I thought I'd seen it all. Flotrack is charging people to watch South Regional - A stream the NCAA is putting on for free!

You can’t even rewatch half of today’s races with a paid account as they aren’t on the damn Flowebsite

rojo wrote:

I just got a text from someone claiming that flotrack was currently charging people $30 to watch a feed of the NCAA south regional - the exact same feed that the NCAA was putting on for free.

I checked it out and it is indeed true.

I guess the greed of VCs is strong.

Free links are here:

https://www.ncaa.com/event/cross-country-men/d1/2018/11/09/men-s-south-region-cross-country-championshiphttps://www.ncaa.com/event/cross-country-women/d1/2018/11/09/women-s-south-region-cross-country-championship

How are they in business?

That's your "opinion", but I do see the point in calling them greedy and it's not just an opinion, it's real world experience. Read on.

You don't have a clue on they run their business to stay afloat. Quote from page 2 of this thread>>>"They don't even let you watch post-race interviews of workouts anymore, you need flopro. If it was 10-12 dollars, I would pay."

Why? They are interviewing them regardless of who watches or not. Charge less and more people would sign up, as the poster on page 2 alluded to. That's both GREEDY and dumb!

For the record, I've had my own business for 18 years and live in the REAL world. I know what works and doesn't work. I won't get into where I went to College, but I majored in business and I've seen the owners of that site do so very dumb things over the last 3 years. If they wised up, they'd make more money, but...

p.s. I disagreed with you rojo, so go ahead and yield thy mighty sword, ban me for as long as you want;)

And your GED?

I would readily pay for Flotrack but for their awful announcing and production quality. The announcing is particularly annoying, as they convey an amateur fanboy vibe as opposed to a professional one. To be fair, I haven’t sampled in a while. Has the quality improved?

If Flotrack charged $9.99/month for monthly, and $6.99/month for yearly I think just about every serious runner I know would sign up. Instead I don't know anyone who would pay for it. They are missing out on a ton of money by making it so expensive.

another runner wrote:

If Flotrack charged $9.99/month for monthly, and $6.99/month for yearly I think just about every serious runner I know would sign up. Instead I don't know anyone who would pay for it. They are missing out on a ton of money by making it so expensive.

They are in it for the long run. FloSports is a little minor sports empire...owned by two brothers.

Agree. Gotcha game is not how you should treat fans.

another runner wrote:

If Flotrack charged $9.99/month for monthly, and $6.99/month for yearly I think just about every serious runner I know would sign up. Instead I don't know anyone who would pay for it. They are missing out on a ton of money by making it so expensive.

If only this was how they did it...I would gladly sign up. Hopefully all the Flotrack employees who secretly stalk these boards will read this and seriously consider modifying their rates just a little...the money would come flooding in.

trackster2 wrote:

Dr. Trackster2 wrote:

Dear trackster2,

Sometimes it's better to remain silent and be thought the fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

I watched it for free as well on the same site. If you had clicked on the link you would have seen it for yourself.

I had no idea that Flotrack was charging anything or that they were even filming it. I found it on the NCAA meet yesterday.

Sure, I'll pay over $30 for something that someone else is offering for free. That makes sense.

Also, the feed that I watched was fine and so were the announcers, versus Flotrack's announcers which I've heard in the past.

His Ivy League education didn't fail him as much as your Community College education appears to have failed you.

And your GED?

Wow! That's an amazing comeback, really clever. You told him (insert major sarcasm).

another runner wrote:

They are missing out on a ton of money by making it so expensive.

See the post 3 above yours.

I paid them once, a while back to watch a marathon. They were glad to take my money, but when the stream wasn't compatible with my hardware - and I contacted them multiple times during the event hoping to catch at least a little of the race - no refund. No nothing. 'Not our fault'. They're right. It wasn't, but if you expect your small customer base to return or grow, you need to come up with a better response that 'Not our fault.' $30 to watch a bunch of college kids run in the mud? Unless my kid is one of them (and that's what they are counting on), no way. That is ridiculously expensive. I'm glad they have a business, I like when people work for a living. I'm glad viewers have an option to view T&F and road events. I do however wish the cost was a little more in line with what is (or in my case was not) provided.

another runner wrote:

If Flotrack charged $9.99/month for monthly, and $6.99/month for yearly I think just about every serious runner I know would sign up. Instead I don't know anyone who would pay for it. They are missing out on a ton of money by making it so expensive.

Am I missing something? I found this on their website: "Plans start at $12.49/month".

So I signed up for flobikes last month (there are a bunch of bike races I want to watch (usually in replay) and they are pretty much the only option to watch in the US), and for that price ($150/yr or $12.50/month) I now have access to flo-everything on my roku. So I also get flotrack (watched Big10 XC meet last weekend). I just went and checked my TV to make sure, but the replays of all the XC regionals are on there, and they have NCAAs bookmarked for next week.

There are a crazy amount of sports on there. Swimming, rodeo, MMA, fitness competition, etc. There is a crazy amount of content on there for $150/year.

So it looks like you have access to it all if you sign up for one of the "flo" plans.

So to answer the original post here from rojo: I think it's just that flotrack was providing it to their subscribers. If you already have flosports: great. If not, just watch it for free on NCAA.

Really don't think it's that strange.

Yeah you are... first off, no one wants to watch swimming, rodeo, MMA, fitness competition, etc! Most of us only have interest in one race a month for a few consecutive months out of the year. Good luck getting people to sign up for a year when they only want to watch for a few months. Flotrack just doesn't get its audience at all.

That's crappy of them and I'm glad you posted that . I wouldn't give them a bloody dime. Their product doesn't justify the price.

The Great Northwest wrote:

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot wrote:

Deer Flotrack:

I've had enough of Mick Byrne and his s-bombs. It's great that he built a sports car out of scrap parts at Iona, but he was handed the keys to a Lambo when he got to Wisco and can't get it out of the driveway. Please stick to coverage of championship programs as content filler, instead. Thanks!

It looks like someone wasn't happy with the week's worth of Portland Pilot's coverage.

Yet another one.

Boy I wish I could write what I know to be wrong about this organization.

It's not what you think.

I have a subscription and still could not watch the feed.

codaayyee wrote:

It is Capitalism, but they essentially have a monopoly on the market and can charge whatever they please (within reason).

They don't even let you watch post-race interviews of workouts anymore, you need flopro. If it was 10-12 dollars, I would pay.

They barely even put out content. This is why I love lets run, because Jonathan and the brothers don't give a crap about expensive post-production work.

If I want to know live race updates or check international results, I check Letsrun twitter or Jonathan Gault's twitter.

Flotrack is WAY too boujee about the little content they put out.

Like they really think we care about 9 year olds race walking at AAU? They clearly are just trying to cover that to make money off the family members that want to watch their kid do a race.

It's not that it's a monopoly. It is a communications company that

cannot even communicate amongst themselves! Most employees do not get paid enough

to even pay for their equipment. I wish people would begin to understand these principles.

The top employees might be making a living. But even that is questionable.