Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
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Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
Care to share?
wB/Disney? He works for two different companies? Impressive.
Picture this - the year is 2006 and you’re trying to find dirt magazine in your local WHSmith. Peaty, Hill and Minnaar are fighting for the overall and your only coverage is a monthly update that probably includes 2/3 rounds. The story is told by Steve Jones and photography by Sven Martin. You watch all the racing on earthed at the end of the season. Absolute quality over quantity. Why can’t I still have this?
Because “you” stopped paying for it. (Not “you” you, but yeah…)
But why would you pay for it when the event is free live and for replay on redbull. Hard to not feel the sport has taken a step back despite having a bigger potential audience than ever.
Well you can still have part of what you want. Just buy the Misspent Summers Hurly Burly year book for the old school in-depth reportage, geek facts, photography, BTS and storylines each year. More pages and less ads than Dirt too.
Funnily enough the end product (the race) seems to have been a big success? I haven't watched any other races this season, and find the Max domination makes it a bit boring, but Vegas GP was cool to see on TV, F1 cars racing down the strip, and the track was better than I expected. The spectacle of Vegas at night, the sphere etc. all looked awesome on TV. Despite Max winning there was still entertaining battles throughout the race, Charles getting past Perez at the end... and funny stuff as well between team radio, Max sniging viva las vegas, the car ride to the podium etc.
Not saying there is a parallel to WCDH here, but it is interesting to think about, how does the end product stack up.
It was interesting because it was cold and the track surface was greasy (low grip) and the track was new, so the teams didn't have as much data on it to run all the simulations. But yeah, surprisingly interesting.
Just wanna say that both moto and F1 are sports that NEVER have the parity that fans claim to like. DH racing is the best.
These were the good days!
DH only on Eurosport or discovery in 24, non on YouTube.
just make it pay per view, €10-20 for a race weekend with the XC
I’ve got a few Hurly Burly’s and whilst they smell excellent it just doesn’t quite hit the same when you’ve already watched the races. I loved the old days, reading the “story” of the race but now that we’ve tasted the live feed there’s probably no going back.
What I am looking forward to this year is “the world stage” seeing as I have basically no idea what happened there!
Well do what I did, ignore all the news reporting and have no idea who won any of the races (I somehow managed to find out recently that Andreas Kolb won Leogang and Charlie Hatton won the worlds? And Bruni won the overall?) and then be pleasantly surprised by Hurly Burly
FWIW, Earthed series is just amazing. Had it not been for Earthed I'd have no idea DH WC was in Brazil years ago (when we were talking about the world part of the cup and the fact that XC is going to Brazil next year)
As long as a minimum 50% of that went straight back to riders pusher (on top of the pennys they currently get) I could be up for something like that. But they will charge that and rides will still get nothing so NO
How do you expect organisers to give riders money from the series when there are over 350 riders entering a race?
World Cup DH is not the World surf league or whatever. The top riders make a really good salary.
Seems people on this forum want DH to stay open to all, privateers etc.. but at the same time model it self on some Uber elite model where only 30 people compete and the athletes get a % cut from the series earnings and TV rights?
Those two things are not compatible
Did I say every rider? No I mean the payouts go up big time. They get paid shit for a win.
What could have been hahahah
https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/news/2012-Freecaster-DH-Series-Confirmed,…
Looks like 2024 WC viewing option is announced today from WBD - "Max with the B/R sports add-on":
https://press.wbd.com/us/media-release/max-welcome-live-cycling-us-febr…
Pricing: $100 w/ adverts or 150 w/o https://auth.max.com/product?flow=purchase
Wow, $150.00 to watch a not as good version of something we used to get for free. Will be interesting to see what this does to viewership. If Aaron Gwin and/or Elliot Jackson is commentating I might pay.
I can't see this being good for viewing figures, or for the sport. Are the World Champs included in that package, or do you guys still have to pay extra for that too?
until this year i was like "ma, i've spent my money on more stupid ways, so i don't mind spending this little for low quality streams"
i don't mind paying for a service. it was low costs for low service so fine. by increasing costs this should definately mean increasing the service. for example: finally getting a better cam quality, hosts, getting rid of cedric
if not i'll most liklely will be out.
I wonder if juniors and qualies will still be on YT.
I do have a feeling we won't be seeing semifinal runs next year, as it seems everyone doesn't want it.
As if things were not already shaken up enough: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/warner-bros-discovery-paramount-g…
I heard about this one last week as a rumor and didn't realize the CEO's were already in meetings. A WB-Discovery + Paramount merger actually makes sense for both parties. Warner needs IP and content to compete with the likes of Disney+ and Netflix on the streaming side. Meanwhile, Paramount needs better international distribution + reach (and also has a ton of debt in its books).
The resulting synergies would probably drive other large media conglomerates to do further consolidations.
Unfortunately, outside the Americas, I don't think a lot will change in terms of mtb World Cup coverage, unless they combine all their streaming services into 1 app and include UCI content there.
"The resulting synergies would probably drive other large media conglomerates to do further consolidations. "
Kaiser Soze would never use the word "synergies". The jig is up.
Consolidations may be good for shareholders but usually not good for consumers in the long term.
i wouldn't mind paying if the racers were getting a cut of it
all is not lost. you can still rep the GCN brand and former app with a jersey.
Absolutely agree! I wonder what the racers want the ex-Redbull viewers/hardcore fans to do? Subscribe to WBD? Boycott? I'd like to know what they think will benefit them the most...
The racers never got a cut from RBTV. And while it was "free" to watch RB media house were not doing it at a loss.
And maybe more importantly how many riders 'get a cut'? Top 5, 15? What about riders ranked 65th who occasionally get a top 20? Do all the women get big dollars cos there are 10 in finals?
Decades ago Ted Turner bought the Atlanta Braves when he realized how much good content he would get for his TV station. Creating engaging content is expensive!
World Cup MTB racing with Rob Warner, Eliot Jackson, and/or Aaron Gwin announcing is engaging content (at least for a certain relatively small demographic).
There are two simple ways to pay the riders for that content. Pay more prize money which seems the most logical as the top 20 finishers tend to provide the most excitement. Or pay them some sort of salary based on rankings (the best pitchers in baseball make more than 3rd string out fielders).
What we don't know is how much the broadcaster is making after all of there expenses, especially how much they pay the UCI. Since the UCI is selling the content should'tt the UCI be paying the talent? I mean the UCI does very little to produce the show yet they get the proceeds of the athletes' hard work.
Yup, its just cheap advertising for redbull.
It cost them a shit ton, but they made it back in drink sales.
I read at the time of the parachute from the balloon at the edge of space cost around $35-50mil but earned times times the amount back in sales.
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