ISU signs deal with Infront; Will EuroSport & CBC still cover ISU events this season?

Rhino

Member
Messages
51
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.
 

Elka

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,723
I’d much rather be sitting on the couch in my living room watching on a large screen TV and listening to Simon, Chris and Nicky commenting. Instead, I’m sitting at my desk, watching on a small screen and trying to read the score tracker (which isn’t always there or on time) and getting no commentary at all.

This link shows a summary of where you can watch ISU figure skating events. You will notice that a large part of Western Europe is not covered. There is absolutely NO TV coverage of figure skating in the UK, France, Germany, the Benelux countries, Austria, and even Switzerland where the companies involved are located. Kazakhstan, Belarus, Macedonia, Serbia, all have coveragec This is crazy!!!
I am sitting on the couch in my living room watching on a large screen TV. I would not object listening to Simon, Chris, and Nicky, but no commentary is also ok. Now I am getting commentary by Averbukh and Yagudin, which is quite good. They only talk during the replays. Apple tv takes care of the tv screen.

I absolutely agree with you that ISU's deal with Infront, and as a result of it, the Northern countries getting stuck with this NENT group is a disaster and bad for the sport. I took a look at Viafree coverage and one look was enough. I would never pay a single euro for that. Fortunately, there are other options.

However, I absolutely disagree that Kazakhstan, Belarus, Macedonia, having coverage is crazy. What is so crazy about it? They have Russian TV and therefore the Russian online streaming. Figure skating is very popular in Russia and also in those countries, which according to your opinion, do not deserve the coverage, when the Western Europe does.
 

SeniorSk8Fan

New Member
Messages
6
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.

I didn't know that Discovery had bought Eurosport. You're right about all their low-level sports. It always made me mad when Snooker was on instead of Figure Skating. Like someone else said, it's a bar sport. Maybe skating isn't cheap to buy any more if they have to go through Infront.
 

SeniorSk8Fan

New Member
Messages
6
I am sitting on the couch in my living room watching on a large screen TV. I would not object listening to Simon, Chris, and Nicky, but no commentary is also ok. Now I am getting commentary by Averbukh and Yagudin, which is quite good. They only talk during the replays. Apple tv takes care of the tv screen.

I absolutely agree with you that ISU's deal with Infront, and as a result of it, the Northern countries getting stuck with this NENT group is a disaster and bad for the sport. I took a look at Viafree coverage and one look was enough. I would never pay a single euro for that. Fortunately, there are other options.

However, I absolutely disagree that Kazakhstan, Belarus, Macedonia, having coverage is crazy. What is so crazy about it? They have Russian TV and therefore the Russian online streaming. Figure skating is very popular in Russia and also in those countries, which according to your opinion, do not deserve the coverage, when the Western Europe does.

You're getting commentary from Yagudin? Is he speaking Russian or English? Wouldn't mind listening to Yagudin, but I don't understand Russian.

I don't have a smart TV, but it is possible to hook up my laptop to the TV. It's a big hassle, however. My house must be well built because my WiFi signal is too weak downstairs where the TV is to pick up the signal. I have an internet TV box (not Apple TV) and I found the Swedish Viasat Sport channel that was supposed to be showing skating last Friday evening, but they had American basketball on instead. ???!

This week I've tried watching Skate Canada on the ISU YouTube videos, but they are interrupted about every 5 minutes by commercials, right in the middle of a skater's program, which is very irritating. I think that is the product we're getting from Infront. Gee, thanks. Don't think I'll buy any of those products.

I still think it's not right that Eastern Europe and Asia get TV coverage and Western Europe doesn't. To me, that's a big gap in the Infront contract. I hope they're still working on it.
 

ninjapirate

Well-Known Member
Messages
253
This week I've tried watching Skate Canada on the ISU YouTube videos, but they are interrupted about every 5 minutes by commercials, right in the middle of a skater's program, which is very irritating. I think that is the product we're getting from Infront. Gee, thanks. Don't think I'll buy any of those products.

I don't see any commercials. Try an adblocker like ublock.
 

Sylvia

TBD
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79,981
Copying here from the GP France subforum in Kiss & Cry:
For those in Canada, CBC Sports has all of the remaining GP events, including the final, listed for live streaming: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figureskating/broadcast

There is nothing listed for TV coverage.

Reminder to those in (most of) North America that the clocks "fall back" overnight Saturday. Currently the listing shows everything as "EDT" for me - that should change after this week but who knows....
 

Elka

Well-Known Member
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1,723
You're getting commentary from Yagudin? Is he speaking Russian or English? Wouldn't mind listening to Yagudin, but I don't understand Russian.
Russian of course.

don't have a smart TV, but it is possible to hook up my laptop to the TV. It's a big hassle, however. My house must be well built because my WiFi signal is too weak downstairs where the TV is to pick up the signal. I have an internet TV box (not Apple TV) and I found the Swedish Viasat Sport channel that was supposed to be showing skating last Friday evening, but they had American basketball on instead. ???!
I got the idea of all the "Via-channels", -free, -play, that they show just what the mother company sends them. I will not watch it.

I have all my gadgets connected with cables when I watch skating. Often, people complaining about the feed, just have WiFi signal disturbances. I usually am on WiFi, but to actually see all the rotations of a 4Lz I prefer good ethernet cables.
 

MacMadame

Doing all the things
Messages
58,281
This week I've tried watching Skate Canada on the ISU YouTube videos, but they are interrupted about every 5 minutes by commercials, right in the middle of a skater's program, which is very irritating. I think that is the product we're getting from Infront. Gee, thanks. Don't think I'll buy any of those products.
This is a YouTube issue. Infront is not uploading videos with commercials in them. YouTube is inserting those ads on the fly.

I do think Infront could upload the videos in a different way so that YouTube won't inject ads, but I am not sure exactly how that works.
 

Braulio

Tuning up my Body of Work
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18,911
@SeniorSk8Fan You are getting ads in youtube because you don't have an ad blocker app, try to install some like adblock plus in your browser and you wont have those problems anymore
 

misskarne

Handy Emergency Backup Mode
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23,456
I'm still absolutely baffled (and really quite a bit furious) that Canadians can watch on the ISU Youtube stream despite having CBC live-streaming the events, but Australia is blocked out from the ISU stream because the rights were bought by SBS who aren't streaming at all.
 

RoseRed

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Messages
2,141
I'm still absolutely baffled (and really quite a bit furious) that Canadians can watch on the ISU Youtube stream despite having CBC live-streaming the events, but Australia is blocked out from the ISU stream because the rights were bought by SBS who aren't streaming at all.
It seems like that's up to the rights holder. For Skate Canada, TSN had the rights, not CBC, and it was blocked. And for the others it hasn't been. So I guess TSN asks them to block and CBC doesn't - or maybe the default is to block and CBC specifically asks them not to? But I'd guess it's up to SBS, based on that.
 

Skate Talker

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Messages
8,138
I'm still absolutely baffled (and really quite a bit furious) that Canadians can watch on the ISU Youtube stream despite having CBC live-streaming the events, but Australia is blocked out from the ISU stream because the rights were bought by SBS who aren't streaming at all.
While I am overjoyed to be one of the lucky Canadians, I feel for your frustration with SBS. Seems to me they are being very "dog in the manger" about it.
 

The Observer

Active Member
Messages
905
It's bizarre that CBC is not covering figure skating this season -- especially considering that the Worlds are in Canada.

I hope they work something out by March so there is at least t.v. coverage of the Worlds.
 

skatingguy

decently
Messages
18,386
It's bizarre that CBC is not covering figure skating this season -- especially considering that the Worlds are in Canada.

I hope they work something out by March so there is at least t.v. coverage of the Worlds.
The deal between the ISU & the CBC came just days before Skate America, and as a result, the schedule was set for the fall. They are streaming the events on their website & their Gem streaming service. I would think they'll be actual tv coverage for events later in the season.
 

Alilou

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7,300
The deal with CBC is that they will stream everything. Worlds only will be on TV. They said that they simply couldn't afford what Infront was asking for any more than this.
 

Skate Talker

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8,138
As the host broadcaster, CBC must provide the coverage for Worlds so can't see them NOT showing it, (plus it was on their schedule some time ago, though MIA now I think).
 

Orm Irian

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1,691
SBS is launching its weekly two-hour "highlights" program on free-to-air on Saturday afternoon next week, and it will start with IdeF, which explains the geoblock.

I'm sure my 74-year-old mother will be thrilled with the timeslot and a quick rundown of the medal winners per discipline, but for those of us who have more of a life than she does it's not exactly great timing or good coverage of the event. :(
 

Japanfan

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25,532
The deal with CBC is that they will stream everything. Worlds only will be on TV. They said that they simply couldn't afford what Infront was asking for any more than this.

They said Worlds would be on TV? Where did you get that information? CBC has no plans to broadcast FS on TV. CTV/TSN usually only does Skate Canada and Nationals.
 

Alilou

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Yeah, I think it was a tweet or something like, right before SA when we found out that the GP series would be live streamed. Live streaming the GP series (and probably 4CC I would imagine) and the TV rights to worlds. It was all they could afford. They just HAD to get the rights for worlds since it's in Canada. Maybe they had some help from Skate Canada with that since Skate Canada has to provide a broadcaster as part of hosting worlds. Apparently Infront was asking an exorbitant amount and we all know how cash-strapped the CBC is. Can't remember the source, and don't have time to go looking, but I'm pretty sure this is accurate info. I bet it's further back in this thread somewhere.

ETA: Found it. Post number 72 from @victorskid
 
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Sylvia

TBD
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79,981
ETA: Found it. Post number 72 from @victorskid
Here's the post:
According to what Scott Russell (of CBC Sports) said on his Facebook live with PJ Kwong this afternoon (for Skate Ontario), CBC will be streaming the GP events (except Skate Canada International) and will have TV coverage of Worlds from Montreal. He explained that the price for the TV broadcast rights, which had to include both figure skating and speed skating, was exorbitant and this was the deal that they had come up with.
https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...ictions-will-apply.106176/page-3#post-5658349
 

Alilou

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Braulio

Tuning up my Body of Work
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The ISU Youtube Skating Channel has uploaded the WHOLE competition from Worlds 2018 in Milan that wasnt available because of Fuji TV blocking it and also the Worlds 2019 in Saitama, the 2018-2019 Grand Prix Final

Also several videos of Skate America, Internationaux de France of this season are uploaded there and unblocked to see, at least in Mexico we can watch them on demand (though not live broadcast)

They have also uploaded some skating programs like the short program of Carolina Kostner at the 2003 World Juniors

What is this? an attempt to create their own archive? if so that's a smart move
 
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skatingguy

decently
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18,386
I was going back and re-watching the Grand Prix events and have found that the IDF Men's Free Skate & Ice Dance Free Dance are now blocked by SME. I've tried a number of countries and I haven't found one where those videos aren't blocked. Anyone find it's not blocked in their country or find a country where they can watch those videos?
 

Alilou

Ubercavorter
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7,300
I was going back and re-watching the Grand Prix events and have found that the IDF Men's Free Skate & Ice Dance Free Dance are now blocked by SME. I've tried a number of countries and I haven't found one where those videos aren't blocked. Anyone find it's not blocked in their country or find a country where they can watch those videos?
I think it must be blocked worldwide :angryfire I tried both Mexico, and Cairo FFS, and it's not available in either place :mad:
 

text_skate

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Messages
1,944
I was going back and re-watching the Grand Prix events and have found that the IDF Men's Free Skate & Ice Dance Free Dance are now blocked
It's blocked in Germany, too. We can watch all Grand Prix events on Youtube. No idea why it's men and dance. If tomorrow ladies and pairs are blocked, too, it's most likely a watch video +7 days thing.
 

Elka

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Messages
1,723
You can still watch it on channel 1 on-line первый канал онлайн. You have to navigate through the site. Find спорт and then Гран при по фигурному катанию 2019/20 and then все трансляции.
 

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