UCI MTB World Cup broadcasting rights from Red Bull to Discovery Sports

[tinmug]

Hmmmm. I see Discovery Sports is taking over the broadcasting of XC as from 2023. Hope we can still get a live feed (without paying). Link.

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, tinmug said:

Hmmmm. I see Discovery Sports is taking over the broadcasting of XC as from 2023. Hope we can still get a live feed (without paying). Link.

I certainly hope so ..... RB has done so much for the XCO and DH, pity they are out of the XC deal

[Trashy]

1 hour ago, Hairy said:

I certainly hope so ..... RB has done so much for the XCO and DH, pity they are out of the XC deal

Sounds like RB are out of all world cup action from next year. It's a crying shame.

[Jewbacca]

It's the UCI World Cup Calendar full stop.

SS or GMBN/Eurosport will still likely stream/broadcast everything. 

Discovery+ will also probably offer a sport package. It's not expensive

[Hairy]

2 hours ago, Jewbacca said:

It's the UCI World Cup Calendar full stop.

SS or GMBN/Eurosport will still likely stream/broadcast everything. 

Discovery+ will also probably offer a sport package. It's not expensive

I do believe that RB "saved" DH and XCO by putting the racing and individual racers on a large scale public platform, for free, and building the quality of the broadcasting. Well done and thank you to Redbull TV for taking on this task over the last few years.

They obviously had business objectives to achieve, and I certainly hope that they did achieve these and more.

[tinmug]

10 hours ago, Jewbacca said:

It's the UCI World Cup Calendar full stop.

SS or GMBN/Eurosport will still likely stream/broadcast everything. 

Discovery+ will also probably offer a sport package. It's not expensive

What is 'not expensive'? Also ... will need to run this through a VPN (more money). It's difficult to see how this will benefit the sport, but hopefully things will become clearer during the course of this year. Who knows, it might even be better than it already is.

[NotSoBigBen]

As much as I love cycling and watching cycling I don't jump through hoops, VPN's and crap, to watch it ... if it's convenient I'll continue watching. 

Also having to have I don't know how many different streaming options to be able to watch becomes a tad tedious. As a family we have DSTV, Netflix and Showmax at the moment ... to pay for every additional service is also starting to get out of our reach

[Danger Dassie]

Some big big shoes to fill, RBMH have set a high standard not just on the production and streaming of World Cup races, but also in the general story telling. There is so much peripheral content that they've produced, as well as the post race pressers put into media distribution.

It'll be interesting to see if Discovery keep to this through GMBN (free stream etc) as well as providing a to wider general audience on traditional broadcast, which is likely where they'll make up on subscriber revenue. 
For SA it's unlikely to be much change as far as DSTV goes.

Nothing has been signed as yet, so it's all academic until then anyway. 

[Baracuda]

What a shame, Red Bull have done an amazing job and it is for free.

Most of us will not pay.

[Nick]

13 minutes ago, Danger Dassie said:

Some big big shoes to fill, RBMH have set a high standard not just on the production and streaming of World Cup races, but also in the general story telling. There is so much peripheral content that they've produced, as well as the post race pressers put into media distribution.

No deny Red Bull has done amazing things.

My one gripe was that the main and peripheral content had a massive bias towards their sponsored athletes. So did the commentators. How often did we hear about every minor detail about Emily in 30th position with no mention of anyone else around her? It's a fair trade-off but in terms of impartial and more inclusive coverage, there is room for improvement.

It's going to interesting. Red Bull are likely running it all at a massive loses in the name of content marketing for Red Bull TV. Few companies have the appetite for this and we were lucky to have them but it was never going to last forever.

Now a company who looks to monetise the product is coming in. Be it advertising, subscription fees. There will be changes. But if they get it right (massive IF), potentially it could up the professionalism of the sport.

Anyone know how a similar deal has gone for track racing?

[Danger Dassie]

4 minutes ago, Nick said:

No deny Red Bull has done amazing things.

My one gripe was that the main and peripheral content had a massive bias towards their sponsored athletes. So did the commentators. How often did we hear about every minor detail about Emily in 30th position with no mention of anyone else around her? It's a fair trade-off but in terms of impartial and more inclusive coverage, there is room for improvement.

It's going to interesting. Red Bull are likely running it all at a massive loses in the name of content marketing for Red Bull TV. Few companies have the appetite for this and we were lucky to have them but it was never going to last forever.

Now a company who looks to monetise the product is coming in. Be it advertising, subscription fees. There will be changes. But if they get it right (massive IF), potentially it could up the professionalism of the sport.

Anyone know how a similar deal has gone for track racing?

That was always going to be the case with such a huge commercial interest. It's not new, we've done advertorial across the board in media. Content creators have been devalued to such an extent that is part of the trade off to live with. At least RBMH employ/pay said creators at an equitable rate.

And ultimately rescued the sport from a dismal downturn in audience numbers, globally. I'd say they broadened the reach of the sport thanks to their streaming platform, which by default also extended the inclusivity. 

They make plenty margin on the rights allocations. The UCI's mistake is in the lack of continuity at World Champ events as an entirely separate operation. 
Lets hope they get it right with Discovery and grow the environment. Theres a good setup and  valuable audience being delivered by the UCI, thanks to RBMH. 
 

[Nick]

It was fast heading towards pay only anyway.

Looking at the countries listed below, most of the major viewing markets were already sold to other TV networks:

[Eldron]

46 minutes ago, Baracuda said:

What a shame, Red Bull have done an amazing job and it is for free.

Most of us will not pay.

Why not?

You're getting something so why the hesitancy to pay?

GCN is around 50USD a year and it covers the vast majority of bike racing. Cheaps as chips in lost people's books.

[mecheng89]

14 hours ago, Trashy said:

Sounds like RB are out of all world cup action from next year. It's a crying shame.

Where did you read that? That ruins my MTB viewing for 2022. 

[Trashy]

2 minutes ago, mecheng89 said:

Where did you read that? That ruins my MTB viewing for 2022. 

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-turns-from-red-bull-to-discovery-sports-for-mountain-bike-world-cup/

😢

[mecheng89]

4 minutes ago, Trashy said:

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-turns-from-red-bull-to-discovery-sports-for-mountain-bike-world-cup/

😢

It says the change is from 2023, so for this year at least we can still enjoy RBTV.