All change at GCN

Or not, looks like they have come full circle

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/founders-buys-back-gcn-from-warner-bros

It was probably inevitable that Warner were going to dump them after the closure of GCN+

So Warner Bros/Discovery have basically inflated GCN’s value, stripped it of it’s live coverage and documentaries channel for their own offering then sold it back.

Hopefully the new/original owners can build it back up.

I’d be quite happy (and more importantly quite happy to pay) if they went back to the GCN+ of last year.

So Warner Bros/Discovery have basically inflated GCN’s value, stripped it of it’s live coverage and documentaries channel for their own offering then sold it back.

No, they bought GCN, created GCN+, it presumably wasn’t a success, folded the coverage back into Eurosport, wrote off most of the value of their investment, and then sold the original GCN back?

I see at as this way ^^

I reckon the original owners of GCN made quite a hefty net profit as they sold it when it had value and bought it back when the value was low

WB Discovery kind of **** the bed last year. They’ve been trying to trim their outgoings since (canning a bunch of HBO stuff) and simplify their offerings and drive consumers into fewer more expensive platforms (canning GCN+ and removing Eurosport online for new signups etc). It’s not necessarily the profitability of GCN+ that was the issue, but the debt of the parent company, the overheads of maintaining (presumably poorly integrated) diverse operations, and its exposure to the market.

It’s all a giant conspiracy to convince the bike buying public that gravel bikes make sense anyway

nah GCN’s Mission Statement is “We will make cycling more expensive than Driving!”

I reckon the original owners of GCN made quite a hefty net profit as they sold it when it had value and bought it back when the value was low

Sold to Warner for £70m who then wrote down £66m and sold it back, presumably for £4m…

The question is, can we have a whip around for the broadcasting rights for DH?

Sold to Warner for £70m who then wrote down £66m and sold it back, presumably for £4m…

Ouch.

In my mind I read that as writing it down from a theoretical value at it’s peak, but that doesn’t make any accounting sense.  The original owners must be laughing!

@grimep I thought you liked unbridled capitalism?

All sounds a little similar to Kona/Kent/Kona.

I find it quite amusing to watch, but it suffers from the same problem that lots of specialist programs do, which is it runs out of subject matter and ends up a bit samey.

@kramer do you mean the youtube stuff? Where i agree. The GCN+ stuff could be really good and was more varied. I hope that archive resurfaces some time

Yeah, let’s hope the GCN+ content re-surfaces – I watched the Jenny Grahams “Eastbound” on YouTube last night. I thought that was GCN+ content but it might be wrong…

@ampthill yeah the Youtube stuff.

It’s the same problem all Youtubers have really.

The thing is GCN (without the ‘+’ bit) is just another YT content mill, They’ll probably recover that £4m over a longer period doing their advertorials and shilling for various bike companies, so it’s not such a bad deal for the founders, but they’re not doing anything half a dozen other similar outfits aren’t already. ‘GCN’ is an established name and that’s about all.
Presumably WBD will either find their own new pundits for the cycling coverage, or now buy in the GCN lot’s services? (in which case they’ve just created themselves a new outgoing cost with this sale).

When do all the UCI coverage rights come back round for bidding? is it at the same time or staggered?
It does feel like WBD have made particularly poor use of all the broadcast rights they scooped up, I do wonder if they’ll let them lapse in time and we’re back to square one except the GCN owners will have some spare money in the bank to spunk if they really want another crack at setting up their own streaming platform again…

I’m no WB or Discovery hater. I think overall DH and XC has actually improved.

but the GCN+ app was light years better than the disco one for watching racing.

Last year I bought an annual GCN subscription as the monthly cost for the mtb season was about the same amount. when they closed it I got a 5 month refund.I guess mtb fans are greatly outnumbered by CX and spring classics watchers but that seemed like a horrendous decision on their part.

When do all the UCI coverage rights come back round for bidding? is it at the same time or staggered?

Agreement was 5 years with a 5 year extension option covering everything UCI World Series related IIRC, and this is year 2.

Cillian Kelly is out too.

https://x.com/irishpeloton/status/1801574822767419406

Get the feeling it will almost disappear over the next year or so as although I watch a fair amount of the content it is pretty tired now and doesn’t feel like it can support the large team of people behind it.

How the hell was it ever valued at £70 million!?!?

I have to say I’m baffled by what happens next. I assumed that Orla, the pundits and and commentators like Sean Kelly were more paid by Discovery plus now. Is that not the case?

 I assumed that Orla, the pundits and and commentators like Sean Kelly were more paid by Discovery plus now. Is that not the case?

I’d always assumed that they worked for Eurosport. I’m not sure there’s anything ‘baffling’ going on as far as road race coverage goes, GCN has nothing to do with that surely, it’s basically a YouTube channel financed by partner deals with cycling brands and YT advertising revenue.

It’s all a giant conspiracy to convince the bike buying public that gravel bikes make sense anyway

Currently watching Connor contorting logic trying to explain why 1x gearing gives him better range for bikepacking, nothing to do with it just being a massive advertorial for Campag who don’t offer Ekar in 2x.

I love the industry doublethink going on in this regard, must be healthy profit margins in groupsets with no front mechs and 50% less shifting gubbins 🙄

amount of the content it is pretty tired now and doesn’t feel like it can support the large team of people behind it.

Extrapolate this to GMBN and you’ve got to wonder how they keep going!

wonder why Cillian has been ousted

wonder why Cillian has been ousted

Looking at what he did his job seems to have largely disappeared since shutdown of app and other stuff I would guess.

Extrapolate this to GMBN and you’ve got to wonder how they keep going!

Need to also include GTN which although I have never watched must also be clutching at things to create content on in such a constant/regular manner.