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

[mecheng89]

6 minutes ago, Trashy said:

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

😢

"The Discovery Sports brand was created in the middle of last year to encompass Discovery Inc assets such as Eurosport, Global Cycling Network, Global Mountain Bike Network as well sports on discovery+ and Discovery’s free-to-air networks. "

 

When did this happen?! Is GCN Race Pass then not a waste?

[Trashy]

2 minutes ago, mecheng89 said:

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

I did say from next year...

[Hairy]

47 minutes ago, Eldron said:

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.

Just another cost on another cost on another cost in life .... somewhere along the line, the last piece of straw breaks the camels back.

[Eldron]

Just now, Hairy said:

Just another cost on another cost on another cost in life .... somewhere along the line, the last piece of straw breaks the camels back.

It is elective though....

[Hairy]

15 minutes ago, Eldron said:

It is elective though....

Yip, it would be elective to not subscribe and then I would also not follow the DH and XCO.

Supersport used to show the rugby in  "open time" and SABC 2 used to do the same when the game was finished (When SA played) .... then they stopped doing this, and I have lost complete interest in the sport.

It is elective yes, and I unfortunately have to elect to spend my money on other things.

That whole vote with your wallet thing.

[Hairy]

21 minutes ago, Hairy said:

Yip, it would be elective to not subscribe and then I would also not follow the DH and XCO.

Supersport used to show the rugby in  "open time" and SABC 2 used to do the same when the game was finished (When SA played) .... then they stopped doing this, and I have lost complete interest in the sport.

It is elective yes, and I unfortunately have to elect to spend my money on other things.

That whole vote with your wallet thing.

I should add .... the same happened with cricket.

With the SA cricket (When still on SABC), there was that time that they had no sponsors and Sunfoil stepped up to the wicket to save the day. I still always try and buy Sunfoil based on this.

Voting with my wallet thing

[NotShatterProof]

Damn. I hope Rob and Bart stay on, I know they have their weird idiosyncrasies which annoy some people but in general they make a positive contribution to the sport and broadcast. Maybe we get lucky and Claudio can make a comeback too... 

[PhilipV]

2 hours ago, NotShatterProof said:

Damn. I hope Rob and Bart stay on, I know they have their weird idiosyncrasies which annoy some people but in general they make a positive contribution to the sport and broadcast. Maybe we get lucky and Claudio can make a comeback too... 

Naah, I'd much rather have Andrew Neethling commentating. 

[kosmonooit]

Oh well, that is that then. Going the pay-walled GCN+ way on line  for sure,

RBTV has been excellent production-wise, but I can only hope they engage with a decent commentary team, I will not miss Rob Walnut on the XCO, uninformed hack of note,

GCN/Eurosport had Marty Mac and Jeremy pow pow for the CX these last few years, they have been excellent, but they have also had lots and lots of technical issues  and some fools on when Marty & J Pow were taking a break.

Before Red Bull TV, it was Freecaster, which certainly broke the ground on-line live event broadcast, At the end of the season one could order  DVD with all the races. That was when Burry was U23 World Champ

[kosmonooit]

That's how  Rob got the RBTV gig, he was doing downhill on Freecaster then somehow he blaged his way in the XCO commentary box when they took over.

[Bos]

Please.. Not Claudio..

Off topic.. Wasn't Enduro also suppose to go livestream sometime? 

 

[kosmonooit]

It must be tricky to cover Enduro live, given all the different stages all over the place.

Personally I've tried to follow / get into it from a fan perspective, but found it hard to follow and feel.

[tsdutweet]

Rob and Bart really make the biggest difference as far the whole production goes!

I cringe every time Supersport snag the broadcasting rights!!!

Lets see where it goes, really enjoyed the RBTV coverage. 

[Jewbacca]

How cool would it be to have Steve Peat or Mick and Tracey Hannah on the DH commentary team? Maybe XCO could have some recently retired pro's on the Mic.

Annika Langvad?

They could definitely add a dimension to the coverage that gives more up to date insight. Their jizzfest over dropper posts last year was terrible. 

Use them as the known entity (don't reinvent the wheel) and sort of 'Anchormen' while others provide valuable racing insight during the events.

I'm definitely seeing an american and a european 'leg' to the season. The double headr at the end of last years XCO season might have been a mini dress rehearsal 

[Hairy]

32 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

How cool would it be to have Steve Peat or Mick and Tracey Hannah on the DH commentary team? Maybe XCO could have some recently retired pro's on the Mic.

Annika Langvad?

They could definitely add a dimension to the coverage that gives more up to date insight. Their jizzfest over dropper posts last year was terrible. 

Use them as the known entity (don't reinvent the wheel) and sort of 'Anchormen' while others provide valuable racing insight during the events.

I'm definitely seeing an american and a european 'leg' to the season. The double headr at the end of last years XCO season might have been a mini dress rehearsal 

Last season RBTV were starting to bring in the odd ex. racers, from what I recall, as guest hosts.

[Jewbacca]

1 minute ago, Hairy said:

Last season RBTV were starting to bring in the odd ex. racers, from what I recall, as guest hosts.

It makes sense. 

I'm not at all taking away from what RB did, but I'm also not as afraid of change as most people seem to be. 

As a free service I reckon their quality and progress was as good as it was ever going to be. Put it behind a paywall and lose the following you created as the saviour of MTB broadcasting or pass it on to a big budget company who specialise in pay per view production?

I'm sure the Discovery/GCN/Eurosport/GMBN umbrella has some good ideas or they wouldn't have committed to 8 years of production. 

I'm also certain SuperSport will continue to show most of the cycling here in SA.

It will be interesting to see what direction they go, but I'm not about to start guessing how things are going to change without giving it a chance first.

I personally think growth in this direction is good for the sport.