Hooray for YouTube
Being in Morocco where figure skating is, well, non-existent, meant my viewing options were limited for Worlds. So… I watched the whole competition on YouTube. This is a big shout out to all the folks who posted performances to YouTube for fans like me to watch. Just hours after the competition finished I could view most of the performances in the comfort of my Moroccan riad.
Okay, there are some drawbacks. For starters, you have to watch the programs in low res on a tiny screen. But there are advantages too: you can choose which performances you want to watch when, there are no commercials, and you get snippets of international commentary. Plus, I heard that CBC’s coverage of Worlds in Canada was so pitiful that I’d have had to watch it between midnight and 2 pm.
Small screen aside… maybe YouTube viewing is the way of the future.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Hi Julie
Your blog showed up on my Google Alerts for FS and I was so annoyed by your comment about CBC in the above commentary that I felt I had to reply.
Here’s some background info on CBC’s situation that may help you see that in fact their coverage was spectacular.
CBC was the *only* broadcaster in Canada willing to go into a contract with the ISU to show Worlds. No other broadcaster was interested. As we all know CBC doesn’t have much money, and the ISU wasn’t willing to accept what CBC could afford to offer. Negotiations went on for months, and finally (I’m guessing here) the ISU caved. I’m guessing the ISU caved because I don’t imagine CBC got an extra infusion of cash from the fairy godmother. By the time they came to an agreement CBC had all it’s advertising in place for the prime time hours. FS is a completely different demographic and they would go to completely different advertisers when showing FS. Hence they couldn’t show FS during weekday evenings, *but at least they showed it!!!!!* even if it was at midnight. If it wasn’t for CBC and their persistence we would have had *no* coverage of Worlds at all in Canada. And anyway don’t most people have a DVR or VCR or Tivo. I do agree that it would have been wonderful for attracting new fans to have had it on earlier in the evening, especially with Canada doing so well. But CBC did the best they could under the circumstances.
Also - maybe you’ve not caught up with this yet since you’ve recently arrived back in the country but CBC showed *The Entire Competition - Every Skater in Every Phase of the Competition!* on their digital network Country Canada. Most people have digital service available so there were many FS fans like me who lived on Swedish time for the week and watched the whole thing. It was just about as good as being there. CBC coverage pitiful? You’ve got to be kidding! It was spectacular!
One last thing. On the regular network the commentators were Scott Russell (he’s ok in a jock anchor kind of way), Kurt Browning (who’s pretty good as an FS commentator) and Tracy Wilson. I’ve been following FS for over 20 years and I’ve heard commentators from USA Canada Australia and England. I have to say that IMHO Tracy Wilson is the best. She’s intelligent, articulate, knows the technical stuff and explains it well, she’s really done her homework and learned the new judging system, and she knows when to be quiet.
CBC have already announced that Worlds will be on in prime time next year. It is so easy to be critical, and I feel sorry for the person who told you CBC coverage was pitiful. They obviously really missed out. But you are someone who wants accreditation as a journalist. Perhaps it would be a good idea to do a little research in future.
I think CBC should be given huge props for what they did. (And no I don’t work for CBC. I’m just an ordinary FS fan who likes to know what’s going on.) Without them we would have had nothing. With them we got the entire competition. (which I have on tape BTW if you’re interested).
April 10th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
This is how pathetic it was. Apparently, the CBC was late on reaching a deal with the ISU to broadcast Worlds. As a result, they could only send Brenda Irving to Sweden, while Scott Russell, Tracey Wilson and Kurt Browning did commentary from Toronto. They (CBC) said they couldn’t rejig the schedule to make room for primetime viewing. This doesn’t jive, because Worlds is held the same time of year, you would think they could pencil it in for the third week of March. You could get live feed via Country Canada(now Bold), but not everyone gets or can afford a premium channel. The only saving grace was the live feed on the CBC website, but the picture quality isn’t up to snuff in comparison to tv. We did get to see the mens comp the same day at 1 p.m., their one saving grace.
It was pathetic, but in the States it was worse. It was broadcast on ESPN, and on ABC (mens and womens), but 2 days after the fact.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Thanks for your comment Alison. I’m glad the CBC has some diehard fans like yourself. For the most part I’m a fan too, especially of CBC Radio.
As you know, in previous years figure skating has appeared in prime time on the CBC. So, extenuating circumstances aside, I have to stick with my comment that coverage of an international sporting event from midnight to 2 am ranks as “pitiful”.
As for coverage on Country Canada… no one I know (including a plethora of skating fans) opted to pay for the digital channel just to see Worlds. The channel obviously wasn’t faring well, given its recent renaming to ‘bold’.
And should they have to when their tax money already goes to CBC programming? It’s not as though figure skating–especially Worlds–is an obscure event with no audience.
I do agree with you that Tracy Wilson does an excellent job. She’s a real professional.