Disappointed with Ice Dance on NBC /Comcast

[Query]

NBC only covers a few highlights of the Grand Prix events. Mostly NOT including Ice Dance. Which is what I'd like to watch.

NBC Unversal Sports Channel is supposed to carry more - but you can't sign up for NBC Universal Sports Channel through Comcast - which owns both NBC and Universal sports. Huh???

I'm sure it would be expensive - and figure skating is the only thing I would want to watch on Universal Sports. But not to be able to sign up for it at all???

NBC/Comcast, you are helping to kill ice dance.

Maybe I could watch it through IceNetwork.com - but $40/subscription is high - and you can't try out reception before you buy? Given the troubles they've had streaming video in the past (2 or 3 years ago), including for me (it kept claiming I wasn't in the U.S. - which I am, and there were a lot of drop outs on what it did let me watch), that's crazy.

Booo.

[jjane45]

Sadly, youtube is the way to go nowadays. IIRC ice network lost the right to broadcast most GP events live, too.

[AgnesNitt]

And here's the reason why.
Sorry I can't link to original article, you have to have an account. FSU will need to do.
http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/showthread.php?85377-Live-Figure-Skating-Disappears

[Skittl1321]

NBC has shown more ice dance in the past two years than pairs.  Pairs seems to get NO coverage. Dance they usually show Meryl and Charlie if they are competing.


Icenetwork is a good option- and they did have a free trial day at the beginning of the season during Skate America, sorry you missed that.   The problem with icenetwork is Universal Sports wouldn't sell them live steam rights- so this year the GP, other than Skate America, is delayed by a week. You can still eventually watch them, and it is more convienent than youtube, but that is a huge delay for a sport.

National events like sectionals (happening now) and Nationals will be live.

[Query]

1. What kind of video quality have you guys seen on IceNetwork? Have the fixed the drop-out problem? Is it still true that a lot of U.S. subscribers are mis-labeled as non-U.S.?

2. >Posted by: jjane45
>Sadly, youtube is the way to go nowadays. IIRC ice network lost the right to broadcast
>most GP events live, too.

If I search Youtube, I can't help but find out in advance who won, which sort of spoils the competition. Does anyone know a link-to-ISU-Grand-Prix-Youtube page where I can find the various ice dancers at the Grand Prix events in sequence, without finding out before I watch who wins?

[Skittl1321]

Icenetwork has been excellent quality for me this year.

But with the delay, you will be spoiled, so it is not a good solution if you do not want to know who won.

[Query]

Update: I spoke to IceNetwork.

For the last few days, most of options in their voice menu returned a remark that they are down for maintenance, which I pointed out to the person I eventually got through to (when I picked option 1). She said she would tell her supervisor, so that problem should go away.

The person was very polite and helpful. She told me to visit http://iplocation.net to find out whether my IP location was correctly listed as in the United States - it is. She told me they also look at the billing address to determine locale, which would also have been within the U.S..

She looked at past records of my log-ins (which they archive) from 2009 to find out why the system mis-identified me as outside the U.S. She couldn't figure out why, as all the IP addresses it gave were within the U.S.

She said that if all else failed, if I signed up for service, and could not make it work, they would refund the price.

That isn't quite what the IceNetwork help page says: "You may cancel your subscription..., but only if that season has not yet begun or if you are less than 5 days into the term and have not yet used your subscription." Since I have to use the subscription to determine whether it thinks I am in the U.S., or if the video quality is poor, that policy would say it would be my problem. So the question is whether I believe they lady on the line, or the stated policy.

She said there was no trial page at this time to see whether or not it thinks I am in the U.S., and whether the video quality I could receive on my computer, through my network, was of high quality. (Lots of things that could affect video quality. IceNetwork itself. Various external network issues. My Router/Firewall. My computer, a slow laptop...)

Maybe I just have to try it and see. (Subscriptions don't last a full year now - they go through the next September 15.)

[Willowway]

Icenetwork has been excellent quality for me this year.

Second that. I have been quite pleasantly surprised with Ice Network this year - the resolution of both the live streaming and the videos has been extremely high.  Granted that I have a newish laptop that can handle it but it's good.

[nicklaszlo]

Recently Ice Network seems to have stopped working with Chrome.