GCN+ to close

[jcrr]

This is devastating news for fans in North America. All those great cross races, Giro and semi-classics coverage from the start gun, etc. And no commercials during descents. Flo (I have a subscription with them also) is a joke . The thumbnails for many of their race videos is a picture of the winner with their arms in the air. They are that stupid.

I agree with your opinion of Flo. Oher than actual races, I feel like they overhype the content of whatever piece of footage they get, which annoys me.

B4 getting GCN+ I was finding CX races on youtube, so that may be a fall back option. However, for those of us that want to follow other non-road disciplines (XC, etc), this absolutely sucks. Redbull was a great option for that.

[spud]

Flo pissed me off with their bait and switch "$10/mo" pricing. When, in fact, they pop you for the entire $120 at once. They should at least be direct and honest about it - "$120/yr".

[BikeTyson]

I could be wrong, but from what it sounded like, they're just downsizing the separate apps into one single app. So here in the US they're getting rid of the separate GCN+ app and moving everything into Discovery +. So one subscription gets you Discovery, GCN, and Eurosport. But I don't know if that means all the races that were on GCN are now on Discovery. My guess is that it's going to be more expensive. And probably geo locked even more. So who knows if a VPN will work. And there's the possibility they get rid of a bunch of races altogether.

[micky]

Im not a subscriber, been using the Tiz website all these years but I was getting tired of the continue refreshing and wanted to get GCN for next year.
Now it seems that at least for Europe it will be included in the Eurosport/Discovery packages which haven't been very good for cycling fans and most importantly, they never had the coverage of GCN.

[bikeboy1tr]

I am wondering if we have gotton caught in the crossfire of the writers strike and the crackdown on streaming services which maybe cutting into profits of the movie industry. It could be that Disco and WB have had to combine streaming services to keep control as a result of negotiations to end the strike. We are a small group relatively speaking to target and control for streaming and it then appears as though Disco and WB are doing something right from the gun for whatever they have agreed to through negotiations.
Someone on another forum speculated that throwing everything under Discovery Plus would make it appear as though it was suddenly prospering when we all make that jump to Disco from GCN especially for those of us in NA. You think they would have announced a platform for us already but obviously we are very low priority. Whatever they come up with I am sure it will be expensive and diluted with more of what we dont want to watch and less of what we do.
I know many ppl that subscribe to GCN + are ppl that have maybe one or two specific streaming subscriptions from what I have read so far on different forums which separates us from those that have multiple streaming subscriptions (mega $) because lets face it there is SFA on cable or satellite tv and most of the reality shows have nothing to do with reality. My wife still enjoys her satellite, Idk why cause all I ever see her watching is repeats for the most part and I only watch a few shows that I find interesting, Mayday being one and Highway Through Hell the other.
Anyway I think we are being lumped in with the masses as a result of WB throwing us in with other streaming services.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... ed-strike/

[AJS914]

Wasn't the strike settled? My understanding is that they don't want to maintain two platforms so they will roll cycling under the Discover+. But in the US, we've been skating by with VPNs (wink, wink) to watch many big races that aren't available in the US market.

The questions that remain are:

Will all the same race content go to Discovery+?

Will VPNs still work (wink, wink)?

Other than that we'll need a new solution. I came from watching on Tiz. That was painful and I hope I don't have to go back to that.

I looked at that article. I can't see how cycling has anything to do with the writers strike or AI. Background actors will be a thing of the past once software can seemlessly insert them into shots. I bet the current hollywood writers are using AI to flesh out their scripts. Software will make writers more productive to the point where less writers are needed to run a show. It's just going to happen to them and to many other job catories. The genie is out of the bottle.

[bikeboy1tr]

Yes the writers strike was negotiated into a contract but there were big concerns over streaming services and how they were cutting the residuals of writers which is money out of their pocket and even when reruns are aired there is still big bucks going to the writers but with streaming thats not happening and many shows might get buried never to be seen again. I know this seems far removed from those of us that just want to stream cycling and how it has very little to do with writers and actors but because GCN Plus is owned by WB and the demands put on WB to get a handle on streaming services and also make them profitable puts cycling in the crosshares for streaming. If WB throws us into Disco+ along with whomever else and we flock to them for coverage then he has made it look as though Disco is making money. I am just trying to connect dots here but we are getting lumped into the streaming services umbrella just because of who owns GCN+.
This is just another assumption but I think streaming will look alot like cable and satellite tv soon where we have to pay for a package just for one channel and its gonna cost a boat load of money with lots of what we dont want and very little of what we do and lets throw in some advertisements so that this hour of viewing has 22minutes ffs. I always hated this about TV in Canada. Oh and hopefully VPNs will open things up but I am sure they are working on a way to block that as well. Look at how Netflix has made it so logins cannot be shared and I see more streaming co. doing the same thing.
As much as I wish that we could be handled as a separate entity for streaming I know its just not going to happen. I would be more than happy to be wrong.
https://apnews.com/article/wga-writers- ... 9bcaef5f2a
Its funny as I never thought I would be googling anything to do with the writers strike because until now I couldnt give a rats ass.

[bikeboy1tr]

Someone over on Paceline site started a thread stating that you can watch the CX races on YouTube UCI channel with a VPN set to Japan or Australia. I am in Canada and tried it with the Aussie location and it opens the UCI so I could watch the full races. VPN is alot less expensive than Flo but not to sure what races will be on the UCI channel. I would assume the track racing will be there as well.

[ms6073]

Flo Sports (US) now lists Exact Cross and Superpresitge CX races beyond what had previously been (for my subscription) only the World Cup events.

[Mr.Gib]

Definitely picked up some races now that GCN has shut down. The problem is that the Flo home page has a big image of the winner of today's race with his arms in the air crossing the finish line and a large caption announcing the win. In fact just about every page of the website will loudly inform you of the winner of any race moments after it occurs. They should call it the Spoiler Cycling Network.

I have a great deal of trouble contemplating the mindset, or lack thereof, of people that would do this. The extraordinary thing is that a good percentage of their subscribers live in parts of the world where any race held in Europe could never be watched live - well maybe a dairy farmer could take in a race before they milk the cows, but other than that... The fact that the people at Flo continue to dedicate the bulk of the website imagery to spoilers is proof that Darwinism is not real.

[ms6073]

Definitely picked up some races now that GCN has shut down. The problem is that the Flo home page has a big image of the winner of today's race with his arms in the air crossing the finish line and a large caption announcing the win.

I don't have that issue when casting race replays from the mobile app to another Flo Sports app installed on our Samsung SmartTV. Of course it would be really nice if Flo had an actual app for Samsung SmartTV's like they do for Apple TV, Roku, and Fire TV.

[bikeboy1tr]

It looks more and more like Canadians will get forced into a Flo yearly subscription if they want to watch more than whats offered on YouTube. I havent made the plunge for Flo yet and still waiting for another option. Hoping for something better but my expectations are pretty low.

[AJS914]

I'm in the US and my plan is to make a UK Discovery+ account so I can watch the usual races. Besides the VPN required, the way to get around the geo block is to make a UK paypal account. You'll need a virtual UK phone number that accepts text messages and you'll have to come up with some UK address for paypal.

[Mr.Gib]

Definitely picked up some races now that GCN has shut down. The problem is that the Flo home page has a big image of the winner of today's race with his arms in the air crossing the finish line and a large caption announcing the win.

I don't have that issue when casting race replays from the mobile app to another Flo Sports app installed on our Samsung SmartTV. Of course it would be really nice if Flo had an actual app for Samsung SmartTV's like they do for Apple TV, Roku, and Fire TV.

Here is what the Flo home page looked like when I clicked to watch the replay of Zolder yesterday on my laptop. This image was pretty much plastered all over the site. I have literally trained myself not to look at images or titles, only the runtime when selecting a replay to avoid spoilers but somethings are just too obvious to block out of your peripheral vision.


Today was great - race was at night in Belgium. Watched it live on the West Coast of Canada while eating lunch.

[bikeboy1tr]

Has anyone tried the VPN on Flo to open up access to more racing? I was looking at their schedule and I didnt see any Giro coverage.