Requiem for The Ice Channel

[SkateFan4Life]

Here's a link to Michael Rosenberg's "thank you and farewell" concerning the demise of the plans to establish a 24/7 cable television channel exclusively devoted to figure skating. Bad economy, investors pulling out, etc.

Sigh....it was a lovely idea, anyway.


http://www.theicechannel.com/

[Kurt's Girl]

Awww, what a bummer. So people will pay to finance a *golf* channel, but try and put something actually atheletic on the TV and no one will finance it. :(

Well, here's hoping the idea gets revived down the road.

[SkateFan4Life]

Awww, what a bummer. So people will pay to finance a *golf* channel, but try and put something actually atheletic on the TV and no one will finance it. :(

Well, here's hoping the idea gets revived down the road.

Wait a minute. Don't you consider football, baseball, and basketball to be "actually athletic"? Hello. There are millions of team sports fans, and the networks realize that these legions of folks watch those football, baseball, and basketball games from their home televisions.

Figure skating just isn't in the same league, as far as fan appeal is concerned, and the networks know it. It's been 11 years since the Kerrigan/Harding scandal skyrocketed the marketability of figure skating. Nowadays, we're lucky to have a few hours of network coverage for the Nationals and Worlds. Many events are televised on cable, and IMHO, it's going to be that way until something happens to spur the legions of would-be skating fans to again watch the televised coverage of skating competitions.

[Tonichelle]

I think all Kurt's Girl was saying that if they allow a "Golf" network to exhist (and that has about the same sized following as skating) then they could certainly have a figure skating one... I think ESPN runs the golf channel, doesn't it?

that being said, this is old news. It was pretty much doomed to never work because the people who planned it have had several other failures -- ie reviving competitions and shows -- so I think a lot of people felt like it was a nice idea but "keep dreaming"



this just means you all will have to wait until I take over ESPN's figure skating coverage (for more on that ask mpal2 or kwanfan1212 LOL)

[Kurt's Girl]

^^ Exactly. I wasn't trying to slam any other sport (well okay, *except* golf, but in fairness, golf is horrible and I hate it ). But there IS a golf channel...heck, the dish networks even have a WWE (professional wrestling) 24/7 channel. So, I'll continue to hold out hope for an ice channel someday; if they can do it, we can do it.