Commentary on TNT and other WB brands

[awavey]

Cycling needs more people that care about watching cycling.

That too

 

[wirral]

I too got the email detailing the demise of the Eurosport Player.

 

[Rackham]

Look at Euro 2024, who on earth are Hisense? basically a Chinese Samsung make electrical tech stuff, they've paid millions to be involved in this tournament, just because they get massive exposure from it.

They make cheap TV's. It feels like most supermarkets in France have been littered with football themed Hisense TV deals for years & years now.

On the topic of cycling's economic model, there was a delirious documentary on French tv recently about how cycling needs to go global or risk becoming irrelevant. It's a recurring theme which many pseudo experts seem to cling to like gospel (aka the tired old "the west is dying, the world is the future!" schtick). On the contrary, i.e. going 'global' (whatever that even means) would achieve one thing only: a dilution of the sport's actual character & cycling really would become irrelevant. The Tour de France for example is not for export. No France, no TdF! You can't just go & create a new race at the other side of the world with new audiences & peoples without a cultural base in this stuff & say "Ta-da, here's your new global cycling of the future!".

People won't watch it. Bean counters have been making the same mistake for years. It's like Hollywood pandering to the Chinese market with Chinese product placement & actors. It didn't work.

But they just don't learn (or they refuse to for whatever reason).

 

[Rackham]

I too got the email detailing the demise of the Eurosport Player.

Me too.

I had to get Max via Prime Video. The problem so far is I seem to have lost the commentary language options I have on the Eurosport site itself.

Let's hope they fix that.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

They make cheap TV's. It feels like most supermarkets in France have been littered with football themed Hisense TV deals for years & years now.

On the topic of cycling's economic model, there was a delirious documentary on French tv recently about how cycling needs to go global or risk becoming irrelevant. It's a recurring theme which many pseudo experts seem to cling to like gospel (aka the tired old "the west is dying, the world is the future!" schtick). On the contrary, i.e. going 'global' (whatever that even means) would achieve one thing only: a dilution of the sport's actual character & cycling really would become irrelevant. The Tour de France for example is not for export. No France, no TdF! You can't just go & create a new race at the other side of the world with new audiences & peoples without a cultural base in this stuff & say "Ta-da, here's your new global cycling of the future!".

People won't watch it. Bean counters have been making the same mistake for years. It's like Hollywood pandering to the Chinese market with Chinese product placement & actors. It didn't work.

But they just don't learn (or they refuse to for whatever reason).

The idea of expansion always requires new audience. Therefore there is always this assumption that the existing fanbase will follow the sport to wherever it goes and there will be no detrimental impact to the sport by reducing the number of events in its traditional heartlands where the majority of the fans are, plus they can tap into this huge potential market on top of it.

Of course, it doesn't work like that all the time, or in fact particularly often. Cycling has had several attempts to break into places like China, usually resulting in some dreary races seen as afterthoughts, broadcast at inconvenient times for the fans in the sport's traditional audience bases, and failing to really generate any local interest. Hell, even the sport's attempts to develop a US audience in this manner has hit against obstacle after obstacle, and that's a country which at least does have both successful enough riders to get the patriotic factor involved (I can't imagine many Chinese fans would have been as drawn into Wang Meiyin's 79th place in the Tour of Guangxi in 2019 as would be invested in the performances of a Sepp Kuss at any reinvigorated US stage race) and a long enough history in the sport to have an established viewership and fanbase.

 

[Miss Violet Smith]

Me too.

I had to get Max via Prime Video. The problem so far is I seem to have lost the commentary language options I have on the Eurosport site itself.

Let's hope they fix that.

Thank you for the heads-up. The only reason I pay for Eurosport is the multi-language option including Vacchi/Adamson.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Cycling needs more people that care about watching cycling.

Sport needs to realise putting their events behind a paywall won't attract new fans and therefore won't bring in more money.
A paywall will give you money right now, but it'll hurt you in the future.

 

[Prim]

Thank you for the heads-up. The only reason I pay for Eurosport is the multi-language option including Vacchi/Adamson.

You get Vacchi/Adamsson and multi-language options with Discovery+ in Sweden (presuming you´re swedish). Don´t know the difference in cost though.

 

[Miss Violet Smith]

You get Vacchi/Adamsson and multi-language options with Discovery+ in Sweden (presuming you´re swedish). Don´t know the difference in cost though.

Thank you - that would have been a great solution, but unfortunately, I'm not located in Sweden. Appreciate it anyways!

 

[tobydawq]

Thank you - that would have been a great solution, but unfortunately, I'm not located in Sweden. Appreciate it anyways!

I think you get the multi-lingual option everywhere?

 

[ManicJack]

Sport needs to realise putting their events behind a paywall won't attract new fans and therefore won't bring in more money.
A paywall will give you money right now, but it'll hurt you in the future.

I don't disagree, but in the whole scope of things, very few people give a crap about bicycle racing to begin with.

 

[Miss Violet Smith]

I think you get the multi-lingual option everywhere?

On HBO Max too? Rackham mentioned that language commentary options were no longer available there and I can't get Discovery+ in Belgium. Let's see if they figure it out.

Edited to make sense.

 

[kingjr]

On HBO Max too? Rackham mentioned that language commentary options were no longer available there and I can't get Discovery+ in Belgium. Let's see if they figure it out.

Edited to make sense.

I don't see why they would bother with that.

 

[tobydawq]

On HBO Max too? Rackham mentioned that language commentary options were no longer available there and I can't get Discovery+ in Belgium. Let's see if they figure it out.

Edited to make sense.

Yes, I have it on Max.

 

[Miss Violet Smith]

Yes, I have it on Max.

Thank you, very glad to hear that! There will be life after the TdF after all.

 

[awavey]

Sport needs to realise putting their events behind a paywall won't attract new fans and therefore won't bring in more money.
A paywall will give you money right now, but it'll hurt you in the future.

tell that to the English Premier League, been stuck behind a paywall for 32 years. the combined tv rights deal is now worth nearly 7billion pounds.

those are the figures that the decision makers in cycling be they team owners or UCI, ASO etc etc look at and go yeah we want some of lucre

 

[awavey]

I don't disagree, but in the whole scope of things, very few people give a crap about bicycle racing to begin with.

theyve claimed viewing figures of the Brit nationals attracted 10,000 viewers at one point on youtube.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

tell that to the English Premier League, been stuck behind a paywall for 32 years. the combined tv rights deal is now worth nearly 7billion pounds.

those are the figures that the decision makers in cycling be they team owners or UCI, ASO etc etc look at and go yeah we want some of lucre

The thing is, Football is never gonna lose that interest because of the vast number of people already into it.

 

[tobydawq]

Not Eurosport news but Rolf Sørensen has to stay home because of a heart issue

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

The only adult in the room is leaving the Breakaway

https://twitter.com/x/status/1805630870562217999

View: https://x.com/daniellloyd1/status/1805630870562217999

 

[Wyndbrook]

Goes from bad to worse.
Everyone has their preferences but for me Dan and Matt S were the best commentary team.
I was largely giving up on the breakaway anyway and this will hasten this.

 

[awavey]

I gave up watching the breakaway because it has started to become more about the personalities involved rather than the actual cycling, but Dan always stood out among those as being not interested in that part and just being a good decent commentator or pundit who wouldnt get sidetracked by any amount of bantz central and could actually describe the action on screen without hyperbole, which seems to be an increasingly lost art.

GCNs gain is Eurosports big loss imo.

 

[Lequack]

The only adult in the room is leaving the Breakaway

https://twitter.com/x/status/1805630870562217999

View: https://x.com/daniellloyd1/status/1805630870562217999

Not just the Breakaway, he will also not be commenting on Eurosport unfortunately.

 

[search]

In Germany, Jan Ullrich will be at Eurosport for two stages of the Tour, while in Austria Servus TV got the broadcasting rights, and will line up Bernhard Kohl as expert commentator.

 

[Rob5091]

In Germany, Jan Ullrich will be at Eurosport for two stages of the Tour, while in Austria Servus TV got the broadcasting rights, and will line up Bernhard Kohl as expert commentator.

Glad to hear Ullrich is back and getting involved. I hope they stick to the racing going on and don't grill him about the past.