Eurosport UK not airing Figure skating?

viennaskater said:

Eurosport did not cover the last Winter Olympics though.

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Eurosport didn't have the rights then. They do now.

viennaskater said:

I am not happy at all with Eurosport now because, if you subscribe to Eurosport Player, you can only get it in the local language. It used to be both English and local language. I live in Austria and do not want commentary in German. I complained and they have failed to come up with an acceptable explanation, so I will no longer be subscribing.

I do have ES 1 and 2 on my cable channels and last time I looked, I could get it in English, so fingers crossed they will get their act together.

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Oh, I agree wholeheartedly there. I used to watch ESP Deutschland a lot, as the figure skating and ski jumping quite frequently get dropped from the British ESP schedules. It was fine when ESP1 Deutschland was in analogue on Astra 19.2E, because it had an English soundtrack as well as the German one. But, when it closed, the digital version only had the German soundtrack.

So, I got ESP Player. The problem is that the additional streams didn't have commentary, and I like the English-language commentators and hearing what they have to say. Then I found that the German and Dutch versions of the player both had English soundtracks available on their streams of ESP1 and ESP2. It was great! But, the English soundtracks were dropped last year.

Like you, I was tempted to cancel my ESP Player subscription in protest. But, being able to watch with foreign or no commentary is better than not being able to watch at all. So, I stuck with it.

If you ask me, Eurosport should go back to having the same programming schedule all over Europe, and have all soundtracks available, so that you can choose which language you want to listen in.

Although Eurosport scrapped this model years ago, Euronews continued with it. And there was uproar when they scrapped it a couple of months ago. Largely from people in your situation – people who have moved to a different country which doesn't speak their language.

When we were in Cyprus at the start of the month, my Dad was raging that Euronews wasn't available in English there any more. Like, it's not just the ex-pats that speak English – everybody in Cyprus does! (Former British colony, remember).

The complicating factor is that Eurosport now has rights for sports in certain countries. So, unless they launch separate "National" channels to show these on, I can't see a return to having a pan-European schedule.

Which is a real shame.

CaroLiza_fan

CaroLiza_fan said:

And then maybe I'll warm to him (I do tend to support the Dutch in sports).

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I have no interest in Formula 1 (sorry). I've never watched more than a few seconds, and only because in recent years, for some unfathomable reason (!) one of the TVs will be showing it if it's on. But only if that Verstappen guy is driving. Which he didn't do for very long last time a few weeks ago, and I swear, *everybody* in my family except me wanted to watch the race, so on goes the telly... he crashes at the start, and that was it. All interest was gone. What do you mean, they like watching Formula 1?
I don't know much about Jos or Max other than that the son is assumed to be better at Formula 1 than the father, Max won a race at some point, he was racing Formula 1 before he had a driver's license, and he's not doing too well this season. And I prefer to stay in the dark about them.

Incidentally, I was supporting the Dutch girls. So, I was delighted when they won!

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Oh hey, congrats!
I didn't watch a single game...

But, in the same vein as what ancientpeas said about the Dutch and speed skating, you would think from the way the media goes on that everybody from Northern Ireland loves golf, and that not liking it was akin to treason.

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That's definitely what they like you to believe. The media are really annoying that way.

I just read this news article, and couldn't help think about this current discussion.
https://nos.nl/artikel/2194785-chef-de-mission-bijl-geen-twijfels-over-spelen-in-pyeongchang.html

It's an interview with the chef de mission (not sure how to translate that to English, basically the guy in charge of the Dutch winter sportsmen- and women, I think?), about the situation in Pyeongchang, and I quote/translate:
"Last week I talked to Dutch wintersporters, especially speed skaters and shorttrackers."

I'm just . "especially speed skaters and shorttrackers.". Who else are you gonna talk to, really? Wouldn't it be brilliant if he'd even just said "and some other hopefuls in other sports".

Alex D said:

During the Europeans, I met a Dutch reporter and I had to identify players for him, on his photos. He was a Dutch journalist, just sayin...

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Now why am I not surprised? I am serious when I say I know a fair few people who didn't even know we had a Dutch women's soccer team.

As for Eurosport, they do cover a lot more American sports now, due the new management. A lot of people at the forum claim that in the US; Figure Skating is not covered well, so this could explain, why ES is now also joining the avoidance club.

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It just doesn't sound good at all...

They will show figure skating at the Olympics though, this I know.

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I know Germany has a sublicense that lets Eurosport keep four live sports exclusive, including figure skating.
In Holland, it's only two. I know ice hockey is one of them, and I'm 99 % confident speed skating and short track are NOT among them (because really, what would be the point of a sublicence in Holland if you're not allowed to air speed skating and shorttrack live???? *grin*), so the second is....? Could be figure skating.

I laughed at that.. Dutch wintersporters!

I think they should all be called that Wintersporters and Summersporters.

If you listened to sports commentators you'd think the Dutch were all clog wearing, tulip growing, windmill building speedskaters! Except for Amsterdam which is just a place to go to do things you can't legally do in other places. Kind of like Nevada. I think it would actually make a hilarious thread especially for those of us who are older and watched during the Soviet era: Everything I learned about Romanians from sports fluff pieces.

I've always wondered if sports fluff stories about Canadian athletes always start with something like: In a land obsessed with Hockey and beer these _____ (insert sport of choice) toil in anonymity until once every four years their people look to them to win gold. (I would also expect some reference to how cold it is here even if they live and train in Vancouver)

Sorry, the wintersporters bit is a mistranslation on my part, I guess. Sportsmen and sportswomen who practice a wintersport? Or wintersportsmen, or...? ;-)

Winnie_20 said:

Sorry, the wintersporters bit is a mistranslation on my part, I guess. Sportsmen and sportswomen who practice a wintersport? Or wintersportsmen, or...? ;-)

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Nah.. I like it as it is. I'm going to use it at some point in my real life and see what kind of reaction I get and when people question me on it I'll say "that's how they say it in Europe", which again will make me sound sophisticated and cultured.

There's still those sports streams websites which give you a list of channels where you can watch whatever sport is on TV on different channels around the world at that moment. That is how I watched British Eurosport when I didn't have Eurosport Player. Of course, the question is will they be showing figure skating at all this year, but I believe they will.

And there's Match Arena with Russian commentary, but they show EVERYTHING. I do remember reading something that they might be shutting down those live streams though, anyone know for sure?

If true, I'll be quite sad. Wasn't thrilled by some of the past few seasons' commentator line up. I loved the old timer pair of guys. But really, British Eurosport, say it ain't so.

Winnie_20 said:

*raises hand* I’m one of those weirdos who think speed skating is a bore.

I prefer watching sports for the beauty of it, the entertainment value. So what if at the end Holland has zero figure skating medals? I doubt we will even have any figure skater at the Olympics. I will still watch fs, and be pissed off when Dutch television airs the umpteenth speed skating race (they have seriously way too many distances, anyway, just like Swimming has) but ignores the figure skating. It’s not even like they hide it. “with special attention to the sports with Dutch participants” or something like that.

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At least in swimming, and short track speed skating they have 6 - 10 athletes competing at a time. The two-at-a-time competition at long track speed skating contributes to the interminable (or do I mean intolerable?) length of the competitions.

In Canada, they not only show a lot of events with Canadian competitors, but they show Canadian victories AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN. Don't worry about missing a Canadian victory ... it will be coming around again soon.

This thread gives me a heart attack, could you please change the title to something less drastic? I have a poor internet connection and have to rely on Eurosport. If they don't show GP I'll be heartbroken!!
No point contacting Eurosport - they never seem to reply to any emails. Is it possible to ask Simon, Chris or Nick on Facebook or Twitter?

BTW probably many of you spotted it already but I only saw yesterday in the commercial break - a little feature titled 'Time Machine. Figure Skating. Rotations evolution.' Clips of Olympic champions'jumps from a single axel of Gillis Grafstrom at 1924 Oly(I tell you it was one scary looking axel - no disrespect to Gillis!) >> an elegant double sal of John Curry at 1976 >> triple lutz Alexei Yagudin 2002 >> quad toe Yuzuru Hanyu 2014.
Very nicely done Eurosport!

I guess we could just hop over to the other topic and continue our conversations there.
https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?65106-Eurosport-Updates
It's got a much less heart-attack-inducing title. :thumbsup:

It looks like all Eurosport UK will air of the upcoming Cup of Russia is the men’s short (live), men’s free, women’s free, the gala and highlights. So no full women’s short, no full short dance, no full free dance, no full short skate, no full free skate. Terrible coverage .

That is appalling coverage by Eurosport. No Pairs or Dance bar in the highlights. Very, very disappointing . I was really looking forward to see T/M and S/K in the Pairs and B/S in Dance. I wonder is it the fact they have live snooker, tennis and superbikes the problem this weekend and maybe everything will be okay for Skate Canada

3T3T said:

That is appalling coverage by Eurosport. No Pairs or Dance bar in the highlights. Very, very disappointing . I was really looking forward to see T/M and S/K in the Pairs and B/S in Dance. I wonder is it the fact they have live snooker, tennis and superbikes the problem this weekend and maybe everything will be okay for Skate Canada

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I've pretty much covered this in my reply to honeygirl's post in the other thread, but I'll take this opportunity to elaborate.

The World Superbikes do get shown on the continent. But, the coverage shown on Eurosport International is different to the coverage on British Eurosport.

On the Saturday, British Eurosport shows LIVE coverage of the qualifying for all 4 classes and the first SBK race, whereas ESP International only shows the qualifying and race for the SBK class.

On the Sunday, all versions of Eurosport try to show all 4 races LIVE, but when there are clashes with other events, the European Superstock 1000 and World Supersport 300 races get dropped. And this happens more often on British Eurosport than on ESP International.

Also ESP International sticks to the World Feed pictures, whereas British Eurosport has their own studio team analysing things in between races / sessions. (Well, I say "studio", but on weekends where there is also a British Superbike meeting, they are doing it from the circuit where the BSB is being held).

This weekend's World Superbike round is the final European round before the season finale in Qatar. So, the whole British Eurosport team are going to be on site in Jerez. And since it is the final races of the season for the European Superstock 1000 and World Supersport 300 classes, British Eurosport are making sure they show them LIVE as well. Which I suspect is so that Eurosport gets their moneysworth out of having the whole presentation team on site!

When the presentation is coming from a studio, I don't see the point of us actually seeing them on screen. I would much prefer to watch the World Feed pictures, and just hear them talking over them.

But, when they are on site, it does actually add to the coverage. Especially since Jamie Whitham does a full grid walk, and interviews some of the riders on the grid. This works much better than what they normally do, which is to show grid interviews done by Eurosport's on-site producer Charlie Hiscott, with bits of the World Feed shown in between. Charlie's a good interviewer, but the way it is edited together is just awful.

Anyway, the result of all this is that British Eurosport is showing LIVE coverage of everything from Jerez, whereas ESP International is only showing LIVE coverage of the SBK qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday, and the SSP600 and SBK races on Sunday.

But, British Eurosport showing LIVE tennis on Friday and more extensive LIVE coverage of the Superbikes on Saturday and Sunday is not the problem. British Eurosport could easily show those as well as the figure skating.

The problem is that British Eurosport is insisting on showing coverage of the snooker, even though the EXACT SAME COVERAGE is being shown on sister channel Quest.

If the snooker was removed from the British Eurosport 1 schedule, there would be plenty of space to show the LIVE tennis on Friday and the LIVE Superbikes on Saturday and Sunday.

But, no. The snooker has to be simulcast on both channels.

The decisions British Eurosport make on their broadcast schedule never make sense to me.

By the way, I hope everything is OK with you after Ophelia.

CaroLiza_fan