# Eurosport Player vs GCN RacePass



## zimzum42 (17 Jul 2020)

Some of you may have seen the announcement from GCN that they have a special offer on their streaming service - £20 for a whole year of pro racing!

I currently pay £84 a year for Eurosport. It's great. The tech works perfectly and I do enjoy the high standard of commentary, Carlton, big Maggie, Smithy, Wiggo on the bike, the Juan and only, etc etc.

I'm clearly trying to convince myself that's what makes it worth 4 times what I would pay to watch the same feed from GCN...

Any thoughts?

ps. I don't want to rip a dodgy stream for free (save for in emergencies), I do like the feeling that I'm supporting the sport by subscribing...


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## jamin100 (17 Jul 2020)

Where did you see it was £20?
A years Eurosport pass for £20 can be had quite often, mainly around Christmas or at the beginning of big tournaments for a few weeks.

infact its on now and you get access to ALL sport, not just cycling.







And i'm guessing that as Eurosport own GCN, that the supported devices will be the same


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## zimzum42 (17 Jul 2020)

jamin100 said:


> Where did you see it was £20?
> A years Eurosport pass for £20 can be had quite often, mainly around Christmas or at the beginning of big tournaments for a few weeks.
> 
> infact its on now and you get access to ALL sport, not just cycling.
> ...


I saw an ad on their socials, plus there’s an ad in the app.
You’re right about the good deals for Eurosport occasionally, not sure I can quit and then sign up again though. 
didn't know they owned GCN though, thanks for that bit of info!


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## BurningLegs (17 Jul 2020)

I'd say use a new email address to sign up for Eurosport on the reduced fee  I signed up for £20 a year or two ago and let it renew at £40. If it bothered me that much I suppose I'd throw a new email address at it.

Didn't know it was possible to pay £84 for Eurosport


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## zimzum42 (17 Jul 2020)

BurningLegs said:


> I'd say use a new email address to sign up for Eurosport on the reduced fee  I signed up for £20 a year or two ago and let it renew at £40. If it bothered me that much I suppose I'd throw a new email address at it.
> 
> Didn't know it was possible to pay £84 for Eurosport


It’s crept up on me unnoticed over the years and is now £6:99 a month!

To be fair, they have paused the charges while there’s been nothing on, which was good to see.


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## jamin100 (17 Jul 2020)

Tbh no one in our household watches any other sport so I may sign up to the GCN option just to have it all on the same App and in case there is any other cycling related shows they do that won’t be on Eurosport. I like GCN have have been a subscriber since the very early days.


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## zimzum42 (17 Jul 2020)

I've cancelled my current silly monthly £7! Now, who gets my £20 for the year and £40 next?!?!?

Thanks guys...


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## dodgy (17 Jul 2020)

Eurosport used to have a reputation for dropping coverage of a cycle race if tennis came on. I take it with streaming that's less likely and you're guaranteed decent coverage of the sport you're trying to watch as it's not contending with traditional 'channels'?


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## zimzum42 (17 Jul 2020)

dodgy said:


> Eurosport used to have a reputation for dropping coverage of a cycle race if tennis came on. I take it with streaming that's less likely and you're guaranteed decent coverage of the sport you're trying to watch as it's not contending with traditional 'channels'?


True, doesn't seem to be a problem anymore as I'm only ever watching online. Have fond 1990s memories of watching yachting or some nonsense instead of the sport I was hoping for...


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## dodgy (17 Jul 2020)

Great. I might be tempted by a GCN subscription, I like what they're trying to do.


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## T.M.H.N.E.T (17 Jul 2020)

Eurosport player for the same £19.99 also gets you other sports


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## dodgy (17 Jul 2020)

Hmmm, seems the GCN Race Pass is exclusive to portable devices, no browser service or Smart TV app? So you can only watch via mobile phone/tablet?


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## zimzum42 (17 Jul 2020)

dodgy said:


> Hmmm, seems the GCN Race Pass is exclusive to portable devices, no browser service or Smart TV app? So you can only watch via mobile phone/tablet?


They say you can cast, which is what I do a lot, but I am starting to lean towards Eurosport now I know I can get the same deal.


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## RobNewcastle (19 Jul 2020)

dodgy said:


> Hmmm, seems the GCN Race Pass is exclusive to portable devices, no browser service or Smart TV app? So you can only watch via mobile phone/tablet?



Is it possible to watch Eurosport through your smart tv? I’ve got access on my iPad and iPhone


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## dodgy (19 Jul 2020)

RobNewcastle said:


> Is it possible to watch Eurosport through your smart tv? I’ve got access on my iPad and iPhone



Yes, but depends I suppose. My particular Smart TVs (LG and Samsung) both have an app store and the Eurosport app is downloadable from there.


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## mjr (20 Jul 2020)

I watch Eurosport but not subscription. I've a £100 satellite set pointed at the German-language SD service, which is still free. Can't stand the Good-ol'-boys Clueless News.


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## ColinJ (20 Jul 2020)

T.M.H.N.E.T said:


> Eurosport player for the same £19.99 also gets you other sports


There is a special offer at that price on now, but it ends at midnight today.

The TdF and Vuelta are on ITV4 but I am tempted to subscribe again now for the Giro and all the one-day classics and short tours.


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## ColinJ (20 Jul 2020)

ColinJ said:


> There is a special offer at that price on now, but it ends at midnight today.
> 
> The TdF and Vuelta are on ITV4 but I am tempted to subscribe again now for the Giro and all the one-day classics and short tours.


I just gave way to temptation with under 30 minutes to go... 

I have discovered that Eurosport Player supports Chromecast so I can cast it across to my TV while I work in a full-screen window on my laptop.

I tested it with a stage of the virtual TdF; odd stuff! I'll try the World Track Championship finals instead...


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## zimzum42 (22 Jul 2020)

After much deliberation, I went with the £20 Eurosport offer.

I really like the GCN guys and what they're doing, but reckon it makes more sense to stay with Eurosport as I get a bunch of other sports and I know I'll always have the commentators I like with them. I do hope that GCN do well, but reckon they should charge a bit less than Eurosport if they really want to pull people in - but best of luck to them, nice bunch of guys.


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## Turdus philomelos (22 Jul 2020)

Previous years I would grab a Eurosport promotion subscription, cancel just before renew date and wait for new promotion to come along. This year I forgot to cancel and it renewed at £20. What is tempting with the GCN app is there will be no adverts.


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## Tristan (3 Aug 2020)

Recorded the Gran Trittico Lombardo live coverage on Eurosport today to watch tonight, and in true Eurosport fashion when the rain meant the live pictures were lost they gave up and put snooker on instead.

It's almost like they are trying to push people to subscribe to GCN, which luckily I did last night on the £19.99 deal and so have been able to watch the full race to the end with a bit of Chromecasting.


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## rualexander (4 Aug 2020)

I took the GCN offer last week, and tried it last night for the first time to watch the weekend's Strade Bianche races, worked well last night.

But today when I went back to finish watching them, I can't get any of the races to playback on the GCN app either on my phone or my tablet (both android), just get a blank black playback screen and a rotating red buffering type symbol.

Anyone else having problems with GCN?


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## itboffin (5 Aug 2020)

i'm guessing that all the cycling will move over to GCN seeing as Eurosports own them


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## Nomadski (6 Aug 2020)

dodgy said:


> Yes, but depends I suppose. My particular Smart TVs (LG and Samsung) both have an app store and the Eurosport app is downloadable from there.



I can't find Eurosport as a downloadable app on my LG TV?


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## SWSteve (6 Aug 2020)

Nomadski said:


> I can't find Eurosport as a downloadable app on my LG TV?


Think it’s only on some smart TVs :-(


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## itboffin (6 Aug 2020)

They stopped the smart TV app ages ago because of the different vendor requirements needing per brand customisation or something like that, my Samsung had it working when i bought it which was ace but stopped shortly afterwards, i cast now or use a Amazon fire4k stick which is an amazing bit of kit.


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## Nomadski (7 Aug 2020)

Ah the old lack of agreed standardisation. Always the biggest fail when it comes to technology.


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## SWSteve (7 Aug 2020)

Nomadski said:


> Ah the old lack of agreed standardisation. Always the biggest fail when it comes to technology.


It’s available on consoles if you are so inclined.
.


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## Nomadski (7 Aug 2020)

ItsSteveLovell said:


> It’s available on consoles if you are so inclined.
> .



ah good shout, got my PS4 hooked up to it.


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## dodgy (7 Aug 2020)

Almost signed up to GCN just now, but then realised though they do have an iphone app, they don't have an ipad app that lets you use the full and large screen of the ipad 🤷‍♂️ I don't have any TVs currently capable of airplay (though my LG is promising support this year some time) and also you can't cast to chromecast from ios. Looks like I'm out!


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## Milkfloat (7 Aug 2020)

dodgy said:


> Almost signed up to GCN just now, but then realised though they do have an iphone app, they don't have an ipad app that lets you use the full and large screen of the ipad 🤷‍♂️ I don't have any TVs currently capable of airplay (though my LG is promising support this year some time) and also you can't cast to chromecast from ios. Looks like I'm out!


You can cast from iOS to a Chromecast, I do it on a variety of apps.


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## ianbarton (8 Aug 2020)

ColinJ said:


> There is a special offer at that price on now, but it ends at midnight today.


Subscribe to the special offer. Wait a week and then cancel it. You can still use it for the rest of your subscription period, but it won't auto-renew at some vastly inflated price.


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## cougie uk (8 Aug 2020)

Does GCN app have the cast to TV icon? 







ES doesn't so I'm struggling to watch that on the TV.


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## ColinJ (8 Aug 2020)

ianbarton said:


> Subscribe to the special offer. Wait a week and then cancel it. You can still use it for the rest of your subscription period, but it won't auto-renew at some vastly inflated price.


Yes, I have been caught like that in the past!


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## cougie uk (8 Aug 2020)

Apppparently you can stream the GCN app to your TV. But not got it myself yet.


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## the_mikey (8 Aug 2020)

cougie uk said:


> Apppparently you can stream the GCN app to your TV. But not got it myself yet.




I use a Chromecast, plugged into the tv via an HDMI port, you can then stream Eurosport, GCN Race TV, Youtube, and many others. Some smart tv's might have similar functionality but it's certainly not universal, a chromecast is a relatively inexpensive addition.


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## ianbarton (8 Aug 2020)

Just tried side loading it on a FireTV. The app launches, but is stretched to full screen and won't load anything. Also tried to install on my Pixelbook, but it doesn't appear in the list of installable apps.


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## dodgy (12 Aug 2020)

Last day today for the GCN race pass discount. I finally went for it, particularly good deal *IF *we return to normal next year, subscribing now means you basically get 2 race seasons out of it.


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## ColinJ (14 Aug 2020)

the_mikey said:


> I use a Chromecast, plugged into the tv via an HDMI port, you can then stream Eurosport, GCN Race TV, Youtube, and many others.


I got one for Christmas on special offer - it works brilliantly.


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## Tristan (15 Aug 2020)

GCN have now launched their Web Player (in Beta) - seems to work well. So can now hook up the laptop to the TV with an HDMI and don't need to rely on the phone and Chromecast


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## coldash (15 Aug 2020)

I’m using the GCN app on an old iPhone 7 cast to the tele and it has been faultless. Yesterday’s coverage only took 10% of the (original) battery life. Been a good choice for me


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## dodgy (23 Aug 2020)

There's now a browser / web app to play Race TV, works fine for me, but it's in beta.
https://racetv.globalcyclingnetwork.com/


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## ianbarton (23 Aug 2020)

How do you find the web app on their site? It's probably staring me in the face, but I can't see it.

Edit found it now, but get "Error connecting with server".


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## dodgy (23 Aug 2020)

Hmm, seems they've now turned the player off, the link above is now just a page to pay for the service.


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## dodgy (23 Aug 2020)

I just logged out and logged in again and everything working fine now.


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## Milkfloat (25 Sep 2020)

If anyone spots a £20 deal before the Giro, can they tag me please. The only free to air I can find is S4C and my Welsh is a bit 'turd cŵn'.


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## ColinJ (25 Sep 2020)

Milkfloat said:


> If anyone spots a £20 deal before the Giro, can they tag me please. The only free to air I can find is S4C and my Welsh is a bit 'turd cŵn'.


I think that Quest will be doing an evening highlights show again?


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## Milkfloat (25 Sep 2020)

ColinJ said:


> I think that Quest will be doing an evening highlights show again?


I hope so, but the listings I saw did not have it.


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## ColinJ (25 Sep 2020)

Milkfloat said:


> I hope so, but the listings I saw did not have it.


I can't find listings for more than a week ahead and the Giro starts in 8 days!

I saw an ad for it on Quest a few nights ago. Check the listings on Sunday and they should show the highlights show for the evening of Saturday, 3rd October?

I have a Eurosport Player subscription, but I'm happy to watch a highlights show for most stages. I might cast a couple of live mountain stages from my laptop to the TV while working.


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## Adam4868 (25 Sep 2020)

Milkfloat said:


> If anyone spots a £20 deal before the Giro, can they tag me please. The only free to air I can find is S4C and my Welsh is a bit 'turd cŵn'.


I've seen Quest advertising highlight recently.Failing that you could sign up to Eurosport for a month 6.99 I think.Plenty of cycling should be on....fingers crossed !


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## the_mikey (25 Sep 2020)

Milkfloat said:


> I hope so, but the listings I saw did not have it.




It's showing up as being available on Quest this year.

https://www.tvguide.co.uk/search.asp?title=Giro+D&#39;italia+Highlights+2020&submit.x=26&submit.y=19


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## Pale Rider (8 Oct 2020)

I'm watching the Giro on Eurosport via my Sky box.

The commentators are heavily pushing ad free coverage on the GCN Racepass and on 'eurosport.com'.

You also get their Breakaway highlights/chat programme, which used to be on via the Sky box, but is no longer.


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## mjr (8 Oct 2020)

Pale Rider said:


> You also get their Breakaway highlights/chat programme, which used to be on via the Sky box, but is no longer.


Presumably that's why the highlights show on Quest has "The Breakaway" branding visible in the set background.


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## Pale Rider (8 Oct 2020)

mjr said:


> Presumably that's why the highlights show on Quest has "The Breakaway" branding visible in the set background.



Very likely.

Still plenty of highlights programmes on Eurosport via Sky, but they are not branded and the editing is a bit ropey.

Very often, the programme is just a replay of the last 50 minutes or so of the day's action.

Not sure what the deal is for Eurosport to be on the Sky platform.

I wonder if Eurosport isn't trying to reposition itself as an online subscription broadcaster, at least in western Europe where high speed internet access is increasingly available.


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## ColinJ (8 Oct 2020)

Pale Rider said:


> The commentators are heavily pushing ad free coverage on the GCN Racepass and on 'eurosport.com'.





Pale Rider said:


> I wonder if Eurosport isn't trying to reposition itself as an online subscription broadcaster, at least in western Europe where high speed internet access is increasingly available.


I get lots of ads on Eurosport Player. It has always irritated me that I pay a subscription but still get them. Mind you, at least they are skippable on catch-up.


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## andrew_s (9 Oct 2020)

There have been two Eurosport Player streams for all of the recent races - the normal "as broadcast" stream, with ads, and an "uninterrupted" stream without. The commentary may occasionally stop during the ad break, but that's all


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## themosquitoking (9 Oct 2020)

andrew_s said:


> There have been two Eurosport Player streams for all of the recent races - the normal "as broadcast" stream, with ads, and an "uninterrupted" stream without. The commentary may occasionally stop during the ad break, but that's all


I think that's where I went wrong today. Been ad free since the first week of the TdF then today I had car ads disturbing my siesta every 7 minutes.


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## ColinJ (9 Oct 2020)

andrew_s said:


> There have been two Eurosport Player streams for all of the recent races - the normal "as broadcast" stream, with ads, and an "uninterrupted" stream without. The commentary may occasionally stop during the ad break, but that's all


That's good!

I watched the TdF on ITV4 though, and have been following the Giro on Quest. 

I'll have to fire up Eurosport Player to catch up on some of the other races that I've missed.


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## Pale Rider (10 Oct 2020)

andrew_s said:


> There have been two Eurosport Player streams for all of the recent races - the normal "as broadcast" stream, with ads, and an "uninterrupted" stream without. The commentary may occasionally stop during the ad break, but that's all



The ads on my Eurosport/Sky box stream are not too long or too often, so bearable.

Unlike films on ITV2, 3, and 4, which are almost unwatchable due to regular lengthy interruptions, even recorded and fast forwarded.

At one time, ad breaks were regulated on broadcast television, but I suspect it's now a free for all.


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## ColinJ (10 Oct 2020)

Pale Rider said:


> Unlike films on ITV2, 3, and 4, which are almost unwatchable due to regular lengthy interruptions, even recorded and fast forwarded.


I have my PVR set up so I can jump recordings forwards in 1 minute steps or back in 15 second steps. I have got ad-skipping down to a fine art now. The ad breaks that they are showing on Quest during the Giro are 5-and-a-bit minutes long so I go (forwards) Skip-Skip-Skip-Skip-Skip-Skip (backwards) Skip-Skip-Skip. It takes me just over 5 seconds to do, which I can live with.


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## Pale Rider (10 Oct 2020)

ColinJ said:


> I have my PVR set up so I can jump recordings forwards in 1 minute steps



Don't think my Sky box/remote can do that, but it would make ad skipping easier.


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## ColinJ (10 Oct 2020)

Pale Rider said:


> Don't think my Sky box/remote can do that, but it would make ad skipping easier.


Apparently, if you have Sky Q, you _can_...?


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## Pale Rider (11 Oct 2020)

ColinJ said:


> Apparently, if you have Sky Q, you _can_...?




I have the previous remote which doesn't have a voice command feature.

That's very clever if the 'skip' command somehow knows the length of the ad break.


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## ColinJ (11 Oct 2020)

Pale Rider said:


> That's very clever if the 'skip' command somehow knows the length of the ad break.


I think it is a case of guessing!

The ad breaks on Quest for the Giro are consistently 5 minutes-ish. If I skip 6 minutes, I have to skip back 2 or 3 lots of 15 seconds, but that is quicker than skipping 5 minutes and then having to watch the remaining 15-30 seconds of ads.


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