Season Opener!!!!

This year, if you're an American and a skating fan, one of your biggest concerns might be (and should be) is how exactly you're going to watch our favorite sport. Thanks to figure skating's decline in popularity here in the US, coverage isn't exactly eating up primetime TV every night. Since my friends and I were talking about the ways we're going to get along, I figured I'd post a few different ways to get by (and by that I mean survive this HORRIBLE TERRIBLE drought caused by our football, basketball, and Nascar loving nation):


NBC: For this week, and this week only, you will be able to watch our own Grand Prix stop (why they show this and not the rest of the GP is beyond me...what's the point in showing Skate America if they're not going to broadcast the final?) on NBC on October 26th at 4:00 pm. It's only two hours of coverage for all four disciplines, so I wouldn't expect anything groundbreaking here, folks. Since it's the US, this'll probably mean the ladies, Evan and Johnny, and possibly Tanith and Ben (I'd be very surprised if they showed Emily and Evan or even Keuna and Rockne).


Icenetwork: Yes, you have to pay thirty bucks for it, but if you're living in the US, I strongly suggest this. They're showing live coverage of the entire Grand Prix (including the JGPF), some of U.S. Senior Nationals, Europeans, Four Continents, Junior Worlds, and the brand new World Team Trophy. This kind of sounds like an advertisement (I'm not being paid for this, I swear!), but if you're serious about seeing your figure skating, this is your best bet at actually being able to watch this season.

YouTube/Other Broadcasts: If you don't mind patchy coverage and possibly commentators in other languages, sometimes this'll work on. I know that the ISU (or at least USFS) has been cracking down on YouTube videos, so the coverage here might be limited. I know that other countries have websites where they're streaming a live broadcast of a lot of the competitions (my friend go last year's Worlds through some Turkish network), but, again, you might be taking a bit of a chance by going with this.

Canadian Television: A lot of my friends who live close to the US/Canada border (I'm looking at you, Lake Placid) get CBC and CTV. Most of the country does not have access to this, I realize, but for those of you who do, I suggest looking into what they have.


This is just a broad list of different ways to watch skating. If you have others, definitely comment and tell me!