I realize live streaming for the Grand Prix is not an option this year, how about giving us a chance to watch 7 days following an event without knowing who wins first. Maybe instead of putting breaking news at the home page of the site and pictures of the winners on the videos, have pictures of popular skaters who are compeating at the event? I realzie some people may check this site and want to watch knowing who wins, so place the information about the winners under the results tab so that those who want to can watch 7 days after the event without knowing who wins first.  

As long as the results were easy to find, I would be OK with this.  I think that sometimes, it's hard to negotiate the U.S. Figure Skating website and the icenetwork website.   It would have to be idiot-proof, because I am an idiot when it comes to online media.

 

However, we have to remember that the results of skating competitions is news, even though it doesn't make the 6:00 broadcast or the front pages of the sports page. I question whether it's wise  to "hide" news.  News belongs to everyone, not just a few fans. 

 

So I can see doing a "Spoiler" approach on the website--"RESULTS OF LATEST COMPETITION A SHOCKER--MORE INSIDE!"  That would entice fans and webcruisers to check it out. 

 

 

 

 

 

This is also a news site. Therefore, we will not be changing any formatting. However, I'd suggest bookmarking this page and bypassing the homepage if you'd like to avoid results:

http://web.icenetwork.com/video/

Thank you that is great advice!

I think you should learn more about IN before being so critical of them.

 

Have you ever seen any Icenetwork people at competitions?  They're just kids!  (Compared to me).  They're wearing jeans and t-shirts as they run around the competition, and they're there early in the morning until the wee hours, and there only seem to be a few of them, not a vast army!   It looks to me like IN is a very small "company" of people who are doing this icenetwork thing on a shoestring budget, and not making much money out of it.   It's not a huge network that has been around since the beginning of television, with millions of dollars from sponsors.  I doubt any of the icenetwork people get a living wage from IN;  I'm guessing that most of them have a "day job", so of course that means that they don't have a lot of time.  

 

A disaster like Sandy is bad enough for a big company, but for a small, poor company like IN, it means mayhem.  I'm just glad they are not busted after the storm.

 

And the charge for IN is only $35 a year--that's not even a week's worth of value baskets at Culvers!  It's cheap.  We figure skating families are used to spending a hundred dollars a week (more for elite skaters) on just the practice ice. 

 

Whether we like it or not, the sport of figure skating does not attract the big rich sponsors (e.g., Budweiser) that football, basketball, and baseball attract here in the U.S.  It's a "niche sport," and that means that relatively few people are watching it these days.  IMO, those of us who DO watch the sport need to be willing to step up and INVEST financially in the sport.  To me, this includes spending the tiny fee on icenetwork, not because we get a fantastic product right now, but because this technology is developing and in the not-so-far-off future, THIS is no doubt the way we will watch most of our sports, especially the niche sports--online.  We need to help them develop IN.

 

If there are other online networks that are doing a better job of broadcasting figure skating, wonderful.  This means competition, which always means a better product.   I hope that figure skating fans on this forum will continue to promote the other online services besides IN that broadcast figure skating so that the rest of us can invest in these companies, too. 

 

I don't think some of you remember what we had BEFORE IN and the other online broadcast companies.  We had a few hours of Senior Nationals--around six hours, and a few hours of Senior Worlds, and that's IT.  No Sectionals, ever.  No levels other than Senior . No adult competitions.  No Ice Theatre, and no Synchro, ever, even though precision skating has been around for over 50 years and has had a World Championships for 12 years.  

 

And the big networks never aired the entire competition--they just showed a few skaters, usually six, and usually only three of the ice dance teams.  Instead of showing more competitors, they filled in the time with stupid "fluff stories" and music videos and in the old days, interviews with the champions (which are not necessary nowadays because all the champions have websites and do the social media that allows us to get to know them on a day to day basis).    It was so frustrating--only a decade ago, these forums were filled with posts from people wondering why NBC or ABC didn't show more skaters, or didn't show a certain pairs or dance team, and of course, WHY didn't the networks ever show precision skating! 

 

So IMO, IN is a vast improvement for the figure skating fans, in spite of the inadequacies. 

 

I hope that IN will correct me if my surmises about them are incorrect! :)

This is not accurate, but thanks for the support.

This is the deal: The broadcast deal this year does not let us show the GP events until seven days after the event ends. This is due to Universal Sports deal with DirectTV and the ISU.

On Regionals: Videos are encoded on site and have to be shipped back to us. Many locations shipped videos back to us late, this was further compounded by the storm. Icenetwork's broadcast partner, MLB Advanced Media's offices are located in Chelsea Market in downtown New York City -- this is where icenetwork employees work - Sandy flooded that area and knocked out power for a week. Making the delay in those videos longer than expected.

And, as clearly stated in every piece of literature about the Season Pass -- save Skate America -- ALL GP events will be shown seven days later. We have no control over this. This is the guidelines set forth by NBC Universal.

That doesn't entirely solve the problem, because if you go just to the video page - bypassing the home page - once you click on the event you want to see there are spoilers there as well. 

1.  The headlines under the results title reveal who won - or at least hint at it.

2.  The photos chosen for the borders are nearly always of the event winners.  So if you see Ashley Wagner in the margins, you know she won that event.

That's not about the news, because people seeking news are getting that somewhere else on the site - like the home page.  People who buy the subscription for the videos are getting spoilers.

I'll add, that I understand that IN is ALSO a news feed, but it is ALSO the figure skating fanatic's YouTube.  I subscribe to IN for the videos and don't want to feel like my enjoyment of the site is secondary to its utility to news hounds - who frankly, can just go online for all the results, except for regional competitions.  I'm sure there's a compromise balance that IN can put in place that respects the video viewer who is trying to avoid spoilers.