2023-24 Challenger Series live streams: expensive year

[lariko]

With Russians having alternative competitive series that are free, in good quality video, jaw dopping athletes, stellar commentay with the likes of Kolyada and Tuktamysheva, AND with a scoring tableau, challengers for me where just not competitive enough events to want to pay for them on a piece meal basis. If I could get a guarantee that there is a scoring tableau and purchase the archived videos of the entire challenger series for off-season viewing, I'd do that. But during the season? No. 1Tv wins hands down.

 

[Alex Fedorov]

I watched all the competitions that interested me this season, completely free of charge. Sometimes this required the use of a VPN or special groups on social networks, but these technical difficulties were extremely minor. But if someone, in addition to the main course, also needs dessert (that is, comments from a specific person, for example, Alexandra Trusova), then payment would be required.

 

[Skating91]

If people are tired of paying for the smaller events, the Russian competitions are a good alternative. Any geoblocking is easy for me to around with my VPN loaded on my Firestick so all the GP and major events are free.

 

[TallyT]

If people are tired of paying for the smaller events, the Russian competitions are a good alternative. Any geoblocking is easy for me to around with my VPN loaded on my Firestick.

No they are not, because there aren't the skaters there anymore - now that Eteri's soap opera has stalled at the 3A and Valieva - that the rest of the world seem to care much about seeing. The whole point of the OP's post (which was, I admit, as parochial as the three above this one of mine) is that people want to watch smaller overseas competitions by skaters they want to follow.

Anyone who wants to watch the Russians is already doing it. It's no substitute.

 

[Skating91]

No they are not, because there aren't the skaters there anymore - now that Eteri's soap opera has stalled at the 3A and Valieva - that the rest of the world seem to care much about seeing.

I completely disagree. There were great skaters to keep me entertained (Frolova and Sinitsina at a similar level to Kaori), variety of events, high production values. All for free.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

The whole point of the OP's post (which was, I admit, as parochial as the three above this one of mine) is that people want to watch smaller overseas competitions by skaters they want to follow.

What exactly was parochial about my post? Assuming that other fans of figure skating would also want to watch the Challengers? Figure skating isn't only ISU Championships and GPs.

 

[LolaSkatesInJapan]

I completely disagree. There were great skaters to keep me entertained (Frolova and Sinitsina at a similar level to Kaori), variety of events, high production values. All for free.

I'm with you. Channel 1 broadcasting is great, and same as you, I watch it with my firestick. The level of the events is incredible, higher than the ISU events. Adelia Petrosian is my favorite active competitive skater, but I really enjoy watching all those awesome ladies.

 

[Magill]

No they are not, because there aren't the skaters there anymore - now that Eteri's soap opera has stalled at the 3A and Valieva - that the rest of the world seem to care much about seeing. The whole point of the OP's post (which was, I admit, as parochial as the three above this one of mine) is that people want to watch smaller overseas competitions by skaters they want to follow.

Anyone who wants to watch the Russians is already doing it. It's no substitute.

I totally agree. When ISU and Russian skating ways split apart, people made their pretty informed choices as to follow one or the other, or both. I do not think anyone is missing any skating. We may miss certain skaters or certain skating styles but these cannot be easily substituted but someone or something we chose - for whatever reasons - not to follow.

 

[lariko]

I totally agree. When ISU and Russian skating ways split apart, people made their pretty informed choices as to follow one or the other, or both. I do not think anyone is missing any skating. We may miss certain skaters or certain skating styles but these cannot be easily substituted but someone or something we chose - for whatever reasons - not to follow.

I agree with what you say about informed choices, but I absolutely feel that I miss on the complete competition picture versus the divided one. I only believe in the on the same ice, on the same day, at once principle. Doubled load of the A-tier competitions is great in terms of there never being not enough figure skating--my family is complaining twice as loud--but enjoyment and quality suffers a big time for me, and that's with all the love for ISU and RusFed. Those two need to kiss and make up imo like the other sports did. ISU needs the infusion of skaters and RusFed needs a reason to exist. They will both benefit from a reunification. Plus, the absence of Russian judges leads to the pro-spirals-skewed judging all season long.

 

[Magill]

I agree with what you say about informed choices, but I absolutely feel that I miss on the complete competition picture versus the divided one. I only believe in the on the same ice, on the same day, at once principle. Doubled load of the A-tier competitions is great in terms of there never being not enough figure skating--my family is complaining twice as loud--but enjoyment and quality suffers a big time for me, and that's with all the love for ISU and RusFed. Those two need to kiss and make up imo like the other sports did. ISU needs the infusion of skaters and RusFed needs a reason to exist. They will both benefit from a reunification. Plus, the absence of Russian judges leads to the pro-spirals-skewed judging all season long.

I politely disagree and that's all I am going to say to it.

 

[icewhite]

The prices are too high - not so much in absolute terms but in regards to the content.
The quality, from what I know, is not good enough.
I didn't buy and I'm not going to.
The Russian competitions are something else and not really an alternative, but the fact that you can watch the ISU comps through VK (which I don''t do, either) by giving your data to them instead of paying makes this model even sillier. I'm sure even many hardcore fans will use that way instead of paying.

 

[el henry]

I am not going to watch anything on Channel One, no skater there interests me , but that of course is just me, so that is not an option. If they have good quality streams for fans whose opinions differ, that is a plus.

Skate Canada puts out high quality, free streams, with skaters I am far more interested in, if I am going to watch domestic competitions such as are now shown on Channel One, I will watch Skate Canada's domestic competitions.

Back to the topic at hand:

I did not pay for any Challenger stream because I was not certain if there will be any replays. Almost all the Challengers are in a challenging time zone for me (see what I did there ) At least with Peacock, they may only have two days of replays, but it beats no replays.

Grammy and Gramps cut the cord several years ago, and Peacock is a good streaming option for us for other reasons. It's not apples to apples in terms of pricing for skating.

 

[surimi]

It's quite simple for me. I just watch the free, archived streams like Warsaw (thank you, Warsaw! You've been great for years!). I have never paid for a stream, and I don't think I will start to, though never say never.

I'm lucky because my country's main TV channel broadcasts *and* archives the GP series and the big championships (except for 4CC this season, sadly... just when I would need it most). Full, or almost full, streams are provided this season, which, along with Warsaw, is my little skating haven for the time being. I almost always watch archived streams because I enjoy watching full length competitions little by little, whenever I have the time and mood for it.

I think every single free video out there increases the chance of making new fans, especially when on a widely popular site like Youtube. Different strokes for different folks, you never know who is going to become a fan because they saw their own country's skater perform in a randomly suggested video, or who will start watching FS because a skater performed to their favorite song and YT showed the skate among its personalized suggestions.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

you never know who is going to become a fan because they saw their own country's skater perform in a randomly suggested video, or who will start watching FS because a skater performed to their favorite song and YT showed the skate among its personalized suggestions.

So true, just look at my kittens Minsol Kwon and Lucrezia Beccari/Matteo Guarise. One program to Cats and they are forever in my heart.

But seriously, that's a great point you made and a scenario I could definitely see happening.

 

[surimi]

So true, just look at my kittens Minsol Kwon and Lucrezia Beccari/Matteo Guarise. One program to Cats and they are forever in my heart.

But seriously, that's a great point you made and a scenario I could definitely see happening.

I have to look up Lucrezia/Matteo Cats (I've been neglecting pairs this season but now I'm curious, so thanks for the tip). Minsol's Cats will remain etched in my memory: she was great, and I loved the program from the first watching. I had no issues with her being a very young junior because her performance was top notch.

 

[TontoK]

I'm not a big sharer on social media, but I do follow a lot of figure skating accounts on Instagram. That helps, somewhat.

But my real revelation was when I set up a Twitter (or X) account. I created a "list" that includes figure skaters, federations, ISU, pods, various fan accounts, etc. That way, I can just go to my list. Now sometimes you get people's opinions on things other than skating - which I do not care about at all - but the "just keep scrolling" rule comes into play there.

And because I view a lot of figure skating content, I get new sources of info on the "for you" section.

I get a lot of news, videos - sometimes full competition programs - stuff like that from all over. My list is constantly revised as I discover new accounts and add them, or I discover that a contributor is not as relevant as I once thought and delete them from the list.

To reiterate, I'm not interested in sharing every detail of my everyday life, nor reading anyone else's for that matter. I just use social media as a newsfeed. It helps to keep up with all the competitions, even if I don't have the time/money to watch everything.

 

[macy]

As far as streaming in the US goes, i've always wondered what the differences are, and why they exist, between NBC and USAG vs NBC and USFSA. Elite gymnastics has fantastic visibility in the US - full competitions are broadcasted on tv and are then put up for free on USAG's youtube channel forever. their youtube channel is CHOCK FULL of full broadcast streams, podium training, and so much more dating years and years back. it's so easy to find almost whatever gymnastics event you want on youtube with no issue, and it's completely the opposite for skating. why? why did peacock have to come into the picture, and why are replays only left up for a couple days? gymnastics also uses music for one event (of course not to the extent of skating), why are these videos left up with no issue? why couldn't USFSA take the route of USAG with youtube? it just seems so counterintuitive to me the way skating has basically no visibility in the US- how do they expect the sport to grow and get introduced to new people?

 

[TallyT]

What exactly was parochial about my post? Assuming that other fans of figure skating would also want to watch the Challengers? Figure skating isn't only ISU Championships and GPs.

I apologise, I got posters mixed up (yesterday was One Of Those Days when I should have taken to my bed and stayed there) and misattributed to you as OP the suggestion that NBC/Peacock would solve the problem.

 

[NaVi]

I agree . It not hard to find figure skating content from earlier years on YouTube. Everything from US Nationals, to worlds, to the Olympic coverage is accessable if you are willing watch coverage that is over 20 years old. It anything more recent that is major headache.

There's a lot of older niche content that just went poof when copyright started being enforced more... notably a lot of older junior grand prix finals and junior worlds videos.

The problem with the challenger series is that there's little meaning behind it. Is it for tuning up the top skaters? Is it to provide a lower tier competition for those who don't medal at the Grand Prix or not able to skate at the Grand Prix. There isn't a context that really makes the events significant. I personally wish the Grand Prix and the Challenger Series were replaced with multiple tournaments that have differentiating rulsets and regional qualifiers. This would create more events with a contexts(region+skill level) that actually mean something.

 

[lariko]

Challengers are good for catching up on the second or third etc skater per country who are not in GP selections. Otherwise, you have to wait till Eu or Worlds to see them, or not at all. Plus, they are counted in rankings, and help new partnerships to qualify for second half of the season. Without the tv1, I would consider some of the challengers, but current model of streaming and quality of delivery (scoring window) is just not there to take them seriously as a paid product.

ISU used to have competitions on their own archive. I think they should revitalize it for archiving challengers