MTB World Cup broadcast rights go to Discovery from 2023

Well I guess having all that great Redbull coverage completely free was too good to last

I can stomach a pay service because I have really enjoyed Red Bull’s coverage but……are they going to pick up the current commentary team? Rob Warner would be a hard act to follow in my eyes. Plus all the other stuff around the Red Bull coverage, are people like Ben Cathro going to be cut out? In short I fear change 🙁

Plus all the other stuff around the Red Bull coverage, are people like Ben Cathro going to be cut out?

Cathro is part of the Pinkbike coverage.

But yes, won’t be the same if they don’t pick up Warner & co.

Yes but I think even before he joined Pink Bike Ben Cathro had some hassle over access as Red Bull had the rights.  My concern is that Discovery will be more protective of their investment

My concern is that Discovery will be more protective of their investment

If they are forking out cash the cost may partially get passed on to 3rd parties like PB.. so we could see their coverage end up behind the Outside paywall.

Hard to know what it means really – Eurosport is now part of Discovery, I believe.. . the Winter Olympics were all on Eurosport 1 & 2 and also something called Discovery+ (guessing a streaming app), so I would’ve thought it would be the same as that. Will find out next year, I suppose.

(similar story here about a tennis tournament, the last paragraph saying it’ll be on Eurosport on TV – https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2021/09/16/discovery-sports-acquires-10-year-rights-to-laver-cup/ )

That’s another sport I’ll not be watching then. I’m a bloody cheapskate so I can do without same as I’ve done without F1 since Sky took it from Channel 4. There’ll inevitably be highlights on youtube anyway.

It could be great but the whole experience is hit and miss. Examples: race highlight programs are rubbish; cross world champs bizarrely had no commentary; sometimes the app just will not stream what you want, especially live streams; there is a smart tv app but for some reason the content is different to the smartphone app, and it has streaming problems; and so on…

All true, with some caveats. Highlight quality varies by race, dependent on what they can show. Some are good, some pretty poor. The cross worlds had two streams on the app, one with commentary, one without (the one with was the “includes live show” version). The app can be a bit flaky and they’ve definitely had capacity issues in the past with popular races or the finishes suffering from buffering and delays. It’s got a bit better over time I think.

The documentaries are generally well made, there’s a lot on there but mainly road/gravel/adventure rather than MTB. If I was only an MTB fan I’m not sure there’s enough current content to keep me interested.

Pretty disappointed by this. DH is pretty much the only sport I watch nowadays.

I will strongly consider subscribing to continue watching it, but it really needs to be done at least to the standard that RedBull currently provide. That definitely includes the commentary team.

Sky Q customers can currently get 12 months of disovery+ for “free”:
https://www.sky.com/pages/vip/discovery+

I’ll reserve my judgement but I can’t see it being free to air. Red bull spends money for marketing and branding purposes, whereas discovery are just a broadcasting company and I can’t see them airing their content for free.

You’d think people would have realised now how bad for a sports overall development putting it’s professional level behind a paywall is. Hopefully we might see more Hardline type events in response.

How long have redbull had it now? I remember freecaster before when Rob Warner was a little less guarded as to what he would say with the guests in the commentary booth, it was bloody hilarious. I hope it doesn’t go another step towards beige sensibilities.

Personally I never thought that redbull really got it right, but equally they never **** it up either. So I think it can be done better, but it could also be done a lot worse so fingers crossed.

You’d think people would have realised now how bad for a sports overall development putting it’s professional level behind a paywall is.

Especially for a sport that is largely funded by bike companies promoting their bikes. How much money does the Discovery deal give the teams, will it compensate for the lack of visibility they get compared to what they had on red bull.

I remember freecaster before when Rob Warner was a little less guarded as to what he would say with the guests in the commentary booth, it was bloody hilarious

Thanks for that.ive been trying for ages to remember who the Belgian outfit were that had it before RedBull

Perhaps Red Bull can pick up the EWS coverage?

Is that World wide or is it time for a VPN?

Real shame that. Hope Warner is still involved.

How can anyone care about DH when discovery has amazing stuff like this to keep you entertained
Jack Osbourne watches paranormal videos with his famous – and skeptical – parents in 
The Osbournes Want To Believe

I remember when it was on eurosport with that numpty who couldn’t pronounce Nicolas vouilloz’ name, I can’t see discovery getting the vibe right or giving Rob Warner a job. Its gonna suck and cost money, double whammy.

I can’t see how this can be good news. Excellent coverage, production, and free to air. How can they beat that? I just can’t. The best cycling coverage of any discipline is the MTB World Cup. Go and compare a CX World Cup to a MTB World Cup – it’s like night and day. The only time the CX World Cup coverage was any good was the part season Red Bull had it in 2019/20 – and it was the same as the MTB coverage.

Since then it’s reverted to type, with commentary from a studio in the UK – How is that better?

I struggle to see any good coming from this. My only hope is that Discovery have plans to increase the number of rounds, and exposure for sponsors, etc
9 is a small number of rounds for an Elite sport – no wonder there’s very few big money sponsors in MTB (apart from Mercedes-Benz) this may be one of the things Discovery are hoping to change.

I guess it’ll end up on Discovery+ At £4 a month it’s not the end of the world I suppose, especially as it’s not an annual Sub. If it was happening this year, you’d need to spend about £12 to see the whole season, including Worlds, if they show it.

Let just hope they build on what RedBull have done and not use more mainstream commentators, I’m sure we all remember the horrors of listening to non-MTB commentators in the past.