GCN+ Gone

[DogmaStu]

From what I see, It’s the corporate bean-counters at Warner Bros head office who don’t have any care in the World for any specific group, they only care about revenue - which is understandable, I guess. That’s their job.

They’ve shut down all smaller channels under their umbrella in an attempt to get everyone onto their main channels. At greater subs. More revenue…fewer employees, easier to manage. They’ll lose some GCN+ subscribers but know not all because they hold viewing rights and think D+ will attract more than they lose once the dust settles.

Win all round for the bean-counters.

From a Warner Bros business perspective, it seems sound enough. Totally rubbish for cycling and the cycling community though.

 

[Dogtrousers]

The strange overlap of the Eurosport and GCN teams covering races with Dan Lloyd having a foot in both camps and GCN+ carrying the Eurosport broadcast and also doing GCN Racing News was always a bit weird. And then there's the TNT / Eurosport overlap with Orla being whisked away from the Vuelta to cover the Scalextric championships or something.

There may be be more branding shakeups to come as things centralise.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Just for info, Discovery+ is incorporated into a Sky Q package at no cost.

I haven't actually used it or logged into the app as Eurosport is also part of Sky Q.

If you have Sky Q or Sky+ you can stream some (but not necessarily all I don't think) of the channels you have on the Sky Go app on Mobile or laptop. ... With adverts

Who knows, you might even be able to cast them to Chromecast to watch on a telly that's not connected to your Sky box.

 

[nickyboy]

From what I see, It’s the corporate bean-counters at Warner Bros head office who don’t have any care in the World for any specific group, they only care about revenue - which is understandable, I guess. That’s their job.

They’ve shut down all smaller channels under their umbrella in an attempt to get everyone onto their main channels. At greater subs. More revenue…fewer employees, easier to manage. They’ll lose some GCN+ subscribers but know not all because they hold viewing rights and think D+ will attract more than they lose once the dust settles.

Win all round for the bean-counters.

From a Warner Bros business perspective, it seems sound enough. Totally rubbish for cycling and the cycling community though.

It was losing 10m per year. It was either not popular enough, too expensive to run or a combination of the two.

 

[DogmaStu]

It was losing 10m per year. It was either not popular enough, too expensive to run or a combination of the two.

I read that on Road CC. Dan Lloyd et al are telling us it is purely a global strategy by Warner Bros, not what the team in the UK wanted.

Revenues of £17.4m and a loss of £10m could just be creative accounting declared to HMRC. That said, Warner did try to sell first before incorporating into D+.

It's all down to D+ merging with Warner Bros in 2022. It appears Play Sports Network (GCN) were then denied continued use of the Eurosport/Discovery+ feed for 2024 and beyond because Warner wanted to jettison the smaller channels and consolidate the live feed rights into one channel per region: D+ or Eurosport.

So Play Sports Network continues with GCN but only as a website and YouTube business.

 

[cougie uk]

But then again it means you can save money by not subscribing during the winter when there's no racing on.

But there's so much cross on in winter ! I only turbo in winter so I get to see a lot of cross races whilst on the turbo - and they're all just over an hour so it's the perfect timing for a session.

I'll miss GCN+- so much coverage on there - I probably saw 1% of their output each year.

 

[albion]

The Eurosport Disvovery app works so much better than Now TV. You could start watching, leave for the day, and in the evening turn the TV on to simply continue where you left off.
Since Eurosport moved, the £30 p,a. deals went but it was good enough to pay the full fee. All ad free too, not that that mattered..

I imagine they will take the yearly fee soon but monthly will find it harder to dip in,dip out like I very occasionally do with Sky.

 

[cougie uk]

The Eurosport Disvovery app works so much better than Now TV. You could start watching, leave for the day, and in the evening turn the TV on to simply continue where you left off.

How much is that ?

 

[Dogtrousers]

I think what I'll miss most is the fact that it was a central hub I could go to and watch a lesser race that I didn't know about

The GTs and things like MSM, RVV, P-R I already know when they are coming and plan ahead. But lesser races I don't know much about I could just bowl up and watch with no planning.

Basically it made up for my lack of knowledge of the racing calendar apart from the really big races

 

[albion]

How much is that ?

DISCOVERY+ £60 a year but only if it auto renews. A 50/50 chance I reckon.
NOW TV Sports - £15 a month - a recent direct mail offer only really useful for the cricket world cup, so as likely as not, I will cancel.

 

[steveindenmark]

Thats sad. It has been useful and entertaining.

 

[mustang1]

Oh yeah, Mitch Docker and, dang it cannot recall his name, the one who does the statistics, were really good too.

I'm watching GCN+ right now in fact. If documentaries like that continue to be made, I *may* consider getting a subscription with whichever channel hosts those shows.

Some other documentaries I liked were the one about LA, hosted by Bahadi. The Legends was great, Colnago et al, the slow tours, all were excellent.

Please GCN, can't you carry on making these documentaries PLEASE?

 

[scragend]

Oh yeah, Mitch Docker and, dang it cannot recall his name, the one who does the statistics, were really good too.

Cillian Kelly.

 

[Boopop]

I'm getting quite familiar with some video downloading firefox extensions in the past few days. I only paid for a 1 year sub on Monday, then I get the email a couple of days later the service is shutting down. For all I know these documentaries will disappear for months, and I was planning on watching them over Xmas. Why is it the consumer often gets shafted with these video streaming services? Time to top up my Plex collection I guess 🤷‍♂️

 

[Mike_P]

Please GCN, can't you carry on making these documentaries PLEASE?

If they are owned by Play Sports Network then probably they will reappear behind a pay wall on the website.