Streaming Cycling in UK - Discovery+ prices!

[mjr]

Someone said the ITV coverage stops after this year??
If the Eurosport coverage is stopping and the only other way is via expensive subscriptions then maybe they could be persuaded to extend it??

ITV said they lost the rights. Ned has discussed this in several interviews.

Eurosport is not stopping, as far as I can tell. Warner Bros are just no longer selling it in the UK.

In effect, this increases the price of cycling on Discovery+ from £7 to £31 per month. Viewers on some TV systems might be able to get it as cheap as £18 per month. A satellite dish set to watch the free to air broadcasts aimed at the EU is maybe £120 but you do have to wire it up (and tolerate non-English commentary). Or if you don't care about terms of use, you can rent a VPN and try to appear in the correct country for a free stream.

Details in "Eurosport is closing down in the UK - cycling is about to get a lot more expensive to watch | Cycling Weekly" – https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/...is-about-to-get-a-lot-more-expensive-to-watch

Once again, "I told you so" to the mugs who paid GCN and thereby helped WB do this.

 

[fossyant]

Eee, GCN+ was well worth the annual fee, even if you didn't watch much. All gone ! Cycling coverage has gone the way of the Premiership which is a real shame. Not sure what I'll do when the TDF is no longer on ITV4

 

[Mo1959]

Eee, GCN+ was well worth the annual fee, even if you didn't watch much. All gone ! Cycling coverage has gone the way of the Premiership which is a real shame. Not sure what I'll do when the TDF is no longer on ITV4

Rip of Britain at it’s best.

 

[scragend]

I've been paying £6.99 to Discovery+ since the cycling went there from GCN+. I found I wasn't watching it much, but enough that it was nice to have it there if I wanted to watch a bit of cyclocross in the winter or some of a Grand Tour stage on the rare occasion I wasn't at work when it was on.

£30.99 a month though? Stuff that.

 

[scragend]

Just been into my Discovery+ account to check when the subscription renews. It said it would be renewing tomorrow at £3.99.

According to the Cycling Weekly article the changes were only happening on 28th February, so I would have expected the £6.99 Standard for one more month.

Ah well, not to worry. It won't be renewing at all now.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Just read the CYcling Weekly article on this and found this paragraph

Some cycling content will be broadcast on WBD’s free-to-air channels, such as Quest and DMAX. This will not include live cycling, but rather highlights shows of the Grand Tours, and a new hour-long programme called ‘The Ultimate Cycling Show’, hosted by Orla Chennaoui and Adam Blythe, and scheduled to debut this 27 February on Quest.

So it looks like the Grand Tours will be broadcast - as highlights anyway

 

[Dogtrousers]

Just read the CYcling Weekly article on this and found this paragraph

Some cycling content will be broadcast on WBD’s free-to-air channels, such as Quest and DMAX. This will not include live cycling, but rather highlights shows of the Grand Tours, and a new hour-long programme called ‘The Ultimate Cycling Show’, hosted by Orla Chennaoui and Adam Blythe, and scheduled to debut this 27 February on Quest.

So it looks like the Grand Tours will be broadcast - as highlights anyway

Will quest be any better than the various highlights, including ES's own, on youtube I wonder?

 

[si_c]

Eee, GCN+ was well worth the annual fee, even if you didn't watch much. All gone ! Cycling coverage has gone the way of the Premiership which is a real shame. Not sure what I'll do when the TDF is no longer on ITV4

Yeah, I'll probably speak to my brother, he's had eurosport for years for the football so I'll try to borrow his account. Not going to pay for it. The longer term trend for all sports is away from free to air TV, essentially gatekeeping it away from fans based on affordability.

There does need to be a way to access it based on wanting to view a single sport, otherwise we'll all be paying £200 a month to access what we want on the basis of look how many sports you get for the price, even if I'm not interested in thirty leagues of power sander racing.

 

[Dogtrousers]

thirty leagues of power sander racing.

Where do I sign up?

 

[scragend]

There does need to be a way to access it based on wanting to view a single sport, otherwise we'll all be paying £200 a month to access what we want on the basis of look how many sports you get for the price, even if I'm not interested in thirty leagues of power sander racing.

That's how the pay channels work though - you have to subsidise all the things you don't want (very often football) in order to watch the things you do want.

Paying silly money to certain sports for TV rights causes that.

 

[scragend]

thirty leagues of power sander racing.

Where do I sign up?

Is it hosted by Jules Verne?

 

[nellietheelephant]

Vote leave!

 

[BrumJim]

That's how the pay channels work though - you have to subsidise all the things you don't want (very often football) in order to watch the things you do want.

Paying silly money to certain sports for TV rights causes that.

Not convinced. The more popular sports will get more of the TV money, with no cross-subsidy. Just a way to exploit desparate sports fans by bundling everything together and charging a lot of money for it.

 

[Big T]

Will quest be any better than the various highlights, including ES's own, on youtube I wonder?

The highlights on YouTube are only 5 minutes, just enough to let you know what happened and who won. The Quest programme is likely to be the same as the current Eurosport highlights, an hour long with probably 40 minutes of actual racing, 10 minutes of adverts and 10 minutes of chat from Adam, Orla & Co. The racing highlights are often just the last 40 minutes of a stage, fine for a sprint stage, but not great for a Mountains stage.

 

[mjr]

The Quest programme is likely to be the same as the current Eurosport highlights, an hour long with probably 40 minutes of actual racing, 10 minutes of adverts and 10 minutes of chat

Quest is allowed 12 minutes of adverts an hour (itv1, c4 and 5 are only allowed 8), usually taken as 3 x 5-minute breaks (containing 4 minutes of adverts) during the show, plus a shorter break between shows with trailers to fill the rest. If a UK channel doesn't stick to that pattern, it risks other channels not showing adverts at the same time and losing viewers to them until they go for an ad break... oddly, German channels seem to have ended up with 2 x 8-minute breaks.

So probably only 30 minutes racing, 10 of intro and chat and 2 of titles.