Eurosport

A snowHead

Eurosport uk finishing end of Feb
Anyone for Discovery plus at over £30 a month Puzzled

A snowHead

@Garfield, nope.

Being discussed in the ski racing thread...this one might get more input

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

This has caused rumblings in the cycling world too. TNT wanting people who paid a few quid a month for Eurosport/Discovery now having to subsidise the football coverage to be able to watch skiing/cycling/a few other minority sports (used to watch euro ice hockey on Eurosport as well) and it’s not been a popular move. I won’t be paying!

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ITV has also lost there coverage of the Tour De France - that has gone to Quest

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It’s not really 30/month … I migrated to Discovery from Eurosport a while ago … and did so at a good discount.

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@Blackblade, but once the skiing, cycling, tennis etc moves to TNT that's where its £30.99 a month

After all it is free

I adore biathlon and skiing but will not pay 31 per month, just too much
I have been looking for alternatives, with Virgin at the moment I get 5 TNT channels but they are all football focused, not sure what will change in March.

I have been trying to understand what is a VPN and how it works, few people have recommended it but cannot make head or tail with the new technologies, too complicated.
really don’t get what they gaining by removing Eurosport in the uk but keeping it going in the rest of Europe, do they really believe that the 6 nations will be so subscribed ? I don’t think so, at the end of day it is what…. 5 weekends of competitions , would u pay all that cash for so little Puzzled

@Harrow lady, a VPN is just a tool that allows you to make it look like you're in a country that you're not actually in. So I'm living in Austria, but I can switch my VPN on and make it look like I'm in the UK, then I can use the BBC iPlayer, which is usually blocked to anyone accessing it from outside the UK.

So if you do that from the UK and set yourself to Austria you could watch the skiing on ORF as an example.

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@swskier, thank you so much, it is very clear now. Most probably we will go with that next season, we might even learn a bit of German in the mean time Very Happy

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Can I just ask how much it costs please.

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I’ll likely pay the increment demanded by Virgin. The FIS races mean so much to me, far more than football or other TV sport. Ah well, I’ve had a good run my ‘pay nothing extra’ money, starting with the Maier/Dorfmeister/Götschl era.

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@Harrow lady, depending on which package you take anything up to roughly £8 a month.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

Virgin media charge £18.00 to add TNT to your package (not sure if that will change in March..)

A snowHead

What isn't clear to me is exactly what service will be getting. The email from BT suggests that Eurosport 1&2 are joining and it will become TNT1-4...but TNT 1-4 already exist and have their own schedule. So obviously some things are going to be lost, they could just be a few repeats etc, but there will potentially be times when there is football, rugby, cycling, skiing, tennis and motorsport all on at the same time.

I have Discovery+ through my internet deal, so I'm hoping that remains. I'm also hoping that the additional streams which are available online (such as the one without ad breaks) continue.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Not that I watched much ski racing, but it's a sport that I'd watch if I happened upon on it on TV.

Cycling though - I'm bereft, watching classics, 1-day races and the grand tours is a huge part of my year but I don't need a full sports channel subscription. The old £6.99 setup was great value and allowed me to watch what I wanted and nothing more. This is a huge misstep for the broadcasters and just adds to the general decline of cycling as a sport in the UK.

It's people like my folks who I feel sorry for; they LOVE watching the grand tours and one day races but they have zero interest in sport, none at all. They tend to watch the tours part;y for the racing but also for the scenery and commentary. Those kind of people are completely cast aside now under this new subscription model.

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I'm the one paying for Discovery Plus.

It's really the only subscription I have and it's really worth it. Football aside, ad free coverage of sport is worth every penny and the 'extras' you get on the app with events like the TdF really add a lot to the coverage. Their commentators* and experts are actually knowledgeable and seem to subscribe to the Richie Benaud school of commentary which again, is worth every penny

*football aside again!

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The expansion of TNT is certainly frustrating, losing all cycling and skiing from my existing package (Eurosport bundled with Sky) is really frustrating, for the most part they're both sports I love to participate in but stick on to watch as background noise mostly so it doesn't make sense to subscribe.

But when you add in the loss of most free-to-air access for those sports, TDF gone from ITV for cycling, Ski Sunday being a shadow of it's former self for skiing, then it is a bigger blow. And if the rumoured acquisition of the rights for the Six Nations happens then that is an even bigger blow.

But you can see what TNT are doing, for just an extra football game a week and club rugby I was never going to sign up for TNT. Add in cycling, skiing and make it all rugby and suddenly I'm considering it. I'm on the borderline though, I love those sports, I'm a keen fan so I'm probably their target market for this new strategy and it may work. Extract a lot of money out of a few keen ones rather than a bit of money out of a large audience.

But the reason I'm a keen fan is because of free to air access in the past. Six nations and rugby special on the BBC for rugby, Ski Sunday for Skiing, Channel 4 (and then ITV)'s coverage of the TdF. So I was in charge of those sports I'd be very wary of losing their marque events and highlights shows off free to air. Match of the day for example plays a vital role in keeping people connected with the premier league so they subscribe to Sky. I think the sports assume that social media has become the new gateway, particularly for young people, but I think they're overestimating that impact and underestimating the value of free to air, linear broadcasting.

Skiing and cycling won't care though, or notice, they are niche sports in the UK with tiny viewer numbers, those numbers will go from tiny to more tiny and the sports themselves won't be impacted. Their revenue generated in Britain will go from tiny to slightly less tiny. British athletes will suffer as they'll get less sponsorship opportunities.

And it may be that WBD decide there is money to be made again in the future by capturing the money on the table from fans of niche sports and only niche sports who don't want to pay big bucks for a general subscription. I.e. people like me, will I now get TNT, and would the availability of a £40 a year GCN service mean I then don't want TNT, and would all the extra people getting GCN offset the few people who cancel TNT because GCN exists. People tend to be quite sticky, they're likely banking on people who sign up to TNT now will stay, either because they like it or just inertia, and then a new GCN type sub is just extra value rather than an anchor that prevents people signing up for TNT in the first place.

Skiing enthusiasts in the UK are screwed though, its even more niche in the UK than cycling!

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After all it is free

Hi everyone, new here, well not really, just a new account.

I read on another site somewhere yesterday that some people are investing in a "non sky" satellite system to receive French or German Eurosport.
Has anyone here done this, or knows anything about it?
I've had Sky for years simply because it had Eurosport which was the only channel where I could watch winter sports.
So from March onwards, I'm done with Sky because I can get nearly everything else I watch using a Roku stick or Freeview, and save myself about 60 quid a month.
Okay, a Sky Q box has some handy features, but I'm not about to increase my sub to £91 a month just to include something that is seasonal.

I've cancelled my Discovery+ subscription as well. I only watched it for the coverage of winter sports so £6.99 for 5 months was good value from my perspective. The rest of Discovery+ scheduling has absolutely no appeal to me at all and there come a time where more is less as I simply have not got the time to watch all the sports they have available to justify a £30.99 investment on my part every month. Therefore rather than providing me with what I am prepared to buy for the time I have available (I usually catch up on the coverage on demand in the evenings and do not watch it live that often - I can also skip through some of the more mundane aspects of the coverage!) they have decided that a one size fits all approach is the only one that they will offer to punters.

Whilst starting off just watching Alpine skiing I've started watching a lot of biathlon and cross country skiing and have really enjoyed and learned a lot from the commentaries of Patrick Winterton and Mike Dixon. Ed Drake has also been a breath of fresh air after replacing Nick Fellows on Alpine skiing it will be a shame to lose good value access to these sports in TNT's desire to generate revenue for the football coverage they seem to think everyone wants and they have to try and make it pay.

Thankfully, I am already paying for a Youtube subscription so will be able to follow these sports on this medium albeit without the UK commentary. It's probably just going to be the highlights though.

It will be interesting to see how many existing subscribers opt to pay the 300%+ increase in fees. I guess some element of consolidation of output was always on the cards as they have invested so heavily in football that they need to try and recoup the cost somehow. However, if they lose more than 5 subscribers to everyone they gain from switching they lose revenue overall. My wife will be happy though as I will switch my previous Discovery+ sub for a Netflix one instead.....

I fear that the subscription model is only going one way and once you are tied you are in line to be fleeced over and over. Ring doubled my annual security camera/doorbell subscription last year which was wholly unreasonable after having increased it significantly the previous year. I was also fed up with the way it regularly dropped connection to my internet and the palaver involved reconnecting it again so I purchased a non-subscription camera/doorbell (Eufy) during the Black Friday sale and it will pay for itself in less than two years at the current Ring rate. I have had zero connectivity problems since I made the switch as well so a win all round for me! Very Happy

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@EmmaJay2209, a quick google brought this up -- possibily a bit too 'complicated/expensive' !! :: Oh, Welcome !!

"..To watch German Eurosport from the UK, you can use a satellite dish and receiver pointed at the Astra 1 satellite at 19° East. The Astra 1 satellite broadcasts many German and Austrian TV stations for free.
Equipment you'll need A satellite dish, A satellite receiver, and A LNB (low-noise block).
Dish size
A 60 cm dish is recommended, but a standard Sky dish may also work
In Scotland and further north, a larger dish may be needed
Satellites that broadcast German TV
Astra 1: Located at 19° East, this satellite broadcasts many German and Austrian TV stations for free
Astra 2: Located at 28° East, this satellite broadcasts German TV
Other satellites that broadcast foreign TV Hotbird and Eutelsat.
You can also watch Eurosport in the UK on TNT Sports channels and platforms. "

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Just for clarification, ITV should still have live coverage of the Tour de France this year (which is the final year of their contract).

It's a great shame that this is the final year. I find it impossible to watch much of it on Eurosport without the sound on mute and it will presumably be most of the same team on TNT.

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@Busta Knee, there's only so much Brian Smith dourness and Orla's shouting that I can take. Mute button gets a hammering normally LOL

@Specialman, @Busta Knee, but Adam and Robbie are great and Sean Kelly is so insightful. Not worth £30/month though!

You know it makes sense.

Just checked out the Austrian Discovery+ and it seems as though they show all the Wintersports, so once the end of Feb hits, i'll switch my account and watch it there. No need to be logged on to the VPN that way too.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

A snowHead

Eye
Pea
Tea
V

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@JohnS4,
Dont even need a box. Smarters app on Samsung is fantastic. Runs really quick.

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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I watched an entire run by Michael Matt the other day where the commentators didn't mention that he is Mario's little brother once. Amazing.
Also, it has to said, eurosport is a shocking pair of channels, in the UK at least. How many times have you set record for WSBK or skiing, only to find it was ditched last minute for tennis in Doha or snooker from Hong Kong?

After all it is free

@thecramps, Yep -- the idea of a 'channel guide' is something Alien to them...

I watched the night slalom from Courchevel yesterday - as the last girl finished (or did she fall?), the channel flicked straight to cycling ! (no podium of after race chat..??)

oh yeah Eurosport was always bad for that.
Even more frustrating when they switch from live coverage of a FIS slalom second run to show highlights from snooker that was shown last week.
Absolutely no sense of priorities.

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For just the biathlon in the UK, you can go to https://eurovisionsport.com/ and get it all for free (along with a few other sports too)

Help!!

Eurosport

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