MTB World Cup broadcast rights go to Discovery from 2023

Best case scenario would be some more cameras (no more riders appearing a minute into their run with no idea what has happened!) but continuing to be free to view on Youtube.

I’ll be honest, if there are a few more cameras and they bother to show more than a handful of the field (women’s especially) it would be a significant improvement. I like Warner but he’s no more irreplaceable than anyone else, that isn’t too say they could get a replacement spectacularly wrong mind but I’d even be willing to accept James bloody Corden as commentator if the trade off was ten more cameras on each race.

But if there were more cameras further up the course there would have to be larger gaps between riders, thus probably less riders televised or even qualified. I’m not sure that’s the shakeup people are hoping for.

Grim news and this will be the end of the Red Bull presentational Vibe which I enjoy for the MTB sport

but Free or paywall? – EWS highlights are free on GMBN youtube so who knows. Likely to be mashed in with GMBN/GCN channel and subscription though with more commentary work for Rik Mclaughlin (can’t see Rob Warner fitting in with the GCN/GMBC studio-based culture.) Nightmare if they follow the GCN presentational format with substandard commentary – just look at Cyclo-Cross racing coverage and you may even get Marty McDonald commentating on XC which will be a disaster – remember GCN did cover some XCO racing coverage in 2019 covering some of the Swiss Cup rounds (free on Youtube).

Will there be more rounds of either XCO or DH? As Discovery are organizing it themselves this might be more than they can cope with at first unless they get another organisation to do the donkey work such as Flanders Classics (Belgian based race organisation responsible for expanding CX world cup coverage) or TDF/Vuelta organisers ASO.

can’t see Rob Warner fitting in with the GCN/GMBC studio-based culture

The GMBN Dirt Shed Show started with Martyn Ashton and Rob Warner as hosts IIRC

No, please, keep Flanders Classics, or ASO away from MTB racing. MTB racing has it’s own unique culture, we don’t want that ruined by people from the road…..and I say that as somebody who watches, and is a fan of road racing.

Flanders Classics has the CX World Cup, and it jumped to 16 rounds which was far too many – they were just chasing the money – and a lot of venues couldn’t make it pay, and some have pulled out for next season.

someone on the pink site suggested redbull could start their own race series.

It’s almost touching how naive some of them are.

The UCI DH WC series isn’t going to be supplanted anytime soon and any RB-led alternative would be a sideshow – albeit perhaps a really good sideshow if they were to team up with Crankworx, for example.

Eurosport know how to do live sports and will certainly be keen to retain the current commentary team, they may even take on the existing production team if that’s logistically feasible.

My concern would be what kind of show they try to put on around the live action. Will it just be an abrupt live feed as we get for most road cycling, or will they retain and develop the preview & post-race content?

they were just chasing the money

Well yes. It’s a business, not a charity. They might have got it wrong but no-one is in it (edit: at that level) for anything other than the money.

Well yes. It’s a business, not a charity. They might have got it wrong but no-one is in it (edit: at that level) for anything other than the money.

Of course they’re in it for the money but there’s always the question of short term gain that will result in long term decline. Cricket and Rugby League are good examples of this.

Agreed. If there isn’t much reason to disrupt the current formula, why would you?
I couldn’t see them replacing Tracey or Elliott, who are both very media friendly. As for Rob Warner, he’s DH’s equivalent to Murray Walker. He won’t be going anywhere.

Of course they’re in it for the money but there’s always the question of short term gain that will result in long term decline

But one isn’t an inevitable result of the other. Companies and people get things wrong all the time, they get them right too.
It’s rarely in a companies interest to sacrifice the mid term in favour of the short. Investors want to see % year on year every year, it’s very unusual they’re happy with tiny or negative growth this year despite they may have seen 50% last year.

Discovery will want to see increasing return on their investment, year on year on year, sometimes they screw it up but they’d much rather the sport continued to grow every year for the next 8 (or however long they think they can hold the rights for) than ballooned tomorrow, held steady for 5 years then died slowly over the final three of their contract.

The improvement under RB has been mentioned above, do you think that’s because “they understand the fans” or because that’s what they need to do to keep shareholders happy?

Me, I think it’s the later and they’d have taken the DCC approach to track surfacing if they thought it would give them 3% a year for the next decade.

Don’t get me wrong discovery might kill it deader than what ever is in @andrewreay cellar but it won’t be “for the money” it’ll just be incompetence.

I subscribe to Eurosport which I think is part of Discovery, same feed as gcn. Cycling in summer then Biathlon and alpine sports in winter. Live and catch up videos. They already cover cx and mtb world cup races so it is a pretty good service.
Has been very stable this last year. Much of the cycling is ad free.
List of sports they cover is huge from snooker and tennis through to triathlon and formula e. Don’t have a smart tv so we throw it to the tv via a chromecast.

The improvement under RB has been mentioned above, do you think that’s because “they understand the fans”

I don’t think RB have a particular rapport with the fans, but their commentary team do – and they sometimes draft in people like Tahnee or Reece Wilson to contribute alongside their generic interviewers.

I really don’t know if DH will benefit from being on a wider, more mainstream, platform or suffer from being behind a paywall.

We don’t even know if Discovery plan to put it behind a paywall TBH, but I have no real objection and part of me thinks it’d be good for the entitled little shitbags of Pinkbike (and some here) to realise that sometimes you have to pay for content.

part of me thinks it’d be good for the entitled little shitbags of Pinkbike (and some here) to realise that sometimes you have to pay for content.

You pay regardless so don’t go thinking anyone is getting anything for free.

I don’t pay however many thousand a year for Sky so won’t be getting it “free” and another subscription isn’t going to fly, especially since I may not actually be able to watch the content thanks to work or general life commitments.

And to pre-empt the first numpty that comes out with the usual “price of a couple of pints” nonsense – bugger off.

You pay regardless so don’t go thinking anyone is getting anything for free.

Not really.

If it’s “free” content, someone pays for sure, whether you or I pay for it is a different matter entirely.

Yeah, it’s many years since I drunk a Red Bull.

Obviously, otherwise you’d be chakaWing

How will they cover the sport? Will it be better? It’s hard to improve on what Red Bull do already.
Live from the venue, with reporters, a proper preview, and track walks, the races, and post race show.

Compare to a CX World Cup on GCN/Eurosport; they have tended to be studio based, with commentary from a studio in Bath and/or home.

If there’s one issue in MTB racing, it’s the lack of outside sponsors, apart from Mercedes-Benz. Where are they all? And why aren’t they interested in MTB racing? 6-9 events a season isn’t great is it?

If this deal brings in more rounds, and more money/sponsors for the teams, then it may well have been worth it – but I’m not holding my breath.

I really don’t know if DH will benefit from being on a wider, more mainstream, platform or suffer from being behind a paywall.

Is there any minority sport that’s grown participation whilst it’s professional level has been behind a paywall? Even football is starting to struggle in attracting new fans in the UK though it does a good job expanding it’s market internationally and extracting more money from existing fans.

Is there any minority sport that’s grown participation whilst it’s professional level has been behind a paywall?

Road cycling?

I was thinking more of commercial benefit though. More money for teams and athletes via increased audience and sponsorship revenues (perhaps from non-cycling firms).

Could go either way, or remain static. I don’t think anyone knows for sure, but I’d love to hear what Martin Whiteley thinks about it.

This sucks.

Aside from anything else races stay on Red Bull TV for ever – I think i finished watching last year’s season about two weeks ago as I watch all the coverage in full on the turbo over winter (…Super Bruni is back!!!).

Anyone else spot this peculiar article on Pinkbike?

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/opinion-the-proxy-war-between-discovery-and-redbull-is-official.html

Maybe it’s just me, but it’s a very incendiary headline, following by an article that’s a puff piece for Discovery, and I don’t pretend to know exactly what they mean by ‘proxy war’ in the context of Sports Broadcasting, but one outlet winning the bid from another, ain’t one in my book.

The UCI DH WC series isn’t going to be supplanted anytime soon and any RB-led alternative would be a sideshow – albeit perhaps a really good sideshow if they were to team up with Crankworx, for example.

A really good sideshow is what they might be aiming for. There’s a very chicken and egg type scenario when you look at some of the other events – the crankworx DH and the IXS cup.

The coverage of those is shockingly bad. And as such, the top riders (say the top 15 men and top 5 women) seem to give them a miss. Which is a shame because looking at the helmet cams, the courses are pretty similar. If redbull showed up with some cameras and Warner, are the top riders going to enter?

Loads of DH fans love to moan about the UCI and their treatment/neglect of the discipline (pro riders are probably smart enough to keep their mouths shut). And yet what is most coveted? The rainbow stripe jersey.
Is this because they appreciate the steeped history of over a century of competitive cycling? Or is it just because it is the most high profile race?

In XC we see riders turn their back on WC points in an Olympic year. Nino at his peak skipped a WC race to train/prepare for Rio. Pidcock and VDP were both Olympic medal hunting too. I wager we would have seen far less of them on the mtb this coming year if you took injuries off the table.

While I agree with a lot of what you say, the top DH racers will still prioritise the WC series.

And for a lot of them that’ll mean not wanting to risk getting injured at other races.

The win-win solution is for Red Bull to take the money they were spending on broadcasting, and put it into sponsoring extra WC rounds somehow.

Interesting to see if we get more rounds. In my limited understanding, at the moment organisers approach the UCI and take all the financial risk associated with putting the event on and presumably also pay the UCI a fee whether they make any money or not.
If as it reads, Discovery are also going to be running the series. More events (could) equal more viewers/money and may leave scope for them helping new organisers financially to put on events.

Not after a bloated F1 type season with events run my dubious Middle East dictators, but nobody can deny that the circuit has become way too Europe based.

As for coverage, I can see them keeping some of the current format of extras but that will be under GCN/Eurosport player subscription and them a highlight package or best of the field live on Eurosport. Hopefully they show the whole of the women’s field, that’s a big miss at the moment for Red Bull.
As stated already, you’re never going to get full course coverage with the current rider gaps. Just look at ski coverage, couple of angles from start gate, then pick up half way down. Their ski coverage is actually very good and if they can bring some of that behind the camera team in for the summer, then it could work very well.

If redbull showed up with some cameras and Warner, are the top riders going to enter?

Probably not because they aren’t contracted to and so its not their job. You also have to remember that at the moment all the sideshow events (Crankworx, Rampage, Hardline etc) are all invitational. You cant qualify for them by being good enough and earning a place, you have to get an invitation, which often means being sponsored by the correct brands or conversely being contracted not to do them if they are sponsored by a rival. How many “Monster” Athletes are invited to Hardline for example?

If we want more money in the sport then it needs to be broadcast on a wider platform than a drinks companies marketing platform. It’s the only way to attract proper sponsorship money from outside of the cycling industry

If we want more money in the sport then it needs to be broadcast on a wider platform than a drinks companies marketing platform. It’s the only way to attract proper sponsorship money from outside of the cycling industry

Absolutely! And more rounds. From a XCO perspective – look at the non World Cup races…..how many can you watch? And when you can, it’s not great. So 6-9 World Cup events a year to bring in viewers, sponsors, money, etc
It’s nowhere near enough….

While I agree with a lot of what you say, the top DH racers will still prioritise the WC series

but because it is currently the most exposure for the people who emply them

I totally agree the top guys wont risk their season in a second rate event – apart from all the French guys who go a bit mad on their national series

But if a “Red Bull race league” is pulling more viewers than “UCI DH presented by discosport” then where will the top teams and brands be suggesting their athletes focus their efforts?

But if a “Red Bull race league” is pulling more viewers than “UCI DH presented by discosport” then where will the top teams and brands be suggesting their athletes focus their efforts?

That would depend on how they league was run. At the moment every RB event is invitation only and so the entry list can be controlled and manipulated. With the UCI series anyone can enter if they are good enough to earn the right to be there. If RB stuck to their current methodology then its is just a marketing entertainment show and not really a race series to find the best

This.
Getting an entry from gaining points in your national series is a far better means of qualification than a fizzy drink endorsement

Well it’s not on Eurosport live… Damn….

It’s showing as on Monday 1pm for Womens, 2pm for Mens, XC afterwards…

So where to watch live ? Hmmmmm

Looks like I’ll be casting it to the telly from the Eurosport app on my phone.
Eurosport has the Dauphiné and Le Mans on the channels here for Saturday lunchtime and afternoon.

Live on GCN+ app if your telly supports it.