According to German figure skating website Eiskunstlaufblog's calculation the total amount needed to access all paid live streams for Challenger and Senior B events this season summed up to 326.49 Euros. However, I noticed some competitions were missing from this list, such as Volvo Open Cup as well as various National Championships. So the total for all competitions would be even higher.
What is your opinion on the Challenger live streams behind a paywall? Did you pay to access any of the live streams this season? Is the pricing appropriate for what is offered? Do you think the paywall has a negative impact on attracting new fans to the sport?
Personally, I bought a stream for at least half of the offered competitions. Usually I focussed on my favourite discipline, so buying two days separately was cheaper than buying the whole event pass in most cases. For the majority of streams the quality was ranging from acceptable to excellent, with one noteworthy exception where the streams were essentially unwatchable (looking at you, 51st Volvo Open ). No easy option was offered to ask for my money back in that case.
Overall, I'm satisfied with the current situation. At least the additional income can act as an incentive to local organizers to provide a stream of their event (looking at you, Golden Spin ). Most streams were easily available via a centralized platform so it wasn't necessary to create dozens of accounts with my personal information. I very much prefer that system to what the ISU tried a year ago with Junior Synchro Worlds (?) when you had to "pay" for the streams by watching ads and sharing with friends. That was an absolute no-go for me.
However, there is also the argument that limiting access to competition streams will lead to a further decline of the sport's popularity in the long run. I doubt that many people become figure skating fans by stumbling upon a Challenger or Senior B competition. The main crowd-puller are still the Olympics, imo, but I would really like to hear your takes on all this.
What is your opinion on the Challenger live streams behind a paywall? Did you pay to access any of the live streams this season? Is the pricing appropriate for what is offered? Do you think the paywall has a negative impact on attracting new fans to the sport?
Personally, I bought a stream for at least half of the offered competitions. Usually I focussed on my favourite discipline, so buying two days separately was cheaper than buying the whole event pass in most cases. For the majority of streams the quality was ranging from acceptable to excellent, with one noteworthy exception where the streams were essentially unwatchable (looking at you, 51st Volvo Open ). No easy option was offered to ask for my money back in that case.
Overall, I'm satisfied with the current situation. At least the additional income can act as an incentive to local organizers to provide a stream of their event (looking at you, Golden Spin ). Most streams were easily available via a centralized platform so it wasn't necessary to create dozens of accounts with my personal information. I very much prefer that system to what the ISU tried a year ago with Junior Synchro Worlds (?) when you had to "pay" for the streams by watching ads and sharing with friends. That was an absolute no-go for me.
However, there is also the argument that limiting access to competition streams will lead to a further decline of the sport's popularity in the long run. I doubt that many people become figure skating fans by stumbling upon a Challenger or Senior B competition. The main crowd-puller are still the Olympics, imo, but I would really like to hear your takes on all this.