Figure Skating Back On Eurosport

[oaponice]

Just spent the most awful morning trying to get everything set up for tomorrow. 1) Paid for Eurosport, that was the easy part. 2) Then tried to connect my new tv directly to Eurosport- instructions minimal and I totally failed. 3) So dug out my google chromecast, first had to remember what it was called then look online for instructions. Had to update Google home. 4) So still could not get it to work. Went back to YouTube and tried from there and it connected! So finally back to Eurosport and having selected some cycling, more by luck discovered the missing icon, not top right as on YouTube but bottom right of screen.
Worked in as a software computer engineer till I retired and this was the bane of all our lives, engineers so bored with updates that the kept moving the buttons for no reason.

 

[Winnie_20]

Just spent the most awful morning trying to get everything set up for tomorrow. 1) Paid for Eurosport, that was the easy part. 2) Then tried to connect my new tv directly to Eurosport- instructions minimal and I totally failed.

Ideally, you can download the Eurosport Player app on your smart TV. Or on the PS4, bluray player, appleTV etc. That’s definitely the easiest way, in my experience.

 

[oaponice]

Ideally, you can download the Eurosport Player app on your smart TV. Or on the PS4, bluray player, appleTV etc. That’s definitely the easiest way, in my experience.

Yes but this is all Eurosport says, no further instructions, do I do this from my iPad? Haven’t found a way a way to do this from my TV

 

[Winnie_20]

Yes but this is all Eurosport says, no further instructions, do I do this from my iPad? Haven’t found a way a way to do this from my TV

Welke apparaten worden ondersteund door Eurosport en Eurosport Player?

Eurosport en Eurosport Player worden ondersteund op de volgende apparaten: Eurosport en Eurosport Player Microsoft-computers Macs iPhone met iOS 11.0 en hoger iPad met iOS 11.0 en hoger iPod...

help.eurosport.com

Okay, so that’s in Dutch, but shows a fairly decent list of options. Dunno what smart TV you have, so maybe your TV doesn’t have the Player among its apps. I always access the Player via either the app on my appleTV or the app on my PS4 (they have their own app stores). But yes, using the app on an iPad and then stream to the TV with chromecast or such ought to work, too, I guess.

 

[DSQ]

No commentary so far? Not in the UK at least.

 

[Winnie_20]

No commentary so far? Not in the UK at least.

Nope, just the feed. Crystal clear quality and no blabla commentary. I’m happy!

 

[DSQ]

Nope, just the feed. Crystal clear quality and no blabla commentary. I’m happy!

I’m sad but I don’t regret paying. So much better quality than YouTube.

 

[DSQ]

No commentary so far? Not in the UK at least.

Spoke to soon, Chris is back!

 

[cleo2070]

Just want to say a quick Thank you! to CaroLiza_fan and everyone else here, I only sporadically checked the forum in the past months, but seeing this thread reminded me so much of the past competitions (and all the scrabbling for somewhere to watch them... ) that it felt like coming home

 

[ladyjane]

I always like Simon as a commentator, so it's fine with me. Also, the visual quality is better than what I got last year. However, that was for free and with Eurosport player you have to pay. Luckily, I can afford it, so I'm quite pleased with how it's gone. But I do feel sorry for these fans in the Eurosport environment that have problems with the costs. On the other hand, it's costing all the national federations a lot to provide these competitions with no audiences to get some income. I don't think Eurosport getting the rights back will make up for that.

Edit: I changed the commentator. Stupid of me.

 

[redpix]

I think it's Simon Reed commentating though right? not absolutely sure, I often get the b.esp uncles mixed up. As a new fan I really get a lot out of the commentary, find it super helpful.

 

[La Rhumba]

My Eurosport subscription lapsed last November and I didn't buy a new one as I only bought it to watch Figure Skating. I saw a few of the ISU channel videos of SA on Youtube this morning with surprisingly Simon Reed commentating. Is this what was broadcast on Eurosport Player? He sounded a bit low key and didn't have his mic up very high. And now those videos have disappeared for me, so suppose I must be geoblocked. I doubt Chris Howarth would fly over from Chicago as he would have to quarantine, if he got into France where the Eurosport studios are in the first place? So in this year of all years, the ISU is making us pay to watch Skating? Now Skate Canada is cancelled, which had the skaters I most wanted to see, I'm not that fussed to buy a subscription as the French GP in my timezone is also cancelled, and the Russian one has mostly skaters we've already seen in their domestic competitions. Unless there will be a Europeans and Worlds, and my only option is to watch on Eurosport (as BBC didn't show Euros and only FPs of Worlds) only then will I buy a Eurosport subscription.
Thanks CaroLiza_fan for this thread.

 

[Winnie_20]

My Eurosport subscription lapsed last November and I didn't buy a new one as I only bought it to watch Figure Skating. I saw a few of the ISU channel videos of SA on Youtube this morning with surprisingly Simon Reed commentating. Is this what was broadcast on Eurosport Player? He sounded a bit low key and didn't have his mic up very high. And now those videos have disappeared for me, so suppose I must be geoblocked. I doubt Chris Howarth would fly over from Chicago as he would have to quarantine, if he got into France where the Eurosport studios are in the first place? So in this year of all years, the ISU is making us pay to watch Skating? Now Skate Canada is cancelled, which had the skaters I most wanted to see, I'm not that fussed to buy a subscription as the French GP in my timezone is also cancelled, and the Russian one has mostly skaters we've already seen in their domestic competitions. Unless there will be a Europeans and Worlds, and my only option is to watch on Eurosport (as BBC didn't show Euros and only FPs of Worlds) only then will I buy a Eurosport subscription.
Thanks CaroLiza_fan for this thread.

Or just get a cheap VPN or use the free VPN in Opera (?) browser and watch the youtube stream. That can be much cheaper/free than paying for Eurosport Player.
And yes, the Player and youtube have exactly the same stream and commentary.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

My Eurosport subscription lapsed last November and I didn't buy a new one as I only bought it to watch Figure Skating. I saw a few of the ISU channel videos of SA on Youtube this morning with surprisingly Simon Reed commentating. Is this what was broadcast on Eurosport Player? He sounded a bit low key and didn't have his mic up very high. And now those videos have disappeared for me, so suppose I must be geoblocked. I doubt Chris Howarth would fly over from Chicago as he would have to quarantine, if he got into France where the Eurosport studios are in the first place? So in this year of all years, the ISU is making us pay to watch Skating? Now Skate Canada is cancelled, which had the skaters I most wanted to see, I'm not that fussed to buy a subscription as the French GP in my timezone is also cancelled, and the Russian one has mostly skaters we've already seen in their domestic competitions. Unless there will be a Europeans and Worlds, and my only option is to watch on Eurosport (as BBC didn't show Euros and only FPs of Worlds) only then will I buy a Eurosport subscription.
Thanks CaroLiza_fan for this thread.

You're welcome.

I can totally relate. If I was not interested in other sports that Eurosport has the rights for (the superbike racing and the ski sports), I couldn't justify spending the money to watch just one sport. Especially when there are not that many events that they will be showing.

BUT, you will probably be interested in this next bit of my post...

Or just get a cheap VPN or use the free VPN in Opera (?) browser and watch the youtube stream. That can be much cheaper/free than paying for Eurosport Player.
And yes, the Player and youtube have exactly the same stream and commentary.

I have had Opera installed on my computer for years, but I never used because everything is so different from what I am used to in other browsers.

But, after reading your comments about Opera having a built in VPN, I decided to experiment.

First thing I should point out is that you actually have to go into the settings to enable the VPN, as it is disabled by default. But, once you have it enabled in the settings, you are able to easily connect and disconnect it from a button in the address bar.

When I first started experimenting earlier in the week, it was with Eurosport Player. As somebody who was wanting to look up the schedules for all the different versions of Eurosport, and who was used to being able to select specific countries to browse from when using Hola, I found the options for choosing where to browse from were too limited ("Optimal Location", "Europe", "Americas", or "Asia"). So, I gave up.

However, last night I decided to try again using one of the ISU livestreams on YouTube. And it worked without having to make any choices!!! The only complaint I have is that it took a long time for the video to start playing when first opened. And, perhaps because of this, it opened at a lower qality than I had ever seen on YouTube before - 144p! Fortunately, I was able to change it to the full HD 1080p quality, and it played fine.

I just went back to the same video there now, and it opened straight away at the default 720p quality. So, the problems I had opening the video last night were probably just a result of a lot of people using it at the same time.

So, for anybody who is reluctant to splash out for a Eurosport Player subscription because they are only interested in watching this one sport, I would definitely recommend using the Opera browser with it's built-in VPN to watch the ISU YouTube channel.

It's a lot safer than the alternative of using illegal streams.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[IceDancingQueen]

Yes, thanks for this thread! I was trying to watch on YouTube but couldn’t get the stream for the full competition, only the individual videos. I’m in Britain so it all makes sense now. At least it looks like we can still watch the individual performances for free so that’s something. I used a VPN to watch the free dance in full this morning for Skate America and it worked it well!

 

[jvpiter]

I can totally relate. If I was not interested in other sports that Eurosport has the rights for (the superbike racing and the ski sports), I couldn't justify spending the money to watch just one sport. Especially when there are not that many events that they will be showing.

Exactly why I’m going with the VPN route.

I wish Eurosport would put it on the television channels instead of their player (even if at very inconvenient hours). I DM’ed Eurosport on Instagram asking whether they plan on showing figure skating on tv this season, but I’m not very confident they will do so.

 

[La Rhumba]

Last night when I saw that the ISU had removed the individual videos for those of us geo-blocked, I decided to follow Winnie_20's advice, as I remembered when I bought my tablet it asked if I wanted to install the Opera browser with built-in VPN, I thought I'll do it on there as a try out rather than my laptop, which I am assuming CaroLiza_Fan is using? But thanks for all the advice about that, as in future if I want to record a performance (if we ever get to see Fear & Gibson's new FD) I can only do that on my laptop.
So I installed the Opera browser last night on my tablet, saw the ISU livestreams scheduled for Pairs and Dance, went to bed, and today I can see everything!!!! As clear as a bell, sound and vision! All the livestreams that were there previously (I like to hear Simon Reed rambling and see the Judging Panel and warm ups) and all the individual videos of performances. I don't know if the ISU left the videos available to us geoblocked the first day to whet our appetite for more, or it was just a mistake?! But they're not there now without VPN. So thank you so much to the advice on this thread, and for those of us not so clued up technically. Opera is free, but I don't think I'd use it other than to watch Skating when I need the VPN. The browser itself looks weird. I didn't have to go into settings on my tablet. After installation, the VPN automatically starts working, I just logged onto Youtube and the ISU Channel.

BTW those cardboard cut-outs are really a daft idea!!

 

[oaponice]

Not sure if this is a stupid question but If I install Opera with VNP on my tablet can I only view the skating on YouTube on my tablet or can I then use Google chromecast to watch via my TV?
Must say watching via Eurosport was good except for the bad weather causing picture break up.
Did get mesmerised by the cardboard cats watching and it took a day for my eyes not to get drawn to the logo!

 

[Winnie_20]

The funny thing is, I haven’t ever used browser Opera myself (I have an annual subscription with NordVPN). I just know that apparently Opera an option. Glad to read it works for you guys!

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Last night when I saw that the ISU had removed the individual videos for those of us geo-blocked, I decided to follow Winnie_20's advice, as I remembered when I bought my tablet it asked if I wanted to install the Opera browser with built-in VPN, I thought I'll do it on there as a try out rather than my laptop, which I am assuming CaroLiza_Fan is using? But thanks for all the advice about that, as in future if I want to record a performance (if we ever get to see Fear & Gibson's new FD) I can only do that on my laptop.
So I installed the Opera browser last night on my tablet, saw the ISU livestreams scheduled for Pairs and Dance, went to bed, and today I can see everything!!!! As clear as a bell, sound and vision! All the livestreams that were there previously (I like to hear Simon Reed rambling and see the Judging Panel and warm ups) and all the individual videos of performances. I don't know if the ISU left the videos available to us geoblocked the first day to whet our appetite for more, or it was just a mistake?! But they're not there now without VPN. So thank you so much to the advice on this thread, and for those of us not so clued up technically. Opera is free, but I don't think I'd use it other than to watch Skating when I need the VPN. The browser itself looks weird. I didn't have to go into settings on my tablet. After installation, the VPN automatically starts working, I just logged onto Youtube and the ISU Channel.

BTW those cardboard cut-outs are really a daft idea!!

Glad you got to watch it!

You're nearly right. It is a PC, but it's a desktop rather than a laptop. And I wouldn't be surprised if the programme behaves differently on different types of devices (or maybe I disabled the VPN when I first installed Opera, and just can't remember doing it!)

Yes, Opera is very weird. As you know, Firefox is my preferred browser. But, a few years ago I found that it could be temperamental watching videos on it. So I got into the habit of watching videos and livestreams in Chrome.

But after finding this out, I am now going to have Opera as my go-to browser for watching YouTube and streaming sites that have geo-blocking (e.g. Eurovision Sports, sportbox).

I'll still use Chrome for the Eurosport Player, though. (I've got too many ESP Player bookmarks on Chrome to leave! )

I'm in the process of making out updates for my Fan Fests, so it'll be interesting to see if searches for particular skaters on YouTube come up with more results with using the VPN.

CaroLiza_fan