the only one interested in a lot of Olympic sports, including figure skating.
However I still have vague hopes something might be done, there's bound to have been a lot of comments behind closed doors, and I'm sure a lot of people from all the Western Europe federations have been saying something. However they have to realise where Eurosport is coming from - in all my years watching them I've noticed many sports they've had that have become popular, they just lose them straightaway if someone else is interested in them, they're certainly not prepared to get in any sort of bidding war it would seem.