Flotrack Monopolizing NCAA Coverage - Charging $29.99 for D1, D2 and D3 Nats - Will we ever get anything free anymore!?!?

rojo wrote:

You know so little about each runner? Maybe you don't know where to go to the info. If you go to tfrrs.org you can find every college race any runner has ever run. If you go to their college website, you'll get a short bio.

I remember going to NCAA meets in like 2000 and getting to see the actual printed media guide, it was like a revelation as online bios didn't exist. You had no idea what most people did in HS.

Or you use what D2 results site has - team link to TFRRS page and season results for each athlete too.

Rojo,

Kindly ask the NCAA to provide the contract agreement they obviously signed off on. May take a few hurdles but maybe a Freedom of Information Act per se request is the way to go?

Up until today I have had the same opinion as many of the other people on the thread; FloTrack is no different than ESPN and that people are not entitled to free content. In the past I decided to not use FloTrack simply because I didn't think of myself as a big enough fan to spend that much money to watch a meet, similarly to how people who follow other sports aren't big enough fans to pay for ESPN. Today I finally found out the difference between ESPN and FloTrack. ESPN provides extremely high quality content. It has either professional commentators or ex-athletes, cinema quality video, and a generally smooth broadcast. On the other hand FloTrack has the worst live streams I've ever seen. Today I went back to watch the D1 National Championships from last year and I couldn't make it past the first 5 minutes. Every shot was either EXTREMELY distorted and shaky from the lead vehicle, or it was EXTREMELY far away with people constantly passing in front of it. In the part that I was able to watch I was only actually able to recognize one runner. Furthermore, the commentary was trash. You're telling me that there were no communication majors who ran college XC who are looking for a job? Even a successful ex-runner would make it so much better.

So for now I think FloTrack has two clear options:

1. Put in some effort to make quality content. What you're putting out not is comparable to what I can achieve with a $300 GoPro and a facebook live stream.

2. Lower the prices. Although it doesn't seem this way I'm fine with a high school morning announcement quality stream. Just don't charge ESPN quality prices.

That's all I've got for today. Rather than throwing my money in the (Flo)Trash I'm planning on just staying right here and following the meet over LetsRun (honestly any of you guys would make a better commentator). If anyone knows about a place to find live results (1k/1mile splits) it would be greatly appreciated. Also I've included a link to the live stream for the meet from last year to show the utter lack of quality. God Bless.

http://www.flotrack.org/video/1013546-full-replay-2016-mens-di-ncaa-xc-championships-10k-race-patrick-tiernan-defeats-edward-cheserek#.Wg-XHUqnHb0

The college I graduated from is running D1 and a family member running D3 tomorrow. $20 or $30 to watch these races tomorrow on Flotrack is a great deal. My entire family will be watching gathered around the computer screen.

lonely salmon swimming upstream here wrote:

The college I graduated from is running D1 and a family member running D3 tomorrow. $20 or $30 to watch these races tomorrow on Flotrack is a great deal. My entire family will be watching gathered around the computer screen.

Bad news bro, its gonna cost quite a bit more than $20 or $30 for your entire family to watch the race. I was looking through the terms and conditions for Flotrack Pro and I found this interesting quote:

"You may not use, copy, reproduce, distribute, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit videos and or services for any other purposes without the prior written consent of FloSports Inc".

So it seems as if by watching it with your entire family you are "displaying" videos from FloTrack which is against the terms and conditions.

(If you do actually have written consent of FloSports Inc. my apologizes and please disregard this post.)

I'm a FloTrack PRO subscriber and have been since the beginning...I like some of what they are trying to do but feel equally frustrated as anyone that the quality is so poor! Just watching the press conference interviews and coaches interviews - WHY NO TRIPOD? I get motion sickness from their work...hoping for a pleasant surprise tomorrow but will not be holding my breath!

Laugh, which you surely will (this is Letsrun isn't it?), but I've videotaped many races and moving events without the "shaking camera" syndrome and candidly, I find it quite easy.

If they comped my trip to Kentucky, I'd do it in a heartbeat. If I lived closer I'd do it in a heartbeat, but I don't live that close. I've got a Sony HDR-XR160 and have had tons of success with it.

The poster above is right. You can't charge that kind of money with crappy quality. Truly, those guys who run the site and make the decisions should be embarrassed on all levels. I paint cars living and could do a better job blindfolded just off the sound of the runners:):):):):):) But, fools will pay to watch their coverage so let them enjoy the Poseidon Adventure on land.

If you enjoy Motion Sickness make sure you sign up for a Flotrack subscription.

Looks like these are the fools responsible for the horrible broadcast. Back to the ESPN comparison, somehow I doubt they use zip ties to hold their TVs.

https://twitter.com/FloTrack/status/931845012043784192

Strangely, I got to signed up month to month for just $19, not the $29 I think this is because I signed in using last years account. Last year you were able to watch on the 1 month free trial but had to cancel to avoid automatic month to month charges. They cancelled just fine last year, with just clicking that you wanted to cancel. This time when I logged in, after having them send me an email to set my password, when I clicked the live show, I got the $19 option.

As someone who was wary about this whole monopoly, I’m actually pretty impressed so far. The price is only $19.99, so that’s cheaper than the gas I’d use to go to a meet. Plus the weather sucks for D1 and D2. I’m interested in all 3 divisions. There is no overlap in races today so everything is working out in flotracks favor. Plus the d2 and D3 quality has been pretty terrible in the past. Much better today. Using split screens for D1 is solid as well. Sorry, but I just can’t bash them. I’m sitting in my warm home, drinking coffee and watching on my 50 inch screen off of a connected device. How can I ask for more off of $20?

There were stretches of the broadcast that were amazing, unfortunately most of it was not!

Not impressed...at ALL!