They're gonna air Southwests on the new Figure Skating Channel! Regionals, Sectionals and Nationals are planned on being aired here as well.Figure Skating Channel

The cool thing is that they are covering both regular circuit, adults & synchro. There's a good mix of stuff.

Are they going to include Olympics at some point? I don't have TV at home at all - neither aerial nor cable, just Internet, so it'd be good if there is a chance to watch Torino over web.

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My other car is a Zamboni

Hi All,

I've been lurking here for ages. Figured this would be a nice time to pop up...

Someone told me about it several days ago.

In addition to being supported by the USFSA, the figure skating channel does sound like a good business model because it is inclusive of ALL figure skaters of all levels and disciplines.

The sponsorship opportunities for up and coming skaters on this site are tremendous in addition to getting exposure for skaters that deserve it but haven't gotten it.

In addition - I am certain all of this video footage would help solve the eternal question of - What is expected of skaters at a certain competitive level? Or even perhaps test level?

I would subscribe to it before it starts to get big.

OMG, that is soooo tempting. I may just do it.

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Except that it's not yet for Macintosh users.

Even if you did have TV at home, Sceptique, you'ld hardly ever see skating on it, and practically never on aerial. That's the main reason we have a digibox and get Top Up, so we can at least see the Europeans and Worlds! I suppose they'll show about five minutes of the Olympics, but mostly they show other sports.... Grrrrrr..... Last Olympics my husband said, "Oh well, let's watch the ice-hockey, at least it takes place on ice!"

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Say what number is that channel on Comcast?

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FSWer

It isn't on Comcast-it's over the internet...but you need a broadband connection to watch it.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

This channel is actually just a webcast channel. (Now if it was a cable TV channel - that would be really cool! There was a group of promoters trying to establish a TV skating channel - like the Golf Network and such - but they couldn't line up enough sponsors.) But if you have Comcast, you're in luck, b/c they will likely be airing bits of South Atlantic Regionals and Easterns this year - at least, I assume that's why those events are not on the list of events this new channel will be webcasting.

Too tempting - archived video and all. I put up the $$.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the interest in The Figure Skating Channel. I hope that I can clear up some of the questions that you may have.

1. Is there going to be coverage of my region/my competition?

Please keep checking the competitions page on the thefigureskatingchannel.com for announcements. We expect to be announcing more regions this week upon confirmations of whether they will be live, near live (1 day - 1-2 weeks post event).

2. Are they going to be live?

As often as we can cover the events live, we will. Not all rinks have web connections, so there are some hurdles that we have to overcome to bring you live coverage. Our preference is live and we will try to offer that as best we can.

3. Is there a programming preference?

Our goal is to cover everything - all regions, all disciplines, all levels of skating. We would never choose to cover one region over the next. Skaters are worldwide and skating fans, parents, coaches, are also worldwide. With your support, we can try to broadcast as much skating for the world to see.

4. More questions? Please reach out to us - we want to hear your questions & concerns.

On a personal note, from a fellow skater (my club is SCSF), I am proud to present to you The Figure Skating Channel. I hope to continue to hear your suggestions and hope that you will grow this channel with me.

Thanks for your support.

Resa Lee
Director of Content, MediaZone.com
The Figure Skating Channel
www.thefigureskatingchannel.com

Do I understand that this service will be available worldwide, not just in the USA? It's seriously tempting, as we have very little skating coverage here in the UK; even our national championships aren't broadcast (although there was a sort-of webcast last year).

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Oh, shame...

I was seriously tempted to buy tickets to Torino, but with only premium ones left, it's a touch too stressful for our budget. So looks like the best choice would be to go see my family for two weeks and watch Olympics on Russian TV - I'm pretty sure they will have prime time coverage there on at least 1 channel. Quite an exotic holiday - February in Siberia (-25C + winds) All for the love of skating!!

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My other car is a Zamboni

What we used to do (this year, at least we will have Eurosport, which does cover some skating!) was to find a nice friend who did have access to Eurosport and either go and plonk ourselves on their sofa (which made for a very good tea-party last Worlds!) or smile sweetly at them and hand them some blank video-tapes!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

It sounds really great but $99.99 is just too much for my bank balance at the moment.
ah, well .

It's seriously tempting at $99.99. However, I'll have to look thru that list and see which ones I would most definitely be curious to watch if I wasn't at that event (or want to download.) If it's only a few of them, I'd rather just go with the pay-per-event plan.

In any case, congrats to Resa and the MediaZone team on a wonderful launch of a website!!! Here's to (hopefully) a successsful business venture!

From a fellow SCSF member... (see 'ya on the ice!)

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

just when I took a vow to spend less time online...

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

I should think I'd want to watch your Adult Nationals if I possibly can, imagine me and the Husband sitting there going "Oooh, that's XXX" and "Oh look, there's YYY".... 5,000 miles away.

Now, if they could only add on our Championships, whether Adult, Solo Dance, Novice or the main ones, that would be utter, utter blissikins..... (so I can dream, can't I - I know it wouldn't be practical!)

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Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that The Figure Skating Channel has added the remaining regionals & sectionals. Now all regionals & sectionals are going to be covered.

Here's the growing list of competitions: Competition List On The Figure Skating Channel

Best,

Resa
The Figure Skating Channel
www.thefigureskatingchannel.com

Resa, how awesome that an adult skater is so actively involved in the Figure Skating Channel! Thanks for making this happen!!

Ditto!!

Way to go Resa!!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the support. It's been a whirlwind of a project, but I'm so excited to be working on it and to finally get to see all of the skating that we've been hearing about.

Just wanted to let you know that the North Atlantics Regionals will be broadcast live - direct from Lake Placid starting Wednesday (10/18) at 8am EDT.

If you're already a subscriber, you'll just need to login and click on the live event based on its schedule time. The times are approximate, as you know, because sometimes competitions run early/late.

Here's the link to click & watch: North Atlantic Regional Championships Live Broadcast

Best,

Resa
The Figure Skating Channel

Doubt it. No broadcaster is permitted to broadcast Olympics footage over the Internet at this point. Olympic syndication is extremely limited, expensive and restrictive - I used to work for a broadcaster that got limited rights to the 2000 Sydney Games and even then we could only show a certain number of games, sports, and highlights. It was a complete nightmare to administer.

I guess the IOC feels that can justify this as about 60% of their entire revenue is from broadcasting rights.

So no, alas, I don't think the Olympics will be on FSchannel or any other any time soon.

I'm tempted on the channel, but I think I will try the per event option to make sure it works adequately on my Internet. Would love to see Worlds and Europeans again, has been many years.

OK, there always is one early adopter with impulsive buying habits!

So, my first impression:

So far I downloaded one competition from Southern Pacific - it took ca 4 hours (~500Mb). I didn't try watch online option so I don't know how good streaming quality would be, but the downloaded file looks fine. Sound quality is quite good - I suppose it was captured directly from the sound system rather than through a microphone.

One of the most enjoyable part is being able to hit pause button and then study in detail each element of a skater's jump - leg position, body position, arms position etc. Also, Windows Player has a slow playback option - awesome!

On the downside, I couldn't connect to live webcast that is on now - I get "file cannot be found" message.

In a nutshell, I think it's worth 60-something quid (don't know what the exchange rate is at the moment), but if the price goes up next year, I'd suggest that the channel introduces some subscription levels, say Bronze - up to 20 events - $50; Silver - up to 50 events - $100; Gold - unlimited - $250 etc.

And could they tape British Championships (Nov 28 - Dec 3) by any chance? Just wondering....

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My other car is a Zamboni