2023-24 British and Irish Figure Skating | Page 5 | Golden Skate

2023-24 British and Irish Figure Skating

News from this side of the Irish Sea. The plans to redevelop Dundonald Ice Bowl have been approved by Lisburn And Castlereagh City Council. (The name of that supercouncil always feels weird to me. It was Lisburn that was given city status, not Castlereagh).

BBC NI story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-66929246

Belfast Newsletter story: https://www.newsletter.co.uk/busine...t-of-dundonald-international-ice-bowl-4350076

Belfast Telegraph story: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/...-million-pound-redevelopment/a1417932224.html

Ulster TV story: https://www.itv.com/news/utv/2023-09-27/multi-million-redevelopment-for-dundonald-ice-bowl

And here are the plans as they were presented at the public consultation back in 2019:

https://www.theicebowl.com/uploads/activities/DIIB_-_A1_Consultation_Boards_(FINAL).pdf

When I first heard about the proposal, I thought this would be great in the long term. But then I got concerned about what would happen in the short term. As we all know, Dundonald Ice Bowl is where ALL the figure skaters that are based on the island of Ireland train. What would happen to them while the building work goes on? There would be no problem if the ice rink at the Odyssey Arena was made available to them. But, if it wasn't, they would be left high and dry.

The reports on the TV didn't say anything about this. But I was relieved to read in the stories I linked to above that all the existing facilities would remain open during the building work. So says the Mayor of Lisburn (that is another thing that feels weird to me: Lisburn being in charge of Dundonald. Because Dundonald is a suburb of Belfast, not a suburb of Lisburn).

But, as ever in Northern Ireland, the politicians don't all agree on it.

Belfast Newsletter story: https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/p...ty-clash-over-plans-for-ps52m-upgrade-4351105

Belfast Telegraph story: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/...to-revamp-dundonald-ice-bowl/a1604891340.html

So, there will probably be lots of twists and turns to come before the new Ice Bowl is built. If it gets built.

Sorry to be pessimistic, but there are so many major projects over here that got approved, but still haven't happened. I'll live in hope, but I won't hold my breath.

CaroLiza_fan
 
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Ruthypegs said:
Hi everyone - I was going to start off a fan fest for Lydia Smart and Harry Mattick (I don't think there is one already, or at least, I can't find one). Does anyone know the best source of up-to-date information for this team?

Looking forward to seeing them at Nebelhorn this weekend.
Click to expand...
So I've put together the thread for Lydia Smart and Harry Mattick and it's now over in the Pairs Fan Fest.

I'm missing information about their programmes for 20-21 and 21-22 - is there an ISU site or similar where I might find this information?
 
It's the October Qualifiers starting Monday 3rd October - unfortunately, the British Ice Skating website link to the entries is broken, so we don't know who's competing. Is there anywhere else you can find this information?
 
Ruthypegs said:
So I've put together the thread for Lydia Smart and Harry Mattick and it's now over in the Pairs Fan Fest.

I'm missing information about their programmes for 20-21 and 21-22 - is there an ISU site or similar where I might find this information?
Click to expand...

When looking older programme music, my first try is to put the ISU Bio address into the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/

Please be aware: you have to use the old http://www.isuresults.com addresses for this method. The new https://results.isu.org addresses haven't been around long enough to do this.

Here is Lydia and Harry's archived ISU Bio for the 2021-22 Season:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220331185433/http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00113177.htm

However, this method only works if somebody has made a capture of the ISU Bio during the season you want.

And unfortunately, the capture I linked to above is the oldest capture that they have for Lydia and Harry.

For older seasons before they had a Bio, what I normally end up doing is looking for videos on YouTube, and hoping that the music is identified in the description. And if it's not, hope that it is music that I recognise!

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan
 
I think 21-22 was probably their first competitive season? They started together at the start of the pandemic but couldn't train on ice because of the lockdowns.
 
I haven't watched the mens yet (or pairs).

I'm part-way through watching the ladies short at the moment. Have just seen a nice clean skate from Alexa. It's a shame she doesn't have a triple lutz yet because the lutz being a compulsory element is currently holding her back in terms of scores.
 
CaroLiza_fan said:
When looking older programme music, my first try is to put the ISU Bio address into the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/

Please be aware: you have to use the old http://www.isuresults.com addresses for this method. The new https://results.isu.org addresses haven't been around long enough to do this.

Here is Lydia and Harry's archived ISU Bio for the 2021-22 Season:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220331185433/http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00113177.htm

However, this method only works if somebody has made a capture of the ISU Bio during the season you want.

And unfortunately, the capture I linked to above is the oldest capture that they have for Lydia and Harry.

For older seasons before they had a Bio, what I normally end up doing is looking for videos on YouTube, and hoping that the music is identified in the description. And if it's not, hope that it is music that I recognise!

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan
Click to expand...
Thanks very much for this - I'll do an update to the biog over the weekend!
 
Does anyone know whether any of the senior GP events will be available here? I believe the viaplay thing fell through? There is no sign of any upcoming figure skating on Eurosport Player. Will we be able to get the ISU streams? There aren't any 'upcoming' ones showing on the Skating ISU youtube site.
 
FlossieH said:
Does anyone know whether any of the senior GP events will be available here? I believe the viaplay thing fell through? There is no sign of any upcoming figure skating on Eurosport Player. Will we be able to get the ISU streams? There aren't any 'upcoming' ones showing on the Skating ISU youtube site.
Click to expand...

Nobody seems to know what is happening with Viaplay's UK operations. At the moment, it just seems to be business as usual, but with the sword of Damocles hanging over them.

There has been much speculation on the broadcasting forum that I read, but very little actual news. Some are saying that Viaplay are trying to sell the business on as a going concern, in which case there will be no disruption to service. (Like when Premier Sports sold their UK business to Viaplay in the first place). But, it would mean the skating would still be on a premium network.

Some are saying that Viaplay are trying to sell their individual rights on to other broadcasters. (Like Eleven Sports did when they pulled out of the UK soon after launching). This could work out nicely for us if Eurosport bought back the skating rights. But, equally, it could mean that they end up with another premium network like Sky Sports or DAZN.

Some are saying that Viaplay will carry on until all their rights expire. (Like Eir Sport did in Ireland). Now I don't know about any of their other rights, but the skating rights run for 5 years! When Viaplay have said that they want out, they won't wait that long.

I guess we will only find out where and if the skating is being shown when we see it in the TV schedules. Although Viaplay's website has daily listings for the next 2 weeks, it doesn't seem to be full schedules. And I don't see any sign of figure skating for the Skate America weekend.

The TV Guide website, however does have listings for Viaplay UK's linear channels, as well as all the other linear channels (apart from DAZN1). But, at the moment, they only go up to 6am on Saturday 21st October.

  • The Pairs SP is due to start at 00:30 BST on Saturday 21st October.
  • The Men's SP is due to start at 01:53 BST on Saturday 21st October.

Unfortunately, there is no sign of any figure skating at these times on any of the linear sports channels. So, it's not looking good for LIVE coverage on linear TV anyway. But, we'll have to wait for the pages to be updated to see if there is delayed coverage or highlights later in the day.

If you want to keep an eye on the listings, here are the links for the current day's listings for each sports channel that the skating might appear on depending on who ends up with the rights:

Viaplay​
Warner Bros. Discovery​
Sky​
Viaplay Sports 1British Eurosport 1Sky Sports Main Event
Viaplay Sports 2British Eurosport 2Sky Sports Arena
Viaplay XtraTNT Sports 1Sky Sports Mix
TNT Sports 2
TNT Sports 3
TNT Sports 4

This is one of those websites where each day does not have it's own unique page address. The addresses are relative to the current day. So today's listings are on page 0; tomorrow's listings are on page 1; the next day is on page 2; etc. And which page you find a particular date on changes each day. At the moment, 21st October is on page 13. But tomorrow, 21st October will be on page 12, and 22nd October will be on page 13. And so on and so forth. It's a curse, but hey.

I remember in previous years, that it was only at the very last minute (a day or so before the first event) that the ISU issued details of how people in each country could watch the Senior GP's. So it may be that we only find out for definite then.

And it was also at the last minute that the livestreams appeared on the ISU YouTube channel. So, I wouldn't start to panic about whether there will be YouTube coverage or not until perhaps a day before it is due to start.

But all these question marks are not good.

Sorry I couldn't tell you anything more concrete. We're all in the same boat - we just don't know what is going on. :drama:

CaroLiza_fan
 
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Thanks CaroLiza_fan. You were the person I was hoping would know! The JGP 'upcoming' streams have been appearing the evening of the previous Saturday, but I suppose that is done by different people.

Fortunately for me we should know what has or has not appeared before my Eurosport player subscription is due to renew. The other sports I follow are rhythmic gymnastics (absolutely no coverage anywhere - it makes figure skating look good) and road cycling. I seem to have a thing for niche sports! :ROFLMAO: Depending on what happens with the figure skating I might move across from Eurosport player to GCN+ for cycling. I probably need to consider what will be happening with rights for the Paris olympics too. I don't bother with linear TV because the reception is too unreliable here.
 
FlossieH said:
Thanks CaroLiza_fan. You were the person I was hoping would know!
Click to expand...

Hey, I wouldn't rely on me. I'm just a guy that reads stuff on a broadcasting forum and a few broadcasting websites. :laugh:

But, I'm flattered by your faith in me.

FlossieH said:
The JGP 'upcoming' streams have been appearing the evening of the previous Saturday, but I suppose that is done by different people.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there are noticeable differences in the way things are done on the ISU's main YouTube channel compared to the Junior GP YouTube channel. As you say, the livestream links appear earlier for the Junior GP's than they do for the Senior events. The commentators don't talk during the Junior GP's, but do during the Seniors. Individual videos appear for all the skaters at the Junior GP's, but only the Top 3 get individual videos at the Senior events.

I wish the Senior events were done the same way as the Junior GP's.

FlossieH said:
Fortunately for me we should know what has or has not appeared before my Eurosport player subscription is due to renew. The other sports I follow are rhythmic gymnastics (absolutely no coverage anywhere - it makes figure skating look good) and road cycling. I seem to have a thing for niche sports! :ROFLMAO: Depending on what happens with the figure skating I might move across from Eurosport player to GCN+ for cycling. I probably need to consider what will be happening with rights for the Paris olympics too. I don't bother with linear TV because the reception is too unreliable here.
Click to expand...

I was fortunate last year that my Eurosport subscription was due for renewal around the same time that the Eurosport Player closed down (it worked out this way due to to them giving us 4 months extra on our subscription during the lockdown). So, I was able to just cancel the Eurosport subscription, and sign up for Discovery+ using our BT Sport account.

Apart from Formula 1 (which was on ITV when I got interested in it), all the sports I am interested in are ones that were shown on Eurosport when I was growing up. That is what was always great about Eurosport - it gave a window to niche sports that the bigger broadcasters simply weren't interested in. And that is why I am concerned about WBD's plans to bring British Eurosport and what was BT Sport together under a single brand (TNT Sports) after the 2024 Summer Olympics. I am worried that the combined network will concentrate too much on the money-making mainstream sports (football, rugby, tennis and cricket) and neglect the niche sports that Eurosport did so much to popularise.

Unless they make major changes to the sports they show, I don't think I would ever get rid of Eurosport. But, if the MotoGP either moved to the standard tier (i.e. Eurosport) with the other motorbike racing, or moved to a different broadcaster, I would get rid of the premium tier (i.e. TNT Sports) in a heartbeat. Because I don't watch anything else on it.

Yes, it would be far cheaper to pay for the World Feed coverage on the MotoGP website than to pay for TNT Sports, but I don't like the idea of being reliant on watching on the computer. I prefer watching on the TV, with the computer as backup. Plus the commentators that are on the World Feed are so boring to listen to. I much prefer the commentators on TNT Sports.

But, if Eurosport doesn't get the figure skating back and you don't mind losing the other sports, it might work out better for you to just get GCN+ for the cycling. Since you only watch online anyway, you wouldn't be losing out by not having the linear coverage. And from what I gather, it's the same commentators that you get on Eurosport anyway.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if, sometime down the line, GCN+ gets merged into Discovery+. Because WBD have said all along that they don't want to have a lot of separate streaming services. They want to have everything under one umbrella. But, since Play Sports Network (the owner of GNC) is still operating separtely to Eurosport, WBD may let it's subscription services remain separate to Discovery+.

But, enough of me waffling on. First we need to find out where the figure skating is being shown.

CaroLiza_fan
 
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I'm a twit. I thought the senior GP started the first weekend after the final JGP and that Skate America was this coming weekend. There is a weekend in between. No wonder there isn't any TV/streaming info yet! :ROFLMAO:
 
FlossieH said:
I'm a twit. I thought the senior GP started the first weekend after the final JGP and that Skate America was this coming weekend. There is a weekend in between. No wonder there isn't any TV/streaming info yet! :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...

If it's any consolation, I actually thought the same. (Which is strange, because I knew there was a week in between when I wrote a post 3 weeks ago about it looking iffy as to whether the Armenian Cup would be happening). It was only when I checked the dates before writing my reply to your post that I re-discovered that this wasn't the case.

And I should have realised, because my birthday is during Skate America! :drama:

By the way, the TV Guide website still has no listings for the Viaplay channels beyond 6am on Saturday 21st. Or for the Sky Sports channels. They do for the WBD channels, and there is no sign of any skating on them.

So, we're still none the wiser.

CaroLiza_fan
 
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FlossieH said:
I'm a twit. I thought the senior GP started the first weekend after the final JGP and that Skate America was this coming weekend. There is a weekend in between. No wonder there isn't any TV/streaming info yet! :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
Me too !😂
 
CaroLiza_fan said:
Viaplay​
Warner Bros. Discovery​
Sky​
Viaplay Sports 1British Eurosport 1Sky Sports Main Event
Viaplay Sports 2British Eurosport 2Sky Sports Arena
Viaplay XtraTNT Sports 1Sky Sports Mix
TNT Sports 2
TNT Sports 3
TNT Sports 4
Click to expand...

Just a wee note to let you know that all those channels now have their schedules for next weekend up. And there is no sign of any skating on any of them. I even checked a few extra channels that those broadcasters sometimes use for overspill:

Viaplay​
Warner Bros. Discovery​
Sky​
QuestSky Showcase
Quest RedPick TV
DMAX

But still no joy.

As for the Viaplay and Discovery+ websites, there was no sign of any extra streams for the skating on either of them. I can't find where streams are located on the Sky Sports website, but there was no mention of skating anywhere on the "Live On Sky" page. And the DAZN website is just plain useless.

Out of sheer desperation, I also tried the public service broadcasters. But there was no skating listed for their linear channels. And their websites are no good for finding things that might be coming up on their streaming services. Only the BBC had a page that did this (the "Sport Live Guide" page), but it only goes one day into the future, which isn't a lot of use!

So, I guess we'll just have to wait and see if anything appears anywhere by Friday.

CaroLiza_fan
 
Sad to see Miura/Kihara have withdrawn from Skate America BUT excited to see Ana and Luke have been called up! Lots of luck to them!

I am off on holiday, so I guess I will be figuring out how to watch stuff once come back!
 
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