GCN+ Ending
 

This is terrible news for those who used this for following races.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
 

Well this blows! making it that much harder and more expensive to watch CX content in the USA. The World Cup is already on a different pay channel @ $120 a year. Sadly this pushes folks to use YouTube to watch races. IMHO less than ideal. Eurosport need to get the rights to worldwide broadcasting of CX and other cycling disciplines.

First bass fishing, now this!... meh... :)

Another successful and profitable streaming service, killed off by their corporate overlords.

Why? Because it didn't "fit in with the new corporate strategy".

A tale as old as time.

They've never made a profit.

Do you have proof of that? I haven't seen their P&L anywhere.

The reason for the axe, as given in the GCN announcement video is "corporate strategy to provide more content in fewer places".

The outpouring of sympathy and grief on the GCN site is really something. All I ever read there was how much people hated it and how poor the site was. Of course the whiners are always the loudest. Was this whining? I hope so. :D

I do think this is a loss for the cycling community.

Now I have to binge-watch all those cool cycling documentaries I have been procrastinating on!!

What a sad day. GCN had great coverage and was a great value for the price. I will really miss it. The race coverage more than the documentaries, but they were good too.

It's going to the old days of VPN with a spoofed European ip and Eurosport.

If you enjoy racing, there is a vast catalogue on this site. TIZ . You can also occasionally catch live racing coverage as well during Euro timeframes.

What about Flobikes? Anyone use them? I balked at the price vs what they offered when GCN was available, but with GCN gone I plan to take another look.

I had issues with Flobikes that too many of the events were not available in my region ... even when I used VPN.

Can you say more about that? Where are you? US? Europe? What events? Given that they charge 3 times what GCN did I'd hope they'd have the events they list available to the US audience that they advertise to.

They black out a lot of stuff in the USA.

I believe that is because USA cycling owns the rights to UCI cycling broadcast in the USA and licenses it to the highest bidder. Which is why we have NBC Sports with exclusive to TdF. Flobikes has license to CX world cup in USA. Their pricing is crazy.
Tough times to be a fan living in the USA.

Flobikes shows their 2024 schedule, quite extensive. However, they don’t tell you what’s available in the US. At least GCN+ told you up front, and you could VPN other races not on the US schedule.

I am really annoyed at the price given that they aren't even upfront about what you will be getting. I hate buying a package where I don't even know what will be blocked out. I am not crazy about the idea of buying something that I have to essentially have to commit fraud by faking my location to use. It feels like they are essentially selling me something that I have to then steal. They'd have to provide a pretty good package to be worth what they charge, so if a substantial portion of the UCI races are blacked out it sounds really expensive.

I guess I will wait until the spring classics and see if the offerings have changed. In the mean time I may look into using vpn.

I will miss having GCN. So far I guess we still have whatever NBC and Peacock covers.

I am not seeing a viable alternative at this point. There are some other streaming channels that have the big races like TDF, but not other good races like Tour of Flanders. I think it’s going to be a blow to professional cycling with fewer people watching.

What the hell! I love the guys at GCN

They weren't charging enough money. simple math

Yeah. I've tried subscribing to Discovery + UK. VPN will get you there but, during subscribing they check for financial source and geo-restriction kicks in as a geo mismatch. I was hoping it would be that easy.

Probably because not enough people watched it or wanted to pay for it. That's usually how it works. Corporate overlords like to make money. They don't cancel things that do that.

Corporate overlords kill off profitable product lines every day of the week. The typical reason is a "shift in strategy", or some other corporate nonsense.

I had a successful software product, with millions in annual sales, which got acquired by a corporate overlord. They decided to "sunset" (choke to death) the product, because it didn't fit into their "product strategy".

Did anyone else get the email notification from GCN+ stating that Max will take over cycling coverage? What are your thoughts on the cost of the subscription fee? Do you plan on being a subscriber to the new service?