GCN shutting?

pblakeney

orraloon said:

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.

Ah, the good old days. Anyone remember the £2.99/annum, or was it £1.99?
Those were never going to last.

daniel_b

rick_chasey said:

How about just watching it on TV?

Not an option for me, no subs to sky/BT or whoever, and no plans to change that.

TheBigBean said:

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.

This in a nutshell - can also watch on the laptop should you want to, at a convenient time/place.

If I have limited time, say I'd have an hour available, and a fairly standard stage had happened, would skip to ~45km out.

pblakeney said:

orraloon said:

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.

Ah, the good old days. Anyone remember the £2.99/annum, or was it £1.99?
Those were never going to last.

Indeed, yes £19.99 was pretty standard, managed that for a few years by signing up with different e-mail addresses, and I did bag the £1.99 once, which happened on a black friday, probably 4 or 5 years ago now, never to be seen again.

I'm hopeful the Eurosport sub will be available, but if not, it will be discovery for 7 months I reckon, so a 20% increase in that event.
If Eurosport on it's own went up to £50 or even £60 for the year, I would go that route though in preference.

kingstongraham

rick_chasey said:

How about just watching it on TV?

I've got it on TV as part of a bundle, but the app being ad free is a big difference. If you aren't already paying for TV, it's not free to air anyway, even with the ads.

blazing_saddles

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.

Could it be that you were paying by credit card and it had expired?
I have just updated my CC details on my account, as I have had a new one issued this year.
I don't want to drop the £39 ball.

webboo

blazing_saddles 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.

Could it be that you were paying by credit card and it had expired?
I have just updated my CC details on my account, as I have had a new one issued this year.
I don't want to drop the £39 ball.

I don’t think it was that but it was a case once it’s gone it’s gone. I even tried the loyal customer for x years but no it was b@gger off to Discovery.

daniel_b

webboo said:

blazing_saddles 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.

Could it be that you were paying by credit card and it had expired?
I have just updated my CC details on my account, as I have had a new one issued this year.
I don't want to drop the £39 ball.

I don’t think it was that but it was a case once it’s gone it’s gone. I even tried the loyal customer for x years but no it was b@gger off to Discovery.

That's annoying :-(
Sounds like an ES Sub for new customers is looking more and more remote.

wakemalcolm

If anyone on here's feeling put out by this, try listening to the Caley & Cosmo show. Pi$$ed doesn't cover it. Can't knock their passion but I think their maths is a bit off.

webboo

daniel_b said:

webboo said:

blazing_saddles 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.

Could it be that you were paying by credit card and it had expired?
I have just updated my CC details on my account, as I have had a new one issued this year.
I don't want to drop the £39 ball.

I don’t think it was that but it was a case once it’s gone it’s gone. I even tried the loyal customer for x years but no it was b@gger off to Discovery.

That's annoying :-(
Sounds like an ES Sub for new customers is looking more and more remote.

As far as I’m aware you can no longer sign up for the Eurosport app.

stage_hunter

wakemalcolm said:

If anyone on here's feeling put out by this, try listening to the Caley & Cosmo show. Pi$$ed doesn't cover it. Can't knock their passion but I think their maths is a bit off.

Caley Fretz? His and his colleagues social media stuff has been off. In fairness they were fucker over last year, and also non Europeans are more affected by yesterday’s news.

orraloon

Is that Cosmo Catalano? Liked hearing his views on Velonews (?) podcasts, no longer running.

wakemalcolm

orraloon said:

Is that Cosmo Catalano? Liked hearing his views on Velonews (?) podcasts, no longer running.

Yes, Cosmo, Caley, Ronan and a few others who got emptied got together to create the Escape Collective.

Their output's quite good and if I had an infinite amount of time I'd listen to them more.

rick_chasey

kingstongraham said:

rick_chasey said:

How about just watching it on TV?

I've got it on TV as part of a bundle, but the app being ad free is a big difference. If you aren't already paying for TV, it's not free to air anyway, even with the ads.

TBH getting Eurosport even with the adverts, plus all the other stuff you get with a proper TV provider is better value than just getting the direct subbie to eurosport etc.

I've not tried for English speaking but you should be able to get some US or Aus coverage with a few cheeky aps downloaded and a VPN; I think they both do free-to-air coverage of the bigger bike races. Or any other English speaking country.

I guess i am a) so old school this is just a return to how it always was to watch cycling and b) I only watch RCS races on Eurosport nowadays as Sporza cover the rest and I have the bilingual luxury. Luckily Hatch tends to do those races.

pblakeney

For those of us that are only English speakers a subscription costs less than a VPN.

rick_chasey

pblakeney said:

For those of us that are only English speakers a subscription costs less than a VPN.

really not.

Buying NordVPN full price is a bit like turning up to pizza express without a 50% off voucher - you're a mug if you pay full price.

I paid less that £50 for a 3 year subbie and tbh it's more useful than just watching cycling.

jimmythecuckoo

I posted my thoughts on this on "X". With hindsight this seems ineveitable.

Once Discovery/Warner bought GCN and then didn't increase subs it was a data harvest and a subscription buying exercise.

Give them access cheap and then when there are enough of them hooked close it down, consolidate costs into one app and one platform but increase the cost to get those losses back.

Simple. Effective.

pblakeney

rick_chasey said:

pblakeney said:

For those of us that are only English speakers a subscription costs less than a VPN.

really not.

Buying NordVPN full price is a bit like turning up to pizza express without a 50% off voucher - you're a mug if you pay full price.

I paid less that £50 for a 3 year subbie and tbh it's more useful than just watching cycling.

I'm going to suggest that was a rare really special deal, like we used to get with ES.
Link if I'm wrong please.

rick_chasey

pblakeney said:

rick_chasey said:

pblakeney said:

For those of us that are only English speakers a subscription costs less than a VPN.

really not.

Buying NordVPN full price is a bit like turning up to pizza express without a 50% off voucher - you're a mug if you pay full price.

I paid less that £50 for a 3 year subbie and tbh it's more useful than just watching cycling.

I'm going to suggest that was a rare really special deal, like we used to get with ES.
Link if I'm wrong please.

Currently a 68% deal off today.

https://nordvpn.com/country/britain/?vpn=brand&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAu9yqBhBmEiwAHTx5p-AZhPJKDyqpAXcVg1jRdpEezxeIQtTaklaWs9f2wXFo-hmZx9TsFRoCDmEQAvD_BwE

So that's what, £3.29 a month for 2 years currently for "plus". For standard you can knock a quid off that.

And that's not waiting for the big f*ck off deals.

pblakeney

"2-year plan (£3.29/mo) + 3 EXTRA months
£88.932-year plan (£3.29/mo) + 3 EXTRA months
£88.93"

As I said, dearer than ES and you have to put up with adverts and foreign language.

rick_chasey

pblakeney said:

"2-year plan (£3.29/mo) + 3 EXTRA months
£88.932-year plan (£3.29/mo) + 3 EXTRA months
£88.93"

As I said, dearer than ES and you have to put up with adverts and foreign language.

https://auth.discoveryplus.com/gb/product?flow=purchase

It isn't though, is it?

And, for the record most state broadcasters don't show ads during the sports. Rai, NOS and Sporza don't.

daniel_b

jimmythecuckoo said:

I posted my thoughts on this on "X". With hindsight this seems ineveitable.

Once Discovery/Warner bought GCN and then didn't increase subs it was a data harvest and a subscription buying exercise.

Give them access cheap and then when there are enough of them hooked close it down, consolidate costs into one app and one platform but increase the cost to get those losses back.

Simple. Effective.

But will it be though?

I suspect they will lose a percentage of current subscribers altogether, some will take up the full offer for 12 months, whilst others (I reckon a fair percentage) will just take out a sub for 6 months of the year, which is less than a 5% increase in revenue for them - on those customers.

Also before GCN+/Racepass there were ways and means to watch race content online, and there still will be those avenues should people choose to go down them.

It's a shame they never told us how many people subscribed to the app, I'd love to know.

pangolin

pblakeney said:

"2-year plan (£3.29/mo) + 3 EXTRA months
£88.932-year plan (£3.29/mo) + 3 EXTRA months
£88.93"

As I said, dearer than ES and you have to put up with adverts and foreign language.

That's for 2 years. Where are you getting ES for cheaper than £44.50 a year?

rick_chasey

pangolin said:

pblakeney said:

"2-year plan (£3.29/mo) + 3 EXTRA months
£88.932-year plan (£3.29/mo) + 3 EXTRA months
£88.93"

As I said, dearer than ES and you have to put up with adverts and foreign language.

That's for 2 years. Where are you getting ES for cheaper than £44.50 a year?

Yeah. I mean, a) we're quoting Nord VPN Plus prices, not Nord VPN standard.

Nord VPN standard is £2.39 a month, and the cheapest I can see a disco subbie is £7 a month, so I have no idea where PB got the idea ES is cheaper?

pblakeney

Different people, different circumstance, different preferences, different solutions.

pangolin

pblakeney said:

Different people, different circumstance, different preferences, different solutions.

Right so a "solution" in that you already have it. Cheers.

TheBigBean

I'm clearly the loser here. I have Virgin, Discovery and a VPN.

r0bh

I don't think you should rely on using a VPN to access foreign broadcasters; BBC block VPN access to iPlayer, for example, and there's every chance that Rai, Sporza etc might start doing this too

rick_chasey

r0bh said:

I don't think you should rely on using a VPN to access foreign broadcasters; BBC block VPN access to iPlayer, for example, and there's every chance that Rai, Sporza etc might start doing this too

Yeah there are ways around that though.

thegreatdivide

pblakeney said:

Different people, different circumstance, different preferences, different solutions.

I have the same (mine runs out on the 18/07/24). However Eurosport probably wont exist by the end of 2024. The TNT/Euro merger into one entity is already in progress so will these passes roll over at the end of their current periods? I don't think they will - but we'll see...

pblakeney

pangolin said:

pblakeney said:

Different people, different circumstance, different preferences, different solutions.

Right so a "solution" in that you already have it. Cheers.

Yes, but one that is likely to change.
At that point I will look for other solutions. They are unlikely to include a VPN.

stage_hunter

jimmythecuckoo said:

I posted my thoughts on this on "X". With hindsight this seems ineveitable.

Once Discovery/Warner bought GCN and then didn't increase subs it was a data harvest and a subscription buying exercise.

Give them access cheap and then when there are enough of them hooked close it down, consolidate costs into one app and one platform but increase the cost to get those losses back.

Simple. Effective.

Discovery owned GCN before GCN +. They owned a majority of the shares over a year before the GCB subs kicked in