RIP GCN+

[VeloMaster]

And a bias against having to pay more.

Here on the west coast of North America, live is rarely an option compatible with life as we know it.

 

[awavey]

Having bemoaned the demise of GCN I just wish all the best to all their employees who are being adversely affected. I appreciate that it's probably a very worrying time especially with Christmas looming.

absolutely, know the feels of that all too well part of me thinks there should be an option where I could say screw the 3months pro rata subs you then owe me back because of this, just keep it and either go have the best Christmas end of GCN party you can with it, assuming lots of others did it too obv as I doubt less than £10 will go far, or let it support you a bit over the New Year.

probably just being stupidly emotional and not realistic about it, but it shows how much GCN meant to us I think at least.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Right? You're in NOR*CAL Chewie? Didn't realize...

Yeah, Nevada County. I didn't realize you were here either.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

I think you both need to come and ride some deep sticky cotswold mud with me in the UK.

Sounds fun!...though I had an expeirence this summer with mud in western Colorado, that was unlike any mud I have ever encountered. It started raining, 2 minutes later, I couldn't even push my bike because of the mud build-up. It was horrible!

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Does anyone here have experience with something like NordVPN and cyclingfans?

 

[Hugh Januss]

Here on the west coast of North America, live is rarely an option compatible with life as we know it.

True story!

 

[Nick2413]

So will a VPN with Discovery+ or Eurosport get just as many races as GCN+ has had?

yes, if you can figure out how to buy a subscription without a british credit card (if anyone knows please let me know)

So Eurosport requires a European credit card even when combined with a VPN? This is such a cluster****

 

[ooo]

This will have some effect on women cycling?

 

[Rob5091]

Disney will never sell its stake in Hulu. Peacock and Hulu are never merging

2023 Nov 11 - Disney buy out Comcast's share of Hulu -
https://www.businessinsider.com/dis...valuation-explained-whats-next?op=1&r=US&IR=T
$8.6 billion Disney are coughing up for Comcast's share of Hulu. Rumours abound about what Comcast will do with their dosh.

 

[zlev11]

So Eurosport requires a European credit card even when combined with a VPN? This is such a cluster****

yeah. i used Eurosport Player with a VPN for years until around 2019 or 2020 they required a credit card from England.

 

[Sciatic]

Here on the west coast of North America, live is rarely an option compatible with life as we know it.

Particularly true during cross season, when the limited daylight and short (time wise) races make it a challenge to catch any live broadcasts. In the summer, if I start watching a road stage at 6:00am I can still see the last 2 hours of a race.

 

[Sciatic]

So Eurosport requires a European credit card even when combined with a VPN? This is such a cluster****

When I registered for French Eurosport like 6 years ago, it (I think mistakenly) did accept my U.S. credit card for payment because it somehow thought I was residing in France. In my profile, it lists my address as:
1 Cyclingwatcher St, Unit A
Seattle, Washington
FRANCE

 

[RedheadDane]

When I registered for French Eurosport like 6 years ago, it (I think mistakenly) did accept my U.S. credit card for payment because it somehow thought I was residing in France. In my profile, it lists my address as:
1 Cyclingwatcher St, Unit A
Seattle, Washington
FRANCE

That is amazing!

 

[Faserr]

Samsung tv, fire tv stick and discovery+ is working here in germany. I also can chose the language. At the moment I test the 4 € abo. There are 15 to 30 seconds advertisment clips at the beginning.
I really liked the gcn+ originals. They are not at discovery+. Some sport documentaries (Cavendish, Gilbert, Palzer) are there, but not all the cycling geek stuff.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

yeah. i used Eurosport Player with a VPN for years until around 2019 or 2020 they required a credit card from England.

That will be of concern for Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland subscribers...

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Particularly true during cross season, when the limited daylight and short (time wise) races make it a challenge to catch any live broadcasts. In the summer, if I start watching a road stage at 6:00am I can still see the last 2 hours of a race.

I love cyclocross, so I will start watching the women's race at 4am...sucks to be on the west coast to watch, but it sucks more to not have the option to watch. Warner Bros can f**k off forever, unless they come through with a solution.

 

[Wyndbrook]

I love cyclocross, so I will start watching the women's race at 4am...sucks to be on the west coast to watch, but it sucks more to not have the option to watch. Warner Bros can f**k off forever, unless they come through with a

It's not just US West Coast, I only rarely have time to watch live in the UK.
Just avoid the results.

 

[awavey]

This will have some effect on women cycling?

I suspect it will, purely because tv coverage of womens cycling is in a much less secure position and if Discovery have to start cost cutting to survive its likely to be first to go. Worldwide distribution deals the likes of which GCN had may well have been acquired in a buyers market with race organisers happy to get live coverage out there to boost their sponsorship numbers,

but you rock up to a meeting with your hello Im from Warner Bros Discovery, our net worth is 25billion dollars (and falling) hat on, suddenly it pivots and now the seller says hey dont devalue our race, youve got stacks of money to buy the rights for it, which of course Discovery wont pay any asking price for stuff, so you end up in a stalemate where inevitably some races will fall out, maybe take streaming themselves as an option, weve seen already some pro conti races do that.

Though we are still in the "Discovery+ showed everything GCN did so whats the problem?" attitude amongst alot of people. Maybe Im just more pessimistic than they are, but there are ways to have combined GCN & Discovery + and announced it that would convince you nothing changes bar branding going forward, and they didnt do any of that.

Like they could even have done a special "black friday" offer for existing GCN subscribers to take up Discovery+ for a reduced initial cost, to make you feel like you still part of the GCN/Discovery family, but they havent.

Id liken it to the WBD merger with BT Sport to create TNT, previously BT Sport showed alot of ESPN coverage of US college sports, which theyd acquired from the fallout from Setanta I think, not sure on that, but its minority sport, they never really pushed it as a feature, but it was there mostly as late night filler content but you could watch it.

Somehow in the shiny new world of TNT sports, where at no stage did anyone say btw the significance of this merger means youll lose access to this, weve lost 90% of the ESPN US college sports coverage, and in the UK theres no other alternative yet for ESPN.


Edit : just saw that Sky have picked up those US college rights from ESPN https://www.skysports.com/nfl/news/...lege-football-until-the-end-of-2024-25-season

 

[mkaleborn]

Dark times for watching Cycling in Canada (again!). FloBikes is simply not an option for me. They are a terrible company with a terrible service. Will poke around in the new year to see what's available with/without VPN.

I guess having a 'one stop shop' of a service with everything fans wanted at a fair price was too much to ask of a Media Megacorporation in the 21st century. The dunderheads in stuffed suits will always contrive a way to gut their own market and dumb down their services to the lowest common denominator for an extra buck. Ugh.

 

[Leadbelly]

So there's no Black Friday deals (for the UK) kicking around for Discovery Plus that anybody has seen? and no annual plan for the package that contains the cycling?

 

[Koronin]

Here on the west coast of North America, live is rarely an option compatible with life as we know it.

Same on the east coast.

 

[VeloMaster]

Same on the east coast.

Pretty disappointed, but not surprised, that there has been no noticeable effort to reach out to loyal GCN+ viewers here in North America. All I could find was a vague suggestion of future info -- kinda like the infamous "player to be named later" in baseball.

Here in Canada, it is particularly grim,. We lack the population density and raw buying power of our southern neighbours, and we are at the mercy of the telecoms oligopoly which drives up all streaming/wifi rates and severely limits choice. I guess GCN+, with its wide scope of racing and reasonable fees, was too good to last.

 

[jono]

Pretty disappointed, but not surprised, that there has been no noticeable effort to reach out to loyal GCN+ viewers here in North America. All I could find was a vague suggestion of future info -- kinda like the infamous "player to be named later" in baseball.

Here in Canada, it is particularly grim,. We lack the population density and raw buying power of our southern neighbours, and we are at the mercy of the telecoms oligopoly which drives up all streaming/wifi rates and severely limits choice. I guess GCN+, with its wide scope of racing and reasonable fees, was too good to last.

If all of the Canadian or North American rights that GCN+ had got dropped in the lap of Flo, I wouldn't even hesitate to pay the exorbitant subscription fee they'd charge. It's not about the money for me, it's that so much racing just won't be available any more without going through Tiz, or somehow accessing a European credit card, or whatever else. I'm already lamenting missing out on so much of the cyclocross Kerstperiode racing.

 

[Wyndbrook]

Pretty disappointed, but not surprised, that there has been no noticeable effort to reach out to loyal GCN+ viewers here in North America. All I could find was a vague suggestion of future info -- kinda like the infamous "player to be named later" in baseball.

Here in Canada, it is particularly grim,. We lack the population density and raw buying power of our southern neighbours, and we are at the mercy of the telecoms oligopoly which drives up all streaming/wifi rates and severely limits choice. I guess GCN+, with its wide scope of racing and reasonable fees, was too good to last.

I appreciate its a much better situation in Europe, but as a UK based existing GCN+ subscriber, other than an email saying my sub is ending and I will eventually be refunded, I have received nothing.
At the least I would have expected follow up communications selling a positively story extolling an exciting future and how to easy it is to subscribe.
Still waiting..

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

So there's no Black Friday deals (for the UK) kicking around for Discovery Plus that anybody has seen? and no annual plan for the package that contains the cycling?

No BF deals but this link suggests it's £40 pa or £6.99 pcm

https://auth.discoveryplus.com/gb/product