Should skating organizations freely broadcast figure skating competitions?

[Query]

Detailed proposal: ISU, ISI, the USFSA and other national skating organizations should make their national skating competitions openly available to major free TV networks, and freely streamed to the Internet using standard protocols that require no special or unusual software to view.

Background: It is more difficult and expensive for the general public to see figure skating competitions than it needs to be. TV broadcasts of most skating competitions are limited to expensive premium cable networks (which many of us  can't see through COMCAST, USA's largest cable TV provider) and Internet Broadcasts of same to expensive subscription based Internet services that do not work correctly for many Internet users (e.g., icenetwork.com reports that many subscribers are outside USA, even when they aren't).  Most national skating organizations largely limit broadcasts to their own countries. ISI competition broadcasts are virtually non-existent.

Pro:

Making it easier for participants and fans will increase the popularity of the sport.

Con:

Current behavior presumably maximizes broadcast income to these skating organizations. Much less income can probably be made from advertising alone.

A lot of the money is currently spent by these organizations to further develop and fund the current top athletes. This would probably be lessened.

Some competent administrators within the skating organizations are attracted by the ability to spend large amounts of money. They may lose interest.

My Answer: Yes.

[fsk8r]

NISA run their own web TV site (NISA TV) which is pay per view and broadcasts all the championships. Until British skating significantly improves on the world stage (Another Torvil and Dean come along) the normal television channels are unlikely to start broadcasting it.

A lot of the ISU competitions are made available online although possibly not live. Synchro Worlds tends to be broadcast live on the internet (although seems to be geo-blocked frequently). The French Cup (synchro) is broadcast by France 3 live on the internet. I've never gone looking but they quite possibly broadcast other French skating competitions.

[Query]

A lot of the ISU competitions are made available online although possibly not live.

Maybe I've looked in the wrong places. When I looked for ISU World competitions, I found some performances at some events present, but not others. A competitive sport is more interesting if you can see the whole competition, in order, or at least all the major players. Live helps too.

In the U.S. it used to be possible to see most of the high level U.S. and ISU competitions, though some events and the less likely athletes to win were always omitted. But that's no longer true.

As an example, my sister loved to watch it all, but can't anymore. I gave her a subscription to Ice Networks as a present, but it decided she wasn't in the U.S., and wouldn't let her watch. She is. I talked to Ice Networks technical support, but they couldn't fix it. Other people on this board had the same problem. She stopped watching skating, because she can't.