GCN shutting?

thegreatdivide

I wouldn't sign up for anything right now until the GCN+ app finishes at the end of the year. I'd bet money on an introductory offer via either Discovery or Eurosport...

davidof

phreak said:

Just had an email saying that GCN+ is shutting. With Wiggle and Islabikes going this year as well it feels like the sport is falling apart a bit.

Probikeshop and Bikester in Europe (going down with Sigma)

daniel_b

davidof said:

phreak said:

Just had an email saying that GCN+ is shutting. With Wiggle and Islabikes going this year as well it feels like the sport is falling apart a bit.

Probikeshop and Bikester in Europe (going down with Sigma)

That made me catch my breath, typo I believe, think you mean SigNa rather than Sigma.

ddraver

https://youtu.be/UKoB1nLS7ew

Mad_Malx

I'm confused now.
GCN plus is going - yes or no?
If yes, will I need (basd on current business models) only a monthly discovery £6.99 subscription? or will I need discovery plus, and a sports package?
I only want monuments plus GTs that aren't on freeview (vuelta and giro), so april, may, august sept should do me.

No way I will watch any of the other discovery content, and don't watch any other sport (except the odd event on freeview).

JimD666

Mad_Malx said:

I'm confused now.
GCN plus is going - yes or no?
If yes, will I need (basd on current business models) only a monthly discovery £6.99 subscription? or will I need discovery plus, and a sports package?
I only want monuments plus GTs that aren't on freeview (vuelta and giro), so april, may, august sept should do me.

No way I will watch any of the other discovery content, and don't watch any other sport (except the odd event on freeview).

GCN+ is going. You only need the £6.99 monthly sub.

rwoofer

I found the GCN+ app so unreliable that I gave up on it and cancelled my subscription. I would have stayed if I could have used it and I'm sure there must be others with similar experiences.

We all get used to things like Youtube, that just work.

mididoctors

FFS

mididoctors

It was a great app .....

mididoctors

What's the best app and sub for android

ddraver

whatever they wind up calling GlobalEuroDiscoverySport+ network.

We don't get a choice in the matter...

mididoctors

Can discovery+ app cast from a phone ?

No_Ta_Doctor

daniel_b said:

stage_hunter said:

daniel_b said:

pblakeney said:

andyrac said:

daniel_b said:

In the uk, to the best of my knowledge, the eurosport app no longer exists.

Would be very happy to be corrected.

I've just checked on my phone, and it's there - currently showing Koppenbergcross on E1, FIM World SuperCross on E2.

You may be thinking of the Eurosport Player app which was discontinued earlier this year.

There are 2 threads on this which is confusing.
ES is available to new customers but expensive at £6.99/month. 😱

I started mine first ;-)

And yes Andy, I am thinking about the ES player, but when I look on Play and search for Eurosport, all I get is Eurosport: Live News and scores.

If there is a web system with no app, that doesn't have appeal for me, as I like to cast from my phone to the tv.
Looks like it is locked in to £84 a year too sadly, so double negative for me.

You can definitely watch on the Eurosport site. I did checked this morning.

the £6.99/mth will get you access to the Eurosport streams on the discovery plus app That is the route i will be taking.

That's interesting, and it also seems there is a chrome extension that enables you to cast from a laptop to a tv.

Not as convenient as the current setup, or the previous ES Player setup, but there we go.

As per someone else's comments, thinking that a monthly sub through the key months would likely be all that is needed, and then the cost will remain very similar.

There is a Eurosport ap, I use it regularly - and yes you can Chromecast from the website as well, this is standard Chrome now, not an extension (I think, I'm pretty sure my Chrome is out-of-the-box other than AdBlock)

andrew_s-2

Non-broadcast Eurosport and Discovery+ are the same thing, for the same £6.99 a month.
I've been expecting GCN+ to go since Eurosport streaming (player) went in with Discovery+ 18 months ago, or whenever it was.

They are doing what Sky have been doing from the beginning, not selling what you want, but bundling it in with a load of other stuff that you've no interest in, and charging you twice as much for the privilege.

It remains to be seen whether I'll bite. I'm thinking not at present.

sonny73

mididoctors said:

Can discovery+ app cast from a phone ?

Yes, I do via IOS.

webboo

For some reason my bank declined to pay my renewal to the Eurosport app at £39. When I contacted Eurosport the only option was Discovery at £6:99 a month. I thought about going with GCN however I didn’t bother as Mrs W said she was going to change our internet provider and the one she was going to use had Discovery included.
However life got in the way and she didn’t change it and I just watch races on YouTube.

stage_hunter

webboo said:

For some reason my bank declined to pay my renewal to the Eurosport app at £39. When I contacted Eurosport the only option was Discovery at £6:99 a month. I thought about going with GCN however I didn’t bother as Mrs W said she was going to change our internet provider and the one she was going to use had Discovery included.
However life got in the way and she didn’t change it and I just watch races on YouTube.

I am merely replying to this post as it’s the most recent, so I am not just aiming this comment at you but….if everyone watched you tube, or didnt pay for access, there would be a lot less racing available to watch, and what there was, would be a poorer viewing experience.

GCN+ has been closed because it was losing money. Like £1m per month in the first 18 months. I doubt it’s got better since then. It we as a collective we dont pay, then we lose it.

I am not stupid enough to think that everyone can afford £7/mth on something they care enough about to post on a web forum. But I would bet that most could. It is two coffees out (average price) or one beer (three in Wetherspoons).

The idea that this is a bonkers move (as I have seen it described elsewhere) is nonsense. No one can sustain those losses with little sign of a turnaround long term.

The films especially were too voluminous. It was crazy. I know plenty of subscribers that didnt watch any.

I feel very sorry for most of the staff at GCN, especially most of those that will lose their jobs.

pblakeney

stage_hunter said:

...
GCN+ has been closed because it was losing money. Like £1m per month in the first 18 months. I doubt it’s got better since then. It we as a collective we dont pay, then we lose it.
...

I'd also guess that Youtube gets it's videos from GCN/ES/Discovery.
No them, no YT.

daniel_b

mididoctors said:

Can discovery+ app cast from a phone ?

Yes it can, I subbed for a bit when the winter (?) olympics was on I think it was, and if memory serves, it was as reliable as the GCN+ app, and that's not sarcasm, I genuinely found the app reliable in the main - although did anyone else have delayed video versus the audio, I used to get that quite often.

kingstongraham

My Eurosport is showing as £39 renewal in March 2024, but whether that stays is anyone's guess.

For what I watch on there ad-free it's a crazy deal, and £7 a month would still be a steal for the seven months from Oman to Vuelta.

daniel_b

kingstongraham said:

My Eurosport is showing as £39 renewal in March 2024

Is this on your android phone via google play?

Maybe I am missing the obvious but I couldn't see anything of the ilk on there.

EDIT: Is it the one entitled Eurosport: Live, News & Scores

If it is that one AND it remains available, that would clearly be the logical place to move to, as a near identical replacement, with only losing the documentaries.

pblakeney

daniel_b said:

kingstongraham said:

My Eurosport is showing as £39 renewal in March 2024

Is this on your android phone via google play?

Maybe I am missing the obvious but I couldn't see anything of the ilk on there.
...

It is the auto-renewal price for existing customers only.
I suspect/fear that will change too.

TheBigBean

stage_hunter said:

webboo said:

For some reason my bank declined to pay my renewal to the Eurosport app at £39. When I contacted Eurosport the only option was Discovery at £6:99 a month. I thought about going with GCN however I didn’t bother as Mrs W said she was going to change our internet provider and the one she was going to use had Discovery included.
However life got in the way and she didn’t change it and I just watch races on YouTube.

I am merely replying to this post as it’s the most recent, so I am not just aiming this comment at you but….if everyone watched you tube, or didnt pay for access, there would be a lot less racing available to watch, and what there was, would be a poorer viewing experience.

GCN+ has been closed because it was losing money. Like £1m per month in the first 18 months. I doubt it’s got better since then. It we as a collective we dont pay, then we lose it.

I am not stupid enough to think that everyone can afford £7/mth on something they care enough about to post on a web forum. But I would bet that most could. It is two coffees out (average price) or one beer (three in Wetherspoons).

The idea that this is a bonkers move (as I have seen it described elsewhere) is nonsense. No one can sustain those losses with little sign of a turnaround long term.

The films especially were too voluminous. It was crazy. I know plenty of subscribers that didnt watch any.

I feel very sorry for most of the staff at GCN, especially most of those that will lose their jobs.

I was happy to support Eurosport. I effectively paid for it twice: once through Virgin and once through Eurosport player, but what has happened is it has been bundled with stuff I don't particular want for a higher price (Discovery stuff), so the £7/month is not funding Eurosport and cycling, it is funding other stuff of no interest. Consumers of the other stuff do not need to pay for Eurosport as there is a subscription option that excludes it.

This has now happened again with TNT sports although the bundling is yet to happen. If it all becomes one bundle at £30/month, then cycling will really struggle, but I don't think that can be blamed on fans not wanting to pay it.

This is something of a counter argument to your point about price and grumbling.

GCN always seem a bit pointless.

daniel_b

Yes good point, I'm more than happy to pay to watch cycling, but if you bundle it in with dramas, other sports I have no interest in, non cycling documentaries, reality shows, and then want to charge at least 100% more, it ceases to be worth the cost.

pblakeney said:

daniel_b said:

kingstongraham said:

My Eurosport is showing as £39 renewal in March 2024

Is this on your android phone via google play?

Maybe I am missing the obvious but I couldn't see anything of the ilk on there.
...

It is the auto-renewal price for existing customers only.
I suspect/fear that will change too.

I'd happily pay £60 a year for Eurosport, I'd still consider that decent value.

rick_chasey

How about just watching it on TV?

stage_hunter

TheBigBean said:

stage_hunter said:

webboo said:

For some reason my bank declined to pay my renewal to the Eurosport app at £39. When I contacted Eurosport the only option was Discovery at £6:99 a month. I thought about going with GCN however I didn’t bother as Mrs W said she was going to change our internet provider and the one she was going to use had Discovery included.
However life got in the way and she didn’t change it and I just watch races on YouTube.

I am merely replying to this post as it’s the most recent, so I am not just aiming this comment at you but….if everyone watched you tube, or didnt pay for access, there would be a lot less racing available to watch, and what there was, would be a poorer viewing experience.

GCN+ has been closed because it was losing money. Like £1m per month in the first 18 months. I doubt it’s got better since then. It we as a collective we dont pay, then we lose it.

I am not stupid enough to think that everyone can afford £7/mth on something they care enough about to post on a web forum. But I would bet that most could. It is two coffees out (average price) or one beer (three in Wetherspoons).

The idea that this is a bonkers move (as I have seen it described elsewhere) is nonsense. No one can sustain those losses with little sign of a turnaround long term.

The films especially were too voluminous. It was crazy. I know plenty of subscribers that didnt watch any.

I feel very sorry for most of the staff at GCN, especially most of those that will lose their jobs.

I was happy to support Eurosport. I effectively paid for it twice: once through Virgin and once through Eurosport player, but what has happened is it has been bundled with stuff I don't particular want for a higher price (Discovery stuff), so the £7/month is not funding Eurosport and cycling, it is funding other stuff of no interest. Consumers of the other stuff do not need to pay for Eurosport as there is a subscription option that excludes it.

This has now happened again with TNT sports although the bundling is yet to happen. If it all becomes one bundle at £30/month, then cycling will really struggle, but I don't think that can be blamed on fans not wanting to pay it.

This is something of a counter argument to your point about price and grumbling.

GCN always seem a bit pointless.

Not unreasonable arguments. I would add that I happily paid £40/yr for GCN but watched 2 of their films. Even one of those I watched for comedy value rather then cycling content.

My suspicion is that WBD just wanted to shut down the film side of GCN+. I never quite understood how they thought producing that many niche cycling films would make money.

Once they started the process they didnt need to maintain another app just for the racing.

I think if you look back on this forum Ive been saying most of this year this was going to happen.

My fear is that if people dont pay to watch Eurosport etc., we will be back to watching poor quality streams of low budget productions.

thegreatdivide

TNT Sports and Eurosport will eventually merge into one entity by the end of next year.

webboo

stage_hunter said:

webboo said:

For some reason my bank declined to pay my renewal to the Eurosport app at £39. When I contacted Eurosport the only option was Discovery at £6:99 a month. I thought about going with GCN however I didn’t bother as Mrs W said she was going to change our internet provider and the one she was going to use had Discovery included.
However life got in the way and she didn’t change it and I just watch races on YouTube.

I am merely replying to this post as it’s the most recent, so I am not just aiming this comment at you but….if everyone watched you tube, or didnt pay for access, there would be a lot less racing available to watch, and what there was, would be a poorer viewing experience.

GCN+ has been closed because it was losing money. Like £1m per month in the first 18 months. I doubt it’s got better since then. It we as a collective we dont pay, then we lose it.

I am not stupid enough to think that everyone can afford £7/mth on something they care enough about to post on a web forum. But I would bet that most could. It is two coffees out (average price) or one beer (three in Wetherspoons).

The idea that this is a bonkers move (as I have seen it described elsewhere) is nonsense. No one can sustain those losses with little sign of a turnaround long term.

The films especially were too voluminous. It was crazy. I know plenty of subscribers that didnt watch any.

I feel very sorry for most of the staff at GCN, especially most of those that will lose their jobs.

I have no problem with paying but with Discovery but I would be paying for things I don’t want to watch. One of the reasons I stuck with the Eurosport app was that I could watch things on my IPad. With GCN there was some issues with doing this.
At some point I will sign up for something.
As a side issue I watched the last cyclocross World Cup races on YouTube on Monday and they both Marty McDonald? and Ian Field commentating. Was this from GCN as I couldn’t see any reference to it.
I have just looked again and these videos seem to be from something called CylocrossCX.

orraloon

kingstongraham said:

My Eurosport is showing as £39 renewal in March 2024, but whether that stays is anyone's guess.

For what I watch on there ad-free it's a crazy deal, and £7 a month would still be a steal for the seven months from Oman to Vuelta.

Just checked on my Eurosport account and annual renewal at £39.99 showing for end June 24. Whether will still be so in 7 months or so time...? And any chance of the Black Friday 1/2 price offer incoming? Didn't show last year. Did get a couple of years at 19.99 p.a., no bad.

99% of time streamed via FireStick app.

TheBigBean

rick_chasey said:

How about just watching it on TV?

I do sometimes, but the app is great. No need to record, start anywhere, no ads etc.