Well, it seems that all of your prayers have been heard and answered as the ISU has just confirmed that the fourth GP event will be held in Sheffield, GB and will be called MK John Wilson Trophy:
Official announcement on the website
(Also in the announcement: "The lists of entries for the 2022/23 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series will be published on the ISU website on Friday, July 22nd 2022.")
Thank you for the confirmation of the good news, both here and in the thread in The Edge.
I've already
posted a comment over in the other thread, so I won't repeat everything I said in it here.
But can I just take the opportunity to bring into this thread something that
@fzztsimmons said in the other thread:
"Can’t believe they missed the opportunity to call it Skate Britain
"
Absolutely brilliant!!!
I wish the event all the successs in the world! With there only being six every year, it is a great honour to be selected to host a Senior Grand Prix.
CONGRATULATIONS SHEFFIELD!!!
Hey, I just had a thought. There is a World Superbike round in Indonesia the weekend of "Skate Britain". Although the action will be early in the morning UK time, when we have flyaway races, British Eurosport normally repeats them "as live" at the time that they would have been held at if it had been a round in Europe. And this is likely to overlap with the skating.
So, given that British Eurosport likes to do something special for the British rounds of series that they have the rights to, might Discovery opt to show "Skate Britain" in it's entirity on their Free To Air channel, Quest?
That would greatly increase the number of people that can watch the event! And might even lead to some people watching the sport for the first time, and discovering that they like it!
And the location of the 4th Senior GP wasn't the only thing that was confirmed today. We also got confirmation that Viaplay is indeed buying Premier Sports.
Here is a selection of stories about the announcement:
https://advanced-television.com/2022/07/21/viaplay-acquires-premier-sports/
https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2022/07/21/viaplay-buys-premier-sports-hires-dazns-edward-breeze/
https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2022/07/21/viaplay-buys-premier-sports-hires-dazn-exec/
https://www.mediamole.co.uk/enterta...r-viaplay-acquires-premier-sports_490551.html
https://rxtvinfo.com/2022/premier-sports-channels-to-be-rebranded-as-viaplay-takes-over
And here is a story that has a handy list of what rights the combined company has so far:
https://rxtvinfo.com/2022/how-the-viaplay-premier-sports-deal-affects-sports-rights
You know, it's a real pity that Free Sports opted to leave Freeview rather than find a slot on a different multiplex when the COM7 multiplex closed at the end of June. Because that would have been a perfect channel for Viaplay to show the figure skating on. Let's face it, a premium broadcaster with 2 linear subscription channels and lots of rights to mainstream sports like football and rugby isn't going to give over lots of hours of airtime to figure skating. But, they might be willing to do so on their Free To Air taster channel.
That is assuming that Viaplay decide to keep the third linear channel as a Free To Air taster channel. They might decide to convert it into a third subscription channel. After all, Free Sports is not on either Freeview or Freesat any more. And, as we have seen with Eurosport over the years, it is difficult to fit everything you have the rights for into just 2 linear channels.
Well, we still have one more season of the figure skating being on British Eurosport. So, everything will be clearer by the time that it affects us the following season.
CaroLiza_fan