GCN+ to Close as Warner Bros. Discovery Looks to Consolidate Streaming Services [Updated with Information from WBD]

Nov 15, 2023 at 7:34
by Jessie-May Morgan  


GCN+ will cease to exist as of the 19th December 2023. In a video posted to the GCN+ YouTube Channel earlier today, Si Richardson and Dan Lloyd announced "with great sadness the closure of GCN+ and the GCN App". Throughout 2023, the service was providing coverage of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series events globally, with live streaming of finals available with the purchase of a subscription that cost $8.99 USD per month, or $49.99 USD for the year.

The introduction of the pay-to-view service was not initially well received (after eight years of free broadcasts from the previous rights' holder, Red Bull), but the GCN+ subscription was one of the more affordable streaming services offering live coverage. With a clear understanding of how World Cup racing will be accessible next year yet to emerge, the closure of GCN+ has users concerned that watching mountain bike racing will become more complex and expensive. The news also comes as a blow to road fans who have enjoyed great coverage of the Tour de France and other major road cycling events through the GCN App.

Warner Bros. Discovery, owners of Play Sports Network and the current broadcasters, organizers, and promoters of the Mountain Bike World Cup, has stated the decision to close GCN+ was "driven by its global strategy to consolidate its streaming services to offer more content in fewer places".

Si Richardson states "the reason for its closure is not because it didn't work or it was underperforming, it's that the media industry landscape has changed".

GCN+ email to subscribers, November 15th 2023:

Dear GCN+ Subscriber,

We are sending you this email as a valued subscriber of GCN+. We are very sorry to have to inform you that the GCN+ service and the GCN app will close on 19 December 2023.

What does this mean for you?

Access: Your subscription contract will end and you will be unable to access the GCN+ service and GCN app from 19 December 2023. Following closure, you can still use your GCN account on the GCN website at globalcyclingnetwork.com and the GCN Shop at shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com.

Upcoming payments: The GCN+ service will close on 19 December 2023 and you will be charged for any upcoming subscription payments up to that time. If you do not want to be charged for any upcoming payments, you can cancel your subscription prior to your next renewal date, however your access to the service will then end on that renewal date.

Refunds: If you have a subscription to the GCN+ service which is still running on 19 December 2023, we will arrange for a refund of any amounts that you have paid in advance for access to the service after that date. Please make sure you have a valid and up-to-date payment method. Refunds will be paid automatically, but in some instances may take some time to process for technical reasons.

Data: Following closure, your personal data will continue to be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
We encourage you to contact our customer service team here to answer any additional questions about GCN+ and your subscription.

Thank you for subscribing to GCN+, we are very grateful for your support and for joining us on this journey.

Sincerely,

The GCN Team

We have reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery to find out what this will mean for racing fans worldwide who will want to tune in come the 2024 season, and will follow up when we have more information. We are hopeful that the series will find an accessible home for fans worldwide in 2024.

Update 10:45am PST November 15th with a comment from WBD:

bigquotesThe GCN+ service and GCN App will close from 19 December. This decision follows Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)’s strategy to consolidate its streaming services and the ambition to bring more of our sports and entertainment content together in one place.

Looking to the future, we are confident that bringing our live cycling coverage together with our sports and entertainment offer, such as in Europe, will provide long-term value for subscribers. This will also make things simpler for mountain bike fans and provide an even greater viewing experience.

In Europe, GCN+ subscribers can subscribe for live race coverage to either discovery+, Eurosport or Eurosport Extra (Poland) where they can continue to enjoy watching UCI Mountain Bike World Series content they currently access.

All live races that are currently available on GCN+ can be watched on discovery+ in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Ireland. In all other countries in Europe, the Eurosport App provides live streaming of all cycling content currently on GCN+.

In markets outside of Europe including the US, fans will be kept fully informed about future live content.—Warner Bros. Discovery


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277 Comments
  • 776 6
 Just sell the rights back to redbull and we can pretend this whole years didn't happen.
  • 25 0
 Is Patrick Duffy available for the announcement?
  • 10 1
 @vapidoscar: is that a Newhart reference?
  • 31 0
 Here is the official Statement from WB / Discovery.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zwABievfNw
  • 113 15
 As long as there are dumb semi finals runs I'm not really that interested in watching. They've changed the essence of the sport and it makes no sense why they did it. There was just too much negative change this year with the annoying announcers and the amount of time and energy it takes to follow it all. Unless they kill the semis and get Warner back I'm riding more and paying little attention to racing.
  • 135 2
 @DoubleCrownAddict: Well, apparently Warner and his brother are the ones to blame for all this!
  • 10 4
 They should just cut to the chase. 10 elite men, 5 elite women, no qualis - just seeding and all content behind a paywall. Watch the viewing numbers fall through the floor.
  • 21 20
 @DoubleCrownAddict: Is it really that hard to click ahead and skip the semis if you’re not interested in them? I think we all have a lot of practice skipping the first part of every YouTube video to get past the useless intro talking and sponsor ads to the part where they actually start doing something
  • 5 0
 @savagelake: I guess Dallas was before your time.
  • 16 1
 I got excited seeing Warner and Discovery in same sentence. Then I read it properly. Gutted.
  • 1 0
 @commental: perhaps...but he certainly is in the right church, if wrong pew.
  • 5 2
 @mab411: "Well, apparently Warner and his brother are the ones to blame for all this!"

That's a bit Rich!
  • 2 0
 Only if they could buy it back for $1... One dollar, every body knows the deal.
  • 24 10
 @tacopop: No it's not at all like YouTube ads cause it's a completely separate unnecessary race. You also missed the part about it changing the essence of the sport. Downhill racing has always been a one run format, and they tried to make it a extremely dumb version of motocross racing by having two runs apply to the points standings. It does make watching the sport more confusing, and there is zero justification for it.

Loic wins the overall even though Goldstone beat him easily if you only count finals points?? Sorry but that kind of BS makes me not want to pay attention. Thank you for at least not defending the horrific announcing.
  • 6 0
 @vapidoscar: I think I am too old, because I totally got this reference. I am going to take a shower. lol
  • 4 0
 @mab411: Rob Warner? I knew it.
  • 4 6
 @DoubleCrownAddict: Replace qualifying and semi finals with 2 qualifying rounds where the best 15 riders in each round advance to finals. It would give the prominence back to finals, give more exciting coverage to mid-pack riders competing to qualify in round 2, and giving everyone 2 chances to qualify would allow them to ditch "protected rider" status.
  • 1 0
 @commental: sorta, but Newhart did the same thing. pretty funny.
  • 5 1
 @DoubleCrownAddict: The UCI is stumbling in the dark trying to evolve mtb racing in all formats. They have really screwed up in the last couple years changing rules and formats at a moments notice. Ya horrible live boring announcing and what happened to Rob Warner?? GCN didn't want to buck up? If it ain't broke don't fix
  • 1 0
 @DoubleCrownAddict:
  • 1 6
flag multialxndr (Nov 16, 2023 at 1:21) (Below Threshold)
 Meant to say the racing was still great. I know forced you to watch the Semi and I didn’t. If you just watched the final the racing was the same as ever. So your loss clearly not much of a fan
  • 7 8
 @rismtb: Ric's commentary was decent. So was Gwins'.
  • 13 2
 @iamloz: Ric's commentary was decent if you have an interest in hearing the full geographic title of race venues ad nauseum.
  • 2 3
 Agreed. And despite that, I cant remember a better year of racing than this last year, no thanks to GCN.
  • 1 0
 @dthomp325: close.....qualies with the top 30 moving on to the final, then an LCQ with 31st through 40th racing for the top 5 to tansfer. this would keep everyone entertained and watching(more ad sales, more money), and not dramtically increase the length of the day.

do something like top 20 women and same LCQ setup.
  • 1 0
 @commental: saying where you are every 2 minutes.
  • 1 0
 Yes
  • 186 1
 This must be a fun day to manage a WC MTB Team and speak to sponsors.

Sponsor: "How will fans watch your team next year?"

MTB Team: "......"
  • 56 0
 MTB Team: uhh… sketchy russian livestream?
  • 99 0
 An Earthed VHS will be available for sale a few months after the final race.
  • 13 0
 @vinay: Dude please make this an option. I love Earthed so much.
  • 6 8
 Discover+, Eurosport, or Eurosport Extra.

We already know this. No coverage is going anywhere (at least in Europe).
  • 1 0
 @Trailsoup: That actually sounds more entertaining than last year's coverage.
  • 8 0
 Exactly. If Bex Baraona can't get a contract, it tells you all you need to know.
  • 1 0
 If someone hadnt already given the EDR the knockout blow with teams and riders dropping like flies, surely this is, which is aweful and sad. On the bright side, maybe we get to watch Isabeau and Ritchie race downhill now.
  • 1 0
 @Planetx888: rumour is that enduro will be ebike only from 2025 so the teams are shuting down already
  • 1 0
 Teams will have to arrange their own coverage. Like PinkBike did for their team. Like Syndicate/GoPro with Jackson Goldstone. I think smart teams will seek out those kinds of partnerships to create social media content. I think that's the future of sports broadcasting: it's not just the race coverage anymore, it's the story and drama around it. Even F1 racing realized they needed to do this to grow their audience for today's younger audiences. Teams and sponsors will also need to pivot to this new reality and figure out what their goal is with having a team: fine tuning equipment performance? Media exposure?
  • 1 0
 @Fill-Freakin: I wonder what the regulations are like now. Wasn't it like only RedBull athletes were allowed to broadcast helmet cam race footage or was it for GoPro sponsored athletes? Outside the actual race run, I feel like most teams and athletes are already releasing edits around their races, aren't they? Not only the Syndicate. To have a professional videographer may or may not pay off considering how expensive it must be. Sven Martin worked for the Atherton team for a while but I doubt it pays off. I honestly wonder how much race sponsorship pays off in sales. I suppose nearly everyone buying such expensive race equipment from their own money realize that most of all it shouldn't mess up their race weekend. Which implies it needs to be reliable and you need to be able to have it repaired quickly when need be. But just because Gwin can win with a snapped chain (or Mulally can place third) doesn't mean Specialized and Trek bikes are what it takes for people to win. Consumers know that. And brands know that consumers know.
  • 138 2
 How to kill a sport A Warner brothers, discovery and UCI production Featuring greed and poor service Streaming soon
  • 17 0
 Preorder exclusive early-bird access* NOW and get a chance to win a hat!

*by preordering you agree that if access does not work, so does the refund.
  • 14 24
flag PauRexs FL (Nov 15, 2023 at 14:56) (Below Threshold)
 I said from the start there might be a conspiracy... we had something too good which was starting to influence too much and getting scary big with great stars and fans... I ´ll say it million times... MTB is not aligned with the interest of the elite agendas... they want to move progressively population into smart cities and deprive us from true nature.. MTB does just the oppposite...
  • 2 13
flag emptybe-er (Nov 15, 2023 at 20:33) (Below Threshold)
 29” wheels: ratings poison
  • 80 16
 I paid for a few months just so I could watch the UCI DH with my kids. It was a crap service with atrocious UI. It would be the weekend of the race and the page was plastered with placeholders for upcoming races. The streams would constantly freeze too. I'm not going to say I'm happy it's gone, but it seemed inevitable. Add to that the reduction is UCI races next year and I wasn't going to pay much longer anyway.
  • 80 12
 lol….

I never had a single issue with playback quality / streaming connection consistency etc.

It was weird that they buried the races and the titles were confusing, but the stream itself was fine.
  • 28 0
 @nvranka: Yeah finding the race you wanted to watch was sometimes a mission when it was a busy race weekend for all disciplines but aside from that I had no issues with the app, playback, coverage or even the commentators.

I am concerned about my prospects to watch next year and want to see what refund I get on my 12 month subs!
  • 11 2
 I watched the whole seaosn on my Google TV and never had one issue. As others have mentioned there were issues finding what you wanted but the stream was fine and worked without a hitch for me. Still miss Redbull though
  • 11 0
 Yup... I have gigabit speed internet (usually get around 600mb/a real speed) and my stream would constantly buffer... Don't have apple tv so I streamed from the site from my PC.

What a dumpster fire UCI has given us!
  • 7 0
 @nvranka: Same here, the interface was pretty terrible, especially on the app on my TV, but the streams and replays themselves were fine.
  • 3 0
 @NO53LF: Same. Constant streaming issues, buffering despite being on fibre connection, frame rate issues, etc. and customer service just told me there wasn't a problem over and over. I argued with them for months to get a refund which they refused to do.

Ironically they've now ended up doing this anyway, despite me accepting and even starting to use it more
  • 7 0
 @NO53LF: UCI sold the rights to the plan ESO put together with Discovery Warner. The CEO of Discovery is trying to cut expenses because they took on 56 billion of debt to buy Warner. They shelved many movies to take the tax write off over the expense of marketing the properties in hopes of profit. My guess this debacle is related to these cost cuts by David Zaslav and a lack of sufficient subs for the GCN + service.
  • 13 0
 @paulskibum: No refunds, they'll just send you Men's Health every month until your subscription period ends. That's what any respectable company would do anyway.
  • 4 1
 @NO53LF: I had the same buffering issues every single time I used that app. Good to hear I'm not the only one. ugh!
  • 1 0
 @nvranka: same here, I used to watch via Eurosport, but streaming was so good itself.
  • 2 0
 A few streaming problem and hard to find your race. But still not that bad. Way better coverage of the track than RB. But next year, I won't be paying anything if it's more expensive.
  • 2 0
 @ischiller: Hopefully their next step to streamline everything works but I don't have much faith. When big companies get involved with "action sports" and things don't meet expectations they have a tendency to prioritize other things which obviously is a smart business move but also why big corporate backing isn't always a good thing. RB is big but they are more niche to these types of markets.
  • 6 0
 @TimMog: Nothing makes me want to support a company more than their customer service gaslighting me lol.
  • 2 0
 @NO53LF: I know right. I'm almost sad that it's going, actual Stockholm syndrome
  • 6 0
 It was also insane how they didn't have an app for Roku, which at least here in the US most TVs have built in. They had a freaking Samsung TV app but no Roku app (or Xbox or Playstation app, but I expected that) Pretty funny how I went from watching on my Xbox on the Redbull TV app, to plugging my laptop in with an HDMI cable and having to get up to pause it.
  • 3 0
 worked just fine for me, the app UI is poor and hard to find races of interest but no streaming issues. I use it a lot on the trainer down the shed, watch a lot of CX which I thought I'd never do - some really good races, those skinny lads on their skinny wheels have some amount of power and skill in that mad
  • 1 0
 @succulentsausage: yep I was connecting my PC to my TV through an extra long HDMI cable like it was 2011 LOL
  • 67 2
 As if we needed more proof that Dicovery's take over of MTB is an unmitigated disaster from top to bottom.
  • 61 1
 Why would you announce a closure of this magnitude without announcing which of your streaming services will pickup the coverage in the U.S.? What a colossal fk up Discovery but why am I not surprised...
  • 14 0
 They don't care. Just look at the crap they're pulling with their other streaming services in the US and what's going on with their (finished) cancelled movies. WBD is a dumpster fire.
  • 49 5
 That lasted all of 5 seconds.

“the reason for its closure is not because it didn't work or it was underperforming”

Oh. So you just closed it for fun then? Is there something I’m missing?
  • 16 1
 Everything will be on Discovery+. All in one place.
  • 1 0
 @JonnyTheWeasel: ah
  • 26 2
 Closed so you have to buy the all in one package that costs double and comes with a mountain of shit you won't watch. When Moto GP makes almost half it's revenue selling a 'just watch the races' subscription for €100/year direct to consumer, you'd think everyone else would take notice. But nope, consolidate consolidate consolidate and hope they keep paying without question.
  • 16 14
 @Fix-the-Spade: Well, I didn’t pay for GCN+ in the first place so I definitely won’t be paying for that!
  • 13 18
flag Bikesbecauserunningsucks (Nov 15, 2023 at 10:30) (Below Threshold)
 I wanna know who downvoted me for saying I didn’t pay for GCN+. I don’t have extra money right now after keeping the bike in good shape okay lol?
  • 11 0
 Apparently the "media industry landscape has changed..." whatever that means. Offering more services in fewer places can only mean a more expensive subscription package though so maybe it means that the 5 billionaires that control the media aren't squeezing enough profit from it?
  • 9 0
 I know how people feel about gmbn/gcn and I don't road bike at all but enjoy watching gcn lol. Always saw lots of people who loved their documentaries and race coverage. I wouldn't be surprised if it was doing fine but Warner wants to consolidate it. Like others said, instead of $8/month they'll have you pay $30/month for an all in one package with a bunch of shit you're never going to watch.
  • 13 0
 GCN is for sale. Where GCN is the brand and the youtube channels. The live coverage rights are not included in the sale, nor licensed as part of the sale.

Pinkbike didn't report on this months ago because Outside was one of the supposed potential buyers.

All the rights for race coverage either already belonged to Eurosport, or were acquired by WB/Discovery after they acquired Eurosport. GCN never owned any rights, with GCN Plus ceasing to make sense as soon as there were other platforms for the live coverage (Discovery+).
  • 4 0
 @JonnyTheWeasel: When you look at what's available on Discovery+ (a bunch of has-been cable channels), I have a mental image of the WBD execs looking at the GCN+ numbers and thinking, "We need to force those folks to subscribe to Discovery+..."
  • 4 8
flag JonnyTheWeasel (Nov 15, 2023 at 13:48) (Below Threshold)
 @IanJF: On Discovery+ I can watch the Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference League, Bundesliga, MLB, NBA (I think) to name but a few as well as the MTB events of course. The app is a bit clunky but there seems to be A LOT on offer.
  • 2 0
 @Bikesbecauserunningsucks: I downvoted, but only after reading your follow-up comment, which, for the redord, I upvoted. Wink
  • 1 0
 @Fix-the-Spade: Still available in Eurosport which is €39.90 per year. The price has been the same since 2019 when I first subscribed and given the current situation I'm surprised it hasn't increased.
In the same period Netflix subscription went from USD12 to USD 22 by December 2023.
  • 1 0
 @dick-pound: I stand corrected, fair enough.
  • 1 0
 @mi-bike: LOL
  • 1 1
 @JonnyTheWeasel: Yep.
  • 3 0
 @JonnyTheWeasel: no discovery plus on Australia
  • 1 0
 @JonnyTheWeasel: i cant even subscribe to discovery+ because it license restricted (i guess by sky). No ways am i going to be forking out for a vPN and discovery subscription to watch. It is sad that they are going to lose some many followers of the sport unless they make something available for us
  • 48 5
 All of you happy GCN+ is gone... Buckle up kids, shits gonna be much worse.
  • 37 0
 What a mess.
  • 33 1
 It is time to establish a new race organization completely outside the UCI. There are no restrictions, because the UCI cannot extort even at the Olympics, because the DH is not there
  • 20 0
 And then have it become part of the UCI ten years later whilst shitting all over the disciplines it helped to popularise?

I feel like we already tried this.
  • 27 2
 I bet this is all part of the plan. Warner did this to restrict choice. I bet, soon they'll announce that the races will only be streamed on their own platforms. It's probably part of a bigger plan to gain a general monopoly in the sports broadcasting industry. Fortunately, hat sort of consolidation into a market monopoly for a company like Warner won't happen in the EU, because contrary to US courts and institutions, we actually enforce our antitrust laws.
  • 18 0
 Agreed. I also suspect WBD's plan is to consolidate all sports viewing under one subscription package to bully consumers into paying more for sports they'll never view. Shout out to the EU for enforcing their anti-trust laws. The FTC under the Biden admin is doing more than nothing on anti-trust issues, which is appreciated, but we still have a long long long way to go.
  • 27 0
 warner bros = robs warner
  • 27 0
 Buy, consolidate, destroy, separate, sell.
  • 2 1
 market innovation at it's finest
  • 23 0
 To put it simply, opening up that email this morning just pissed me off. I watch the road racing, cyclocross, mtb, and sometimes even the track coverage. It is/was $50 well spent every year. The fact that they had no clear answer for USA coverage was the added swift kick in the nuts. I am sure it will be much more than $50 annually now.
  • 5 3
 I don't pay for subscription but still got to read that embarrassment of an email: win-win.
  • 20 1
 It worked just fine for watching the races. A few bugs, sure, but nothing the Red Bull didn't suffer from either in my experience. The further cycling coverage was unparalleled - especially during the World Champs in Glasgow, with the whole lot broadcast in its entirety, from trials to bike football (!). There were also a ton of very well produced documentaries, even if that niche of cycling wasn't quite your thing, they were definitely worth a watch. It also didn't break the bank. I think it's a big loss and I'm now all concerned, for another consecutive year, about where and how I can watch my favourite sport live Frown
  • 2 0
 I used Tiz Cycling for watching DH but almost signed up for GCN+ just for the documentaries. They were definitely doing some cool stuff and I've never even ridden a road bike haha.
  • 1 1
 @DylanH93: recent documentaries have been cringe
  • 19 0
 Just when you thought that they couldn't fuck it up anymore.....
  • 13 2
 Haven't watched a single minute of WC DH or enduro or anything else bicycling related this season. Not going to pay for yet another streaming service and only handful of races and shitty commentary. With teams leaving left and right and the series continuing to be mostly based in Europe, what's the draw again? I don't base my purchases of race results and the UCI stepping in to shit all over everything doesn't help either.
  • 8 5
 What was free on YouTube:

U23 XC races, mens and womens,
ALL coverage of Enduro
Junior DH finals
Elite DH semi-finals

What wasn't free:

Elite XC racing
Elite DH final

You should did miss a lot of action for your principle of not paying for anything.
  • 7 3
 @handynzl: As soon as you paywall something, a different set of rules apply. I can't or won't justify subscribing to yet another streaming sevice just to watch 8 races. Not nearly enough bang for the buck IMO
  • 2 0
 @matadorCE: The point @handynzl is making, is you could have watched a lot of racing without paying anything. Which you didn't. Was that out of spite because there was a paywall on some of the racing? Sounds like shooting yourself in the foot.
The point of Warner Bros is that they don't want 'yet another streaming service' either. They are putting everything they have into one streaming service.
I'm not particularly fond of the whole 'consolidation' thing, but I don't want everything scattered over 57 different paid streaming services either. And in terms of cost, I see D+ is 6 euro/month for me, while Eurosport alone is 7. So I get 1 euro discount for having access to '90 day fiance' and other crap like that. Sounds like a fair compensation.
  • 2 2
 @ak-77: The product i dont want to pay for is D+. Not going to pay monthly all year to only watch 8 race weekends. Couldn't care less about the other crap I may get with it. Throwing a niche sport onto a completely unrelated platform is perfect recipe for killing that sport. WBD thought that buy buying rights that would bring more subscribers to their shitty platform, and that clearly backfired.
  • 10 1
 Well, if Disco+ provides coverage in Canada/US then I am ok with this. It didn't this year, GCN+ was the only option. At least if you are subscribing to Disco+ you get more than just cycling. Would be even better if FloBikes didn't have their nose in there for some events like TdF

Preferably, it just became event by event ppv on YouTube. Simple.
  • 6 0
 Eeeesh yeah but...what else? I got it for a month and there literally wasn't one single thing on Disco+ that I was interested in watching. Just shite.
  • 24 0
 @alexhyland: What? You aren't a fan of Alaskan Bush Retards?
  • 1 0
 you get a metric ton of trashy TV...will subscribe to eurosport next year
  • 1 0
 @Bruccio: Over here that would mean to subscribe to an optional TV package for 30.- per month. I sure won't. Even though I enjoyed my GCN+ subscription a lot this year with hours of live and replay downhill Worldcups and road racing.
  • 2 0
 @kerberos: That's my main issue with this Discovery+ thing. In theory it's the same service globally. In practice the stuff they offer under that name, in what kind of packages, how much they cost and what the alternative methods (like Eurosport) are vary a lot from country to country. In other words, I'm not a huge fan of Alaskan Bush Retards myself.
  • 1 0
 @kerberos: I think it was only a tenner over here via Amazon.

But the first couple of rounds screened without any commentary option (at all, just very quiet ambient sound), then the by the third round the men's elite replay just wasn't even there. Gave up.
  • 9 0
 Chris Ball I have a few more questions for you! Hello? Mr Chris Ball?

The app was fine for me. Their No Spoiler Mode put it over Red Bull’s.

But ummmm not great news. Warner Brothers out here drowning their completed movies in a bucket, but I’m sure that can’t happen to bike racers in Europe…
  • 9 0
 Someone on forums pointed out that Warner Bros was looking to sell GCN back in September, odd that wasn't reported here.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/warner-brothers-discovery-seeks-buyer-for-cycling-specialist-play-sports-group-03cgx983s
  • 3 0
 I mean to odd that this wasn't bigger news at the time, not blaming PB for not reporting it, I'm sure they would have had they known about it.
  • 2 0
 *meant odd
  • 8 0
 Outside were one of the supposed potential buyers at the time, hence Pinkbike not reporting on it.

See here: escapecollective.com/gcn-is-for-sale
  • 1 1
 @dougfs: I don't see why that would stop PB reporting it really (would rather give benefit of doubt before jumping to a conspiracy to deceive), however if that is/was the case then they would certainly have known about it. @brianpark, can you shine any light?
  • 9 0
 Do we have any idea if replay 2023 UCI races will be available anywhere in an on-demand format in the US? I personally don't care about streaming live mtb races, but on-demand XCO (via redbull TV) used to be my favorite thing to have on the screen for an occasional winter indoor trainer ride.
  • 8 0
 I'm based in UK and this is a great loss to me, I have never had any technical issues and everything I wanted was there I front of me. All easily accessible. I fear for everyone in North America, I very much doubt you will get anything half as good.
  • 2 5
 Just get Discovery+
  • 1 0
 Fingers crossed in Asia for coverage.
  • 7 0
 If i could pay just to see downhill on Discovery plus, it will be okay. But i have to pay almost the double and get alot of Discovery crap i don’t want or need. So no downhill for me next year.
Thanks Warner Bros for ruinning downhill.
  • 2 0
 It's almost like a traditional cable company like Discovery wants to bundle in a bunch of shit you don't need!
  • 13 1
 oh no, anyways...
  • 7 0
 i work as a music editor on two big animated shows and just finished up dealing with all the strike against Zaslav and Co. and honestly this might be the last straw hahaha. I paid for gcn+ to watch the races since im one of those obsessive fans that watches EVERYTHING race related and now this troglodyte is just lopping the head off of every department. hes now shelving movies for the tax write off. FINISHED MOVIES. How can WB not know how to sell a Looney Tunes movie that scored over 90pts with ALL of its test audiences.
  • 5 0
 According to a NY times article on Zaslav that came out today he's about brining old Hollywood back and the writers were right in their demands. This dude is something else. I wouldn't be surprised if cycling is dropped altogether if it saved them a dollar. It'd be unfortunate but shelving movies for the tax write off shows they'll do anything to pay down the 56 billion in debt to boos the stock price.
  • 8 0
 On the bright side the flow of premium GCN/YT content such as "Is a DH bike faster than a gravel bike?" or "5 ways to conceal your dad bod when hucking to flat" appears uninterrupted, for now.
  • 2 0
 What were those 5 ways to conceal your dad bob? Asking for a friend
  • 3 0
 @nyhc00:

No1: Puffer Gilet
No2: Sweater vest
No3: 90s DH Jersey
No4: Corset
No5: Hide in the garage
  • 6 1
 I had given up watching the World Cup this year for the first time since the Freecaster TV days. GCN+ TV app is awful. Have to wade through huge amounts of road and track cycling coverage to find the MTB races, and then all of the coverage uses the same thumbnail making it hard to differentiate between races. No option to filter to MTB races. And good luck finding a race if it happened over 2 weeks ago! I tried to find the Enduro highlights from earlier in the season, couldn't find it anywhere despite endless scrolling. Tried the search function, and "enduro" returned no results. Brilliant.

The semi finals idea was terrible from a viewer standpoint. I tried watching both semi's and finals for the first race, but ends up being like 6 hours of racing to watch by which point I had lost interest. Fair play for trying something new, but it doesn't work in my opinion. The racing is diluted and loses its excitement.

I originally liked the idea of consolidating the enduro, XC and DH to the same venue but again I don't think this works. The appeal of enduro was racing at all these new venues, with epic scenery, and spread across different continents. A lot of the races this year looked too bike park and boring. And then the coverage got lost amongst the rest of the racing and news from DH and XC, so I ended up not watching.

Will see what happens next year and what the coverage is like before I subscribe, but I don't think merging it all will be a good thing for the World Cup.
  • 3 0
 I didn’t have any issues regarding the app really either. Apart from finding the races, sometimes. But the streaming quality was good. But I did pay for a full year though.

And I was hoping for more coverage from the Enduro events, interviews, racing, discussion the different stages.mit could have been really great. I’m hoping (still) that it’ll be better or better as time progresses.

I’ll have a few beers while I wait…
  • 4 1
 Damn that sucks. I used Tiz Cycling for races instead of GCN+ but I love their youtube channel. Seemed like they were doing all sorts of cool documentaries and other stuff in addition to the races. That's a bummer. I had considered subscribing just to watch some of the videos like bikepacking in Nepal and The Tour de Stations. Feels like the world is in for a rough ride.
  • 3 0
 A bit of side topic, but GCN/GMBN recently sent out a survey asking questions about what I thought of the content and what content I mainly watch and prefer. I'm guessing they are looking at making some changes and probably a restructure of the channels.
  • 4 0
 Nice update WarnerBros, sh*ting on one of your biggest markets with the line "In markets outside of Europe including the US, fans will be kept fully informed about future live content." Time to torrent like it's 2000...
  • 4 1
 What does the Downhill Fanbase have to do to get it back on Redbull?

There was nothing about the broadcast that was better from my perspective as a fan. Finding the race, the announcers, the format, the leader board, it was all worse. Even if all that didn't suck, I want to see them hang it all out there, but i'm not spending 6 hours watching semi's and then finals.

I get that racers had become a bit frustrated with how things were organized but there's consequences to selling rights to a company that views you as a small part of what they do instead of a company that values you and exploded the racing scene to a much larger fanbase.

Redbull made the UCI feel relatable, it connected the rest of the mountain biking community to the pro racing community. Discovery/GCN+ has felt like it's on a mission to destroy that connection and if they're not they are doing it anyways.

So what do we have to do to get redbull back? let's do that! or just go ride our bikes, either or.
  • 3 0
 What do you honestly do with this if you are a venue scheduled for a 2024 stop, or a major team in the pits? this is kind of a "huck and hope" moment for a lot of people in the cycling industry from local shops all the way up to media companies, like this website, all of the brands, large and small.

This is the "Bust" of the 2021 "Boom." I just hope the world cup season to happen somewhat normally, but It doesnt look like that is going to happen.
  • 7 1
 You'll just get all that stuff through Discovery+.
  • 2 1
 Yes I think consolidating will be good. Initially was quite confusing with WB, Discovery, GCN and where you lived.
  • 2 1
 Yep, I found using Discovery+ pretty good for watching the racing this year.... lets.... lets no dwell on the quality of the broadcast - the app was decent though!
  • 13 0
 For nearly twice the price
  • 6 0
 @mashrv1: Nearly, I bet they'll raise it, and raise it, and keep raising it...all I want is the cycling races, that's it. I don't give a crap about all the other junk shows on D+. But they don't really care do they. They'd rather lose 100K subscribers to gcn+ at $8.99/$50 and gain 20K users at $18/mo or something. But this is what happens when giant corporations take over sports like ours. Nothing good will come out of this in the end. More money, less choices.
  • 1 0
 Sure, for triple cost. GCN+ was ~40
€ per year. Discovery+ is ~10 € per month. Well, only good thing about the short DH season is the saving on sub fees.
  • 2 0
 The overall production, interviews and more wasn't quite as good as what we had with red bull, barring those occasional outages we'd have with red bull. And of course, the lack of rob was unavoidable. Fingers crossed someone gets it together for 2024.
  • 3 0
 All hail Discovery Plus! For the low price of 4.99/mo (with ads), you can get MTB racing (next year I assume?) along with hit titles such as "90 Day: The Single Life" and "MILF Manor"
  • 4 0
 How about they finally consolidate Word cup and World Champs under one service/fee! I won't pay/subscribe to two different things to view UCI racing.
  • 2 0
 Ar*e!! First, we were told that Disco+ was included in our HBO whatsit. That didn't happen. Got GCN for a fair price. Now this.

Went to my national Disco+ website, found "cycling". Scrolled through kilometres of road events. Gave up, searched for "MTB". One search result: a road event.

I don't do linear TV. Haven't done so for 20 years. My only guess is that Warner Bros is modelling the user experience of MTB based on UCI (really naff) jersey laws.
  • 5 0
 Anyone know how your going to be able to watch in countries where discovery plus isn't available?
  • 3 0
 I guess we don't get anything? Why would WBD even care about the few thousand Kiwi's that watch MTB?

Worlds on SKY TV with awful commentary again? Not sure when the rights run out for SKY on that front. They have already lost most of the cycling world pro tour except for TdF and the Vuelta.
  • 4 0
 Absolute disaster, the place where UCI needs to grow the sport is outside of Europe, and once again UCI with Discover+ is Euro centric. Absolute garbage UCI!
  • 2 0
 The most likely scenario is that Discovery+ will absorb the streaming (as I believe it did with Eurosport's app?), in which case access/interface would be largely unchanged. Maybe they'd even stick with the same commentators/production team, since they're all "owned" by WB anyway, rather than going to the trouble & expense of setting up an entirely new system? Seems unlikely that anything will be much better/worse than it was, in other words.
  • 2 0
 You know what else seems really, really stupid about all this? Dec. 19? Why on earth wouldn't you wait until Jan 1, and you have all the other details worked out already...Hey North America, we have no idea what were doing yet, stay tuned for Dec. 20!...If they mentioned this a month ago, hey, we're changing jan 1, same stuff, new location, not so bad...morons.
  • 1 0
 One year in and "the media landscape has changed"? Right... I think the change is that they borked that one and not content to work hard on improving things, they are doubling-down on error.

Conspiracy theory: Warner Brothers/Discovery wants to kill cycling because it is not "green" enough.
  • 3 0
 The problem with a live subscription model is I do not have time to watch the race live. I'd like a discount later on with a beer subscription..
  • 2 0
 PB needs to keep on top of this and not forget. Please try hard to get comments from Discovery+, UCI, and I would love to hear from manufacturers. And don't forget about North America (always the last to get answers)
  • 4 0
 Seems like a move to force me to take out an entire subscription service only to watch 1 sport. Not happy!
  • 1 0
 @pinkbikeaudience
Can you get the numbers of how many watched DH and EWS / EDR in 2022 and 2023? It would be interesting to see the result of the change from Warner (the one and only) to Warner (the greedy corporate one with his brothers).
  • 2 0
 Pretty sure these figures aren't public knowledge. It'd make it much harder for WB/Discovery to blow their own trumpet about how much they're growing the sport if they had to actually back up their BS with figures.
  • 1 0
 Nice! Those means I will be warching zero DH next year as the price in Norway is 3 times higher per month compared to GCN+, as you need to buy the premium package to get cycling included in Discovery+... what a rip off!

Equivalent to 18 USD per months is at least 12 USD too much...
  • 1 0
 Pinkbikes stats earlier in the year were misleading. They should run a poll to gather stats on who watched under redbull versus now. All my riding friends, including myself didnt watch this year. That wasnt just about the price, that was also about the quality of the highlights to demonstrate value in subscribing. Thats the first season in forever I havent seen. Id be interested to see real stats of how people feel and whether people are paying.
  • 1 0
 I just logged into the app and it's states straight away that a refund will be given for any remaining days of your subscription. You just have to have a valid credit card registered.
  • 17 17
 Shout out to U.S. anti-trust law, which on paper exists to prevent big businesses from buying up an entire market and creating a monopoly, like this. Unfortunately, anti-trust laws are only as good as the level of enforcement by the current presidential administration, so companies like Walmart, Amazon, Alphabet, and now Warner Bros/Discovery (all US-based companies) are allowed to continue eating up whole markets unchecked, making customers and workers worse off everywhere they go. It doesn't have to be this way.
  • 12 5
 So you are saying US anti-trust laws should inhibit one company buying the broadcast rights for cycling events (like Redbull had for the past 10 years) and that the fact they cant is Biden's fault?

M'kay.
  • 5 1
 Bro, do you even follow the activities of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)? The FTC has been super active in attempting to block corporate mergers under Lina Khan (Biden appointee as chairperson) but is losing in the courts because it is overstepping the established boundaries of anti-trust law. Love her or hate her, the FTC is more active now than at any time in the recent past.
Regardless, this isn't an antitrust issue. It appears that GCN+ didn't have a successful business model or had trouble executing and WB/Discovery decided to reallocate resources.
  • 5 0
 @aschohn: If the FTC used to be very active in blocking mergers, and then they weren't active at all for a long time, and now they're slightly more active than the recent past, I don't feel historically out of place to say they can and should be more active. And if y'all trust WBD's public-facing statements about internal business decisions, I've got a bridge to sell you. If WBD's plan was to conglomerate all sports viewing under one subscription package to bully consumers into paying more for sports they'll never view, I don't think they'd come out and say it.
  • 1 0
 Regardless of who's in charge, as long as you're giving money to the politicians you're good to go lol. Doesn't take a lot to buy off the low level ones either.
  • 1 0
 Sorry, meant to say consolidate all sports viewing, not "conglomerate." My bad.
  • 8 6
 And nothing of value was lost. We need a better distributer for all bike racing in America, I want to watch the Cyclocross races!
  • 9 0
 And not on Flosports
  • 3 0
 Right? After all the online posts about the 5 or 6 clashes between MvDP and Wout Van Aert coming up, which actually would be entertaining as hell to watch...
  • 4 0
 Thats a bold strategy Cotton let's see if it works out for them!
  • 4 0
 GIve it back to RedBull, we want Rob Warner back in the commentary booth!
  • 3 0
 Red bull should just make their own racing equavallent to uci - uci keeps changing providers.. plus you can get rob warner
  • 3 0
 They seem to be doing that by expanding "Hardline".
  • 3 0
 @wburnes: hardline is a different class on its own, but something like that.
  • 1 0
 Enough support and it will happen, Hardline expansion is a good example. Same with Crankworx series.
  • 1 0
 I wander what will happen to the IXS sponsored series. Will that come under the Redbull banner as well?
  • 1 0
 @minesatusker: more likely that it'll become a feeder for the world cup.
  • 1 0
 @Maxcommencemal: True. I guess it depends on if the UCI DH will retain its prestige. Which i guess it will,but reading how much they put up the team fees this year, this may start to get more people/teams to realistically look at alternative series. I could well be clutching at straws LOL.
  • 1 0
 I suspect (for Canada at least) that the coverage ends up on Flosports. So between DH races we can catch up on the World Championships of barber shop quartet and team cheerleading events.
  • 1 0
 Time to start watching gold I guess. Flosports is barely watchable!
  • 1 0
 *golf
  • 2 0
 0:53 in the video, maybe they should have stopped that sentence at "Warner Brothers Discovery will inform you as soon as possible where to go."
  • 2 0
 In short ‘we want to force you into a more expensive subscription to access all of discovery+ even though you don’t want all the other junk and only want the MTB’
  • 3 0
 we are averaging one mtb business going tits up per week. aint looking good.
  • 1 0
 I just love paying for 2 premium services and then being blacked out when the race comes to my country. And now we all get to bitch about the next crop of annoying useless announcers.
  • 2 0
 I didn't watch a single race this past season. Usually I don't miss one. I still watch a few riders on Youtube, like Adam Brayton & Danny Hart. No races though.
  • 2 0
 None of this surprises me at all. This is what happens when you take a established good thing & turn it into a Sh*t Show.
  • 3 0
 I was also wondering about EWS, how does Chris Ball feels after killing his own child.. money, I know but..
  • 1 1
 I don’t understand the hate for the GCN+ app. It could definitely be difficult to find the race you wanted, but other than that, it worked great. I loved having access to cyclocross and road racing, where their commentators are top notch.

It sucks to have this consolidated into discovery+ which has all sorts of crap I don’t want. The streaming services are trying to reinvent cable.
  • 1 1
 The app was horrendous and finding content was extremely painful. The coverage was like watching grade schoolers filming with iphones. Redbull had HORRENDIOUS problems with actually delivering the product with massive glitches' and connection failure in the app (not on my end) so much so I never EVER got through a whole race without reloading of some bullshit so also a horrible experience.

PLEASE just move to peacock like supermotorcross.
  • 2 0
 Boycott Warner Brothers till they're forced to sell back to Red Bull for pennies on the dollar! It's working for go woke go broke bud light...
  • 2 0
 Congratulations UCI. You’ve managed to destroy your own sport. I’ve got two names for you… Red Bull and Rob Warner. Think about it.
  • 20 20
 Worst streaming service I've used. Watching world cup on GCN was a chore, couldn't be more glad it's going away. I'm sure the world will figure out how to watch world cup downhill again by the time the season opens up.
  • 25 1
 I just fear what’s coming will be even worse…
  • 5 1
 I gave up watching after the second event. Last year of redbull streaming it, I was up at 4 am to watch it live. But I got introduced to a bunch of cool YouTube channels with great content about the races. I hope redbull challenges uci with a league of their own.
  • 9 1
 you haven't tried discovery+, if you think gcn+ was the worst!
  • 7 2
 @Fishoholics: How hard could it be? I opened my laptop went to the website and hit play, same thing on my phone. You stopped watching DH?
  • 1 0
 Huh? Worked fine for me.

Redbull player was nice cause it gave you a rider list and you could skip around, but gcn+ was perfectly easy to use
  • 3 0
 Yeah, I paid for a GCN+ account just to watch DH world cup. But I can't see myself getting a Discovery + account or whatever the hell they come up with to watch 8 races a season.
  • 36 4
 Credit where it's due, I had no issues with the GCN+ app or accessing racing this year.
  • 7 3
 @larrythelamb: I fear for those who found the app difficult to operate. Like maybe keep them away from sharp objects. Hell, balancing may be dangerous, so no more bikes for them.
  • 4 0
 @larrythelamb: Thought the same. I enjoyed that GCN offered to watch from beginning or live and never had an issue using app on PC or phone...
  • 4 6
 @Fishoholics: How would the red bull challenge UCI? Red bull makes pop and they broadcast like 100 made up stupid "extreme" sports, do people not realize how small of a percentage of their broadcasts are cycling? They likely don't care if they have the MTB broadcast rights. Red Bull is not a cycling company. The UCI is the governing body of the top cycling divisions in the world. They are not a broadcasting company. Red Bull and UCI are not the same thing, there is no challenge coming. You all need to stop acting like the UCI killed your family.
  • 2 2
 It was a pain in the ass and I don't know why. Question is, will the year that I paid for be pro-rated?
  • 2 0
 @brianpark: yeah but some people still think if you smash the left click on their mouse 80000 times and letout a passive "sigh" that their computer will start working again...
  • 2 2
 @dstroud70: Did you watch the video? If not, then maybe this could be a pointer as to why you found an incredibly easy to use streaming app, a pain in the buttocks.
  • 2 0
 the app wasn't available on my LG TV, same goes for the redbull app. I used an Amazon fire stick and it was average at best. When there is lots of events on over the weekend, I couldn't even find the race i wanted to watch. I not sure if things will get better, but having an app that's available on more devices with more money pouring in should hopefully make for a better experience. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
  • 5 0
 @brianpark: technically I also had not issues with the GCN+ app. UX is really bad though. hopefully next years alternative achieves current standards.
  • 3 2
 Nah. GCN+ was good and getting better with the MTB stuff every weekend. Plus, I liked watching the CX and some road events for cheap.
  • 4 2
 @lwkwafi: not difficult, but it was a pain in the ass.

Open app-->GCN+-->racing-->MTB, then look for the event I want to watch among all of the highlights, other events, upcoming events, etc. Do I want to watch the version with a pre-show? Probably not, but how come the runtime is shorter than the one without?

The whole thing was shit. That said, the actual race coverage was better than I expected.
  • 1 1
 I thought the XC coverage was pretty good and the road bike coverage was actually excellent. Road racing announcers were amazing.
  • 4 0
 I felt the same way. Watching using the AppleTV app was mind numbing. Spend a few minutes searching through about 5-7 races all with the same thumbnail. Then if you wanted to skip ahead, lets say a half hour, you would have to sit there and hold down fast forward for a few minutes at a time. Lets say you stopped watching and came back an hour later.. you would have to sit there again and hold fast forward. To skip to the end of a 2 hour race took about 5-7 minutes of fast forwarding. The web app was fine.
  • 2 0
 After reading a bunch of comments throughout the season I'd say the GCN+ app apparently worked OK (despite the navigation issues brought up here), but trying to watch the live races without the app and through Chromecast (or perhaps Fire Stick mentioned above) there were almost always some technical issues. I don't have the budget to get a new TV simply to access apps for services I'm trying out for the first time - and indeed which might stop existing less than a year later. While in general I have zero to very little issues streaming anything else through the Chromecast also when watching something live, GCN+ constantly suffered from poor image quality and video/ audio sync issues. The biggest downside being if you started to watch a live race a little late, you couldn't start it from the beginning while casting, but either had to skip the race so far or wait for a full replay afterwards.
  • 3 2
 @Jdricks: It feels like it's time for a separate circuit to become THE circuit. Crankworx, IXS exist. The UCI doesn't have a monopoly on DH racing in the way FIFA has over the WC. If no one watches the officially UCI sanctioned DH or EWS series, sponsors and riders should vote with their feet. The sport and it's popularity are not the problem, people running the supposedly best series are.
  • 1 0
 @vp27: The UCI is not a circut. IXS and Crankworx are circuts, and they are governed by the UCI. Like the Tour de France. It's the circuit and it follows the rules set out by the UCI.
  • 1 0
 @dstroud70: read the article
  • 1 0
 Try Red Bull TV app on PS4. That’s the absolute garbage. I’ve yet to see 30 min without buffering. It’s like they bought the Real Player and rebranded it Red Bull TV.
  • 1 0
 @sspiff: that was not an option on firetv, I had to use my laptop to find the race and add it to my list, so I could locate it on firetv
  • 4 0
 Hahahaha
  • 2 0
 $8.99…was asking way too much. That said, I subscribed only to watch XC then bailed.
  • 1 2
 GCN was propped up from the start and as cool as it was, the revenue stream was always in question? how were they truly going to make money? a few sponsors, placed ads? its just not enough when you consider the HUGE costs associated with broadcasting .
as already stated REDBULL is licking their lips, they truly understand media coverage and broadcasting and how to create revenue
  • 6 0
 You can't compare traditional media companies to Redbull. They are working on a completely different business model as they are a drink company.

Redbull generally doesn't charge anything to view its content as it serves mostly just as advertising for the energy drinks. They aren't really trying to turn a profit on the media they produce. I've seen reports that somewhere around 95%+ of Redbulls revenue and profit come from selling drinks. Everything else is just a marketing expense to sell cans of Redbull.
  • 1 0
 @sino428: I don't want to get into this too much but the truth is simple, redbull beverage made $9.68 billion last year, redbull media made $2.52 billion last year. Media House is extremely profitable, as is the drink portion of the company. But just like i stated in my original comment i don't expect anything but to be down voted because most pinkbike kids are in it for the 2 second rush of down voting, not actually understanding the business side. i don't post here to get votes, i post to tell the truth. I've been in this industry for 30 years.
  • 1 0
 @sirbikealot: Do you have a link to those numbers? From what I can find on google you those numbers are revenues not profits.
  • 3 1
 Discovery/WB and its consequences have been a disaster for the professional mountain biking world
  • 2 0
 I just paid with Apple account and disputed the case as "not working" Got refund and racing...
  • 2 0
 Sweet so I watched every race and I get half my money back! Makes up for me not buying just the race months for less money!
  • 3 1
 What a sh*t show! Sell the rights back to Redbull and give the mountain bikers what they want!
  • 2 1
 I did not watch one race this year thanks to the new pay thing. It will stay the same. I rather go biking then paying to watch.
  • 2 0
 The only racing this year was the Urban Downhill series and Crankworx races. The World Cup and EWS didn't happen for a lot of us that used to watch it.
  • 2 2
 Just watch it on the Discovery App?

That's what I did all year. It's the same price as the GCN+ monthlies and you get a bunch of other stuff to watch too.
  • 7 0
 The Discovery App didn’t show races in North America. It’s seems reasonable that it will next year, but that detail wasn’t addressed, so it’s uncertain at the moment.
  • 2 0
 @pmhobson: and it most certainly isn't the same price. With ads it's $5 a month, without, it's $9. For now, guaranteed it's going to go up very, very soon. No way they are just going to blend it all together without trying to take more money from everyone. So I paid $50 for the year, and now will have to pay $108 a year, and still have to use a VPN to see half the races.
  • 2 0
 @shorttravelmag: Ah, it's different in the UK. Discovery+ was £6.99 (it's now £3.99) a month. And I could cancel whenever I wanted so only ran it over the summer. GCN+ was the same price when I checked back in April.
I went with Discovery+ as they had an Xbox App and GCN+ didn't.
I use my Xbox to stream everything.
  • 2 0
 @StumpsterDave: That's reasonable, no one should complain about a few bucks a month for something like this. But I hate ads, really, really hate them, so I'd be looking at $108. Not the end of the world. I spend $108 a year on tire sealant. But, I still had to use a VPN to see half the good races. Heck, I had to use a vpn to the UK to watch the Trek Cyclocross world cup a few weeks ago, and it was 2.5 hours from my house! In my own country no less...If you're taking $108 a year, then I want every race on offer, period. I get free isn't realistic in the modern world, red bull was an outlier. But if you are taking money, then you better deliver something that's not only quality, but complete. And the best part of the gcn app was I could at least go there, and see every bike race that's coming up, easily, quickly. Well, not easily, it was a bit of a case of really, really studying the words on each as the screen shot thumbnails were all the same. But still, a dedicated app for cycling video content was exactly what was needed. I'm guessing we lose that entirely, and then have to look at the regular discovery plus app for everything. Ick.
  • 1 0
 The technology discovery uses for their apps and websites is crap. I used their food network app until it went from buggy to unusable.
  • 1 0
 Soooo cool to see Discovery+ is not even a thing for us here in Australia...
  • 4 1
 I took out the popcorns
  • 1 0
 YIKES. Idk of another place that offered so much coverage of cycling across the board, especially road.
  • 1 0
 Any comment from UCI or the organizers of MTB racing covered by GCN+ last year?
  • 2 1
 Which streaming service will pick up amateurs bumbling down a trail? That’s the one I’m most interested in
  • 1 0
 So if you bought a year's sub for Dh. You don't actually get a year? Can you get a part refund???
  • 3 0
 Read the article
  • 1 0
 GCN & GMBN need to break off and become an independent company again.
  • 1 2
 I really wanted to watch the "Steel is Real" story about Reynolds on GCN+ but no way I'm paying for that. Anyone have a different way to watch it?
  • 1 0
 So, moving to more expensive, hot garbage. Fantastic.
  • 1 0
 If they put all the racing on Max, I’ll be a happy guy
  • 3 3
 Struggling to care. coverage has been shit for the last few years so no great loss is it.
  • 2 1
 Rob Warner we need you now like never before.
  • 2 1
 I guess they blew their budget on the announcing for World Cup DH....
  • 1 1
 The people have spoken. Maybe Discovery should call Bud Light and Target before they make anymore stupid decisions.
  • 1 1
 Dear RedBull. Please add Whistler to the Hardline Series. I bet the 1199 wouldn’t need much to get it to that level.
  • 1 0
 What does GCN stand for?
  • 2 0
 Global Cycling Network
  • 1 0
 @handynzl: thanks. I obviously was not a subscriber. And don't think it was ever spelled out in the article.
  • 32 1
 Gonna Close Network
  • 1 1
 @Andykmn: You're welcome.
  • 1 2
 Glowing Cow Nut
Girls Cam Now
Gamma Circumference Nebula?
  • 1 0
 @handynzl: As a Kiwi you should know what GC stands for, the N stands for Not.
  • 1 0
 @commental: GC in that context is more an Australian thing. While we would say it, it really isn't as prevalent as in the West Island.
  • 1 0
 Huge L
  • 1 0
 What a s*** show...
  • 1 0
 CHANGE is in the air
  • 1 1
 Oh no, maybe I still won't give the shills at GCN/GMBN my money,
  • 1 1
 Oh well, what a shame, never mind
  • 1 2
 This news dropped 3hrs ago.
  • 6 6
 Laugh out LOUD!!!
  • 7 2
 The coverage sucked and the announcing was crap until Gwin stepped in.
  • 1 2
 Good. That was such a bad idea in the first place.
  • 1 1
 Bye!
  • 1 1
 Lol.
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