GCN+ Closing

[Red Bird]

On 11/15/2023 at 2:57 PM, lechatnoir said:

That said, if the solution is Eurosport, that's not terrible... IIRC, that will bring the Olympics (I hope) into my home as well as Le Mans 24hr. All I need to figure out is how to pay for it.

 

Try Paypal. I would still like to see if it works. But will do after 19 Dec.

Edited November 17, 2023 by Red Bird

[Frosty]

The cost of an annual GCN+ subscription is/was equal to the monthly cost for Premium.

[Shebeen]

2 hours ago, Hairy said:

Can we all just take a moment to reflect on how awesome Redbull TV was for MTB!

Thank you RBTV

I LOVED RBTV

until I got an LG smart tv. they don;t play well. actually they don't play at all. can't even go through the tv browser

[MarcelGriff]

2 hours ago, Hairy said:

So as I have never had a DSTV subscription ... what would that put one back every month in order to watch supersport?

I think the bigger questions is, what will DSTV broadcast via cable or even stream. I am not sure the move from GCN+ to Supersport will be a straight like for like content move. Would be nice if DSTV would make some sort of statement regarding their commitment and plans.... we are allowed to dream some times.

[Frosty]

Some discussion about the same topic on the TrainerRoad forum. We share some common problems, eg. FloSports and DStv both being a waste.

https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/t/gcn-being-closed-december-2023/88307/122

[MarcelGriff]

15 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

I LOVED RBTV

until I got an LG smart tv. they don;t play well. actually they don't play at all. can't even go through the tv browser

Yip i enjoyed their commentary way more than the current rubbish. There was some talk about the new guys placing more cameras on course, which is nice but the current commentators are butchering everybody's names, it is just painful sometimes to listen.

[lechatnoir]

14 minutes ago, MarcelGriff said:

I think the bigger questions is, what will DSTV broadcast via cable or even stream. I am not sure the move from GCN+ to Supersport will be a straight like for like content move. Would be nice if DSTV would make some sort of statement regarding their commitment and plans.... we are allowed to dream some times.

I cannot abide by the commentary that's on DSTV. Unless they're getting the Eurosport stream... I'd rather not watch.

It remains to be seen if Eurosport suffer the same fate as GCN+ in time, in which case we're kicking the can down the road

[Headshot]

 I wonder if WBD/ESO always had this as a plan. Appease the UCI who caught flack from RBTV fans and give a similar and cheap streaming service in GCN + but then pull the rug out after a year and blame the "market". Basically the UCI is to blame for this for buying into the big media BS.

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, Shebeen said:

I LOVED RBTV

until I got an LG smart tv. they don;t play well. actually they don't play at all. can't even go through the tv browser

That just sounds like you made a poor TV purchase decision

[Hairy]

4 minutes ago, Headshot said:

 I wonder if WBD/ESO always had this as a plan. Appease the UCI who caught flack from RBTV fans and give a similar and cheap streaming service in GCN + but then pull the rug out after a year and blame the "market". Basically the UCI is to blame for this for buying into the big media BS.

I wonder if RBTV are seeing this mess and thinking maybe they can step back in and take back what they basically elevated XCO and DH to before the take over.

[Headshot]

I bought a new android TV box and found that the new system didnt like GCN so I had to download an app remote on my phone to navigate it properly. The same might work on the LG TV. 

[Danger Dassie]

3 hours ago, Shebeen said:

I LOVED RBTV

until I got an LG smart tv. they don;t play well. actually they don't play at all. can't even go through the tv browser

Well that’s not, smart ……. 🥁 

[Long Wheel Base]

Genuine question here, why all the hate for DSTV?

I have been a premium subscriber for as long as I can remember and I get to watch everything I’m reading about here as well as F1 from Friday FP to Sunday race, motoGP the same, all the UFC (as well as the local EFC), almost all the boxing (they do miss some of the smaller events), all the rugby and cricket i can think of. I don’t watch soccer but there are like 4 channels for that. My kids are happy with their channels, my wife enjoys the stuff she watches. TBH, what am I missing out on? I have never tried any of these streaming sites. I don’t have super fast internet as I don’t need it for work so I would need to pay more to upgrade that in order to try. 
I’m not saying I am loyal to dstv, just wondering what I’m missing because I just switch on my tv and watch and all I pay is just under a grand. Cost is a big thing for me, what would I need to pay, just for the internet to stream? If I dumped dstv, would it cost me less than a grand a month to watch all of the above without hassle?

[Frosty]

34 minutes ago, Long Wheel Base said:

Genuine question here, why all the hate for DSTV?

I have been a premium subscriber for as long as I can remember and I get to watch everything I’m reading about here as well as F1 from Friday FP to Sunday race, motoGP the same, all the UFC (as well as the local EFC), almost all the boxing (they do miss some of the smaller events), all the rugby and cricket i can think of. I don’t watch soccer but there are like 4 channels for that. My kids are happy with their channels, my wife enjoys the stuff she watches. TBH, what am I missing out on? I have never tried any of these streaming sites. I don’t have super fast internet as I don’t need it for work so I would need to pay more to upgrade that in order to try. 
I’m not saying I am loyal to dstv, just wondering what I’m missing because I just switch on my tv and watch and all I pay is just under a grand. Cost is a big thing for me, what would I need to pay, just for the internet to stream? If I dumped dstv, would it cost me less than a grand a month to watch all of the above without hassle?

For me, it’s their greed and inflexibility.

A grand a month (on a dual view decoder) to be limited by their schedule. I left in 2018 before streaming became a thing. I found myself flipping channels trying to find something to watch, i.e. a slave to their schedule.

Netflix and GCN+ cost less than a quarter of that, and I could watch what I wanted, when I wanted. I already had an internet connection, as the Mrs has her own business from home that requires a connection.

[ChrisF]

1 hour ago, Long Wheel Base said:

Genuine question here, why all the hate for DSTV?

I have been a premium subscriber for as long as I can remember and I get to watch everything I’m reading about here as well as F1 from Friday FP to Sunday race, motoGP the same, all the UFC (as well as the local EFC), almost all the boxing (they do miss some of the smaller events), all the rugby and cricket i can think of. I don’t watch soccer but there are like 4 channels for that. My kids are happy with their channels, my wife enjoys the stuff she watches. TBH, what am I missing out on? I have never tried any of these streaming sites. I don’t have super fast internet as I don’t need it for work so I would need to pay more to upgrade that in order to try. 
I’m not saying I am loyal to dstv, just wondering what I’m missing because I just switch on my tv and watch and all I pay is just under a grand. Cost is a big thing for me, what would I need to pay, just for the internet to stream? If I dumped dstv, would it cost me less than a grand a month to watch all of the above without hassle?

 

When we dropped the premium package, more than 10 years ago, their coverage of motorsports was minimal.  Every so often a scheduled motor event would be reschuled, on the day, to have a 3rd or 4th channel running ball sports ..... As @Frosty noted, the times of these schedules often did not suit our schedule.

 

During the RBtv era Dstv only broadcast a select few MTB events, thus causing these to be geo-blocked.  I am in the camp that dont want the schlep of a vpn.  (This is probably in our future..)

 

 

 

So our gripe with Dstv revolves around the poor broadcasting of wheel sports, schedule and geo-blocking.  The cost of the premium package, and possibly the costs of a PVR function (is this stil a thing?) is just not worth it for us.

 

 

A friend has a typical SA family, with mom, dad and two teenage sons.  He often wants to watch rugby / cricket, while his wife wants to watch a soapie or series.  Yes, each teenage son wants to watch something else.  The kids grew up being able to stream what they want to watch, on Dstv.  With the current limitation on streaming it is only the SA rugby/cricket keeping this family at Dstv.

 

Many of our friends have similar stories, well those that have not dropped Premium long ago.

 

 

 

Looking forward ...

I would rather pay the Premium fee for one subscriber that provides a one stop shop.  Reality is that Dstv is spending their money on local productions, so we wont be getting new movies/series any time soon.  The mass market wants soccer, then rugby/cricket.  So wheel sports will always be limited.

 

Streaming is splintering the supply streams, thus you end up with 2 or 3 subscriptions.  Add vpn every so often ... we (our family) will miss the days of Dstv in the 90's.

[shaper]

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

For me, it’s their greed and inflexibility.

A grand a month (on a dual view decoder) to be limited by their schedule. I left in 2018 before streaming became a thing. I found myself flipping channels trying to find something to watch, i.e. a slave to their schedule.

Netflix and GCN+ cost less than a quarter of that, and I could watch what I wanted, when I wanted. I already had an internet connection, as the Mrs has her own business from home that requires a connection.

I started with streaming in 2014 playing with a Raspi and XBMC, back then hardly anybody streamed and even a 2mbs ADSL line was good enough to stream. I ran XBMC and kept DSTV for about a year, before stopping DSTV in 2015. I still run XMBC now Kodi 20.2 as my main streaming platform and watch all the cycling on Eurosport.  Even Fox Sport (Aus) has cycling as well as ITV4 (UK) for the TdF. You can also find the native media streams if you know where to look, although that takes some effort. I also watch any movie or series and every other sport such as F1 on Sky, ESPN, TSN, Fox etc, some channels quality is better than others as I do not bother with a VPN. Adding a VPN and am sure the quality could be better, but have not felt the need

Maybe people might want to look at Kodi again (as it fell out of flavour) when you can direct stream from the likes of Netflix etc.  i.e you don't have to set up Netflix like you do have to with Kodi, their builds and then the addons.

Install Kodi, install a build, which have many of the most common addons pre-setup and see what you can find as an option for the cycling.  I will be watching for sure the much anticipated MvP v WvA cyclocross battle over Xmas as they have both now listed their itinerary/clash on Eurosport.  Just waiting to see if Pidcock is in the mix and will continue to watch all other cycling using Kodi.

https://kodi.tv/

https://www.everythingkodibuilds.com/p/best-kodi-builds.html 

Try it, google is your friend on installing kodi, which builds that are the deemed best and then how to install that builds, else google best kodi build for sport etc and decide which build may suit.

An option to consider if you can't find any other way with the closing of GCN+ and there is always Tiz-Cycling

Edit: There use to be a forum topic on cutting DSTV and using XBMC back in 2015, but doing a search for it, I see it got culled when bikehub got rid of all non cycling threads.  Else would direct to that for info.  There are still a few I see about alternatives to DSTV if you do a search

Edited November 18, 2023 by shaper