GCN+ is dead

koutoubia · 16-11-2023 6:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121376680#Comment_121376680

Yeah but would I be able to watch on my laptop/phone as its part of a plan with SKY?

CramCycle · 16-11-2023 7:22pm

I am going to miss the CX races, for me that made it worth it. The road stuff I'd find highlights on YouTube and Lanterne Rouge does that well. The CX though, I'll miss that.

Weepsie · 16-11-2023 7:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121376708#Comment_121376708

This on the app. Breaks it up by discipline, and says it has this weekends CX on live

Weepsie · 16-11-2023 7:58pm

Should add I only have it because ok with sky. Sky is harder and harder to justify though price wisem

Dodge · 16-11-2023 8:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121376708#Comment_121376708

Yes. You get prompted to set up a discovery + account and you can access that anywhere (phone, laptop, smart tv, Sky Q etc etc )

MyDarkArts · 16-11-2023 8:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121376679#Comment_121376679

They're obviously not going to bite the hand that feeds, nor would anyone expect them to, but I got the sense, as well as implying that they were doing well, they were quite unhappy that it was being closed.

I suppose I could be reading too much into a 3/4 minute announcement though.

cletus · 16-11-2023 8:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121377258#Comment_121377258

Got the same impression, to be honest

Squidgy Black · 17-11-2023 12:06am

Would imagine for the likes of Lloyd etc that although they’re being told they’ll have the same role as before but just with Discovery etc, it must be a bit daunting moving from a specialised channel into the big goliath that is discovery, I’d say they’re all thinking they could be on the chopping block fairly sharpish.

Weepsie · 17-11-2023 12:32am

Dan might be fine, it's Simon, Hank, Manon, James, Conor etc that I imagine will be looking for new jobs fairly sharpish.

Ollie has a PhD in chemistry though so he can always go back to that.

loyatemu · 17-11-2023 12:38am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121377110#Comment_121377110

Sky has a basic package called Essentials for €10 a month. Still includes Disco+.

Antipathetic · 17-11-2023 1:26am

Signed up to Discovery plus, firstly, I am disappointed that there is no free trial like other regions. And secondly, despite the price of 7 euros a month, there are still ads on the stream of eurosport.

I think unfortunately I am going to put on my eye patch and sail the high seas ⛵

Fuck companies that charge a subscription fee and then still make you watch ads.

Dodge · 17-11-2023 2:35am

On all live events, there is an ad free version. I’ve had it for two years now

CramCycle · 17-11-2023 10:20am

Sorry, think this was answered but does it include past races, very rare I can watch things live anymore? Same question for D+ or ES

loyatemu · 17-11-2023 10:37am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121378805#Comment_121378805

yes

breezy1985 · 17-11-2023 10:43am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121378315#Comment_121378315

You just select the add free feed on the app. They have the TV coverage one and the add free (also a commentary free I think)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121378118#Comment_121378118

GCN and ES have always had the same commentary so they would have been working for Discovery for a while now anyway.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121378805#Comment_121378805

What GCN and ES offer in terms of race coverage on the app is almost identical in every way.

The difference is ES have no non race stuff.

CramCycle · 17-11-2023 11:03am

Cheers, we will see how much I miss CX races before signing up

Paddigol · 17-11-2023 11:24am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121378973#Comment_121378973

Its the CX races - the full schedule of mens, womens, (sometimes u23s), X2O, Superprestige, World Cup and even races in the UK/ US on occasion, that gave me the value for GCN+. The sheer number of them was incredible. So enjoyable to watch for a couple of hours - non stop racing from the gun. I really just kept up the subscription from February to September just out of laziness... with work its much harder to watch the Grand Tours live, and even then you find yourself waiting for a couple of hours for something to kick off.

In a way, the fact that GCN+ isn't being shut down due to losses makes it harder to take. How often do great projects fail just because they haven't got the right product for the right market pitched at the right level? And how many crap products/ technologies just keep going because the money backers decide to go all in to see if they can make it profitable (does Spotify make any money yet?). GCN seemed to have nailed it.

Melodeon · 17-11-2023 1:03pm

CX is VERY important in this house too.

I've downloaded the D+ app and had a rummage.

There appears to be a year's worth or so of on-demand CX (World Cup, Superprestige, X2O, Euros, Worlds, etc) available; Men, Women, U23, Juniors, the lot.

I haven't taken out a subscription so I can't watch anything of course, but there appear to be options on pretty much everything for the Eurosport version (as broadcast, including adverts, I assume?), or the 'unbranded' coverage, which I'm presuming (hoping?) is the advert-free coverage.

The same appears to go for Track and Mountain Bike coverage too.

I got tired of scrolling back through the Road coverage, but that appears to be just as comprehensive.

I'm planning to stay with my GCN+ sub until mid-December and then take out the D+ sub. It's kinda the only reasonable option now anyway, short of digging my eye-patch and shoulder-parrot out of retirement.

I'd FAR prefer to be giving my €6.99/month (€84.88) to the good folks at GCN though ☹️

Paddigol · 17-11-2023 1:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121379532#Comment_121379532

Thanks for the research... sounds like at least something positive anyway. But as you say, it was in much better/ safer hands with GCN so a pity for the future and for ongoing innovation in coverage etc.

breezy1985 · 17-11-2023 2:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121379532#Comment_121379532

But the good folk at GCN are the Discovery folk.

Macy0161 · 17-11-2023 2:01pm

As bad as it is for us, going on the Escape Collective podcast it's potentially an absolute nightmare for those outside of Europe! Also a lot more laid off than I imagined too, with people overseas making content when they got told!

CramCycle · 17-11-2023 2:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121379799#Comment_121379799

Very much gig economy I imagine, with the other part being that you advertise yourself via GCN by doing the coverage. Very much a system where you had to have passion and then the hope you became a name social media wise. The problem for many of these is that the access to content to create content will now become very niche. There are already famous people who can get away with being talking heads for youtube but the smaller names required the content to draw in the people.

It is even more annoying that as others have said, GCN would appear to have been keeping its head above water, I suspect its only crime was that it was stopping people from signing up for one of the other two apps.

Which is nonsense really, psychologically I find it hard to pay 10euro a month when I only care about one thing on the platform, but I'd happily pay 10euro if it was just cycling. I realise that is stupid but that is the bare bones of it, people are stupid and I'll just end up watching stuff on youtube afterwards now for many races.

Macy0161 · 17-11-2023 2:19pm

It seems to have been very much the GCN and The Racing. I honestly didn't know a lot about the history of the buyouts that turned the youtube into GCN+. Obviously, the escape collective have a very sympathetic view on the whole thing, given how they came into being!

Melodeon · 17-11-2023 5:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121379792#Comment_121379792

Ah I know, but what I mean is that I'd rather the €84/year I'm going to be giving Discovery was going exclusively to support the the whole GCN ecosystem. In particular, the documentaries and the people involved in making them, which are now to be discarded it appears.

It's like when we had SKY here, and had to add an additional sub to get a Sports package to get Eurosport for the cycling coverage. It always ground my gears that much of my money was going to keeping footballists in the manner to which they had become accustomed.

I have vanishingly little interest in what looks like Discovery's tsunami of utter dross, but I'm obliged to 'support' it by taking on the subscription. :-(

Antipathetic · 17-11-2023 9:56pm

I wish it were possible to pay for just the sport or cycling in particular without any of the other discovery crap shows that they have on the same platform.

JMcL · 20-11-2023 5:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121379799#Comment_121379799

They seem to have (had?) regional presenters all over. There are frequently German, Italian, etc. GCN presenters on the YouTube clips when they're off down sending Hank up some wall

cletus · 20-11-2023 7:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121392625#Comment_121392625

They are all GCN YouTube presenters. The various YouTube channels will continue to operate.

cletus · 14-12-2023 3:29pm

Just got an email from GCN+ offering 3 months Discovery+ free of charge. 6.99 applies thereafter. There is a code that has to be redeemed by 31st December.