GrainBrain

​​​​​​​... Well, uh, I guess I have to figure out Eurosport or something? I've been out of the loop a bit and just got this email. What a bummer I kind of liked having a random race streaming in the background - but I also started to wonder just how long they could do this.

staehpj1

Wow, that is a shame. Hopefully something will take it's place for the US viewer. I have gotten used to having access to live coverage to so much of the racing calendar.

When I last checked Flobikes wasn't looking like much of a deal compared to GCN. With GCN out of the picture, I'll have to take another look. How is the commentary on Flobikes? Are they the way to go?

diphthong

definite bummer as they did a nice job. had a subscription for three years and watched, roughly, 4-5 races/stages along with maybe the same amount of previews/features during those three years.
believed in the "project" so supported it during that time even tho there was little interaction on my part. cancelled approx 6 months ago as part of a subscription-based services downsizing.

blacknbluebikes 

I used them one season but didn't return. Maybe that's an example of the economics underlying the termination. As an alternative, my VPN service helps me become a European viewer and get the local streaming feeds.

Chicago Al 

We are very disappointed in this. Over the last few years, GCN+ (and a VPN) has become the main thing we watch on TV during the bike racing season...which turns out to be much longer than we started with. I *think* that the GCN racing coverage/commentary on major races will still be available on Discovery+ or Eurosport, though certainly with ads. The many, many short features, news stories, and documentaries they've produced may turn up somewhere. I sure hope so, but I don't think there will be any more. I really doubt we're going to be able to find all the same content and all the races though, no matter what we subscribe to. GCN+ turned out to be a bargain for what they provided.

I don't think the problem was with viewership, which was up substantially, from what they were reporting. It's just another move by a mega-corp, seeing value in demolishing one tiny part of their lineup because it somehow didn't fit their plan. In particular this stinks of the management style of WB's CEO David Zaslav, probably the worst of the moguls in the entertainment industry. Among his other hits lately: attempting to shut down the Family Movie Channel (formerly Turner Classic Movies) until a group of major directors including Scorsese, Coppola, Tarantino, Speilberg, very publicly called him out. And it's not even necessarily a matter of what is making or losing money: WB has been taking movies that are already completed and shelving them because there's some tax advantage to it. BTW Zaslav has routinely appeared on a list of most overpaid CEO's, because despite all his genius moves to increase his own salary, shareholder value has not increased.

Things have really been looking up lately for bike racing, with exciting new talent, a renewed focus on womens' races, and obviously all this wonderful video content. So the loss of GCN+, the best single place to see it all, is a huge blow to the sport.

rsbob 

TIZ cycling might fill in some gaps: https://tiz-cycling-live.io/livestream.php

Chicago Al 

To amplify what I posted above, here's a (long) article from the NY Times Magazine last week about the carnage David Zaslav has left at WB, which owns Discovery. In fact Zaslav made his bones by turning Discovery from, as the article says, a niche network for documentaries to a reality-TV powerhouse. To the people under him, tasked with cutting everything and everywhere, GCN+ viewership, hell the entirety of cycling fandom worldwide, wouldn't even amount to a rounding error.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/m...smid=url-share

diphthong

cycling fandom in the united states definitely resembles that rounding error remark.

slcbob

I remain in mourning.

I'm not holding my breath that Discovery will make anything available to the US market. But they still own all the rights (or most of them) and will be putting out all that content via Discovery + and/or Eurosport to the European market. I guess I will have to get better at VPNing.

It seems GCN continues apart from GCN+. I'm still not sure what the difference is and where, for example, those myriad movies they had +/- made will reside in the post-Dec 19 bikepocalypse. We shall see.

Here's the sad news from Dan and Simon.

Shadco 

Where am I going to get my Dani Christmas fix now?

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Chicago Al 

The Cycling Podcast* covered the GCN+ story pretty well, with some of the business background. One point I strongly agreed with was that it was too cheap---$49/yr for all that race coverage was crazy! I suspect that like so many digital businesses, the idea was to throw money at it, create a great product while running losses, then once they had a solid base of users, boost the price to make it profitable. And I for one would have been happy to pay 2x for what we were getting. (Hopefully they wouldn't have done what so many such ventures do: start cutting the quality, in the process Corey Doctorow calls 'en****ification.') But for the C suite at WB, it looked better on the balance sheet *right now* to simply cut it rather than follow through whatever the plan had been.

*We just found that podcast and like it a lot, though it's very insider-y--but we understand what they're talking about! We have become pretty hardcore fans, and GCN+ has played a big part in that.

Chicago Al 

https://www.bicycling.com/news/a4601...efore-its-gone

khan

Anybody figure out how to subscribe to Discovery Plus UK? I can get there with a VPN but, when I try to add a payment method, I get blocked for location mismatch, ie, vpn puts me in the UK but, payment method shows me in (I guess) the US. I've tried Paypal and credit card. Either one gets show down.

jsxcsnow

Seems that both Discovery Plus UK and Eurosport require a payment address in the UK. Been trying for 2 years without any luck.

slcbob

Now it seems some shell of GCN+ race coverage will be available to the US market via the Max streaming service. Formerly HBOMax? +/- some extra sports add on?

https://press.wbd.com/us/media-relea...d=ufz7sncdyv2l

It still may be easier to put the touch on my UK kin to navigate the Discovery+ sign up.

staehpj1

Also see https://www.bicycling.com/news/a4612...4-hbo-max-gcn/

unterhausen

We have Max, but I guess the streaming service is separate?

Chicago Al 

Well, looks like we'll have to have Max AND their special sports package, but that won't cover all the races, in fact it's mainly the Giro and Italian classics. To get what we've been watching on GCN+ (admittedly with a VPN), we'll also need Peacock for the TdF and Flobikes for the Flanders Classics. Not sure on the Vuelta. [EDIT: La Vuelta is on Peacock.] It's going to be far more expensive, and also just a lot of hassle to find which race is where. Thankfully though, for at least some of the major races, we'll still get the GCN/Eurosport commentators and 'Breakaway' shows.
Also, I haven't seen anything about where the womens' races will be available.

https://escapecollective.com/max-str...rage-for-2024/

Meanwhile, we've been bingeing the GCN documentaries, as those may disappear forever. We highly recommend 'Unbound' and 'Zero to Hero,' but really all of them we've watched have been fun.

jsxcsnow

I agree with all you have said. I've also been watching lots of the documentaries. What worries me about "Max", all it says is live. Nothing about replays or on demand. Right now on Max you can only watch live sports. No replays and you can't download.
I've also heard the price of MAX sports is going up in March. At the moment it's included. I really want to know if they will have replays or the service is useless for me.

slcbob

Ok, then. Discovery + it is.

Thanks for the catalog triage, Chicago Al . I have not been exploiting the hospice period but may squeeze in a few in the remaining days.

staehpj1

What will that cost by the time you get Discovery + and a VPN connection? Also there is the issue of signing up for Discovery + from the US with a US credit card. It just doesn't seem like the way to go for me, but maybe if you have a close friend/relative in the UK or something...

Chicago Al 

Cillian Kelly's Twitter account got dozens, maybe hundreds, of replies when he announced the GCN+ closure on Nov 15th. He offered to answer any questions he could, but that has so far not turned out to be much. It's still unclear where the documentaries will land, though they are apparently not part of the Discovery deal so maybe there's some hope. He did have a very clear answer to questions about whether GCN+ just wasn't getting enough viewership:


Honestly, looking at the prospect of having to have multiple subscriptions in order to get probably-not-the-same amount of coverage and certainly not the same quality, or the other content, I am looking for a workaround. (Admittedly, the GCN+ app required a VPN to get all the content.) It's not so much the money--though that's going to be outrageous by the time you add it all up--it's the hassle of having multiple platforms and subscriptions, multiple apps and sign-ins with all their potential tech issues, updates, etc. And let's face it...race commentators are not all created equal.

It appears that for the UK/Ireland market at least, Discovery+ still has all three Grand Tours and most of the classics and monuments, and they'll keep rolling with the regular commentators as well as Orla and the boys, even Cillian! for 'The Breakaway.' So that's probably the way to get the closest possible experience to what GCN+ offered. But a US (or Canada) Discovery+ subscription won't get you any of that cycling content. And you can't subscribe to Discovery+ UK unless you have a payment method linked to a UK address. (Probably similar for EU countries, with some local restrictions.) So it seems I need a UK or Irish friend who'd subscribe to Discovery+ for me...

Shadco 

So I will be reaching out to my British friends. Guess I will keep my vpn sub.

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redtires

FWIW, I tried a free trial of D+ in the U.S. then attempted to log in via a UK VPN last night, but it wouldn't recognize my username/PW, so it would seem they have those separated geographically. I have Peacock, which actually covers quite a few races to include the TdF, Vuelta, TDU, Paris-Niece and some of the spring classics. I don't if I'll look too seriously at Flo...between YT, a VPN and Peacock, I'll probably be able to see most of what I want.

slcbob

It's my understanding that you need a UK-origin account, not just an IP location. So I would have expected you to fail like it seems you did.

I am certain that you must sign up from a UK IP for a Discovery UK account. And then continue to access it from a UK IP.

I am hoping that:
1) they are not too overzealous on VPN blocking.
2) the "must have a UK address on your credit card" thing I heard is really "must have a UK form of payment." I have a UK bank card but it links to my US address. The whole Discovery account address vs. payment card address thing. I would prefer to do that ask them a UK relative to pay for me and I reimburse. Though that is an option, as is trying to pay through Amazon.co.uk or UK PayPal.

I'll get this done in a bit. Probably early Jan. If anyone goes through the click-through before then and can shed any light on those issues or others, please do.