Digital Tv cycling Channel
I would be quite happy to pay £5 -£10 per month to have a dedicated cycling channel on digital TV. I've tried Cycling.TV premium channel but find the picture quality absolutley sh*te.The coverage by Eurosport just seems to be getting poorer.Does anyone know if there are any foreign stations that can be picked up?
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There's a niche to be filled by someone with enough nous to a) spot it and b) do it properly with a bit of TLC. In some ways it's ideal for BBCi or ITV4, something relatively cheap to stick on their empty daytime schedules and an opportunity to fill an hour or two of highlights/round up programmes in the evening(s).
Really, it isn't rocket science. I was about to say "what's putting them off?" but I guess it's a minority sport that is difficult to understand for the uninitiated.
Still, I remember Grandstand putting on Cyclocross back in the eighties without worrying too much about whether anyone would 'get it' and the C4 Kellog Criteriums on Friday nights. So it can work if done in the right way at the right time.0 -
If you want to splash out on a motorised satellite dish, there a few things that can be picked up.
I came across this blog a few days ago that seems to cover a lot of the ground:
http://cyclingfans.net/satellite/
It is also sometimes possible feeds sometimes. Last summer we could get the excellent US Versus channel's coverage of TdF, and I was watching the Vuelta de Castilla and Leon a couple of weeks back. But the feed for Flanders went encrypted before the off on Sunday.
Couldn't find any sat coverage of de Panne, but not all Belgian channels are on satellite.
Belgian/Flemish "een" channel is covering Gent-Wavelgem on Wednseday according to http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza.be/sporza%2Btv
Unfortunately a lot of the good stuff is encrypted these days so you need to be in the murky world of card sharing and hacking
I was able to watch most of Flanders yesterday live and in English.0 -
skavanagh.bikeradar wrote:There's a niche to be filled by someone with enough nous to a) spot it and b) do it properly with a bit of TLC. In some ways it's ideal for BBCi or ITV4, something relatively cheap to stick on their empty daytime schedules and an opportunity to fill an hour or two of highlights/round up programmes in the evening(s).
But we don't know if it's relatively cheap - Maybe the cost of the TV rights for the races have gone up?
Cycling.tv are supposed to be launching through a non-interweb platform (sat TV) I believe.Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.0 -
ITV4 do seem to stick it on as a cheap slot-filler.
They did it with Paris-Nice the other Saturday morning, with no trailer, no publicity, no nothing.
It goes in just to pad-out gaps in the schedule like those endless dire extreme skateboarding programs do (if someone wants to argue that extreme skateboarding isn't dire - OK, but these awful cheap US import programs about it are !)
C4 had Tour of Langkawi last week in the 4am graveyard slot.
Considering the number of people who watch The Tour every July, I'm surprised the channels don't try to make something positive of cycling0 -
i never see any of these races when i go through the tv guide and i can only watch the track world championships {BRITAIN YOU WERE ACE} and the tour. leige bastogne leige was on before the tour team presentation though so i saw that but it was abit late.0
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I'd like to know how much you'd have to pay to pick up live coverage of semi-classics and monuments and how it compares to other popular or more screened sports. Anyone out there in this field in the know?0
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please some one tell because i want to watch some bike racing0
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A quick google turned up this from the bbc:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/c ... 108980.stm
get down to the 'Live Cycling' paragraph. This suggests it's relatively cheap to secure cycling rights or am I reading it wrong?0 -
i would say so too.
its not that expensive fro cycling tv, just that the picture is rubbish so there must be quite a few users.
it cant be too expensive to show.
even if they put it on at night i would record it and watch it the next day.0 -
cycling.tv's audience is primarily USA I thought. It's "not that expensive" because bandwidth costs considerably less that it used to and you don't have to get onto platforms to do it.
Getting on Sky and Virgin Media ain't cheap. Then you've got to fund it with ad revenue, subscriptions and whatever. None of which is cheap.
And if you're the BBC where are you going to stick it? There isn't any schedule space to be had anywhere on the networks or red button.
Why do ITV4 bury it as filler? Because to them it is filler. Ever tried selling the advertising airtime for something where, even if you inflate grossly, the audience is going to be less that the Sky at Night?
C4 did Kelloggs crits at a time when Kelloggs were a big sponsor and Robert Millar was doing ads for them. Times have moved on since then considerably - we'd only just got a second non-BBC channel back then, now the market is entirely balkanised.0 -
Not sure I agree with that - the red button is almost always not in use for anything. Try it now and see what you get.......
I'm hoping that because of the success of the GB track team there is a BBC wonk currently plotting how he can get cycling onto his channels as we speak. A few wins on the road, a Nicole Cook Gold at the Olympics.....I'm not however holding my breath.0 -
Dear Brian1
I had the same question, gave up, and resorted to the basic Sky+ package, £16/month with Eurosport. It's pretty good.
The best bit is the idiot proof hard disc recording so, for instance, Tour of Langkawi (c4) was automatically recorded every night at 4 am and watched the following day. Excellent coverage.
Recently recorded Tour of Flanders and Gent Wevelgem (Eurosport) during day and watched them at night. Commentary was really good.
Also loads of the track champs last week and Paris Roubaix coming up. That's about 25 hours cycling in my first satellite fortnight. Quite enough for me.
Regards
Alan0
