U.S. Figure Skating & NBC Sports Group Partner on Media Rights Agreement through 2026

[SpeedySucks]

I'm a belt-and-suspenders kind of person when it comes to skating coverage, so in my new order to Comcast I am making sure the package includes NBCSN and Olympic channel. Meaning I get the online free, right?

I won't miss IN, the tech side was crappy. But I WILL miss my beloved Eurosport player. Perfect video and sound and no commentary for $8 or so a month.

You don’t get the NBC Sports Gold content for free just for subscribing to NBCSN and the Olympic Channel. You only get the online simulcasts of the broadcasts for free.

 

[misskarne]

I just sent an email to IceNetwork support in the most coldly formal polite tone I know and fired off a tweet tagging both icenetwork and US Figure Skating.

Their incompetence almost defies belief.

 

[BittyBug]

I just sent an email to IceNetwork support in the most coldly formal polite tone I know and fired off a tweet tagging both icenetwork and US Figure Skating.

Their incompetence almost defies belief.

It's only fitting that they should exit on the same terrrible note that they have sustained for the entirety of their existence. Their transmission was unreliable, the quality of their archived video was subpar and they failed to keep the athlete bios current. The articles were the only value add, and sadly it doesn't seem like NBC will necessarily pick those up.

U.S. Figure Skating could have made IN so much more than what it was, but they had their check and that's all they cared about.

 

[mollymgr]

Icenotwork update

https://twitter.com/icenetwork/status/998346009876058112

 

[Firedancer]

I emailed Icenetwork earlier today after receiving the error message trying to update my information. I just received an email back saying we will get another email this week with more information once the error in Icenetwork’s system is corrected.

 

[aftershocks]

^^ That helps no one if tomorrow, May 21, is the last date we have to update our billing info, in order to get the NBC Figure skating gold package at the discount rate!

ETA:
Okay, I see that @Tavi said the May 21 deadline should be extended by NBC per IN, due to their crappy tech issues.

 

[my little pony]

has anyone been able to update their wallet this morning?

 

[Jammers]

I just tried and got an error message.

 

[missing]

I'm so enchanted by this email I got today that I'm cut'n'pasting it right here:

Dear Fan,

Thank you for contacting Ice Network and bringing this to our attention. We are currently investigating and appreciate your patience.

Regards,
IceNetwork.com Customer Support
ref:_00D1aJpU6._5001acg9e3:ref

 

[misskarne]

^^ That helps no one if tomorrow, May 21, is the last date we have to update our billing info, in order to get the NBC Figure skating gold package at the discount rate!

ETA:
Okay, I see that @Tavi said the May 21 deadline should be extended by NBC per IN, due to their crappy tech issues.

What I don't like about this is that as far as I can see, while USFS have been privately reassuring people of this, nothing has yet been said publicly about the deadline being extended.

This is dreadful PR work from both IceNetwork and USFS.

 

[Japanfan]

Of course, I can't call them - it's now outside their help desk hours I think, and I'm not spending more money on an international call.

Since you said international call, I'm wondering if Ice Network is available to people outside the US? I didn't think it was.

 

[mollymgr]

I'm so enchanted by this email I got today that I'm cut'n'pasting it right here:

Dear Fan,

Thank you for contacting Ice Network and bringing this to our attention. We are currently investigating and appreciate your patience.

Regards,
IceNetwork.com Customer Support
ref:_00D1aJpU6._5001acg9e3:ref

They should have replaced "appreciate" with "testing".

 

[misskarne]

Since you said international call, I'm wondering if Ice Network is available to people outside the US? I didn't think it was.

US Classic and US Nationals are not geoblocked.

 

[Carolla5501]

I think my decision has been made. I am going to pass on the "discount" and just wait. While I would love to be able to see sectionals/regionals etc... the truth is that if NBC does what they did last year that's really all I can keep up with and still have a job

Maybe they will have a deal for US Nationals, but even if they don't I will at least know how the service is working etc before I pay.

 

[LeafOnTheWind]

Has anyone tried to update their account today? I'm trying to decide if it's even worth the effort.

 

[alchemy void]

Why are we bitching about this?

How many countries get this kind of streaming access? From pbp threads it doesn’t seem like many. If you would have told me this was an option 10 years ago I would have been so freaking excited.

 

[misskarne]

Why are we bitching about this?

Because saying "we give you a discount if you update your details" and then their website making it impossible for subscribers to update their details is sheer incompetence at best and deliberate bait advertising at worst with a stop at misleading conduct in between?

 

[alchemy void]

Because saying "we give you a discount if you update your details" and then their website making it impossible for subscribers to update their details is sheer incompetence at best and deliberate bait advertising at worst with a stop at misleading conduct in between?

Icenetwork has publicly acknowledged they are having technical difficulties and extending the deadline.

https://twitter.com/icenetwork/status/998346009876058112

I get it, it's frustrating, but it's been obvious for years Icenetwork is such being run on a shoestring budget to continue to function. They'll figure it out eventually.

 

[Jarrett]

Why are we bitching about this?

How many countries get this kind of streaming access? From pbp threads it doesn’t seem like many. If you would have told me this was an option 10 years ago I would have been so freaking excited.

How many major markets get streaming access? I think they all do and icenetwork was/is the worst. It says a lot when private channels on youtube provide better quality and consistency that a USFSA sponsored product. I'm not sure what pbp threads you are referring to but they have usually been multiple streams posts in different languages of GP, Worlds, and CS events. Icenetwork's stream is stop/go and doesn't even load for some people randomly

Who really knows what the budget was for icenetwork? Just because it is an awful end product doesn't mean that isn't money being used poorly.

 

[MacMadame]

I get it, it's frustrating, but it's been obvious for years Icenetwork is such being run on a shoestring budget to continue to function.

Using ancient technology which means everything they do is at least 2x harder than it should be and often even harder than that. I suspect working there is very frustrating so that means the best people will leave. Which then makes it even harder.

I feel for them even as I'm not willing to buy their product because of these issues.

 

[greenapple]

My question is...WHY, in a struggling skating market like America, is anyone being charged for any coverage? If Canada's CBC as well as many other nations networks can stream all the major competitions for free, why are people in the U.S. expected to pay for something others get for free? I don't get it.

 

[Carolla5501]

My question is...WHY, in a struggling skating market like America, is anyone being charged for any coverage? If Canada's CBC as well as many other nations networks can stream all the major competitions for free, why are people in the U.S. expected to pay for something others get for free? I don't get it.

Because USFS lives in Fantasyland and really believes the days of huge popularity driven by "the whack heard round the world" and the Kween are just coming again so they don't need to be nice to fans by allowing free access to things like lower level competitions etc....
Seriously they are determined to drive away fans at all costs....Just talk to some of them at events... it's apparent they would prefer that we pay up and shut up. Asking questions about what happens to donations is really considered poor form LOL!

 

[Debbie S]

USFS clearly saw IN as another revenue stream to support its funding/overall activity at a time when TV contracts/ad revenue is down. The problem is that they didn't have the resources (or want to allocate them) to keep up with the technology and offer a quality product or address customer service issues and have now decided to combine the online broadcasts (well, the events they deem fans want to see) with their TV contract. For the events that appeal more to the grassroots/their own members, they've created another online outlet. That worries me. I have confidence in NBC's ability to create a quality webcast but will they or someone else be managing the content posted to the Fanzone site. Especially since I suspect the Fanzone content may be available to everyone for free, which is great, but updating tech continuously and providing a quality stream does require some money.

 

[alchemy void]

Using ancient technology which means everything they do is at least 2x harder than it should be and often even harder than that. I suspect working there is very frustrating so that means the best people will leave. Which then makes it even harder.

I feel for them even as I'm not willing to buy their product because of these issues.

Exactly. Which is why it’s long overdue moving to a platform that wasn’t obsolete 8 years ago. It's not going to be a smooth transition, but well worth it next season.

My question is...WHY, in a struggling skating market like America, is anyone being charged for any coverage?

Because it's not cheap to stream every event live? NBC shows A LOT of skating on TV for your casual fans, frankly, more than I would expect, given today's media landscape.

I do think USFS could definitely do better with youtube content and live stream their domestic events for free. But for international events, I don't see how that makes much sense.

If Canada's CBC as well as many other nations networks can stream all the major competitions for free

Correct me if I'm wrong--but I don't think CBC and Eurosport player or other countries stream every major event for free, live, without commercials and commentary, every single skater and warmup group. I still think what Icenetwork offers is unprecedented in most areas of the world? If I'm wrong, I'll gladly admit it.

Because USFS lives in Fantasyland and really believes the days of huge popularity driven by "the whack heard round the world"

I honestly think some fans are the ones in Fantasyland, not necessarily the USFS.

 

[jamesy]

I get it, it's frustrating, but it's been obvious for years Icenetwork is such being run on a shoestring budget to continue to function. They'll figure it out eventually.

They should have learned from the AZE federation that you can only do so much with $13 and a computer that still uses floppy disks.

 

[greenapple]

CBC does stream all major events live, for free, with no commercials and no commentary.

 

[VGThuy]

Does CBC have subsidies or state support that NBC might not?

 

[Mrs. P]

CBC is the Canadian equivalent of PBS, no? I don't think it's exactly comparable, but I believe they do get funding from the Canadian government -- about $1 billion annually when you combine the various government sources. It sounds like they don't make a whole lot of additional revenue from advertising and it doesn't allow it in a lot of their programming.

It's also different from PBS/NPR as I believe those two entities depend heavily on donations from private citizens and their portion from the U.S. government is quite small.

I guess I'll be devil's advocate and say I understand why USFS wants to charge a high amount for their archives. In essence, that's USFS' intellectual property as the organizers of U.S. Nationals and other events, and they perhaps want to be careful not devalue it. I know U.S. Gymnastics eventually posts their events on their YouTube channel, but I'm not sure honestly what their revenue model is and it could be different that allows them to do that. That's not to say I agree perfectly with every single thing they're doing here or the quality of Ice Network, but I certainly respect their need to test out what the market is willing to pay for it, especially if it means more revenue.

 

[BittyBug]

I guess I'll be devil's advocate and say I understand why USFS wants to charge a high amount for their archives. In essence, that's USFS' intellectual property as the organizers of U.S. Nationals and other events, and they perhaps want to be careful not devalue it.

I don't think that's quite it for two reasons:

(1) The archives were previously available through IceNetwork, which only carried the annual subscription fee
(2) The DVDs they are offering as their "solution" to having eliminated the archives have always been available for purchase - this is nothing new - even when IN was up and running

So basically they just couldn't be bothered to convert any of the archives, even though it's a project that could easily be outsourced for a nominal cost, and providing access to the history would have promotional and educational value. Instead, they decided that they'd try to sell something they already had on hand and probably couldn't push past a few grandparents and aunts.

As for generating more revenue - the best way to do that is to increase participation in and affinity for the sport. And a good way to do that would be by promoting skating, through oh, I don't know, maybe providing access to skating videos to as wide an audience as possible?

 

[Mrs. P]

I don't think that's quite it for two reasons:

(1) The archives were previously available through IceNetwork, which only carried the annual subscription fee
(2) The DVDs they are offering as their "solution" to having eliminated the archives have always been available for purchase - this is nothing new - even when IN was up and running

So basically they just couldn't be bothered to convert any of the archives, even though it's a project that could easily be outsourced for a nominal cost, and providing access to the history would have promotional and educational value. Instead, they decided that they'd try to sell something they already had on hand and probably couldn't push past a few grandparents and aunts.

As for generating more revenue - the best way to do that is to increase participation in and affinity for the sport. And a good way to do that would be by promoting skating, through oh, I don't know, maybe providing access to skating videos to as wide an audience as possible?

IIRC, didn't IN not convert pre-2011 archives when they switched video formats? It might not be worth converting. The video quality of IN was so-so, and perhaps in the long-run it might be better form a quality standpoint to convert from the USFS archives rather than the IN content. But again, who knows? I think it's actually a pretty challenging undertaking to convert archived material, especially when you're dealing with old formats and you're switching to a new platform.

I don't claim to have the answers and again I'm not claiming that USFS is completely in the right, but I also can see the conflicts of balancing paid content vs. releasing free content for exposure. It's a thing that a lot of entities struggle with. In addition while the "Oh hey, just put it on YouTube" sounds like an fast-and-easy solution, given the recent concerns among YT creators regarding their affiliate pay and other issues regarding their search that has lead to reduced views, etc., I can see why USFS might be taking pause to use that as a platform for their archives.