Why doesn't this exist in the US? 16 European World Indoor meets to be broadcast for free

That’s just one person. There must be sports you don’t follow. It’s a long list for me and watching them with a fan of one of those sports, wouldn’t make me one, too.

Doesn’t look like there will be much elite distance running.

Same way GCN+ started and flourished for 3-4 years. It became so good, but month ago Discovery + (EuroSport owner) stepped in and closed it. GCN+ was $70/year but all cycling was there. Many users said they would gladly pay double that price only to still have access. Nope. Back to nothing, I mean pirate feeds that is.

"If there is a legitimate way to access a race (even paid), most fans WILL choose that option. If there is no legitimate way to watch a race, fans WILL go to pirated feeds
Race organisers can kill 99% of piracy overnight by providing a YouTube stream in countries lacking coverage"

ESPN the app, has plenty of Track meets on for free and on demand, usually up to two weeks later.

In the EU, there is still strong support for public broadcasting. A lot of sports, including T&F come to viewers free on public broadcasting. So, when EU Athletics wants to offer free streaming coverage of the indoor season, no one has a problem with it because it is accepted that T&F is generally broadcasted by public TV/streaming stations.

In the US, broadcasting rights are a revenue stream for USATF. US support for public broadcasting is crap compared to the EU. Public TV in the US hasn't broadcasted a sporting event since they used to show world cup soccer in the 1970s. So, if USATF gave away coverage for indoor, they would be losing money.

Also, EU Athletics is well funded by each of the member nations. They do not have to go around groveling to Nike for funding. So, they can take a long view of their support for the sport and give up a few bucks for broadcasting rights in exchange for growing popularity of the sport. In the US, everything USATF does is to keep the money flowing in this year with no ability to look to long term investment into growing the sport.

It's one example of what's possible. Good Freaking Lord. Use your brain man!

Another thing to consider:

With football they've turned the games into "spectacles" outside of the sport.

The Super Bowl is the prime example of a sports event that many people watch NOT for the sport- for the commercials and halftime show.

But even the Taylor Swift example- they seize on anything to draw in viewers.

Track doesn't do that.

I'm not opposed to paywalls or people making money. But i just hate having so many different ways to watch. I guess it's similar in the NFL now as you have to have amazon and peacock as well as espn and cbs/nbc, etc. But it's crazy to me that Foot Locker wasn't live this year for free - or was it NXN?

I just wish there was one entity in charge and trying to make it accessible. I think it would have been cool if USATF had the foresight to lead this. Encourage track fans to join USATF, support Team USATF and as part of that membership you got access to a stream of all of the meets. There already is strong ties between USATF/Runnerspacde but it's a separate purchase. I'd bundle it with a USATF membership.

Couldn't we get 0.1% of the US population to sign up for $100? That would be 339,000 people and role in 34 million in revenue.

Taylor Swift doesn’t date a T&F athlete. There isn’t a halftime during a track meet and commercials are a function of an already huge T.V. viewing audience.

Livestreams and broadcasts of track events are very expensive to produce. Lots of cameras and camera operators needed, commentators, etc. Track meets themselves are money-losers, even without building in the cost of a stream or broadcast, which runs well into 6 figures. Costs of a meet include:
- Athlete appearance fees
- Prize money
- Officials
- Facility rental
- Facility labor (oftentimes union)
- Travel and hotel for all athletes, staff, agents, etc
- Hospitality
- Broadcast/stream

Collectively, these costs run into 7 figures for most invitational meets.

Unless you charge for a stream, there are only two sources of revenue:
- Ticket sales
- Sponsorship

Look in the stands of indoor track meets and start doing math on ticket revenue. The sponsor revenue market is a FRACTION of what it once was, which means broadcasting, streaming, and even doing events in the first place is a loss leader. That's why apparel and shoe company sponsor meets and then have all their athletes run it: it is a branding opportunity, so they are OK (ish) with losing money on it.

Europe has municipal and other governmental support for sports and events.

Everybody wants prize money, streams, and salaries to fall down from the sky. The economics of this sport, and most sports, cannot support it all without limitation. Math doesn't lie.

The concept of "free streaming for members" is good in theory. Every NGB wants to capture their sports fans as members, and try to come up with member benefits that will entice them. EVERY single NGB.

In reality, only people who HAVE to be members are members: athletes, officials, coaches. The incremental rise in membership from a potential "free streaming" is negligible. Plus the cost of membership would have to go up significantly to cover the cost of the streams, which would create political upheaval within the sport for those who HAVE to be members - and those are the ones who go to conventions and such.

College basketball games tonight are on ESPN, Espn+, BTN, BTN+, ACC, SEC, Fox sports, etc.

A problem with marketing individual track athletes is that their competition events do not last that long so they only get maybe 18 minutes or so of TV air-time per meet (and that is if the entire womens 5k is shown, plus maybe introductions and a quick post race interview).

Compare that with NBA basketball, where even though a game only lasts for 48 minutes game clock time, the game is on TV for around 2 1/2 hours or more.

Football (soccer) players are out on the pitch for over 90 minutes, USA pro football games often over 3 hours.

I would happily become a paying subscriber to LRC if the BroJos would obtain broadcast rights.

What is wrong with watching it on Watchathletics.com? The First 2 Meets of the Euopean series is this week and so is a lot of other Meets and Road Races, most likely all 16 of those meets will be shown, it is almost always free as well