GCN+ app bites the dust

daniel_b

oh bugg3r

Have subscribed for several years now, so does that mean back to dodgy streams/downloads I wonder, or is it Discovery for £60 a year or nothing?

"Dear GCN+ Subscriber,



We are sending you this email as a valued subscriber of GCN+. We are very sorry to have to inform you that the GCN+ service and the GCN app will close on 19 December 2023.



What does this mean for you?

Access: Your subscription contract will end and you will be unable to access the GCN+ service and GCN app from 19 December 2023. Following closure, you can still use your GCN account on the GCN website at globalcyclingnetwork.com and the GCN Shop at shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com.

Upcoming payments: The GCN+ service will close on 19 December 2023 and you will be charged for any upcoming subscription payments up to that time. If you do not want to be charged for any upcoming payments, you can cancel your subscription prior to your next renewal date, however your access to the service will then end on that renewal date.

Refunds: If you have a subscription to the GCN+ service which is still running on 19 December 2023, we will arrange for a refund of any amounts that you have paid in advance for access to the service after that date. Please make sure you have a valid and up-to-date payment method. Refunds will be paid automatically, but in some instances may take some time to process for technical reasons.

Data: Following closure, your personal data will continue to be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
We encourage you to contact our customer service team here to answer any additional questions about GCN+ and your subscription.


Thank you for subscribing to GCN+, we are very grateful for your support and for joining us on this journey.



Sincerely,

The GCN Team "

thegreatdivide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9xBGH-ISFU

thegreatdivide

Eurosport continues and no doubt with exactly the same presenters - they're just binning GCN+. GCN will be unaffected.

daniel_b

The vid says those in Europe will still have access to racing - I know the uk is geographically in Europe, but I wonder what we will be offered.
Could be time for a VPN, but then there might not be an English language option :-(

Also likes the majority of their documentaries.

There is no ES Player anymore, only discovery.

I wonder if that is why Orla has taken on Rugby presenting, maybe she was given the nod that the studio show was going to be a thing of the past. Real shame if so.

thegreatdivide

Orla works for Eurosport and TNT, not GCN, and Eurosport aren't going anywhere.

JimD666

Rats. 😠

JimD666

Double rats. There's no annual price for a package that includes cycling. Only the £6.99 monthly option

jgsi

Bad news as actually the app was great for using on my Google TV. In the past used the apps for Eurosport, and Discovery....
I suppose , as the GC website will stream ...? who knows that in the light of this announcement.
The media giants behind the scenes , well thumbs up mateys, you'll lose a lot of customers, but you won't give a toss.
I might actually just give up on watching pro cycling after God knows how many years....

daniel_b

JimD666 said:

Double rats. There's no annual price for a package that includes cycling. Only the £6.99 monthly option

That's a shame, I haven't yet looked to see what is available on Discovery, but I can't see me paying £84 a year for it if that's the case.

ES Player used to be mighty value, and I was happy to pay £40 for the cycling cover plus documentaries and no ads, but with current squeezes on finances can't see that being stretched further for me unfortunately.

Apparently more details will be on the website soon for uk users, so we'll just have to wait and see, though why they could not have put that in the e-mail I'm not sure.

jgsi said:

Bad news as actually the app was great for using on my Google TV. In the past used the apps for Eurosport, and Discovery....
I suppose , as the GC website will stream ...? who knows that in the light of this announcement.
The media giants behind the scenes , well thumbs up mateys, you'll lose a lot of customers, but you won't give a toss.
I might actually just give up on watching pro cycling after God knows how many years....

I have used mine almost exclusively with my chromecast and it's been mega - the only negative is that you can windback live programs on the app or online, but as soon as you try and cast it goes to live only - that was my only real irritation.

thegreatdivide

daniel_b said:

but with current squeezes on finances can't see that being stretched further for me unfortunately.

Stop buying all that green nonsense then.

pblakeney

daniel_b said:

...
There is no ES Player anymore, only discovery.
...

I just logged into ES on my phone (app) and laptop (web). 🤔

JimD666

pblakeney said:

daniel_b said:

...
There is no ES Player anymore, only discovery.
...

I just logged into ES on my phone (app) and laptop (web). 🤔

Think you're grandfathered in. No way (that I know of) of getting ES only without all the Discovery rubbish at this time.

As Daniel said. £60 is one thing. 50% increase I can probably live with. 100% increase with no increase in value smarts.

wakemalcolm

You'll get to see if you can spot the next Roglic during the four hills championship but from a cycling viewpoint it looks like quite a bit less for 100% more.
I'm out.

Having said that, Nord VPN for GBP56 a year (minus affiliate discounts) for the privilege of brushing up on your Flemish doesn't seem great value either, unless you've got other reasons to use it.

rick_chasey

wakemalcolm said:

You'll get to see if you can spot the next Roglic during the four hills championship but from a cycling viewpoint it looks like quite a bit less for 100% more.
I'm out.

Having said that, Nord VPN for GBP56 a year (minus affiliate discounts) for the privilege of brushing up on your Flemish doesn't seem great value either, unless you've got other reasons to use it.

They do some pretty heavy discounts: i think I paid that for 3 years.

hdow

Used to watch the Giro on S4C. Don't speak Welsh but the commentary was better than that from Carlton Minniot and his mates from the pub who work on Eurosport. Dan Lloyd was good

pblakeney

JimD666 said:

pblakeney said:

daniel_b said:

...
There is no ES Player anymore, only discovery.
...

I just logged into ES on my phone (app) and laptop (web). 🤔

Think you're grandfathered in. No way (that I know of) of getting ES only without all the Discovery rubbish at this time.

As Daniel said. £60 is one thing. 50% increase I can probably live with. 100% increase with no increase in value smarts.

Glad I gambled on ES in spring over GCN for £39.99/year. Auto renew at the same price too, apparently. Fingers crossed it remains that way. 🤞 £6.99/month for new subscribers. 😱

daniel_b

Great punt indeed, I didn't bother as my GCN sub was good through til Jan 24

Fingers crossed for you indeed, £84 is too much for me - there are other means of watching these things, or I may just pay for 1 months sub when a grand tour is on I want to watch.

Be a shame not to be able to watch lots of things live, but then in reality, the times when I could watch something not on catch up is pretty rare.

pblakeney

daniel_b said:

Great punt indeed, I didn't bother as my GCN sub was good through til Jan 24

Fingers crossed for you indeed, £84 is too much for me - there are other means of watching these things, or I may just pay for 1 months sub when a grand tour is on I want to watch.

Be a shame not to be able to watch lots of things live, but then in reality, the times when I could watch something not on catch up is pretty rare.

Fair point. I mostly just watch June to August. The classics are a bonus.
That'll be my strategy if my renewal price changes. Even 6 x £6.99 would work.

thegreatdivide

https://twitter.com/daniellloyd1/status/1724835405625717044

thegreatdivide

So as posted several times in this thread, the only thing you'll lose is the GCN+ app.

thegreatdivide

Also there's post in the comments from a Discovery+ subscriber who confirms that there are no ads during live races.

thegreatdivide

And GCN+ are actively working on a host for the documentaries.

pangolin

thegreatdivide said:

So as posted several times in this thread, the only thing you'll lose is the GCN+ app.

That and more money if you want service to continue, you seem to be ignoring that.

thegreatdivide

Do you honestly think that GCN+ would have stayed at the same price into 2024 and beyond?

JimD666

thegreatdivide said:

Do you honestly think that GCN+ would have stayed at the same price into 2024 and beyond?

No but going up by over 100% wasn't to be expected either

daniel_b

thegreatdivide said:

Do you honestly think that GCN+ would have stayed at the same price into 2024 and beyond?

10-20% increase would have been acceptable to my mind.

JimD666 said:

No but going up by over 100% wasn't to be expected either

As well as seemingly losing all of the existing new documentaries, and foregoing any new ones being made presumably.

I watched a lot of them, and had several I was planning to watch, will try and cram them in over the next few weeks, maybe whilst on the turbo.

sw19carpenters

I just lost BT sport through Plusnet for 10 a month.
They've changed to tnt sports and moved to discovery app and I think cheaper if you're with EE.
Price gone up to around 25 a month.

bobmcstuff

sw19carpenters said:

I just lost BT sport through Plusnet for 10 a month.
They've changed to tnt sports and moved to discovery app and I think cheaper if you're with EE.
Price gone up to around 25 a month.

I have TNT sports as part of my EE contract, so had been considering getting rid of GCN+ anyway. Worth checking.

daniel_b

Paused by Disco sub at the beginning of Dec for 3 months, though you can un-pause whenever you want.

In hindsight probably could have paused it a bit earlier.

CX not appealing this year to me, as none of the big names (with the exception of WvA) taking part that I am interested in, and the very early pro road races are not often that much to write home about.

Does mean it will kick back in in time for Strade Bianche though :-)