Well, a bit of a shock for Aussie cycling freaks last week when it was announced on the Cycling Central Podcast that SBS wouldn’t be covering the 100th Giro d’Italia. (those with Foxtel still get it via Eurosports)
You can hear it here or see the transcript below.
“First, we will will not be broadcasting any of the Italian races in 2017, which sadly includes the 100th edition of the Giro d’Italia. And that includes Strade Bianche, MSR and Lombardia. Why? Quite simply, the rights were not offered to us. That’s the way the business rolls and there isn’t much we can do about it except to look forward.
However, we have diversified and increased our coverage in other ways. We’ll have the Track nats streaming live in exactly one week, maybe via the website or perhaps direct to Facebook audiences. The Cairns MTB world champs will also be live on TV and online and the BMX worlds.
And we’ve added the German Eschborn-Frankfurt race to complete our Spring coverage which includes the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallonne and Liege Bastogne Liege.
Before we get there though we have Paris Nice and later on the Criterum du Dauphine which comes before the Tour. The Amgen Tour of California which is now WorldTour is also on the schedule along with daily 30 minute highlights of the Absa Cape Epic which I’m personally excited about and then post Tour we’ll have the final eight stages of the Vuelta.”
I tweeted about it and there was a pretty big response. Since I have had a lot of questions about it, so I thought I would just put it on the blog.
The way I see it, there is no use giving SBS any grief. If they weren’t even offered the gig, there isnt much they can do.
So, how do you watch it if you don’t want to line the pockets of old man Murdoch. Well, let’s take a look.
If you know someone with Foxtel and has the Eurosport channels, you could ask them to share with you using Foxtel Go streaming.
If you don’t have a Foxtel buddy, well there are other streams that may or may not work for you. I use either cyclingfans.com or steephill.tv
I also completely forgot one…
@procyclinglive Grand Tour Aussie freaks head here to watch Giro Live @procyclinglive https://t.co/YyjiVoQY56 @norbs @ButteredFrog @miketomalaris
— Brett McKenzie (@lordofdaroad) May 5, 2017
Also, if you are ok working with a VPN, the Eurosport Player apparently works. Thanks to the person that pointed that out. 😉
Another thing i have been thinking of is firing up a Discord channel and having a group discussion based on whatever coverage people can get. Maybe try and get a few cycling luminaries involved as well. This will probably only operate a few nights. If it works well, maybe carry it over to the TdF as well.
So there you go. Questions and comments below.