ABC not covering the rest of the GP events?

[Alexa]

I just went to Heather's TV schedule and noticed that Skate America is the only GP event that ABC appears to be covering. The rest of them are being covered by ESPN. Any particular reason ABC is not covering more events?

[dr.frog]

ABC's contract with the ISU expired at the end of last season. ESPN has the new contract (for a lot less money than ABC was formerly paying). Skate America is still covered by ABC's contract with the USFSA (which doesn't expire until 2007) and is not part of the ESPN/ISU package.

[Alexa]

Thanks, that is helpful. I think it will be easier having it on one channel anyway--the last couple of years the two channels did not do a good job of coordinating the scheduling of the TV coverage.

[patio7773]

Will Lifetime be showing any of the competitions as in previous years?

[Kemy]

Hmm, does this mean Worlds will be on ESPN? ABC and ESPN are two sides of the same Disney coin though so I'm not sure how much of a real distinction there is.

Looks like all the USFSA events are shown on ABC, but the ISU events are not. I think they keep the ABC and ESPN contracts separate. I think ABC might be a bit more expensive since everyone has access to ABC, but not everyone can watch ESPN.

[lilwish]

it is about ratings and money. if it is believed that ad time will be sold on abc for Nationals and for Worlds then I think abc will cover them if not espn willl. Personally. I always prefer espn. They talk less and show more skaters and seem to know more and do less fluff...maybe that's just in my head.

[Kemy]

Well, the thing is, in the past ABC had the contract for ISU...but they still showed parts of the GPs on ESPN (not to mention parts of Nats IIRC and other events that were not worthy of ABC apparently.)

I'm thinking that ESPN might be included in the ABC contract, but not vise versa, since ABC is the more watched network and ESPN is for reruns and sports/games that aren't as "important."

[MQSeries]

:cry: I don't get ESPN. Rats. Oh well, I tend to watch too much skating anyway so maybe this'll wean me off it. :)

[Mel On Ice]

ABC also has a huge NHL contract. There was a repeat of SA's dance and pairs comp on Wednesday night on ESPN2, in the same time slot big games are aired. WILL the hockey lockout be a bonus to figure skating fans, now that ABC has time slots to fill?

[Lili]

ABC also has a huge NHL contract. There was a repeat of SA's dance and pairs comp on Wednesday night on ESPN2, in the same time slot big games are aired. WILL the hockey lockout be a bonus to figure skating fans, now that ABC has time slots to fill?

I hope so. :D