Discovery to Broadcast World Cup Coverage from 2023
The UCI has announced that from next year Discovery Sports will take over the organisation and promotion of UCI Mountain Bike World Cup for eight seasons, from 2023 to 2030.
After a meeting this month, the management committee of the UCI entered into negotiations with Discovery Sports to take over both the organisation and promotion of mountain bike World Cups from 2023 through to 2030. Previously Red Bull has been the producer and main broadcaster for more than ten years offering free live streams of the races.
The shift of World Cup coverage to Discovery follows the EWS as the company invested in Enduro Sports Organisation Ltd, the company that owns and operates EWS and EWS-E, last year. Currently, Discovery Sports streams World Tour Cycling and the Olympics through its paid-for services, but the coverage of the EWS has remained free through the GMBN YouTube channel. It is not clear what format World Cup coverage will be presented in, but there is the possibility that it may move away from being free to watch.
A better view of the plans being created by Discovery is set to be released once a contract has been fully signed with the UCI. The full 2022 season will still be streamed through Red Bull TV and on the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup broadcasters’ channels.
 | At its recent meeting in Montreux (Switzerland) from 10 to 12 February, the Management Committee of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) decided to enter into exclusive negotiations with Discovery Sports for the organisation and promotion of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup for eight seasons, from 2023 to 2030. The proposal by Discovery Sports, which was selected by the UCI as part of a tender process, comprises several strands: those relating to sporting and commercial matters, as well as those concerning the production and broadcasting of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup. More detailed information on the concept developed by Discovery Sports to further drive the development of the discipline will be communicated at the signing of the contract that will bind the two parties. The UCI would like to thank Red Bull Media House, the producer and main broadcaster of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, who has used all its expertise to satisfy the passion of mountain bike fans around the world for more than 10 years, while significantly increasing the series' audience during this period. Discovery Sports will get in touch with the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup organisers as well as all the organisers that expressed their interest in hosting a round of the series for 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile, all rounds of the 2022 Mercedes-Benz UCI World Cup will be available for viewing on Red Bull TV (RBTV) and on the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup broadcasters’ channels. |
Discovery Sport has been contacted for further information. We will keep this story updated as we find out more.
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I will be stunned if the "New and improved in 2023" doesn't actually end up being "We had a good thing & now it's trashed by idiots that think they're smart"
If it goes PPV they will loose half the viewers instantly ... if not more.
It always amazes me when people f*ck with a system that is already working great.
That was Freecaster. Where we got to see all the racers and Warner was off the rails.
Does redbull actually want to do world Cup coverage?
Can they cover their costs?
Do they need those employees to work on something else?
Do they have capacity to train new people for normal employees turnover?
I think redbull is doing a bang up job and I would have liked to see them keeping it up, but truth is that world cup coverage is resource intensive. I hope discovery is going to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors.
But it would be too easy to end here. While they were getting free broadcast from Redbull, they were shitting on it for being a shitty soda giving heart attacks to teenagers - #drinkwater and all this. The collective level of hipocrisy of this comment section is incredible.
"It always amazes me when people f*ck with a system that is already working great."
what; you mean like the venerable, extremely reliable derailleur?
It's not being whiny. Stop pretending to be an adult. I've spent 15 years in content acquisition and programming (TV, Cinema, Streaming you name it). Discovery is competing with my employer for content. With this deal as with any big content deal there is risk that some countries will not be able to see it beause discovery bought global rights but they don't have global streaming services. So please stop talking shit like you know it all when you don't know anything about the content world.
So stop talking about hipocrisy when you're doing your typical shtick of having an opinion about a subject you know shit about. All you do is play contrarian and think that just being against any complaint makes you smart but peoples complaints here are legitimate and justified.
Discovery on the other hand is likely trying to monetize the broadcast itself, either by charging to watch it, showing ads during it, or both. So they have a completely different motive for acquiring the broadcast rights, and a different monetary value for it.
So if you want to complain about X company taking over and monopolizing streaming of Y content, blame click count based free content. Just because Swedish TV has free series and shows doesn't mean it is better than Netflix or worse than shitty Swedish paid streaming CMore. It varies. But I have a right to choose to pay for Netflix and not even bother to get a free month on Cmore. Whatever Swedish TV puts out for free, I am grateful for it instead of whining that they could be like Netflix but for free.
"But it would be too easy to end here. While they were getting free broadcast from Redbull, they were shitting on it for being a shitty soda giving heart attacks to teenagers - #drinkwater and all this. The collective level of hipocrisy of this comment section is incredible."
Yes. Since The PB comments is just one guy. Is it now that you realize that this is not DMs between you and one guy but a bunch of ppl screaming opinions at each other?
It’s funny because the whole idea of ‘cord cutting’ in the first place was to give viewers more of an ‘a la crate’ type of experience, where were didn’t have to pay big cable companies for things we didn’t never watched. But more and more these package deals are popping up which are no different.
Cause I was really hoping we'd get to a post covid mountain bike trails got less crowded because people can go do other stuff like they used to era...?
BUT, this is gonna be like every other stupid thing on Discovery; panning for gold, custom choppers, rock hunting, minimalist camping, survival weekends, street racing, battle bots, etc. etc.
It's just going to keep mountain bike trending and trails busy...
Selfish SOB huh!!
They don't have to change much to have an excellent broadcast. Give Rob Warner a fat contract, and buy a few more cameras so we can see the whole course.
Also enjoyed Tracey commentating on the womens races.
I like that Elliot replaced him... but hands down, the best commentary was the raw Rob Warner on Freecaster, back when he was still allowed to have a beer in the booth.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqYgAX6D43Q
Richard Cunningham and Rob Warner have been the absolute dream team in Downhill World Cup commentary.
It won't get any better than this.
here you can even see them: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KZV7zfMGTg
I´m sure RB did put in a bid, but if we know one thing about Red Bull it is that they do not beg but do things on their own terms. They´re in a position where if you can work with them you can consider yourself lucky, if you don´t want to, well, they´re more than happy to watch the trainwreck happen from a distance.
You can think of that company what you want, but they do not make many mistakes and pushing a niche sport to the extent which they have done in previous years just to let it go without even putting a bid in would be ridiculously stupid of them. And they don´t do stupid.
"RedBull Media House would have liked to continue broadcasting mountain bike sports. “You could say that RedBull Media House has made the MTB sport too popular. With the high viewing figures, it also becomes interesting for other production companies. Discovery Sports has won the bid at the UCI. Red Bull TV thinks that's a shame," Bart Brentjens told WielerFlits. The 1996 Olympic champion has been associated with RedBull for many years as a co-commentator and also builder of the TV compounds at the World Cup venues."
Basically, Discovery promised more money.
www-wielerflits-nl.translate.goog/nieuws/uci-ruilt-redbull-media-in-voor-eurosport/?_x_tr_sl=nl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=sc
Us europeans usually have to jump through a few hoops to get access to these types of events and PPVs, be it either through some obscure rebroadcast in the middle of the night or some third party provider whose program we do not like. PPV advertising in europe is also pretty much non existent, so many will simply forget about it. So most likely many viewers outside the US will just drop the habit of watching the races without much fuss and simply forget about them.
And as was already said in the UFC example, if i have to jump through hoops to get the PPV in the first place i may as well jump through hoops finding a free stream.
RB had the CX World CUp coverage for most of the 2910/20 season, and it was just like their MTB World Cup coverage; proper previews, interviews with riders, a track walk, etc then the races, and then the post race show.
However, since then it's been on GCN/Eurosport, and it's been a massive downgrade; all done from a studio in the UK, very little of the atmosphere comes through the coverage. I'm almost dreading their MTB coverage.
Seems like a lot of MTB stories edging that way lately. Maybe it's time to adjust my perspective on where the sport is headed.
www.foxtelmedia.com.au/partners-brands/discovery-channel
Discovery Channel
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I'm so sad to see this news as I love watching DH WC. Red Bull did a great job, I'll be f**ked off having to subscribe to Discovery.
We are all conditioned to be the best we can going into the workplace. When a doctor or teacher for example do an outstanding job and save a life or help a young person get educated they are hero's. When an accountant or CEO of a corporation does an outstanding job by helping a client avoid more tax or boost already eye-watering profits, they are the opposite.
I've always been an advocate of capitalism, but when the divide becomes so vast to the point where an individual is allowed to hold more wealth than an entire country, it's a problem.
I had wondered why the latest season of ‘Fast Life’ on RB was introduced as their last. Well, now I know.
I have a hard time figuring out what Discovery involvement mean to be honest... Anyone can help/enlight me ?
I fear we will deeply regret the Red bull era, with stream losses and other weird 360° camera angles haha
The problem with that is, the lack of races outside of europe is due to more than the ability to cover races in other places. MTB and downhill racing aren´t formula one. Teams simply lack the funds to transport gear between continents a few times per season. And even if the big teams were to get on board with the idea, it´d be a death sentence for privateer racing. So as much as i´m with you in hoping that we could get more variety, the current status quo seems pretty ideal for those actually involved in the racing circus and i can´t see a change in production company make a difference here.
Who knows maybe something good will come of it, but the tactic of streaming services to corner a coveted item and then make you subscribe for the whole package. Sky Sports started this process with the creation of the Premier League in England in 1991 and it's all catching up. Why did Foxtel by the rights to Game of Thrones for Australia, because now they have heaps of people who have subscribed to their products for one specific thing... Disney+ and Star Wars. These example are obviously waaaaay bigger than some people riding toys down a hill 6 times a year but the logic is the same. Cash in on an audience who want something that only you have, and make them pay for all your shit to do so.
I always thought a lot of the stick RB got for the coverage was unfair and unfounded and personally reckon, despite a few failures here and there, that ultimately they delivered a great product especially when consider they didn't charge for it upfront. I suspect we'll know what we've missed in a couple of years!!
www.pinkbike.com/news/how-to-watch-the-2021-mountain-bike-world-championships-from-val-di-sole.html
"The UCI sells all its World Championships in one package so if a broadcaster wants to show the road event then they get the mountain biking included as part of the deal too. Unfortunately, mountain biking isn't as high ticket as some other disciplines so often it can be broadcast by those channels after the fact or on an unusual station."
Get your VPN to Japan ready!
The real question is whether they will continue to have the same or better quality of broadcast. I can understand the difficulty of covering EWS races so figuring out the model there will be incredibly difficult. DH is already packaged for broadcast consumption so they need to ensure that the quality doesn't fall off.
Bored / uninformed / uninspired coverage can kill anything—anyone tried to watch the Olympics? Ugh. Don’t ruin this!!!
Definitely not going to sign up to Discovery+ in the US to watch a 6-race season. Not that I expect bike coverage to be free, but definitely not as part of a bloated and expensive package for a lot of crap that I don't want.
"but now we want to bleed more money out of fans." the UCI - Probably
I doubt we'll ever know the ins and out f the reasons behind this but I guess we've just got to thank RB for all the investment and the free coverage. They've obviously sunk a decent amount of money into the coverage of the sport and we as viewers have reaped the benefits through their free to air channel. Ok some of the coverage hasn't been perfect but it has had Warner and A/N Other and it's been free and readily available and they've figured out ways to work with the likes of Cathro and other outside guys to provide a much richer coverage.
Worse case scenario is that it goes behind a paywall at an outrageous price, has adverts and the coverage is poor by comparison to the FTA predecessors.
Best case is it's everything we could want; good filming, rich content, informed commentators (Warner) and represents decent value for money. I'd certainly consider paying for the latter.
Fingers crossed here. Interested to see what they're proposing.
Which is weird, as most of the other stuff RB Media do is really sharp & sweet. But I digress.
The sum of the product - watching the races live/recap - is just excellent, but take away or add wrong bits & bobs (the voices, interviews, expertise, or inject commercials every few minutes) and it will crumble.
During the reign of RBTV, viewership numbers have never been publicly available.
If this brings back some non-endemic team sponsorship, it’d be swell.
When the switch was made from Freecaster to Red Bull there were a ton of complaints on Pinkbike but ultimately RB was way better than Freecaster in terms of reliability, quality of broadcast and cost to watch. The constant was Warner who has in truth improved a lot since the "drunk in a shed Freecaster" days. It makes no sense to move a away from Warner, he's the voice of the sport, XC and DH. Lets hope he sticks around.
Apparently these racers are on minimal money and it seems as though that won't change until coverage moves more mainstream. There are plenty of sports people watch without participating in and a wider TV audience might help some of these riders move off the $5,000 / yr income bracket. Personally I'd like to see that, they deserve it!
I imagine there will be other significant changes to how we watch TV in the next few years so who knows how Discover will package and broadcast this. I'll guess I'll have the option watch it live through the Discover App on my smart TV the same way I do Red Bull TV. In the end the change might not be so great and like the transition from Freecaster to Red Bull hopefully brings about some positives.
Thanks for all the coverage Red Bull, you've done an incredible job!
It’s another sad day for us fans thanks Rob Warner for your passion and enthusiasm that’s infectious, your race coverage will be sorely missed!
Sad day!
The viewing figures from the Moto GP were in the millions. Up next after the break we have the UCI Downhill Mountainbike World Cup live from..
The viewing figures were significantly higher than on RedBull.com/bike which is of course only seen by hardcore MTB enthusiasts.
Think back to the golden days of DH sponsorship, Volvo Cannondale, Mercedes Marin, Ford Kona etc.. Riders we’re getting $$$.
RedBull and Warner do an amazing job, problem is your next door neighbour never see’s it. It’s not mainstream.
Is it a good move? We will of course thank and miss what RedBull have done. Who knows if it’s a good thing, we will all be wiser at the end of 2023.
So I won’t blame the money.
On vital, stikman makes a nice succinct summary of how we got here.
My biggest takeaway is a feeling I’ve had before:
If you love dh racing: organize it.
If you’re worried about “the state of the sport” organize it.
If you just wanna ride: RIDE.
This whole thing makes me want to go do a local dh race with my buds more than I did earlier today. Which was a lot.
But saying this, I used to watch the Eurosport coverage in the 90's and it was great having full live feeds
This kind of thing happens in all sports. Many athletes who have individual drink deals can’t display or drink it on the field/court if their league or team has a deal with a different company. Think Gatorade sponsoring the league while players have deals with Powerade, vitamin water, body amour etc.
Thank you RedBull!!!
Eat it UCI and enduro!!
What a joke. Why UCI let us get screwed??
Fck sakes… #shouldabeenadentist
The UCI have have undoubtedly done this for the money, because if as seems likely, the mountain biking coverage becomes subscription only, there’ll be a drop in viewing figures.
In all seriousness - how could this be good for DH? It needs a real boost in broadcasting to be even remotely interesting to pay for...and Warners also need to get off the leash and have a pint or ten whole yapping away! Now that's entertainment! I'd gladly pay for that!
If we look at what sponsors want - they want exposure. How does that model supposed to work better when there will be less viewers? I can't get my head around it at all.
I love Watching DH and WRC
DH is free on Redbull TV
WRC £10.99 per month
I can't justify £10.99 per month to watch WRC so have to watch free highlights .
It's no where near as exciting live and I watch a condensed programme for a short time which limits that programmes chances of influencing me on Brands/products etc .
Going premium will vastly reduce the number of viewers that watch DH races thus vastly reduce appeal to sponsors
Maybe Redbull couldn’t find the money, decided that it wasn’t worth it anymore or Discovery just have a shitload of money to throw at it.
Look on the bright side, it cannot be any worse than when Rocky Roads were the sponsor for the DHWC
Whatever happens, if they put tv commentators on air who cannot read riders names, know zero about the technical aspect of the sport etc etc (as with BMX racing ) as opposed to Rob Warner, Tracey Hannah etc then we know 100% if ts purely a money making exercise or if they genuinely want to grow the sport and the viewership.
The next thing will be 'Discovery dont want the track to go through the trees because its hard to film'
Then ' we need to make it easier for joe public to follow'
Be careful what you wish for people.
Mainstream pffft.
Big fan of "if it ain't broke don't fix" but change is inevitable, hopefully for the better... I'd like to think things have got better from the Freecaster.tv days to Red Bull...
I think if we can afford to pay for the bikes we have, we could get used to paying to watch WCs, but it does depend on what we extra get out of it...
We get it for free now and it's great, so if there has to be something in addition to what we have to retain viewers. Otherwise, they'll be a dip in viewings/subscriptions because some of us will strop and stop watching, but eventually numbers will pick back up as a new gen comes through and pays because it's 'normal' to them....
Few quid here and there to watch the WC series? Yeah sure...
If it's a sizable chunk of money, then I would want something extra, like more WC rounds..
I'm trying to compare this to my NFL Game Pass which is something like £130 a year, but I could (If I wanted) watch all games from current and passed seasons, with viewing options and extra bits... And without Adverts!
I wouldn't pay £130 to see 7 WC rounds a year.... But these are two very different sports in very different times in their maturity
The prophecy cannot be stopped..........
Also pink bike comments: I'm not paying to watch DH world cups, they should be free.
To the Pinkbike Editors: it is clear that the masses need some education on how the media business works and how the content sausage is made. I think it would be a great service if you wrote about it, and it would save you some heartache from the vapid whining.
To the Masses: share your opinion, but also stick to what you know. I am 100% sure that 99% of you have no clue what you're talking about when it comes to the media world. But that's ok, you're entitled to your opinions and you like free stuff. Understood.
Here's my opinion (informed by my profession at the intersection of technology/media/entertainment): This is good for our sport. Why? It's simple -- Discovery is a content company. That's what they do, and it's what they're good at. They will invest, and they will work to make mountain biking a money maker for them which in turn will give us as fans excellent coverage.
Red Bull on the other hand sells sugar water, and Red Bull Media House is an extremely well funded marketing arm masquerading as a content company. I've been underwhelmed by Red Bull's live production quality. Love their films, don't like their live event coverage. Free is great, sure, but show me another sport with fantastic coverage and production value that is free.
You get what you pay for, always, and there is no free lunch.
Finally, to those commenting to the effect of "ughh, it's always just about money" .... well, yeah. 1) Grow up. 2) It's a professional sport we're talking about. More money flowing into the sport is good for everyone, including the riders and ultimately us as fans.
I for one am hoping that this means WC on TV3.
They take a feed from race organisers and they have good commentators (and Carlton Kirby), but the build-up, interviews etc aren't even as good as RBTV (which is far from perfect).
It would rankle to have to start paying for an inferior product.
So yeah, watching half a dozen races for $50 doesn’t compute on a weekend when I have free time to dig or ride…
A. This could be a good thing if done well, more rounds=more airtime for sponsors & more exposure
B. Not be so against paying for something if it is improved or more sustainable.
We don't need to jump to the worst case scenarios right away.
Also I'll add it hear as i have else where, we don't know the full picture but if RB was doing such as stellar job and it almost seemed too good to be true that it was free... it probably was, broadcast of live mountain biking across a weekend on a mountain is a very resource intensive media, couple that with world wide travel and massive increasing costs of everything from wages, to travel costs and the free model probably became completely unsustainable.