Skate America Television Coverage

[Violet Bliss]

CBC live coverage of all programs: Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Skate America
Watch live beginning Friday at 4:15 p.m. ET

Online and television schedules

 

[Ice Dance]

I did see it on the schedule, thanks. Unfortunately I do not see a rebroadcast of the 90 minute NBCSN broadcast (Sunday, Oct 25th) anytime next week. I am trying to decide if I want to upgrade my TV package in order to see it. I also note that NBCSN is not repeating either. If you want to see it you will need to get it at the time or not at all - it appears.

Watch the West Coast schedule some other sporting event over the top of it. (In my region, we got basketball instead of the men's free skates from Worlds last season. Yes, I'm still bitter).

 

[Eclair]

It depends.

If the ISU has a commentator for their stream, then yes. Eurosport however, tends to use their commentators only for ES1 and ES2, not however the separate streams.

Okay, thanks! I think I'll just provide private exlusive commentary myself for my boyfriend, lol. I was lucky, that he isn't too uninterested in watching figure skating or he's just good at pretending

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Before I get to what I want to discuss, International Figure Skating magazine is reporting that the ISU will be broadcasting livestreams of the GP Series on their Eurovision channel:

http://livemanager.eurovision.edgesuite.net/isu/index.html

(At the moment, it automatically starts playing the archived livestream of the WTT Gala)

Unfortunately, it will probably be geo-blocked in countries where there is TV coverage.

Secondly, just a wee reminder that British Eurosport 1 will be showing 3 hours of highlights of Worlds this afternoon from 14:00 BST, i.e. 5 hours from now.

Which brings us nicely onto the thing I wanted to talk about: Eurosport Player.

Could somebody who has signed up for Eurosport Player check something for me?

When ESP1 Deutschland was on analogue satellite, as well as having the German soundtrack, there was also an English soundtrack available. But, on digital satellite, ESP1 Deutschland has only ever had just the German soundtrack.

So, if you access Eurosport Player via Germany (be it through being in Germany, or via a VPN), is there an English soundtrack available on the ESP1 and ESP2 streams?

And, as an extension, could somebody check ESP France and ESP Nederland for the same.

I have been wondering this for years, but never knew anybody that had Eurosport Player who I could ask.

The reason I ask is that I would seriously consider getting the Eurosport Player if it meant I could access ESP International’s English language soundtrack on these other regional versions.

I am getting fed up with British Eurosport pushing Figure Skating and Ski Jumping (particularly the Summer Grand Prix and the Women’s competitions) off the ESP1 and ESP2 schedules! But, at the same time, I would not see the point in getting the Player to watch these if I was restricted to just the foreign language soundtracks.

Finally, I was looking at the Eurosport Player website, and when you go into the TV Schedule pages (Today and This Week), there is an ISU channel towards the bottom of the list.

I have added the schedule for this ISU channel below. And I will also add it to my Eurosport TV Schedule post earlier in the thread.

All times are UK time, so viewers in other parts of the world can work out their own times using this Time Converter that Mrs. P kindly brought out attention to a couple of seasons ago.

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan


British Eurosport Player

Friday 23[SUP]rd[/SUP] October 2015 (All times BST*)
ISU 22:30 – 23:45 Short Program Pairs LIVE

Saturday 24[SUP]th[/SUP] October 2015 (All times BST*)
ISU 00:00 – 01:45 Short Program Ladies LIVE
ISU 03:00 – 04:10 Short Dance LIVE
ISU 04:25 – 06:15 Short Program Men LIVE
ISU 20:20 – 21:45 Free Pairs LIVE
ISU 22:00 – 00:15 Free Skating Ladies LIVE

Sunday 25[SUP]th[/SUP] October 2015 (All times GMT*)
ISU 02:30 – 03:00 Dance Free LIVE
ISU 03:00 – 03:30 Dance Free LIVE
ISU 04:00 – 05:30 Free Men LIVE
ISU 20:00 – 22:30 Gala LIVE

*Europe leaves Daylight Savings Time at 01:00 GMT on Sunday 25th October. So, the schedule up to and including Saturday is in BST (British Summer Time, i.e. GMT+1), while the schedule for Sunday onwards is in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time, i.e. GMT+0)

 

[zebobes]

The Eurovision channel has been updated! Good news to us living in non-figureskating countries! Can't wait.

 

[NoNameFace]

glad I'll probably watch all things live after work today and tomorrow evening/night - that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make! Hopefully there will be some good stream available with my snail-fast Internet, thanks for everybody posting a streams/coverage!!!

 

[YesWay]

Finally, I was looking at the Eurosport Player website, and when you go into the TV Schedule pages (Today and This Week), there is an ISU channel towards the bottom of the list.

It is that extra "ISU" channel that shows complete coverage (and live, to boot!) that convinced me to subscribe. It appears (from Sabinfire's posts) to provide the same kind of coverage as Ice Network or the ISU Edgesuite.net... ie. no commentary, which may make your language questions redundant?

From UK, it seems the better option ie. higher resolution, more stable streaming/connection, no need for any VPN trickery to bypass geoblocking... and the possibility of on-demand replay for 7 days afterwards (at least for the regular Eurosport 1&2 channels but hopefully the live channels too?). Mind you, it's also the most expensive option...

 

[Winnie_20]

So, if you access Eurosport Player via Germany (be it through being in Germany, or via a VPN), is there an English soundtrack available on the ESP1 and ESP2 streams?

And, as an extension, could somebody check ESP France and ESP Nederland for the same.

I doubt there will be commentaries on the ISU stream in the Eurosport player, at least not for the live events during the (European) night times. Because these would be the same people who would then be commentating on the same event for the recaps the next day? No way. The Dutch (and presumably other) commentators will be sleeping during the night, and then do the commentary for the recaps in the morning, I think. Unless they're actually present there on location for the commentary? I know the Dutch commentators never are, anyway.

But I guess I may yet be proven wrong tonight.

As for what language the commentary I get is in... that probably just depends. On television, we have the option of switching between Dutch and English. If there is no Dutch commentary, it automatically defaults to the English audio. Right now, I checked the eurosport player, there's cricket live, and it's British commentary, but I'm not in the UK. There just isn't any Dutch commentary for this event (for cricket, there'll never be!).

With figure skating... no idea. I'm gonna see if I can find a stream with multiple audio streams.

edit to add: there is a soccer match on Eurosport 2 (accessed through the player app), it started in English and then after a switch seconds automatically switched to Dutch. So maybe if you use a VPN, you can tell the thing you're in the UK if you fancy British commentary.

I am getting fed up with British Eurosport pushing Figure Skating and Ski Jumping (particularly the Summer Grand Prix and the Women’s competitions) off the ESP1 and ESP2 schedules! But, at the same time, I would not see the point in getting the Player to watch these if I was restricted to just the foreign language soundtracks.

Oh... so if I understand you correctly, you want to watch the figure skating, accessed through the player, via a VPN that tells the thing you're outside the British Eurosport zone, so you'll get the not-British Eurosport. And then access the international commentary. Not sure how that works, would there even be international English commentary, if British Eurosport isn't airing it?

 

[viennaskater]

Before
Could somebody who has signed up for Eurosport Player check something for me?

When ESP1 Deutschland was on analogue satellite, as well as having the German soundtrack, there was also an English soundtrack available. But, on digital satellite, ESP1 Deutschland has only ever had just the German soundtrack.

So, if you access Eurosport Player via Germany (be it through being in Germany, or via a VPN), is there an English soundtrack available on the ESP1 and ESP2 streams?

All I can tell you is that I have cable channels in Austria. With EurosportPlayer.de I am fortunately able to access English as well as German commentary. Thank goodness.

But this is cable tv rather than satellite and I do not know if it makes a difference.

 

[Winnie_20]

So, if you access Eurosport Player via Germany (be it through being in Germany, or via a VPN), is there an English soundtrack available on the ESP1 and ESP2 streams?

And, as an extension, could somebody check ESP France and ESP Nederland for the same.

I can now say for sure that YES, you can access the English soundtrack. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79198760/IMG_2081.PNG In this case, you can switch between English and Dutch (NL) audio, on Eurosport (1).

 

[ice coverage]

deleted ... because of obsolete information.

Thx to Caro_Liza fan for the update below.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

I doubt there will be commentaries on the ISU stream in the Eurosport player, at least not for the live events during the (European) night times. Because these would be the same people who would then be commentating on the same event for the recaps the next day? No way. The Dutch (and presumably other) commentators will be sleeping during the night, and then do the commentary for the recaps in the morning, I think. Unless they're actually present there on location for the commentary? I know the Dutch commentators never are, anyway.

But I guess I may yet be proven wrong tonight.

As for what language the commentary I get is in... that probably just depends. On television, we have the option of switching between Dutch and English. If there is no Dutch commentary, it automatically defaults to the English audio. Right now, I checked the eurosport player, there's cricket live, and it's British commentary, but I'm not in the UK. There just isn't any Dutch commentary for this event (for cricket, there'll never be!).

With figure skating... no idea. I'm gonna see if I can find a stream with multiple audio streams.

edit to add: there is a soccer match on Eurosport 2 (accessed through the player app), it started in English and then after a switch seconds automatically switched to Dutch. So maybe if you use a VPN, you can tell the thing you're in the UK if you fancy British commentary.


Oh... so if I understand you correctly, you want to watch the figure skating, accessed through the player, via a VPN that tells the thing you're outside the British Eurosport zone, so you'll get the not-British Eurosport. And then access the international commentary. Not sure how that works, would there even be international English commentary, if British Eurosport isn't airing it?

Thanks for investigating.

To answer your question, even if it is not being broadcast on British Eurosport, so long as something is part of the default Eurosport International schedule, then the English language commentators will still be commentating on it.

Apart from anything else, Eurosport also has an Australia/Pacific version, so they need the English language commentary for the Aussies!

That is how I am able to watch the Ski Jumping Summer Grand Prix with English commentary every year. British Eurosport never shows these competitions, but I am still able to watch it with with David Goldstrom's commentary on the illegal streams of Eurosport International (when I remember... )

But, the picture quality on these streams were so bad that I was near pulling my hair out. Like, there was 2 competitions that the stream died completely when we were coming up to the final 10 jumpers. And, so I missed the end of the competition!

After a few years of doing it like this, I have had enough! Plus, I found out earlier today that the pages for the streams on site I always used are now being blocked by Firefox because of all the virus-ridden adverts. So, I can't watch them any more even if I wanted to.

If I knew that I would be able to watch more figure skating AND ski jumping competitions that British Eurosport does not show, and have the ability to watch them On Demand, then I would jump at the £5 a month!

The problem is, the Summer Grand Prix competitions have already finished (the World Cup starts in 4 weeks). So I have no way of finding out now if they would have had a channel on the British Eurosport Player. Hence, why I am curious to find out if any of the other versions of Eurosport Player have the ability to select an English soundtrack on the main channels (which I know do show the SUmmer Grand Prix).

Sorry if this sounds complicated. But, it is pretty complicated to explain!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Thank you to Winnie_20 and viennaskater for answering my question in the time that it took me to write that LONG message I just posted.

And thank you to YesWay for giving your verdict on the service.

Given that the illegal stream I used to watch is now dead, I am definitely leaning towards signing up for Eurosport Player!

Golden - since I posted the link to the ISU's Eurovision streaming page, they HAVE started a countdown for Skate America (which is what zebobes was referring to in this post).

But, as with last season, it is only available in countries that don't have TV coverage.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[TheGrandSophy]

Thank you to Winnie_20 and vienna skater for answering my question in the time that it took me to write that LONG message I just posted.

Given that the illegal stream I used to watch is now dead, I am definitely leaning towards signing up for Eurosport Player!

Golden - since I posted the link to the ISU's Eurovision streaming page, they HAVE started a countdown for Skate America (which is what zebobes was referring to in this post).

But, as with last season, it is only available in countries that don't have TV coverage.

CaroLiza_fan

Concerning the bolded, it will probably be worth giving it a go. It is a monthly subscription only so if you find it isn't okay, you can cancel as long as you do it 24 hours before the next automatic renewal.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Concerning the bolded, it will probably be worth giving it a go. It is a monthly subscription only so if you find it isn't okay, you can cancel as long as you do it 24 hours before the next automatic renewal.

Thank you. But, having seen the quality of the pictures from sabinfire's videos, and seeing on the schedule pages all the additional stuff they show, I was thinking of going the full hog and getting the 12 month subscription! (Which also has the added advantage of being £2/month cheaper!)

Because, if it is as good as people on here say it is, it is definitely worth it! :agree:

Plus, it would be handy to have an additional way of watching Eurosport, seeing as Sky+ only has 2 tuners, and there have been occasions recently when we could have been doing with having a third tuner...

Put it like this - I can imagine it being used extensively!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[TheGrandSophy]

Thank you. But, having seen the quality of the pictures from sabinfire's videos, and seeing on the schedule pages all the additional stuff they show, I was thinking of going the full hog and getting the 12 month subscription! (Which also has the added advantage of being £2/month cheaper!)

Because, if it is as good as people on here say it is, it is definitely worth it! :agree:

Plus, it would be handy to have an additional way of watching Eurosport, seeing as Sky+ only has 2 tuners, and there have been occasions recently when we could have been doing with having a third tuner...

Put it like this - I can imagine it being used extensively!

CaroLiza_fan

You could always try it for a month and then, if you like it, cancel and get the yearly!

 

[ice coverage]

... Golden - since I posted the link to the ISU's Eurovision streaming page, they HAVE started a countdown for Skate America (which is what zebobes was referring to in this post).

But, as with last season, it is only available in countries that don't have TV coverage.

CaroLiza_fan

Thx for this great news, CL_fan.
I have deleted my post above so as not to lead anyone astray with my pessimism that proved to be unwarranted.

I had missed zebobes' post, but I could swear that I had checked the ISU Eurovision page before I hit "Submit" on my original post immediately above.

Anyway, I can see now that Skate Canada live streaming already is listed on the Eurovision page so it bodes well that Eurovision will have the first two GPs this year.

(Still strange to me that the ISU has not been shouting from the rooftops about the streaming. I suppose it doesn't want to rile up those who love to gripe about geoblocking. [I am not referring to you, CL_fan.])

---

ETA:

Copying the ISU boilerplate here, to underline your warning re the usual geoblocking:

Content unavailable in the following territories: (USA, Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Republic of Korea, Central & South America​

The geoblocking as always does apply to me, but I think it's great that the ISU is back with more streaming even on a limited basis.​

 

[breynows]

Why did they Geoblocked South America??!!

Worst part is that we don't have any tv coverage for figure skating...

 

[Winnie_20]

Apart from anything else, Eurosport also has an Australia/Pacific version, so they need the English language commentary for the Aussies!

I had no idea. I suppose I've always thought that Eurosport was only accessible to countries in, well, Europe.

Sorry if this sounds complicated. But, it is pretty complicated to explain!

CaroLiza_fan

Thanks for the explanation, it does answer a lot of questions.

 

[[email protected]]

In Russia 2 satellite channels will broadcast GP SA including one in HD. Eurosport player is also available for about $2 per month or $16 per year. They will stream ISU channel. No sportbox stream this time.