2018 Olympic Figure Skating in the Morning

[ice coverage]

... if Max had been skating you would be irritated, too.

... Surprising as it may be, not everything in the skating world revolves around Max.

noskates, it was only in reply to YOUR reference to Max that karne explained why it did not bother her that Max (as one of the Rostelecom skaters) got bumped.

No, the skating world does not revolve around Max. But karne was not suggesting that it does or should. Quite the opposite in this case.
And again, YOU were the one who brought up the topic of Max.

(I myself was disappointed that Max and Rostelecom as a whole got bumped ... so I remember very well that on that Sunday night, karne's thoughts on the pre-emption of skating were not affected by Max's presence at Rostelecom.)

 

[TGee]

The worse part was that this wasn't live they actually choose not to show her only highlights. I complained to the cbc and heard nothing from them. I did get a tweet from one of the commintators tell me I can always live stream. Really your telling me not to watch you on cable but stream it with no commintary. Not a good response at all.. how about they do three hours and actually show the skating and then the other sports too.

Not all the GPs are live, but this one roughly was in our time zone. We had the ISU live results page up on the lap top, and we noticed that the broadcast was getting behind bit by bit....Not quite a full skater behind before Bell, but getting close...And then they cut to the bobsled, and came back to the end of her highlights and scores...

Thing is, they claim it's live on the Road to the Olympics page even when it isn't....

 

[noskates]

We have been discussing when the Olympics are broadcast, who broadcasts them, broadcasting in general, the consensus that it's the USA's "doing" that events are scheduled when they are, etc. etc. I don't think it's out of line or off topic to be irritated about what little figure skating we do get to be bumped by a sport that is on just about every weekend. So I don't need to be reminded that it was "live" - and that should make a difference. Nor do I need to be chastised for having an opinion or slammed because someone is such an uber fan that they cannot see the forest for the trees sometimes....most of the time.

I and everybody else on this board wishes there was more figure skating on the air, at better times, and realize that Ice Network isn't always the best alternative. So when it does get bumped it's not only irritating but disappointing. Figure skating seems to be the throwaway sport.

There - that should get this thread back on topic. Sheesh.

 

[NanaPat]

Uhm, have to be honest here. The CBC sometimes does this kind of thing.

Figure Skating now gets rolled into a bigger format labeled "Road to the Olympic Games" that typically runs Saturday afternoons. Any and all Olympic sports get covered year round under this umbrella, which is mostly for the good as I don't mind catching up on highlights of other sports during the floods, but sometimes it leads to really bad calls about priorities.

During Skate America they felt the need to cut away for an update on breaking World Cup bobsled results right in the middle of the final ladies flight......I guess the producer didn't think that Mariah Bell would make the podium, so they went away during her skate. I was really stunned and thought they would just delay the broadcast a few minutes, but all we got was her highlights......(Had to catch her full FS later on the internet...)

I'm pretty sure I saw Mariah Bell's free skate on CBC. But then I'm on PST, so the bobsled "real time event" was at a different time here! Unless it wasn't. We never know when things are on here: if something is announced as 3 PM, I look for it at all hours between noon and 3, and usually I find it somewhere.

 

[NanaPat]

One annoying thing about figure skating, live or not, being bumped by another event, live or not, is that they don't seem to tell the cable providers about it so they can tell the darned DVR so the correct (delayed) program can be recorded! Thank goodness for the "video" posts at Golden Skate that save so much time hunting for those elusive videos.

 

[reneerose]

........ This has been discussed ad nauseum and it just comes down to the interest in the US isn't what it used to be and the networks know that. Last week a whole evening of skating was left out because a NASCAR race had been rained out and continued later on in the day. So racing cars bumped figure skating.

Yeah, sadly the network goes for the lowest common denominator. And figure skating is the "fluffy" sport that won't get ratings, unless it's the Worlds or Olympics being broadcast, which is sad for the sport. Thank goodness for You Tube and Ice Network, which I can afford. I don't have beaucoup bucks for premium cable or dish unfortunately...

 

[TGee]

Yeah, sadly the network goes for the lowest common denominator. And figure skating is the "fluffy" sport that won't get ratings, unless it's the Worlds or Olympics being broadcast, which is sad for the sport. Thank goodness for You Tube and Ice Network, which I can afford. I don't have beaucoup bucks for premium cable or dish unfortunately...

The weird thing in my view is that, that a sport that's such a big draw at the Olympics that NBC is willing to dish out the dollars to get it scheduled for US prime time, is not logically one that the US networks think that they can make money on outside of Olympics and to a lesser extent Worlds....

And I worry about he long term viability of the sport if there isn't a paying fan base. If it's not the big broadcast networks....then who? Tickets sales at the events seem to only help cover costs in a few countries.

It's such an expensive sport and the prize money even at the elite level is trivial.

I wonder, given the success of Dancing with the Stars in the US, whether the ratings problem is one of a colossal mis-marketing of figure skating over the decades. There has been so much attention on the skating princess narrative in the US, that it crowds out every other interesting storyline. And DWTS shows that folks would be interested to follow the ups and downs of their favourites across a season.

It turns figure skating into the crowning of the next beauty queen instead of building up the suspense across the disciplines.. But a quadrennial global beauty pageant can't finance this sport....

 

[thegreendestiny]

After Yuna, Korea is practically insignificant in figure skating so I guess speed skating is more of their preferred prime time show.

 

[creaturelover]

I just get annoyed how there is the live symbol on Nationals being broadcasted when I know from facebook that X skater has already won the free skate so therefore the recording is at least 30 minutes delayed. [I'm in Arizona- if anyone knows the reason why I would love to know]

 

[NanaPat]

I just get annoyed how there is the live symbol on Nationals being broadcasted when I know from facebook that X skater has already won the free skate so therefore the recording is at least 30 minutes delayed. [I'm in Arizona- if anyone knows the reason why I would love to know]

Some of it may have to do with you not being in the eastern time zone. Suppose something is broadcast live, say at 5pm eastern: sometimes it is shown where I live at 2 pm pacific (also live, the same actual time), but sometimes it is scheduled for 5 pm pacific (3 hours later than 5 eastern). That's why I sometimes have trouble finding programs, and have to look for the program within 3 hours before and after the stated time.

Also, some "live" broadcasts are hybrids. They start out with pre-recorded background "stuff" (say reviews of short programs and/or earlier flights) and then join the live event sometime during the last flight.

I find that some networks, like TSN, tend to show the same program simultaneously to the whole country, while CTV delays them so they are at the same stated time (a 7pm program shows up at 7pm in your time zone, whatever that may be. Simulcasting in more common on sports networks that show a lot of live stuff, on cable networks, and during the day. Time shifting is more common on major networks during prime time.

I don't worry that much about the "live" banners because I tend to record everything. Even if I watch a show as it is being recorded, I'll delay my start by a half hour or more so I can skip the commercials and not catch up with the broadcast.

 

[reneerose]

The weird thing in my view is that, that a sport that's such a big draw at the Olympics that NBC is willing to dish out the dollars to get it scheduled for US prime time, is not logically one that the US networks think that they can make money on outside of Olympics and to a lesser extent Worlds....

And I worry about he long term viability of the sport if there isn't a paying fan base. If it's not the big broadcast networks....then who? Tickets sales at the events seem to only help cover costs in a few countries.

It's such an expensive sport and the prize money even at the elite level is trivial.

I wonder, given the success of Dancing with the Stars in the US, whether the ratings problem is one of a colossal mis-marketing of figure skating over the decades. There has been so much attention on the skating princess narrative in the US, that it crowds out every other interesting storyline. And DWTS shows that folks would be interested to follow the ups and downs of their favourites across a season.

It turns figure skating into the crowning of the next beauty queen instead of building up the suspense across the disciplines.. But a quadrennial global beauty pageant can't finance this sport....

Your post hits right on the mark! I always hate when a network brings up past scandalous stuff, like Tonya vs Nancy :disapp: They need to focus on more of the present and positive state of the sport and not short shrift basic broadcasts. Give credit that the audience does want to see much more than the network is showing, and make it easily accessible.

 

[gravy]

Why the heck is SA so late next season?

Same thing happened in 2010. The US wants to create a "figure skating package" as much as possible. Skate America in November; 1 month later the GP final; 1 month later Nationals; 1 month later the Olympics; 1 month later Worlds; 1 month later Stars on Ice begins. It's easy to build momentum that way for a sport that doesn't have much traction in the US which is still somehow one of the most watched events of the Winter Olympics. NBC basically owns the Olympics with their ~8 BILLION dollar deal for the TV rights so they have considerable sway with how ISU events are carried out; it's one of the reasons why Pyeonchang FS events will be held in the morning... so they can be shown live to the prime-time audience in the US.

 

[matcha]

Same thing happened in 2010. The US wants to create a "figure skating package" as much as possible. Skate America in November; 1 month later the GP final; 1 month later Nationals; 1 month later the Olympics; 1 month later Worlds; 1 month later Stars on Ice begins. It's easy to build momentum that way for a sport that doesn't have much traction in the US which is still somehow one of the most watched events of the Winter Olympics. NBC basically owns the Olympics with their ~8 BILLION dollar deal for the TV rights so they have considerable sway with how ISU events are carried out; it's one of the reasons why Pyeonchang FS events will be held in the morning... so they can be shown live to the prime-time audience in the US.

I'll be shaking my fist at this from Europe.

 

[chuckm]

I'll be shaking my fist at this from Europe.

In the US, we had to get up at 3:15 am to see the Men's FS live from Helsinki. That was after days of getting up at the wee hours to see live SPs. My body still hasn't recovered.

 

[MaiKatze]

In the US, we had to get up at 3:15 am to see the Men's FS live from Helsinki. That was after days of getting up at the wee hours to see live SPs. My body still hasn't recovered.

What about Boston, London etc.? We in Europe also get up in the middle of the night if Figure Skating is in North America. If Olympics were in NA I could understand, but actually having the competitions in the morning in South Korea? It just seems rude.....(And for Japan, Russia etc. who have real gold medal contenders, it's not an ideal time to watch either)

 

[chuckm]

What about Boston, London etc.? We in Europe also get up in the middle of the night if Figure Skating is in North America. If Olympics were in NA I could understand, but actually having the competitions in the morning in South Korea? It just seems rude.....(And for Japan, Russia etc. who have real gold medal contenders, it's not an ideal time to watch either)

For all Asian competitions, most events are in the wee hours of the morning, which means live watching is nearly impossible.

As for events being in North America, you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of events in NA in any given year. OTOH, the number of events in Asia might require the use of the digits on both hands and maybe even one foot....

And the events in Europe---you'd need an abacus....

 

[ejnsofi]

I'll be shaking my fist at this from Europe.

I agree. It's different when hosting olympic country do it for it's own people and different if it's a privilege for some Big Brother located across the ocean. Actually holding competitions in the morning will be beneficial only for US as majority of people in Asia will be in work if events will be held in the middle of week

 

[Barb]

I agree. It's different when hosting olympic country do it for it's own people and different if it's a privilege for some Big Brother located across the ocean. Actually holding competitions in the morning will be beneficial only for US as majority of people in Asia will be in work if events will be held in the middle of week

Well, not only US, all the American continent has almost the same time zone.

 

[Li'Kitsu]

I agree. It's different when hosting olympic country do it for it's own people and different if it's a privilege for some Big Brother located across the ocean. Actually holding competitions in the morning will be beneficial only for US as majority of people in Asia will be in work if events will be held in the middle of week

And given that by far the biggest audience for FS is in Asia, also over television, this seems like a pretty dumb move for the worldwide ratings. If the event is in Asia, than let it be at prime time for Asia time zones, IMO

To add another less political reason to SA being the last event: Japan also has the GPF next season, and given that it makes sense to move NHK to an earlier location. So some other event has to go last.

 

[chuckm]

Well, not only US, all the American continent has almost the same time zone.

Not true. Canada has six time zones: Newfoundland, Atlantic, Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific

If you include Alaska, the US has five: Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific and Alaska.

There is a 14-hour difference between Korean time and Eastern Standard time.
So if an Olympic program is shown at 10 am in Korea:

It would be seen at 8pm in NY and 4 pm in Anchorage
10 pm in Newfoundland and 5 pm in British Columbia.