Watching World Cup skiing in the US on TV... ??

[mcpowell]

I have been trying to figure this out for weeks. Came across the NBC sports gold thing this morning and was extremely disappointed as it looks like that’s the only way to watch races in the US. I came here to post/whine about it and found this thread. I would consider paying an extra $30 or $40 if it was an actual television channel where I could DVR the events and watch them at a reasonable hour on my big screen. That is about what I paid extra to have the Olympic Channel last year for the six months of the world cup season. Streaming on my phone or little iPad for $70 just isn’t going to cut it.

I'm not sure if someone else covered this as I haven't read the whole thread. But if you can stream it on your iphone/ipad and you have an Apple TV, you can "mirror" the stream to your big tv (assuming the Apple TV is connected to your big tv). My teenager showed me how. It doesn't solve the DVR issue, but at least you can watch it on the TV, and the quality is good.

 

[4ster]

Someone was live streaming their TV on youtube.. just caught the tail end of the race.. Apparently they'll have the mens later.

Dang, wish I had caught that. The NBC video police are on it because the video is no longer there. I have been searching trying to find something similar this morning to no avail. Luckily I have not seen any results yet. But my curiosity is getting the better of me.

 

[Blue Streak]

Done.
If anyone here on the Front Range wants to come over for a race, send me a PM.
I’m not going back up, until we get some more terrain open.
And since there is no Bronco game, this is a good weekend.

 

[Blue Streak]

And before someone corrects me, I know they are playing the Chiefs. But, like I said, there is no Broncos game.

 

[Tony S]

Okay, so I bought the snow pass and have now watched both runs of the women's GS at Sőlden. Cool. But NO commentary whatsoever? . Subtitles would be fine, btw, NBC. Pretty much lines up with all my past experience of this stuff, like @4ster said.

That snow looked super tough, btw. The late runners were just getting jackhammered on that steep pitch, and then it looked like the snow was slow on the flat.

 

[4ster]

Run 1

There is link to Run 2 in this thread
https://www.pugski.com/threads/worl...t-this-party-started.11885/page-2#post-277723

 

[Rudi Riet]

Okay, so I bought the snow pass and have now watched both runs of the women's GS at Sőlden. Cool. But NO commentary whatsoever? . Subtitles would be fine, btw, NBC. Pretty much lines up with all my past experience of this stuff, like @4ster said.

That snow looked super tough, btw. The late runners were just getting jackhammered on that steep pitch, and then it looked like the snow was slow on the flat.

As I said on the Sölden thread: I love the commentary free, just-the-racing coverage. I prefer it to the NBCSN commentary, and while I find Porino, Miller, Lewis, et al to be good for those who aren't as deep into alpine racing and who need a primer, I find most of their commentary too simplistic (and often too sensationalist) for my ears. I understand that alpine ski racing isn't an everyday sport for a U.S. audience, but even the Eurosport UK commentary is a few steps above that of the NBCSN crew's approach.

So color me impressed and satisfied with the NBC Sports Gold Snow Package. It's exactly what I wanted: just the skiing, every racer, the full video pool feed in raw form. You don't miss a second of any run, you get to see the full pre-race coverage (including the POV camera run), the full post-race ceremony, etc. You get to hear the crowd and the venue announcers drumming up the excitement (not really necessary to rouse the crowd in Austria, but still it's cool to hear).

And that I can also watch my faves in the nordic sports (e.g. the Four Hills jumping competition), that's even better.

Just my $0.02 - YMMV.

And yes, the snow looked awful. The cross-ruts in the second run proved the undoing of most racers, especially the top ten. The cream definitely rose to the top: those who weren't intimidated by the conditions, and who threw it down.

 

[Dwight]

I dvr'd the races on tv.youtube.com. Actually forgot about the womens event, but watched the taped video to make sure it worked. Later in the day tried to watch it and always showed live NBCOlympic channel. So don't know if it really tapes for me or not.

Caved and purchased the $60 Snow package instead.

 

[Teppaz]

As I said on the Sölden thread: I love the commentary free, just-the-racing coverage. I prefer it to the NBCSN commentary, and while I find Porino, Miller, Lewis, et al to be good for those who aren't as deep into alpine racing and who need a primer, I find most of their commentary too simplistic (and often too sensationalist) for my ears. I understand that alpine ski racing isn't an everyday sport for a U.S. audience, but even the Eurosport UK commentary is a few steps above that of the NBCSN crew's approach.

So color me impressed and satisfied with the NBC Sports Gold Snow Package. It's exactly what I wanted: just the skiing, every racer, the full video pool feed in raw form. You don't miss a second of any run, you get to see the full pre-race coverage (including the POV camera run), the full post-race ceremony, etc. You get to hear the crowd and the venue announcers drumming up the excitement (not really necessary to rouse the crowd in Austria, but still it's cool to hear).

And that I can also watch my faves in the nordic sports (e.g. the Four Hills jumping competition), that's even better.

Just my $0.02 - YMMV.

And yes, the snow looked awful. The cross-ruts in the second run proved the undoing of most racers, especially the top ten. The cream definitely rose to the top: those who weren't intimidated by the conditions, and who threw it down.

Totally agree: I love the zen feel of the commentary-free broadcast and the ability to see every racer!

BTW I'm not sure if anybody's mentioned it but Steve Porino said on Twitter the reason the Austrian races are missing from the Olympics Channel/NBCSports is due to the high broadcast rates set by Austria. I'm not sure how that explains that they can be part of NBC's Snow Pass but there you go. We bit the bullet and got the Snow Pass and are happy with it so far — we have it set up via our Roku box.

 

[Teppaz]

As of 9:20pm EST the Lake Louise downhill isn’t on the Snow Pass replay. Anybody else has this problem? Both Killington runs were on replay as soon as they were over today.

 

[Dwight]

Just rewatched/fast forwarded the Nbc tv version of the women's slalom. Glad i purchased the gold package. They sure dont show much skiing.

 

[BrianB]

As of 9:20pm EST the Lake Louise downhill isn’t on the Snow Pass replay. Anybody else has this problem? Both Killington runs were on replay as soon as they were over today.

I was looking forward to watching the LL downhill on NBC Gold after spending the day at Killington. It was disappointing that the replay was not available. I gave up and watched on NBC Sports app. It was a 1hour broadcast and they spent almost the first 15 minutes talking about Lindsey Vonn and showing the awards ceremony from Killington and then only showed what seemed like 12 or 13 racers. Hoping the same thing doesn’t happen next week for Birds of Prey.

 

[dbostedo]

^^^
I watched a lot of the downhill replay on the Olympic channel, and yes they talked about Vonn, but they certainly showed more racers than that.

I was watching on the DVR though so I skipped through anything that wasn't racing. Maybe it was more onerous than it appeared.

 

[BrianB]

In hindsight, my post was not really fair to NBC. In the downhill, the first start was not until 15 minutes after the broadcast began so obviously they needed to show something during those 15 minutes and then if the racers are starting at (I think) 2 & 1/2 minute intervals for the early starters, there is only a limited number of athletes they can show in the remaining 45 minutes. And even if the NBC Sports Gold replay had been posted, they are probably going to post the TV broadcast replay because advertisers would not want customers to have the alternative of watching a commercial free raw feed. It would still be nice if there were a way to see more of the race though. I guess it is a different situation for the first runs of tech events, which have no TV broadcast.

 

[Dwight]

I was looking forward to watching the LL downhill on NBC Gold after spending the day at Killington. It was disappointing that the replay was not available. I gave up and watched on NBC Sports app. It was a 1hour broadcast and they spent almost the first 15 minutes talking about Lindsey Vonn and showing the awards ceremony from Killington and then only showed what seemed like 12 or 13 racers. Hoping the same thing doesn’t happen next week for Birds of Prey.

I have it on the gold package. I have viewed a few times. I use the NBCSports Gold app.

 

[BrianB]

Both LL events now appear in my NBC gold list. Both showing raw feed without TV commentary. All is good. Just need to be more patient about waiting for the replays. It was wrong to jump to conclusions.

 

[Tricia]

As recommended in another thread, as well as this thread, I bought the NBC Snow Gold Pass and now the Pugski.com home offices(literally home offices) can watch World Cup Ski events seamlessly.

I'm with @4ster. As many of us as can, sign up to watch WC and maybe it will become easier and easier for everyone to watch.

 

[Rudi Riet]

FYI: I asked NBC why they aren't showing the parallel GS from Alta Badia on Snow Pass. Seems strange that a World Cup event would be left off said service.

No response, as yet.

 

[Moose32]

http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2...f-2018-19-fis-alpine-skiing-world-cup-season/

Thanks for posting this link - very helpful. I don't know the exact details, but I think the broadcasting rates for the Austrian events are very high and thus difficult to show now in the US. Looks like NBC stepped it up for the Hahnenkamm (same day delay) but all others are only through Spots Gold - this is a major issue. In my mind the flagship events are the Kitzbuhel races and the Schladming Night Slalom. I went to these events last year in-person, but can't swing it this year. This is something Tiger Shaw needs to solve - especially with the Xfinity patches now on the ski team jacket.

 

[Rudi Riet]

This is something Tiger Shaw needs to solve - especially with the Xfinity patches now on the ski team jacket.

I'm not sure how much sway Tiger will have over the broadcast availability of the Austrian events, even with Comcast as a team sponsor. It seems that the organizers of Kitzbühel and Schladming entered into an exclusive OTA and cable live broadcast situation, while leaving online streams more open. Thus why the NBC Sports Gold Snow Pass will get live coverage of these races: different terms of service.

Hopefully it's only a one year hiccup.