Until recently the biggest fault with US skating coverage, IMO, was the tape delay. My take is that if you cannot show it live or at least within a few hours of its conclusion (say, for faraway events), don't bother showing it at all. That's one reason why I'm really not disappointed that ESPN dropped GP coverage- I never really watched it anyway, having known the results of the competition weeks prior. Now, Ice Network provides a live feed (although I do hate that I can't record it unlike TV) of GP events, and Universal Sports.com covers portions of competitions that aren't shown on NBC.
A lot of people hate on NBC's coverage due to the commentators, but they don't bother me too much. In fact, I like that they don't ramble on quite as much as ABC's folks did. Although we get less TV coverage than in the past, the coverage we do get is live (or tape-delayed a couple of hours, depending on where in the country you live) and in HD. Personally, SA, US Nationals and Worlds is good enough for me. Plus, the competitors that aren't shown on TV can usually be seen either on a cable affiliate or on a live internet stream. That's something that just wasn't feasible in the earlier days, and that I think some people forget.
