How long is this for? NBC will cover the Olympics.... I guess nothing should surprise me with T&F. Older meets will still get posted so the good news will be we can still watch many races. But not live.
They haven't mentioned contract length, but if I had to guess I would say it goes through 2029.
Infront helped broker the deal, and they (Infront) have international media rights for the Diamond League through 2029. Makes sense to have these two contracts line up.
Im perfectly willing to pay for T&F, but charging 2x what Netflix costs to watch maybe 1-2 races a month for half the year is insanity. T&F is so unbelievably short sighted in their thinking, trying to squeeze every last $ from a tiny customer base and shrinking it even further in the process
Quit complaining. FloTrack is $150 per year, which is $12.50 per month. Hardly 2x Netflix. And this is the USA, which has the richest poor people in the world. If you can't afford to spend $150 on your hobby in the USA, that's sad.
And next week everyone will be complaining how Track and Field athletes earn far less that athletes in other big sports. Ever wonder why that is?
Compare this to NASCAR where fans pick a favorite driver and literally buy products exclusively from every company listed on the side of the car.
I'm no Flotrack fan, their coverage has been terrible, but why are the people in our sport so cheap about everything? It's why we can't have nice things. $30 a month is nothing. People here will spend $30 on 1 meal but then act like it's insane to spend that kind of money on running.
If you want the sport to grow then help it grow or stop complaining.
Are you freaking kidding me?? $30 a month to watch like 15 minutes of running is insanity, no other sport would put up with this garbage. I pay the NBA $12 a month to watch EVERY single game not in my home market.
And this isn't an all-encompassing T&F subscription we are talking about here, there are still plenty of meets and championships you need other subscriptions for. Acting like fans not wanting to get price gouged for a garbage subscription are the reason this sport isn't growing is pathetic.
And lol at comparing paying for food to justify unnecessary spending to watch a stupid track meet. No wonder the economy is a sloppy mess. The idiotic financial management of the average person.
While the price ($90 increase) is a major negative, there are a few major positives: -Assuming we will go back to the World Feed instead of NBC's ad-laden coverage, which cuts out field events -Subscribers are basically fully covered on pro/college track with Commonwealth Tour Gold, Diamond League, most of the big college stuff, many of the big Marathons and so on -Seems like cancelling Peacock will be on the table for track fans, as everything they will have will be on broadcast going forward
So, I think the product will improve for hardcore track fans, and really the main annoying player left is RunnerSpace.
I'm a track fan who makes 200k USD but I won't pay for it. So who will?!?
Since I am already (dumb enough maybe to be) paying for Flotrack I will continue. But I seriously hope that somehow they find some announcers who have some knowledge of the event they are covering.
While the price ($90 increase) is a major negative, there are a few major positives: -Assuming we will go back to the World Feed instead of NBC's ad-laden coverage, which cuts out field events -Subscribers are basically fully covered on pro/college track with Commonwealth Tour Gold, Diamond League, most of the big college stuff, many of the big Marathons and so on -Seems like cancelling Peacock will be on the table for track fans, as everything they will have will be on broadcast going forward
So, I think the product will improve for hardcore track fans, and really the main annoying player left is RunnerSpace.
If you don't think Flotrack's coverage of track is bad, then what you're saying makes zero relevance. Like you!
I'm a track fan who makes 200k USD but I won't pay for it. So who will?!?
Since I am already (dumb enough maybe to be) paying for Flotrack I will continue. But I seriously hope that somehow they find some announcers who have some knowledge of the event they are covering.
It's like they pick random people off the street to announce events
$150 a year to watch videos that looked like it was made in the 1990s using consumer 720p cameras?
While I too am disappointed by the switch the FloTrack, it’s worth noting we won’t be watching a FloTrack broadcast, but will likely see the World feed with Cram/Hutchings that I think is superior.
Can’t we all just get a VPN and watch the YouTube stream available overseas? That would be as cheap as peacock or cheaper. Am I missing something?
$150 a year to watch videos that looked like it was made in the 1990s using consumer 720p cameras?
While I too am disappointed by the switch the FloTrack, it’s worth noting we won’t be watching a FloTrack broadcast, but will likely see the World feed with Cram/Hutchings that I think is superior.
Can’t we all just get a VPN and watch the YouTube stream available overseas? That would be as cheap as peacock or cheaper. Am I missing something?
Nope you aren't missing anything.
It's honestly hilarious when you consider that the demographic of people that actually watch these meets in the US is the exact same demographic of people that know exactly where to find the overseas broadcasts.
I wish I could be a fly on the wall in the Flosports board meeting when they inevitably try to understand why no one is watching their Diamond League broadcasts.
$150 a year to watch videos that looked like it was made in the 1990s using consumer 720p cameras?
While I too am disappointed by the switch the FloTrack, it’s worth noting we won’t be watching a FloTrack broadcast, but will likely see the World feed with Cram/Hutchings that I think is superior.
Can’t we all just get a VPN and watch the YouTube stream available overseas? That would be as cheap as peacock or cheaper. Am I missing something?
Yeah, but the point is you're not building up an audience this way. Yes, I'd search out the info and convert whatever time to Pacific time and use my VPN to watch it live if I can. But I wouldn't do that for any other sport. With everything else, I'm a bandwagon fan. I ended up watching a lot of women's college basketball because there was so much chatter about it. I don't even know what a screen is (much less a moving screen) but I know the star players and the beefs and some girl named Raven Johnson is near and dear to my heart now even though she only scored maybe 3 points in the finals cause she played tenacious defense after a year when she was waved off by Caitlin Clark as a no scoring threat.
That doesn't happen if you have to pay for a site that only shows women's basketball games, mostly middle school. I don't even know if I'd watch track and marathon coverage if there weren't some chatter of it here. You need chatter and FOMO for live events.
While I too am disappointed by the switch the FloTrack, it’s worth noting we won’t be watching a FloTrack broadcast, but will likely see the World feed with Cram/Hutchings that I think is superior.
Can’t we all just get a VPN and watch the YouTube stream available overseas? That would be as cheap as peacock or cheaper. Am I missing something?
Yeah, but the point is you're not building up an audience this way. Yes, I'd search out the info and convert whatever time to Pacific time and use my VPN to watch it live if I can. But I wouldn't do that for any other sport. With everything else, I'm a bandwagon fan. I ended up watching a lot of women's college basketball because there was so much chatter about it. I don't even know what a screen is (much less a moving screen) but I know the star players and the beefs and some girl named Raven Johnson is near and dear to my heart now even though she only scored maybe 3 points in the finals cause she played tenacious defense after a year when she was waved off by Caitlin Clark as a no scoring threat.
That doesn't happen if you have to pay for a site that only shows women's basketball games, mostly middle school. I don't even know if I'd watch track and marathon coverage if there weren't some chatter of it here. You need chatter and FOMO for live events.
Great points, fully agree if the goal is to grow the sport. While I think that growing the sport is important it’s long term financial viability, I’m not convinced moving the DL to FloTrack is a huge deal. I’m personally frustrated by it, but how many random people who know nothing about athletics are browsing peacock and stumbling upon a DL meet in a Thursday afternoon?
I think the goal needs to be optimizing the experience for the existing fans, and tapping into the masses on track and fields athletes at a younger age. Maybe moving the DL to FloTrack isn’t helping that, but I’m not convinced it’s catastrophic for the sport in the US.
I’m personally frustrated by it, but how many random people who know nothing about athletics are browsing peacock and stumbling upon a DL meet in a Thursday afternoon?
Surprisingly many have stumbled upon DL by walking into the room while I was watching Peacock.
No more.
Can I get a show of hands from people who paid $30 to watch Bryan Clay tonight?
C'mon, you know Flo and media rights. IMO, they will squash every outlet within their right to include Youtube. This is the only way to justify the media rights fee.
I’m personally frustrated by it, but how many random people who know nothing about athletics are browsing peacock and stumbling upon a DL meet in a Thursday afternoon?
Surprisingly many have stumbled upon DL by walking into the room while I was watching Peacock.
No more.
Can I get a show of hands from people who paid $30 to watch Bryan Clay tonight?
Me. At least the commentators are infinitely better than Stanford where in the college third heat for men they said everyone in that heat would be happy if they run 1.43 ( which I guess is technically correct) and the women’s heat three all would aim for under 2 minutes and be really happy with 1.56.
Surprisingly many have stumbled upon DL by walking into the room while I was watching Peacock.
No more.
Can I get a show of hands from people who paid $30 to watch Bryan Clay tonight?
Me. At least the commentators are infinitely better than Stanford where in the college third heat for men they said everyone in that heat would be happy if they run 1.43 ( which I guess is technically correct) and the women’s heat three all would aim for under 2 minutes and be really happy with 1.56.
I watched Derry Girls on Netflix, which I think was more fun and about $25/month cheaper. But it was also very cool reading about Parker Valby's big race this morning.
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