Figure skating on TV this season

The first GP event is less than a month away now. I've been wondering if we have to worry about coverage of competitions again this season here in the US, and CA (I know you lucky little biyaches is JP don't have to worry about this ) I've tried to find out when (or if) competitions will be aired, but have found nothing yet. On icenetwork, they usually have everything that's going to be on tv for the upcoming season on their tv schedule page. Right now they have a bunch of ice shows, but not one competition. Not even nationals. This has me worried...

Some of us in the US get CBC like me. I have checked to see when they will be airing skating also, and haven't found anything on them either. It's probably a safer bet on them over NBC airing more, if any skating this season. It's been really nice having both networks though. Sometimes one would cover a competition that the other didn't.

Anyway, anyone know anything on this yet?

Star85, I'm in the US too and we'll actually get NBC coverage! :O Craziness!

2010 ISU Grand Prix Series Schedule on NBC
(all times ET, check your local listings for times in your area)

Sunday, Oct. 31 - NHK Trophy (Japan) - 4-6 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 6 - Skate Canada International - 4-6 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 14 - Skate America - 4-6 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 21 - Rostelecom Cup (Russia) - 2-4 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 28 - Trophee Eric Bompard (France) - 2-4 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 12 - ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final (China) - 12-2 p.m.

A detailed broadcast schedule for Universal Sports will be released at a later date.

NBC Sports and Universal Sports will both televise the 2011 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and Universal Sports will have coverage of the 2011 ISU World Figure Skating Championships, which take place March 21-27 in Nagano, Japan.

Here's the link: http://www.usfigureskating.org/Story.asp?id=45046&type=media

Most of the coverage is coming from Universal Sports, isn't it?

I'm personally happy about this however, because less skating on NBC = more coverage on IN. And since IN's subscription rate went up, I certainly hope the stream is better this season!
Looks like we'll have to switch back and forth between IN and NBC for US Nats again though.

ETA: I loved how the article swiftly edited how Worlds is being held from Nagano next year to Tokyo.

Yeah, NBC is showing a little bit (probably recaps, heavily edited) while Universal Sports will show much more. I've never gotten an IN subscription..do you think it's worth it?

bellarina wrote:

Yeah, NBC is showing a little bit (probably recaps, heavily edited) while Universal Sports will show much more. I've never gotten an IN subscription..do you think it's worth it?

It's...satisfactory. I'd put it in the C+/B- range.

Russian WebTV does a much better job regarding the GP series, which is where IN continues to struggle season after season with unstable streams and/or blackouts. There's going to be a 1Mbps option starting this season apparently, so some subscribers are hoping the stream will be more stable this season...but I guess we'll find out soon enough.

What IN does well is in its coverage of US Nats and Regionals+Sectionals where it covers everyone including juniors and novice skaters. Whether the subscription is worth it will ultimately come down to this part, since IN doesn't include Worlds in its streams (which skatebuzz and Radio Canada do a better job doing, anyway).

Oh wow, that's more coverage than we got last year! I definitely wasn't expecting this! Hm, I wonder why I couldn't find that article when I searched for this... I never thought to check the US figure skating page, cause they always send you to icenetwork to see the tv schedule. Plus I thought anything like that should come up in my search. Guess I should have checked (duh!). Not to mention, I know from personal experience that icenetwork is stingee about info regarding where you can see figure skating anywhere else besides their site, unless they have to (seems like they would have to mention NBC though...)

Is an icenetwork subscription worth it? I've never thought so. Then again, I get CBC, so in the last few seasons where coverage has been getting cut back a lot, CBC made up for it. I think all comcast customers get CBC. We get universal sports as well. I don't know about icenetwork as a whole, but I do know this: the people who run the forum were a bunch of jerks to me. I was very careful not to break any rules, but they went against their own rules when they didn't like what I had to say, and they started deleting my posts, then finally banned me. They even sent me a nasty email. lol. They did this to some other people too. So I boycott buying a subscription from them until the day until I absolutely have to (and hopefully that sad day will never come).

The only upside to icenetwork is if you are interested in watching smaller competitions like regionals, and if you want to watch the competitions live. All the GP dates will be on tv a few days after they are over:


Event Location Date Begin Date End
2010 NHK Trophy Nagoya, Japan October 22, 2010 October 24, 2010
2010 Skate Canadal Kingston, Ontario October 29, 2010 October 31, 2010
2010 Cup of China Beijing, China Novemver 5, 2010 November 7, 2010
2010 Skate America Portland, Oregon November 12, 2010 November 14, 2010
2010 Rostelecom Cup Moscow, Russia November 19, 2010 November 21, 2010
2010 Trophée Eric Bompard Paris, France November 26, 2010 November 28, 2010
2010-2011 Grand Prix Final Beijing, China December 9, 2010 December 12, 2010

I've heard a lot of complaints about technical issues on their live coverage though.

So I just heard about this:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2011/25/c7444.html

Does this mean that CBC will no longer be the channel they air figure skating on in Canada? I hope not! Many people do get CBC here in the US, and NOT CTV... And I DO watch Canadian figure skating coverage as well as US coverage. They air some competitions they don't on nbc/universal sports.

Star85 wrote:

So I just heard about this:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2011/25/c7444.html

Does this mean that CBC will no longer be the channel they air figure skating on in Canada? I hope not! Many people do get CBC here in the US, and NOT CTV... And I DO watch Canadian figure skating coverage as well as US coverage. They air some competitions they don't on nbc/universal sports.

Woohoo!! There'll be French coverage on RDS!! Sorry... that kinda means recognition as a "sport" here in Quebec.

They seem to be talking only about domestic events though... maybe CBC will keep broadcasting international ones, like GP events, Worlds, etc.? Let's see. I'm sorry for you guys in the US who only get CBC, but for us, it means going from one broadcaster to three (or four, if you get TSN2 like me! ) That's pretty awesome. Can't wait to see what kind of schedule they will keep however... I'd be very surprised to see some figure skating on prime time on RDS.

Well if cbc does keep some figure skating I will be happy, but I will be disappointed if I don't get to watch nationals any more. I do enjoy getting to see two different nationals on tv.

NBC SPORTS, UNIVERSAL SPORTS, U.S. FIGURE SKATING ANNOUNCE BROADCAST SCHEDULE FOR 2011 ISU GRAND PRIX SERIES

http://www.usfsa.org/Story.asp?id=46360&type=media

Says we will get lots of coverage of the GP series, and nationals. But no mention of worlds... hm.

I do't have NBC nor universal sport but if i want to see it live on the net will it cost money or will it be for free???

ballerinamao wrote:

I do't have NBC nor universal sport but if i want to see it live on the net will it cost money or will it be for free???

The article says "subscription" with universal sports online, so I guess it's not free .

oh well but it's better then nothing lool I just hop0e i can trust the subscribtion thing and have it work when i ave to pay for it..