Streamed Cycling - Pay sites or just rely on iffy ones
Eurosport to my mind has gone over again to the unfathomable world of weird sports... we love our darts but honestly who cares about winter sports in the UK which always overrun and dont even mention tennis.
Their cycling coverage does not seem to be worth a subscription.
Cycling TV ? I have to pay via a credit card.. loathe to do as it is on ones of those auto renewals and dont like my card details in the hands of foreign websites, that includes the Yanks.
It has taken 8 years to come to terms that Paypal isnt going to rip me off every which way and do like to pay via that method nowadays.
Sporza seem to be really on the ball with cycling... but I cannot subscribe in the UK?
Is there a really comprehensive service out there to view cycling. .. decent quality etc.. reasonable pricing and legit.
What are the recomendations?
Their cycling coverage does not seem to be worth a subscription.
Cycling TV ? I have to pay via a credit card.. loathe to do as it is on ones of those auto renewals and dont like my card details in the hands of foreign websites, that includes the Yanks.
It has taken 8 years to come to terms that Paypal isnt going to rip me off every which way and do like to pay via that method nowadays.
Sporza seem to be really on the ball with cycling... but I cannot subscribe in the UK?
Is there a really comprehensive service out there to view cycling. .. decent quality etc.. reasonable pricing and legit.
What are the recomendations?
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A bit unfair on Eurosport I'd say. They've not had the rights for the Flanders Classics races (bar the Tour of Flanders) for a while but cover virtually everything else except domestic French and non-RCS Italian one day races. Their winter sports programme only clashes with the start of the season really and I'll take that if it means the rest of the year things generally go to plan. Ultimately their flexible schedule works in cycling's favour too as a live race that overruns will go on til the end, bumping the next sport. I really don't see an alternative there.
They showed all of this in 2014 (c+p'd from another thread):
Dubai: Quigley & Smith
Oman: Kirby (solo)
Andalucia: Hatch & Stephens
K-B-K: Hatch & Stephens
Le Samyn: Kirby & Smith
Langkawi: Hatch (first week) / Quigley (last few stages) (both solo)
Strade Bianche: Hatch & Smith
Roma Maxima: Quigley & Smith
Paris-Nice: Hatch & Kelly
Tirreno-Adriatico: Quigley & Stephens
Milan-Sanremo: Quigley & Kelly
Catalunia: Kirby & Backstedt
E3 Harelbeke: Quigley & Stephens
Criterium International: Quigley & Stephens
Three Days of De Panne: Kirby & Smith
Tour of Flanders: Kirby & Kelly
Vuelta al Pais Vasco: Kirby & Stephens
Paris-Roubaix: Kirby & Stephens
GP de Denain: Kirby & Lloyd
Tour of the Reservoir: McCrossan & Stephens
Amstel Gold Race: Kirby & Kelly
Fleche Wallonne: Kirby & Lloyd
Tour of Turkey: Kirby & Smith
Liege-Bastogne-Liege: Hatch & Kelly
4 Days of Dunkirk: Quigley & Backstedt
Tour of Azerbaijan: Hatch (solo, stage 1) / Quigley (solo, stage 2) / Harris-Bass (solo, stages 3-4) / Harris-Bass & Gibb (stage 5)
Women's Tour of Britain: Porter & Smith (syndicated - also on ITV4)
Giro d'Italia: Hatch & Kelly (with intro from Harris-Bass stage 1 and Andy Smith stages 2&3)
Wiltshire Grand Prix: McCrossan & Stephens
Tour of California: Stephens & Smith
Tour Series (all rounds): Porter & Smith (syndicated - also on ITV4)
Tour of Norway: Quigley & Backstedt
Lincoln GP: McCrossan & Stephens
World Ports Classic: MacDonald & Smith
Tour des Fjords: Stephens & Smith
Criterium du Dauphine: Kirby & Smith
Milk Race: Quigley & Tony Doyle
London Nocturne: Porter & Smith
Tour de Suisse: Quigley & Lloyd
British Road Championships: Kirby & Stephens
Tour de France: Kirby & Kelly with Harris-Bass
British Circuit Championships: Porter, Trott & Backstedt
Elite Circuit Series: McCrossan & Stephens
La Course by Le Tour: MacDonald & Ottilie Quince
Tour de Wallonnie: Stephens & Smith
Clasica San Sebastian: Quigley & Backstedt
Tour de Pologne: Kirby & Backstedt
Women's Ride London: Hatch & Smith
RideLondon-Surrey Classic: Hatch & Stephens
Eneco Tour: Kirby & Smith
Arctic Race of Norway: Hatch & Backstedt (stages 1&2) / Stephens (stages 3&4)
Circuit of the Fens: McCrossan & Stephens
USA Pro Challenge: Hatch & Backstedt
Vuelta a Espana: Kirby & Lloyd (stages 1 &2), Kelly (stages 3+)
Vattenfall Cyclassics: Quigley & Backstedt
GP Ouest-France Plouay: Quigley & Smith
Tour of Alberta: Hatch & Smith / Backstedt
Tour of Britain: Stephens & Backstedt
GP Quebec: Quigley & Stephens
GP Montreal: Hatch & Backstedt
Wallonie GP: Kirby & Backstedt
Voigt's Hour: Kirby & Backstedt
Tour de l'Eurometropole (final day): Quigley & Hayles
Il Lombardia: Stephens & Smith
Binche-Chimay-Binche: Hatch & Stephens
Tour of Beijing: Kirby & Stephens
Paris-Tours: Quigley & Lloyd
Amsterdam 6 Days: Kirby & Gibb
Saitama Criterium: Kirby & Stephens
Brandle's Hour: Quigley & Backstedt
They've shown (or are scheduled to show) this in 2015:
Dubai: Hatch & Smith
Cadel Evans GO Race: Liggett, Keenan and McEwen (international broadcast)
Vuelta a Andalucia / Ruta del Sol: Kirby & Stephens
Dekker's Hour: Kirby & Backstedt
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne: Stephens & ??
Le Samyn: tbc
Strade Bianchi: Hatch & ??
Paris-Nice: Hatch & ??
Tirreno-Adriatico: ?? & Stephens
Milan-Sanremo: Stephens & ??
In addition to above they have confirmed rights for the following (with more as always to follow):
http://s13.photobucket.com/user/L8Hatter/media/B7ZxgepIEAAP2ap_zpsd3e51de2.jpg.html
From 2014, they have dropped the Oman highlights (available on cycling.tv) and the Langkawi highlights but as both appeared a day after the fact and Langkawi was only 15 minutes each stage, it's no massive loss to the schedule.0 -
Personally I think this is where the Velon group should come in. Set up a subscription online channel which streams all of the races (they should be able to get rights for free), and also brings together content like GCN, How the race was won, Cycling Podcast, onboard cameras, behind the scenes videos etc, etc. (or similar products)
As for the OP - you could get Hola - it gets around geo-restrictions (also good for accessing US Netflix).Twitter: @RichN950 -
In defence of Eurosport have used for past 3 seasons, but for 2015 seems off for that.. 5.99 per month charge.
Issue is Eurosport 2 covers the racing for our European friends but on Brit 2 we have to put up with the darts or Chinese snooker... they dont allow the normal Eurosport feed on the app.
I've looked at these 'vpn' solution to get around geo restrictions, but also loathe to mess around with the dns on the laptop or router.
I shall investigate HOLA.0 -
OP, not sure what you mean though. Occasionally races get bumped to delayed on BE2 but it is only occasionally. I'm one of the saddos who will watch any televised cycling and I don't recall too many occasions that we got a raw deal (E3 wasn't shown live iirc in 2013 but we got it delayed). Andalucia I know was shoved to delayed for 3 stages this year but that was their first live race of the season and it did coincide with winter sports. However, Tirreno and P-N are all going to be shown live, as is K-B-K today and Le Samyn on Wednesday, then Strade Bianche this saturday, with MSR in 3 weeks time.
http://tv.eurosport.co.uk/search.shtml?query=cycling0 -
I'm just being picky, I know.. dedicated channel.. where we actually get to see the mad buggers going full tilt in the first hour.0
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The problem i have with eurosport player is it's reliability. I've just decided to give it another go and within a week it's stopped working on the app on my TV. The feed online is far better than the links from cycling fans but i want to be able to watch it in high quality on a proper screen. I've not once had bbc iplayer buffer on my tv, yet eurosport player either doesn't work or constantly buffers."Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago0
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JGSI wrote:I'm just being picky, I know.. dedicated channel.. where we actually get to see the mad buggers going full tilt in the first hour.
Well that's pretty rare in itself as most TV companies (which is not Eurosport's role as they buy the pictures in) don't bother filming the early exchanges, or if they do, it's scaled down - motos only and no helicopter so they can show something in their intro package. Exceptions being the odd grand tour stage and the Mens Elite Worlds road race. The BBC also seem to like showing races in their entirety on their watch, such as the London-Surrey Classic, albeit online or on the red button. I'm not sure a dedicated channel would make much of a difference. Take yesterday, Sporza began their programme about 12.30pm UK time I believe but used the first half hour to talk about it. I was following on cycling.tv and they were just using the host broadcast pictures with English commentary - they began iirc with less than 100km to go, i.e. about halfway through the race. That's what was going out in Belgium, or near as dammit.
A way to perhaps improve what does get transmitted eventually might be to go down the line of filming from the beginning and broadcasting, live or otherwise something actually happening - to avoid the scenario of a race broadcast beginning with say 50km to go, a group of 3 or 4 up the road being given a 3 minute lead by a coasting peloton - show us how that happened in detail and when something of note happens or the gap gets to say 15km and 1 minute, start live pictures.0 -
well at least I got Sporza to stream.. thanks Rich0
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ES is very good on the whole. Plus cyclinghub stream when it's not being shown live on ES.0
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argyllflyer wrote:A way to perhaps improve what does get transmitted eventually might be to go down the line of filming from the beginning and broadcasting, live or otherwise something actually happening - to avoid the scenario of a race broadcast beginning with say 50km to go, a group of 3 or 4 up the road being given a 3 minute lead by a coasting peloton - show us how that happened in detail and when something of note happens or the gap gets to say 15km and 1 minute, start live pictures.
This is a very good idea, let's say it's a sprint stage, or one of those stages of the Vuelta that is an MTF with not much happening in the run up.
Do picture in picture with highlights or analysis until something happens live, then cover that.0
