2018-19 Television Schedule | Page 9 | Golden Skate

2018-19 Television Schedule

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
Nothing? Why doesn’t NBC deal directly with Scott Hamilton. Surely he could produce a show. And SOI is still around right? They don’t want to film SOI? This is pathetic. All the crap programming on TV and not one skating special. The can’t get one one from Canada they can buy and rebroadcast? How is this possible?????
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Scott Hamilton's big ice show already took place before Thanksgiving. [ETA: To be clear, it was not a "holiday"-themed show.]

For those with access to ESPN3, the show was live-streamed there.

Amazing cast with everyone from Tessa/Scott :luv17: to Max Aaron :luv17: and Jordan Moeller :luv17:. All four disciplines represented, including many Olympic/World champions/medalists, plus national champions and others.

The show was a fundraiser for Scott's foundation. Archived videos of the entire show are on its YouTube channel:

 

Manitou

Medalist
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
There used to be IceNetwork, I am not sure it's still there, but are the Rusian and Japanese Nationals going to be streamed anywhere and available in the US?
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
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Oct 25, 2012
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Didn't get a chance to reply sooner due to the GP Final and all the things associated with it.

Funnily enough I've never seen Moguls on UK Eurosport, but at least it would be live - I sometimes jokingly think there's some poor soul stuck all by themselves in an empty room with no windows at Eurosport trying to figure out 37 different Eurosports - there's probably more - and balancing all the different sporting rights in each country and what is favourite in one and favourite in another, and sometimes just picking a few things out which they then try to balance out across the 2 channels, plus some things like figure skating with its 8 different segments over 2 days for a GP are just too complicated, so if there's lots of other sport they just pick a couple of disciplines and be done with it. This probably explains why we've been not been getting live skating while they've been showing highlights of other skating, some of which has also been shown before.

It must be an absolute nightmare to manage. Which is why I think it would be so much simpler if they brought back Eurosport 1 International and Eurosport 2 International right cross Europe, and then had separate national channels for each country to cover sports where they only have national rights.

Re Comcast's takeover of Sky and skating coverage, the thing that will interest me most is if Sky start showing cycling actually. Despite the success of Team Sky they don't show it at all and you'd think it would be a no-brainer to show it, which would be a real blow to Eurosport of course - the home of cycling as they like to call it. Could be an interesting year or two ahead as the full ramifications of Sky's takeover by Comcast, and Discovery's plans for Eurosport take full effect.

Doesn't look like Sky is interested in cycling any more:

https://news.sky.com/story/sky-to-end-investment-in-professional-cycling-and-team-sky-11578462

Might Eurosport become the new team sponsor? After all, they do claim to be the "Home of Cycling", and Discovery has sponsored cycling teams in the past.

I do agree that there are going to be a lot of changes going on due to the consolidation of the media industry. And it will take a while to see whether it turns out to be for the better.

My personal belief is that it is only a matter of time before Scottish TV is bought by ITV, completing ITV's aim of owning all the Channel 3 licences in the UK. And then the enlarged ITV will be quickly snapped up by Liberty Media, who already own a roughly 10% stake in ITV (and who have owned the Channel 3 licence holder in Southern Ireland, TV3, for the past 3 years). The same Liberty Media who are the largest shareholders in Discovery.

Discovery and the BBC don't seem to be getting along as well now as they used to (the still-running saga over the future of the UKTV network is a perfect example of that), so ITV would be a very useful ally for Discovery to have.

There is already a lot of overlap in the sports that are covered by both ITV and Eurosport. Cycling, snooker, motorbike racing (ITV shows highlights), darts (yes, Eurosport is adding darts to their list of sports)...

So, if there was a formal relationship between them, we could see some things drift between the channels. Which may be good for figure skating, or it may be bad.

Have to say my heart sank when I saw your PGA tour stuff - it's all year round, they don't stop after the PGA Tour Finals at the end of September, they start the next year one straightaway with only a break mid-Nov to the end of the calendar year. How they'll fit that into 2 channels remains to be seen - actually thought Sky would have renewed because they were making a fuss about renewing the European Tour (they need that so they can show the Ryder Cup), but allied to the loss of ATP Tour tennis next year to Amazon Prime, well I can't see me subscribing much longer either.

EDIT - Have just been thinking about the PGA Tour stuff. 2000 hours a year is massive, 5.5 hours a day, average, so what's it going to be like on the 4 days a week i.e. Thurs to Sunday when they actually play tournaments. Unless they get an extra channel, Eurosport is going to change forever.

Re skating, we'd still be OK with that from Asia due to the timezones, but we'd be stuffed unless very lucky if it's in the evening UK/Europe time. Afternoons would probably be OK, Sky normally starts its coverage 6 p.m. UK time, so even a bit earlier you'd be OK, but overall it has to be bad, or very bad, for skating - it's the fact they play week in week out as well that would do the damage, that 2000 hours has got to come from somewhere.

Eurosport already has a long-term contract to show the snooker, another sport that has become year-round with very few days off. And we know how much coverage they show of it. So, if they get the golf as well, and stick to having 2 linear channels, nothing else will get a look in!

If Eurosport were going to launch any more linear channels, they would have done it years ago when they first started getting more rights than they could fit onto their existing channels. Like, the fact that they didn't do it for the Olympics (apart from on platforms owned by Discovery's main shareholder, Liberty Media) says a lot about how much they don't want to do it.

Everything is now driven towards getting people to subscribe to the Player. Like, during the GP Final, Simon Reed was encouraging viewers to get the Player to watch the LIVE coverage. I've never noticed that being done before during the figure skating coverage.

It looks as though we're going to have to concede defeat and admit that streaming is the only way we are going to see figure skating regularly.

Such a shame.

CaroLiza_fan
 

DSQ

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Country
United-Kingdom
But what gets me is the coverage that is Player only doesn’t have commentary. Is he trying to put himself out of a job?
 

Weathergal

Medalist
Joined
May 25, 2014
There used to be IceNetwork, I am not sure it's still there, but are the Rusian and Japanese Nationals going to be streamed anywhere and available in the US?

IceNetwork was replaced by NBC Sports Gold. It shows all the GPs, Euros, 4CCs, and Worlds, but as far as Nationals goes, it only shows U.S. Normally in U.S. I've been also been able to watch Russian Nats, which I really enjoy. It has been streamed on ESPN3 and, I think, other places. I am hoping to find a way to watch Japanese Nats (Daisuke!) and Canadian Nats. Canadians, in particular, has been difficult to find in U.S.
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
But what gets me is the coverage that is Player only doesn’t have commentary. Is he trying to put himself out of a job?

Aye, that's one way of looking at it that I never thought of. :laugh:

But, as long as there is some coverage on the linear TV channels, they will still need commentators. And I can see the time come that we will get streams with commentary appearing more often on the Player. After all, they did it for the Olympics, and it worked well then.

If Eurosport were going to launch any more linear channels, they would have done it years ago when they first started getting more rights than they could fit onto their existing channels. Like, the fact that they didn't do it for the Olympics (apart from on platforms owned by Discovery's main shareholder, Liberty Media) says a lot about how much they don't want to do it.

Everything is now driven towards getting people to subscribe to the Player. Like, during the GP Final, Simon Reed was encouraging viewers to get the Player to watch the LIVE coverage. I've never noticed that being done before during the figure skating coverage.

It looks as though we're going to have to concede defeat and admit that streaming is the only way we are going to see figure skating regularly.

Such a shame.

CaroLiza_fan

OK. Some developments from elsewhere in the TV business that may be of interest.

You remember when BBC3 went online only a few years ago, supposedly to reach new and wider audiences, but in reality to cut costs. Well, in the past few months we have seen more channels taking the same step, such as Motors TV (my favourite channel after Eurosport! :cry: ) and TV5 Monde.

And then a couple of weeks ago, the Flemish equivalent of Freeview closed down. Basically, Belgium is doing the second digital switchover, from DVB-T1 to DVB-T2, and the operator of the Free To Air service in Flanders has decided it is going to cost too much to convert, so have shut their linear service and switched to being an internet based service. Although, this isn't the end of terrestrial TV, as there is a pay TV service available that has already made the switch to T2. And the channels that were on the free service are moving over to the pay service. But, nevertheless, most people in Belgium don't watch terrestrial TV - they mostly use cable TV.

Switzerland is taking things further, and is closing down terrestrial TV completely in June. Terrestrial TV is impractical for most of the country because of the terrain (the signals can't get round the mountains!), and hence few people watch TV this way. Instead, most people in Switzerland watch TV via satellite.

These developments have made lots of people preach about it being the beginning of the end of linear TV. But, then I read a story last night that goes against the grain.

Over the past year, a new channel called Eleven Sports has been out-bidding Sky and BT for a whole pile of major sports rights in the British Isles. Spanish football, Italian football, Dutch football, US PGA golf, UFC, to name a few. It is run by people who used to work for Sky Sports, BT Sports, Eurosport, and beIN Sports, so they should know what they are doing.

However, Eleven Sports couldn't get any of the linear TV service providers in the UK or Ireland to carry them. And you can kinda understand why, seeing as these companies are the ones that lost out on the rights to them. So, Eleven Sports had to launch in the British Isles as a streaming service. And it has been a disaster. There were loads of technical problems, such as only being able to use your account on the one device. And people just didn't feel it was worth the extra subscription.

So, after just four months on air, the British Isles service is on the verge of failure. And the sports they had won the rights to are starting discussions with the channels they used to be on.

I hope the likes of Eurosport take notice and learn a lesson from this. The market in the British Isles is such that, even if they have all these big name rights, sports channels just cannot survive without having linear channels that are available on the main TV platforms.

So, rather than trying to push us onto the Player, perhaps it is time to focus more on enhancing your linear services. Because that is what matters in the UK and Ireland market.

CaroLiza_fan
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
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I’d never heard of Eleven Sports and just read this article (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...e-facing-closure-in-uk-after-only-four-months) yikes. I also hope Eurosport are on notice after this.

And that comment there just proves the point.

Because they weren't available on Sky or Virgin or BT, most people didn't even know Eleven Sports existed. I only knew they existed because I regularly visit a website about broadcasting news. And it has been running stories about them over the months.

Here is their most recent story about Eleven Sports, which is what I read last night and based my previous post on:

https://www.a516digital.com/2018/12/eleven-sports-uk-on-brink-after-failure.html

In fact, that website is also where I found out about Discovery starting to close channels, TV5 Monde going online only in the British Isles (story 1, 2, 3), and the terrestrial TV stories from Flanders and Switzerland.

It is sometimes useful to look at what is happening elsewhere in the broadcasting sector to gauge whether Eurosport is taking the right approach to things.

CaroLiza_fan
 

Miller

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
And that comment there just proves the point.

Because they weren't available on Sky or Virgin or BT, most people didn't even know Eleven Sports existed. I only knew they existed because I regularly visit a website about broadcasting news. And it has been running stories about them over the months.

Here is their most recent story about Eleven Sports, which is what I read last night and based my previous post on:

https://www.a516digital.com/2018/12/eleven-sports-uk-on-brink-after-failure.html

In fact, that website is also where I found out about Discovery starting to close channels, TV5 Monde going online only in the British Isles (story 1, 2, 3), and the terrestrial TV stories from Flanders and Switzerland.

It is sometimes useful to look at what is happening elsewhere in the broadcasting sector to gauge whether Eurosport is taking the right approach to things.

CaroLiza_fan

And there I was about to do a post in which I said the Player is the way to go, and especially with it's great picture quality. However I suppose the difference is that Eurosport can always plug the Player via its TV coverage, plus it's always plugging the Player in its snooker coverage - sorry to be such a traitor to skating!

Also Discovery has deeper pockets, plus the same can be said for Amazon Prime with it's taking on of ATP tennis from next year and US Open tennis already. Also I believe you've got things like Facebook in the States with NFL, I think, so it may be these bigger corporations can ultimately make it work, look at how the stuff Setanta used to show has ultimately made it onto BT Sports via ESPN in the meantime.

Rescued from my original post -

Yes, Eurosport as a cycling sponsor makes a lot of sense.

Darts, well I've long wondered how the BDO championship could seriously remain as the 'world' championship on the likes of the BBC. It's only because it occupies a quiet time of the year for broadcasting purposes, post Christmas/New Year hangover and all that. I'm amazed anyone takes it seriously, that’s if anyone does at all - the PDC has long been the home for anyone that was any good - perhaps Eurosport is the true home for it after all.

However by chance they're ended up with the Player, and where you have to say the picture quality is really good for example, so yes it's probably a big part of Discovery's takeover of Eurosport and their plans for it.

However they will have to provide commentary if they’re to do it properly. There’s no way they’ll get away with what they’ve got at the moment. For example on the Red Button at Wimbledon, there's always one court where the BBC coverage doesn't have commentary, and it's never the same. OK figure skating is a bit more 'lean forward', but you can be pretty sure Amazon Prime will have commentary on all their tennis coverage, and Discovery will need to make sure the Player is the same if it’s to become a true Over the Top broadcaster rather than what it is at the moment.

Also it's becoming clearer Eurosport is adding more and more sporting rights, whereas both Sky and BT Sport seem to have said they're looking to slim down and concentrate on fewer sports, Sky for example because of the huge cost of Premier League rights. So yes, interesting times ahead, and I think the idea of Eurosport International 1 and 2, and then a separate one for national rights makes perfect sense, and if there’s something that happens to be shown on Euro Intl 1 or 2, and on the local national channel at the same time because there’s not enough to show on the latter, or because something local also has international significance then so be it, it’ll still be better than what we’ve got at the moment, and especially what seems to be the likely future situation, they’re definitely expanding after many years of slowly but surely losing rights.
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
And there I was about to do a post in which I said the Player is the way to go, and especially with it's great picture quality. However I suppose the difference is that Eurosport can always plug the Player via its TV coverage, plus it's always plugging the Player in its snooker coverage - sorry to be such a traitor to skating!

Also Discovery has deeper pockets, plus the same can be said for Amazon Prime with it's taking on of ATP tennis from next year and US Open tennis already. Also I believe you've got things like Facebook in the States with NFL, I think, so it may be these bigger corporations can ultimately make it work, look at how the stuff Setanta used to show has ultimately made it onto BT Sports via ESPN in the meantime.

Don't worry, I too was a traitor to figure skating last season, watching every snooker tournament that was on. With the TV coverage (Eurosport / BBC / ITV) on the big screen, and a smaller screen alongside showing the Eurosport Player's coverage of the other table. But, it got too much, and I am now taking a break from snooker.

Anyway, you are right that these big corporations have bigger pockets and can afford to make the streaming of sports work. But, the question is: do they want to open their wallets and invest in improving the actual coverage? Or do they just want to keep buying up rights to prevent their competitors from getting them, and then not worry about the quality of the coverage?

Rescued from my original post -

Yes, Eurosport as a cycling sponsor makes a lot of sense.

Darts, well I've long wondered how the BDO championship could seriously remain as the 'world' championship on the likes of the BBC. It's only because it occupies a quiet time of the year for broadcasting purposes, post Christmas/New Year hangover and all that. I'm amazed anyone takes it seriously, that’s if anyone does at all - the PDC has long been the home for anyone that was any good - perhaps Eurosport is the true home for it after all.

However by chance they're ended up with the Player, and where you have to say the picture quality is really good for example, so yes it's probably a big part of Discovery's takeover of Eurosport and their plans for it.

However they will have to provide commentary if they’re to do it properly. There’s no way they’ll get away with what they’ve got at the moment. For example on the Red Button at Wimbledon, there's always one court where the BBC coverage doesn't have commentary, and it's never the same. OK figure skating is a bit more 'lean forward', but you can be pretty sure Amazon Prime will have commentary on all their tennis coverage, and Discovery will need to make sure the Player is the same if it’s to become a true Over the Top broadcaster rather than what it is at the moment.

You make a lot of very good points there, so I am only going to pick out a few things.

I know the divisions in darts are deep, but it is high time the BDO and PDC sorted out the differences and re-unified the sport. Because if they don't soon, the BDO will be finished anyway. It has long been said that they only reason that the BDO has survived for this long is because the BBC was propping them up. But, even the BBC have now thrown in their lot with the PDC. And having seen how things in snooker have been taken too far under Barry Hearn's ownership, I would much prefer to have additional people involved in the running of darts, so that they can try to keep him in check.

Commentary can definitely add to the experience of watching sports.

Last month, the Women's U-17 World Cup was being held in Uruguay. Only 9 of the matches were shown on Eurosport's linear channels with commentary, but all the matches had the World Feed coverage available on the Eurosport Player. So, I watched the TV matches at the time, and am currently going back watching the other matches.

Now, I have never been a big football fan - I have only ever watched the Women's tournaments that are shown on Eurosport. And I am finding that even they are boring without the commentary. Due to the distance the main camera is away from the action, you can't tell players apart. So, you can't properlyfollow what is going on. I keep getting distracted; pausing it and leaving to do other things. To the extent that I started watching one match at 5am yesterday morning, and only finished that same match at 9pm last night.

Slightly different story. On Sunday morning, I watched the qualifying for the Women's Parallel Slalom on the Player, before the competition proper came on Eurosport 2. Not only was there no commentary, but the host broadcaster was having technical difficulties which meant that there were no on-screen graphics either until the middle of Mikaela Shiffrin's run (she was the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] to start). You hadn't a clue what was going on!

It would be nice if they did what they used to do for the streams of the linear channels, and what they brought back for the additional streams during the Olympics - having the ability to select the audio on the streams. That way you can choose whether to have commentary or not.

And they wouldn't necessarily have to pay their own commentators to do it. During one of those Women's football matches, there were a couple of times where you heard the World Feed commentary for a few seconds. And I couldn't help thinking "Why didn't Eurosport let us listen to that?"

Also it's becoming clearer Eurosport is adding more and more sporting rights, whereas both Sky and BT Sport seem to have said they're looking to slim down and concentrate on fewer sports, Sky for example because of the huge cost of Premier League rights. So yes, interesting times ahead, and I think the idea of Eurosport International 1 and 2, and then a separate one for national rights makes perfect sense, and if there’s something that happens to be shown on Euro Intl 1 or 2, and on the local national channel at the same time because there’s not enough to show on the latter, or because something local also has international significance then so be it, it’ll still be better than what we’ve got at the moment, and especially what seems to be the likely future situation, they’re definitely expanding after many years of slowly but surely losing rights.

Just want to add to that comment about what to do if there is nothing to show on the local channel.

Eurosportnews isn't currently available in the British Isles, but is available on the continent. It could be broadcast during the downtime. Although, I think the reason it isn't available here is because of rights issues with some of the clips used in the reports. So, a more workable alternative might be to show teleshopping, like they used to do overnight back in the analogue satellite days.

I know nobody likes teleshopping but, as David Goldstrom frequently says when throwing to a break in the ski jumping coverage, it pays the bills.

CaroLiza_fan
 

Miller

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
It would be nice if they did what they used to do for the streams of the linear channels, and what they brought back for the additional streams during the Olympics - having the ability to select the audio on the streams. That way you can choose whether to have commentary or not.

And they wouldn't necessarily have to pay their own commentators to do it. During one of those Women's football matches, there were a couple of times where you heard the World Feed commentary for a few seconds. And I couldn't help thinking "Why didn't Eurosport let us listen to that?"

CaroLiza_fan

Wow, that just shows what a cheapskate operation they are. Anyone with an ounce of sense would realise it makes more sense to have commentary than not - skating is slightly different because of the music and in many ways you can appreciate it more if you've not got someone jabbering away. But yes, penny wise, pound foolish when it comes to not providing commentary that is there anyway ready to use.

However I also wonder if the ISU could provide commentary on their World Feeds, they effectively do so with the JGP series on Youtube, plus there's bound to be not just Eurosport using it, I don't know what NBC Gold uses, but having the commentary option there would be good as well, plus as you get more and more Over the Top broadcasters/Eurosport Player type add-ons they could use it as well, plus you might even get more broadcasters interested in showing it as well if they've got something like the Player, but are put off by the lack of commentary.
 

Manitou

Medalist
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
IceNetwork was replaced by NBC Sports Gold. It shows all the GPs, Euros, 4CCs, and Worlds, but as far as Nationals goes, it only shows U.S. Normally in U.S. I've been also been able to watch Russian Nats, which I really enjoy. It has been streamed on ESPN3 and, I think, other places. I am hoping to find a way to watch Japanese Nats (Daisuke!) and Canadian Nats. Canadians, in particular, has been difficult to find in U.S.

You are saying RusNat on ESPN3? I have ESPN3 through my Xfinity and as I look at their schedule I don’t see RusNat yet. Maybe it will appear when the time comes closer...
 

Weathergal

Medalist
Joined
May 25, 2014
You are saying RusNat on ESPN3? I have ESPN3 through my Xfinity and as I look at their schedule I don’t see RusNat yet. Maybe it will appear when the time comes closer...

I've watched it on there in the past, but I don't know about this year.
 

GS Forum Staff

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 11, 2008
Hello!

Please refer to this thread for our policy on competition chat. Livestream links, including to links to practices, are considered part of the competition, and should not be provided here.

Thanks!
 
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