Why NBC, why?

[moonvine]

Y'all...I am currently watching the junior ladies at US Classic because I can watch them for free on Youtube. (It isn't geoblocked either). Additionally they showed 8 hours of podium training per day, which I don't watch, but one can go back and watch them for free on Youtube. Tomorrow Senior Women will be on Peacock but Junior and Senior men will be on Youtube. Additionally they are uploading individual routines of each gymnast in case there's one one wants to check out.

We deal with wonky streams, pay a lot of money for streams, or don't get a stream at all in many cases. Just seeing the access fans get to another judged sport that has a contract with NBC to show their competitions. Does USAG just have that much more pull? Is USFS just that bad at putting contracts together?

I mean the difference is crazy.

Perhaps if USFS put their junior comps on their Youtube channel for free people would watch them and get invested? Or not, but it's worth a try surely? Not everyone can afford to travel to Nationals to see them.

 

[el henry]

I'm glad you finally said gymnastics, I was thinking, are skaters in Salt Lake City.

I don't know a hill of beans about gymnastics, I don't watch it, but I know this. It is WAY more popular than figure skating in the US. I would venture there is WAY more money in endorsements and advertisers.

I would bet my non existent mortgage that Simone Biles makes ten times what Nathan Chen makes.

talks.

 

[moonvine]

I'm glad you finally said gymnastics, I was thinking, are skaters in Salt Lake City.

I don't know a hill of beans about gymnastics, I don't watch it, but I know this. It is WAY more popular than figure skating in the US. I would venture there is WAY more money in endorsements and advertisers.

I would bet my non existent mortgage that Simone Biles makes ten times what Nathan Chen makes.

talks.

Yes, but you would think that would make them make people pay for it and not give it all away for free. I'll be interested to see if Peacock provides replays of gymnastics.

 

[4everchan]

I'm glad you finally said gymnastics, I was thinking, are skaters in Salt Lake City.

I don't know a hill of beans about gymnastics, I don't watch it, but I know this. It is WAY more popular than figure skating in the US. I would venture there is WAY more money in endorsements and advertisers.

I would bet my non existent mortgage that Simone Biles makes ten times what Nathan Chen makes.

talks.

my friend Google said that Chen is worth about 4M and Biles, 16M

 

[el henry]

my friend Google said that Chen is worth about 4M and Biles, 16M

Good thing the mortgage is paid off.

However, the point is the same even if the math is wrong. Mo' money

 

[el henry]

Yes, but you would think that would make them make people pay for it and not give it all away for free. I'll be interested to see if Peacock provides replays of gymnastics.

My theory is that gymnastics can get sponsors beside Prevagen to subsidize your free views.

 

[moonvine]

My theory is that gymnastics can get sponsors beside Prevagen to subsidize your free views.

Actually there are almost no commercials and the ones there have been have been for gymnastics equipment or apparel. No one is watching this except the diehards and/or people who would use gymnastics equipment or apparel. It'll be interesting what sponsors they have for tomorrow I guess.

 

[TallyT]

my friend Google said that Chen is worth about 4M and Biles, 16M

I would however be very leery of Google & Co Financial Advisors P/L - they confidently state Yuzuru's net worth as 2M and equally confidently as more than $30M which is some impressive moebius maths there, folks. (Yuna's and Plushenko's are also pretty much handwavium).

I do however agree that if the theory is sound, and that a sport that has more fans (and gymnastics, I imagine, would also be a young demographic?) gets more ticket money/participant fees/sponsors to pay for more TV and streaming.

 

[4everchan]

I would however be very leery of Google & Co Financial Advisors P/L - they confidently state Yuzuru's net worth as 2M and equally confidently as more than $30M which is some impressive moebius maths there, folks. (Yuna's and Plushenko's are also pretty much handwavium).

I do however agree that if the theory is sound, and that a sport that has more fans (and gymnastics, I imagine, would also be a young demographic?) gets more ticket money/participant fees/sponsors to pay for more TV and streaming.

was Yuzu's net worth before or after the wedding news?

 

[TallyT]

was Yuzu's net worth before or after the wedding news?

Hey, the news only broken at 11.11 Tokyo time last night! And I admit with him it's even more guesswork than the others, a university professor did a study of his economic impact on Japan (as in the whole country) in 2022-3 and the figures were staggering, but while GIFT brought in a battleshipload of money, it also cost an eye-watering sum (which is why I am not hanging out for NBC, or the JSF or ISU, to take pointers from him and Disney+ here). So how out that 30M is... who knows. And Yuna's 2023 estimates were about 25M apart which is impressively bad guesstimating by any standards.

I suspect both Nathan's and Simone's assumed net worths are out, which way and by how much is in the lap pf the sporting gods. She is by far the richer, I'd put my own good money on it, but then she is one of the Big Names in US sport, isn't she?

 

[skatesofgold]

Y'all...I am currently watching the junior ladies at US Classic because I can watch them for free on Youtube. (It isn't geoblocked either). Additionally they showed 8 hours of podium training per day, which I don't watch, but one can go back and watch them for free on Youtube. Tomorrow Senior Women will be on Peacock but Junior and Senior men will be on Youtube. Additionally they are uploading individual routines of each gymnast in case there's one one wants to check out.

We deal with wonky streams, pay a lot of money for streams, or don't get a stream at all in many cases. Just seeing the access fans get to another judged sport that has a contract with NBC to show their competitions. Does USAG just have that much more pull? Is USFS just that bad at putting contracts together?

I mean the difference is crazy.

Perhaps if USFS put their junior comps on their Youtube channel for free people would watch them and get invested? Or not, but it's worth a try surely? Not everyone can afford to travel to Nationals to see them.

Gymnastics probably has more pull because the USA women are the best in the world and there are a lot of returning gymnasts from last quad, not to mention there are two Olympic all around champions, Simone Biles and Suni Lee, and a whole lot of world and Olympic individual event champions. Even Gabby Douglas plans to comeback by next year.

 

[moonvine]

Gymnastics probably has more pull because the USA women are the best in the world and there are a lot of returning gymnasts from last quad, not to mention there are two Olympic all around champions, Simone Biles and Suni Lee, and a whole lot of world and Olympic individual event champions. Even Gabby Douglas plans to comeback by next year.

Gabby will be competing today.

 

[skatesofgold]

Gabby will be competing today.

No, she isn't. I don't know where you're getting your news from. This is the line-up for the evening session today: https://static.usagym.org/PDFs/Results/2023/w_23classic_startsr2.pdf.

 

[skatingfan4ever]

Maybe music copyright issues play a role? I have noticed tons of figure skating videos getting taken down (entire channels with years of figure skating content), starting around 2019. Although if that were the only issue then ice dance vids could have been yanked for years before the mass deletions started happening. As the music bots get smarter, it's harder for figure skating vids to get through. So maybe NBC is worried about that? A gymnastics floor routine is 70-90 seconds of instrumental music, not a whole song (or several songs) with lyrics. And women's floor is the only event with music at all.

I also think USAG has a way better media promotion team. USAG has plenty of issues, but access to competition content is not one of them. Also, the competitive structure of gymnastics is different, both in Elite and NCAA. There are more competitions to broadcast.

I must say, many gymnastics fans are still not happy about NBC's coverage (i.e. the commentated broadcasts with Tim, Nastia, and Terry). They can only do so many talking points and are talking for a general audience as opposed to the gymternet (the name that hardcore gymnastics internet fandom has given itself -- I wish skating had a similar name of its own but I haven't come up with one yet) and they will only focus on the top gymnasts, to the point where other routines are happening but they're showing gymnasts taping/chalking/whatever while waiting for scores. But anyway...

The true answer is, I have no idea why the skating coverage isn't as extensive as the gymnastics coverage. Maybe the competitions take too long with ice resurfacing and warmup times? I don't presume to know what NBC is thinking about with any broadcast decisions. I agree, however, that it is frustrating.

 

[moonvine]

No, she isn't. I don't know where you're getting your news from. This is the line-up for the evening session today: https://static.usagym.org/PDFs/Results/2023/w_23classic_startsr2.pdf.

My bad. I was going by this article, which has a misleading headline. Later in the article they state that she (Gabby) has "yet to confirm her appearance."

When, Where and How to Watch Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas and Sunisa Lee at US Classics 2023 - EssentiallySports

Catch Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, and Sunisa Lee at the US Classics 2023. Find out when, where, and how to watch the action-packed event

www.essentiallysports.com

 

[moonvine]

Maybe music copyright issues play a role? I have noticed tons of figure skating videos getting taken down (entire channels with years of figure skating content), starting around 2019. Although if that were the only issue then ice dance vids could have been yanked for years before the mass deletions started happening. As the music bots get smarter, it's harder for figure skating vids to get through. So maybe NBC is worried about that? A gymnastics floor routine is 70-90 seconds of instrumental music, not a whole song (or several songs) with lyrics. And women's floor is the only event with music at all.

I also think USAG has a way better media promotion team. USAG has plenty of issues, but access to competition content is not one of them. Also, the competitive structure of gymnastics is different, both in Elite and NCAA. There are more competitions to broadcast.

I must say, many gymnastics fans are still not happy about NBC's coverage (i.e. the commentated broadcasts with Tim, Nastia, and Terry). They can only do so many talking points and are talking for a general audience as opposed to the gymternet (the name that hardcore gymnastics internet fandom has given itself -- I wish skating had an equivalent but I haven't come up with one yet) and they will only focus on the top gymnasts, to the point where other routines are happening but they're showing gymnasts taping/chalking/whatever while waiting for scores. But anyway...

The true answer is, I have no idea why the skating coverage isn't as extensive as the gymnastics coverage. Maybe the competitions take too long with ice resurfacing and warmup times? I don't presume to know what NBC is thinking about with any broadcast decisions. I agree with you, however, that it is frustrating.

I MUCH prefer John Rothlisberger's commentary.

But anyway, if the deal with NBC is bad, why not shop around to some other networks? ESPN covered skating for years. Of course we don't know they aren't. But looking from the outside, they (USFS) don't seem to do much of anything.

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

Tomorrow Senior Women will be on Peacock but Junior and Senior men will be on Youtube.

I believe they're showing the Sr. Women on YouTube for international viewers, so if anyone US based doesn't want to use Peacock, a VPN and YouTube is an option.

Session 1 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE5Z9-2wr7I
Session 2 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgUAiuI3XIM

 

[skatesofgold]

Maybe music copyright issues play a role? I have noticed tons of figure skating videos getting taken down (entire channels with years of figure skating content), starting around 2019. Although if that were the only issue then ice dance vids could have been yanked for years before the mass deletions started happening. As the music bots get smarter, it's harder for figure skating vids to get through. So maybe NBC is worried about that? A gymnastics floor routine is 70-90 seconds of instrumental music, not a whole song (or several songs) with lyrics. And women's floor is the only event with music at all.

I also think USAG has a way better media promotion team. USAG has plenty of issues, but access to competition content is not one of them. Also, the competitive structure of gymnastics is different, both in Elite and NCAA. There are more competitions to broadcast.

I must say, many gymnastics fans are still not happy about NBC's coverage (i.e. the commentated broadcasts with Tim, Nastia, and Terry). They can only do so many talking points and are talking for a general audience as opposed to the gymternet (the name that hardcore gymnastics internet fandom has given itself -- I wish skating had a similar name of its own but I haven't come up with one yet) and they will only focus on the top gymnasts, to the point where other routines are happening but they're showing gymnasts taping/chalking/whatever while waiting for scores. But anyway...

The true answer is, I have no idea why the skating coverage isn't as extensive as the gymnastics coverage. Maybe the competitions take too long with ice resurfacing and warmup times? I don't presume to know what NBC is thinking about with any broadcast decisions. I agree, however, that it is frustrating.

NBC's coverage of Olympic sports, in general, sucks. I know they've reduced prime time hours recently for the winter Olympics, even though everyone complains that the coverage sucks (hint: reducing the time doesn't help). I think in their efforts to get more women to watch the Olympics, they decide to focus on the people instead of the sports, but that alienates the people who actually like the sports. This is very sexist, as I'm a woman who actually likes watching sports. Shocker. There's a time and a place for human interest stories. Prime time Olympic coverage isn't one of them. I can handle short fluff pieces, but anything longer than 3 minutes bores me to tears. I also think NBC makes a lot of assumptions when they can't show the Olympics live on network television and people already know the results, like people only want the highlights. In the past, I have liked prime time coverage because I can rewatch the event with less stress. 2004 and 2014 are good examples of this.

 

[el henry]

Prime Time Olympics coverage has ALWAYS been heavy on the fluff. At least for the fifty years I have been watching.

I yield to no one my regard for “sport”, but I love and loved the personal interest stories. I loved “Up Close and Personal, the ABC way”, and those fluff pieces, IIRC, were longer and, well, fluffier than they are today.

Back in the day when figure skating ruled the airwaves.....

 

[yelyoh]

I believe they're showing the Sr. Women on YouTube for international viewers, so if anyone US based doesn't want to use Peacock, a VPN and YouTube is an option.

Session 1 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE5Z9-2wr7I
Session 2 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgUAiuI3XIM

Video unavailable
The uploader has not made this video available in your country.
From NYC viewer who tried. And I don't see it listed on Peacock.