UCI & Warner Bros. Discovery Announce Viewing Options & New World Series Branding for 2023 World Cups
The UCI and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) have announced more details on the plans for this year's World Cup racing with a series of viewing options and the new UCI Mountain Bike World Series brand.
To bring together the World Cup formats of XC, Short Track, Marathon, Downhill, Enduro and E-enduro there is now the new branding of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series. The press release states its alignment plans for the formats will be showcased when all major UCI MTB disciplines will be held at the same time during a ten-day event scheduled for September in Les Gets, Morzine and Châtel.
Also included in today's announcement is the long-awaited reveal of the broadcast location for the events which will be available on discovery+(Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK and Ireland), the Eurosport App and GCN+. The press release does say more ways to watch will be announced at a later date but there is no further information about this or whether there may be a free way to view the racing. Going into specifics about coverage the XC, XCC (Short Track) and Downhill will be shown live while Marathon and Enduro disciplines will only receive highlight shows.
 | The global popularity of mountain bike is on the rise, and by combining all its major formats as well as racing for Elite and amateur riders in one major series, we will further increase the appeal of this discipline. With its festival atmosphere, mix of racing and expanded live coverage, the UCI Mountain Bike World Series offers a fresh and appealing experience for athletes, hardened fans and newcomers to the mountain bike community. |
| By creating a single global platform that unifies the major racing formats with UCI World Cup status for the first time, the new UCI Mountain Bike World Series will also allow for the integration and growth of amateur, pathway and festival events to UCI World Cup racing. Our long-term goal is to elevate the major racing formats of the UCI World Cup, taking the athletes and teams to a new level. We also want to maintain the ability to entertain and engage mountain bikers at all levels. The future is incredibly exciting and we are honoured to usher in a new era of the sport. |
You can find out more on the new UCI Mountain Bike World Series website here.
Original UCI Press Release
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) are pleased to announce the new UCI Mountain Bike World Series, which will include the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup for cross-country Olympic (XCO), cross-country short track (XCC), cross-country marathon (XCM), downhill (DHI), enduro (EDR) and E-enduro (E-EDR).
The UCI Mountain Bike World Series will unite all mountain bike’s major formats under a single brand for the first time. The UCI Mountain Bike World Cup will be the pinnacle of this new structure, that will enable all formats to flourish independently but also sit side by side at select rounds and give athletes and teams additional exposure.
The UCI Mountain Bike World Series will also provide opportunities for amateurs and those seeking to break onto the Elite stage. Amateur XCM, EDR and E-EDR racing at some events will enable amateurs to compete alongside their sporting heroes, while providing a clear pathway to the highest level of the sport for aspiring athletes in the quest of qualifying points to progress into the Elite ranks.
This alignment of formats and racing will be perfectly showcased in September in Les Gets, Morzine and Châtel (France), hosts of the first ten-day UCI Mountain Bike World Series festival. Featuring all the major UCI Mountain Bike World Cup formats, as well as amateur racing, the festival will set the benchmark for this new era for the mountain bike.
With one of the world’s biggest sports broadcasters behind the UCI Mountain Bike World Series, there will be more live coverage and more ways to follow racing than ever before. UCI World Cup XCO, XCC and DHI events from the UCI Mountain Bike World Series will be available live and on-demand on discovery+*, the Eurosport App and globally on GCN+. UCI World Cup XCM, EDR and E-EDR will benefit from in-depth Highlights Shows at every round. More ways to watch will be announced in the coming months.
UCI President David Lappartient said: “The global popularity of mountain bike is on the rise, and by combining all its major formats as well as racing for Elite and amateur riders in one major series, we will further increase the appeal of this discipline. With its festival atmosphere, mix of racing and expanded live coverage, the UCI Mountain Bike World Series offers a fresh and appealing experience for athletes, hardened fans and newcomers to the mountain bike community.”
Chris Ball, CEO of ESO Sports, said: “By creating a single global platform that unifies the major racing formats with UCI World Cup status for the first time, the new UCI Mountain Bike World Series will also allow for the integration and growth of amateur, pathway and festival events to UCI World Cup racing.
“Our long-term goal is to elevate the major racing formats of the UCI World Cup, taking the athletes and teams to a new level. We also want to maintain the ability to entertain and engage mountain bikers at all levels. The future is incredibly exciting and we are honoured to usher in a new era of the sport.”
* Streaming is available on discovery+ in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK and Ireland.
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I know right? Maybe we should just skip right to a go fund me page..
Edited: Just tested on your post, and doesn't work. I have assembled a team of programmers.
Are you new here?
Wait til you hear about some other really terrible stuff...
My God, the amount of whining for some entity to fully subsidize your life is disappointing.
Now, go make your bed and Mom will get you a Starbucks on the way to school.
Does that sound good,Pumpkin?
Yeah..
Only way this could be a success is if they can figure out a way to have the full downhill runs televised. Chris Ball said this was a priority in his Pinkbike interview, and it was practically his only answer that wasn't downvoted to hell.
"I totally agree and as a priority we're currently looking at how we can broadcast a full race run in DH so we can watch all the action unfold."
m.pinkbike.com/news/ask-me-anything-with-chris-ball.html
Chris Ball has set the expectation and should be held to it if he wants money from us for something we've always had for free.
I can't help but wonder, did EWS and ESO destroy World Cup DH racing for us? It's starting to have that feel.
Discovery will be hoping it can develop a 'Drive to Survive' type product to do for MTB what DtS did for F1 because that is what will push the product in front of new fans and drive up the marketing value which in turn will also provide more income opportunities for the riders. It is a big gamble on their part but expect to see socials start to be filled with mindless gossip bigging up non-existent beef between riders as they pave the way to attract non-MTB fans
Get every channel/live event in the world for usually 1x fee of $300usd.
By the looks of it, we will not have Discovery+ available when the season starts… Not even mentioning our shitty currency exchange rate (thanks to our useless, incompetent, corrupt government).
But then again, we are a communist country with lots of entities to fully subsidize our lifes.
Festival atmosphere- Total dog shit! Words used to seduce all the Jerry's to buy E-bikes and run amok, back up the trail head parking area and ride the DH's backwards disrupting the regular riders in progress!!
Website does not list the subscription rate. Will have to check the App.
Seems like via App is the only option for us. Sucks that there seems to be no Apple TV or LG TV App.
The only casual watcher I ever encountered was my dad, who was mainly annoyed by Rob Warner‘s commentating „Why is that guy shouting all the time, and is it normal that the only thing he tells you are the times you already see on the screen?“
Then I'll save my Starbucks money and spend it on GCN+ instead to help advance our sport, for all it's worth ; )
I've been watching since the FREEcaster days. ah well, it was good while it lasted.
starts praying for a free to view option>..
Its a pretty niche sport in grand scheme to expect quality broadcasting (look at comments when RB didnt get it right) for free.
And lets face it - Freecaster was bootleg pirate radio style , hosted by king of pirates!- but coverage was prett crap compared to what happened after.
Just dont get Enduro not being Endurance yet SHORT track being Endurance?! Haha
I'm glad i checked this as it was one of the options for me. Do your own research etc...
Most professional sport doesn’t make for a decent living unless you are in the top 20 or in a very mainstream sport that attracts lots of advertisers from outside of the sport.
THe other reason they dont make much is that they only have to actually race about 8 times a year. Compare that to other sports.
@vandall: hence why the pay per view option might be nice as well
Even Lance Stroll earned $10m - although technically that should be considered as his allowance from daddy, who, rather than let him be accused of being a talentless pay driver, bought him his very own team to play with
As for the clothing itself, yes it already gradually got tighter when compared to what it was like a decade ago. Big difference now is that people are required to wear tight fitting and branded as DH/BMX specific clothing. So it is no longer the riders who get to initiate a change and/or express themselves differently like we've seen with Palmer and the like. Only the clothing companies can now do that. It is more uniform.
Honestly, I don't have a cable or even a TV in my house. In the past I would watch it on my laptop or at Red Bull HQ.
I've just renewed my GCN subscription for £3.20 a month, I consider reasonable
Considering we already know this won't be the case (prize money set to stay the same, team entry fees increasing massively), Discovery and ESO can forget my subscription.
Total disgrace.
Pretty soon stages will be less than 2 minutes on dual slalom like courses so that every feature is a bill board and not natural technical hidden in the bush
I honestly think the biggest thing holding back popularity of UCI DH is the lack of actual racing. I simply refuse to pay 50 dollars a year to watch like 6 or 7 races total.
I agree that the corporations making the lions share can suck it, but it’s hardly a prohibitive amount of money to watch something that one enjoys.
Watching any sport today is just death by 1,000 cuts. I'll pay to watch SX/MX, MXGP, MotoGP. I have to draw the line somewhere though or it just feels like I'm blowing money I don't need to. The first to get axed is UCI DH, there simply is not enough racing in my opinion. If the circuit was 18-24 races I'd be all over it. And there is absolutely no reason it shouldn't be.
I think the more races per year the more the overall championship gets put into focus, It would certainly shift the culture of what DH is right now. I do not think it would detract from the quality or drama of racing though, but that is a completely subjective opinion.
My biggest issue is that it seems like they’re missing the whole point of bringing Discovery into the mix to begin with if they’re not getting the sport in front of a massively larger audience by broadcasting it somewhere other than GCN+ in the US. Hopefully there’s more news to come there.
Who knew Chris Ball was such an edge lord.
My main point is that there’s this tiny little North American market that’s being ignored from a broadcast tv perspective. I mean, shouldn’t they be airing UCI DH right after Duck Dirtbags?? Haha.
I don't want to sound chauvinistic, but what bothers me more is the need every single broadcaster has to bring people with English accents to comment on anything they want to pass as "quality" or "knowledgeable". Red Bull kept Cam McCaul and other Americans/Canadians for some of the events. They chose their commentators based on actual knowledge of the field, not fancy voices.
www.pinkbike.com/news/team-registration-fees-to-increase-for-2023-world-cup-racing.html
Where you at bud? School us on the trickledown, it's looking kind of icky right now.
And since riding is getting more expensive every day, there's less and less budget and willingness to pay for viewing.
I've always said I'd pay for the Red Bull coverage. I'll pay 50 for this year, no doubt I will. But yeah, if I'm the consumer, then yeah it's not a good deal so far. Thing is, as others have said, I'm most likely not their target. They're trying to get that new viewer, create new fans instead of embracing us. Their money's as green as ours--actually greener, as we've been getting a free ride or whatever else these dollarsign dingdongs say
Side note, I wish Wout would come do some MTB races.
Or we can all just share one pinkbike login....?
Lets support the sanctioning bodies that just got their qualifier events cut off around the globe.
They still haven’t released the qualifier calendar so I’m guessing it’s likely true though.
www.uci.org/calendar/mtb/1voMyukVGR4iZMhMlDfRv0?discipline=MTB&raceType=EDR&raceClass=CN
Looks like USA Cycling has not yet finalized a new venue and dates for the 2023 nat champs race. .
Plus there are still the EWS100 races which anyone can enter. and anyone trying to qualify for the world cup can get points at the ews100s
Now they're lumping it all together. And yet they wish a fee for it with no guarantee that what they are doing is worth anything. For me 7f is 40zl. Any of you here want to pay, say, 40f for it? Same with channels all in one too? I am interested in EWS and that is why I watch these channels. Not interested in xc etc. Sorry but I don't like all this. Pseudo professionals have taken care of this?
Everything since then is due to the latter; they choose the calendar, venues, name changes, weekend formats, etc
That's one thing. And two. As it was already done it would have been appropriate to inform the people involved in advance of the other - I mean the players and teams. And in the meantime they are put in front of the fact by which we have the effect of disappearing teams - this is my conclusion
I they mean a new financial level...
"...the new UCI Mountain Bike World Series will also allow for the integration and growth of amateur,..."
Well, there is actualy no possibilities for American amateur to earn UCI ENDURO points, beside going to Europe
Still, I've come to the horrifying realization that I'm not someone who would pay for an entire Discovery+ subscription just to have access to the live coverage. This seems like the worst time economically to force a money grab that is going to significantly drop viewership on professional racing, and I have a feeling that will be the result.
"available on discovery+(Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK and Ireland), the Eurosport App and GCN+"
Means that in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK and Ireland you can watch on Discovery+, but elsewhere your options are Eurosport App and GCN+.
Oh wait, I have to actually pay to watch them perform??? f*ck that!!!
Discovery has managed to kill every property that they have acquired.
I’m sure Discovery said “hey there’s a biking boom- let’s get a piece of that!”.... sad trombone sound...
As far as I am aware, this has not be definitively resolved, just lots of vague statements from the sell out Chris Ball and his minions
Could Jackson be told he can't race Hardline this year? Kerr the same?
It could be very interesting. Obviously that only affects a certain number of riders. But if you were WB/discover, would you let riders loose at Red bull events? Hmmm
Image rights, however, are another kettle of fish, and this is where the likes of Bernard Kerr may get caught out this year.
" we need more money in our sport" , "we need more outside sponsors".
Well congrats, you made it onto mainstream tv, oh yes, by the way, you have to pay for it now. Cheers.
1. The colors. Red is stop, green is go, right? So endurance doesn't go fast? They're just creeping up hills at 2kph? Is it because red is hard and green is easy? Have they ever seen the heart rate of an enduro or downhill racer at full balls? They're maxed. Have they ever seen a little cross country bike being slung down Val de Sol by Nino or Yolanda? They don't think they're on the absolute edge of that bike's capability? Also Christmas. Don't use red and green together.
2. Arrow direction. Any line going from top right to bottom left is submissive. This is pretty much true across the board in terms of design. You'd have to come up with something far more complex to make that sort of line-direction work in this scenario. Have they never seen a short track race or the last few minutes of the 2022 mens cross country world championships. Those guys didn't seem very submissive. Enduro riders definitely have to climb their bike up before coming down. Down arrow, just like for downhill, makes enduro racers seem like they have no fitness.
Overall huge disconnect and very misleading.
Season hasn't even started, and like most of us said, Warner Bros. is already destroying the perfection that Red Bull built.
Good luck with the new venture Discovery/UCI.
I've just renewed with no price increase.
They've made it more expensive to participate in it, and they've made it more expensive to watch it. Riders aren't getting an increase on the laughably small prize money they used to receive, and now there isn't free coverage. The money is only flowing one way.
I'll happily be proved wrong on this as I enjoy watching racing and would like DH and EWS to be covered well, but everything about the way ESO have rolled out information about how things are going to change in 2023 has been amateur so far. That includes their conduct with the participants too, such as keeping teams and riders entirely in the dark for months while they needed to plan schedules for the coming year, and leaving them out of the loop of decisions being made that will have huge impacts on how events work.
The only potential good thing about it is that after how much the coverage of the EWS got panned at the start of last year they improved quite a lot over the season, so hopefully they'll have an idea of what people might actually want to see from the get-go this season. The coverage was almost unwatchably bad at the start of the year (go check out the stats sections with Neil Donohue from the first few EWS rounds), and I can't imagine many people who would have had to pay to watch that sticking around.
Just for context, I'll happily pay for goods/services that are actually good. On the bookcase behind me I've got 3 or 4 of the Misspent Summers 'The World Stage' EWS yearbooks, even though they're something like £20 a pop. I know I'm getting a quality product, and I know the money is being used to pay the people who created it and be invested into creating more of it in future.
They've made it more expensive to race and watch racing while in some cases making it harder and in some cases making it impossible for amateur riders to be able to take part.
The first actions of an organising body taking over being to make racing even more expensive, less inclusive and less visible doesn't seem great, but if you're into that then today's your lucky day I guess.
I'm aware that riders don't rely on prize money, but the fact teams pay more and the organisers are also getting more from broadcast means the riders *should* be getting more. Without them there is no show to put on, so it doesn't seem great that the overall pool of money involved is going up significantly but the actual people risking it all aren't getting more of it.
I won't though, cos the way people choose to enjoy a sport is entirely up to them. I probably will pay to watch the racing I love. But I'll still sound off about all the stuff discovery is doing that I think will be a net negative for the sport, and I'll certainly have moral doubts about paying them to do it...
The difference here is that the new owners have effectively stepped into the middle of the chain and are now being paid for the rights of the World Cup coverage, while fans have to then pay those various companies who have bought the rights. This is the crux of the issue I think a lot of people have with it as the new owners are effectively gatekeeping the sport they've just taken over in order to make more money for themselves.
As before, I don't assume Red Bull made much from putting World Cups on as they have such a strong external business that they don't really need to, but with the sale of the rights money is definitely being made there. That's then not even adding in the huge hike in entry fees and so on, and how none of this is trickling down to the riders at the heart of it all.
I wasn't trying to compare logistics for racers vs. organisers. Without any kind of racers there are no races, but there can be many different types of organisers operating with different kind of motives so I'd say that was where I'd draw more of a distinction in terms of how 'necessary' they are.
discovery+ is now available at no extra cost for Sky Q, Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers.
New subscribers can set up their account on Sky Marketplace.
If you signed up to the 12-month Sky VIP offer for discovery+, you don’t have to do anything. You can continue using your account - and you can now watch sports too.
What's your point?