Ice Skating Championships

[Pamela Moberg]

This time of the year there are the European Ice Skating championships - this year held in Budapest, Hungary - to be followed by the World Championships. I have always looked forward to these occasions. Not so this year, the Swedish TV is not going to broadcast a single minute. One is reduced to watching Eurosport or some other sports channel which is only available for a fee. As I never ever watch any sports I feel it is too much to fork out hard earned cash for a few days - there is no such thing as pay per view, I would have to have a subscription for half a year.

Is anybody watching the European championships? In that case I would be grateful for opinions, any new talent emerging? I do feel that I have been robbed of some good entertainment here!

[mom2]

I had the same feeling here in Canada! Apparently there was a broadcast on The Sports Network - but not live on one of the National networks. Of course there were live broadcasts of a hockey game (or two or three).

The US Nationals were the same weekend as the Canadian ones. I was able to watch a lot of the US (finals) live, from Canada. Would have really appreciated being able to see the Ice Dancing Free Dance for both countries, on the same day.

Can't comment on the European skaters however but the Olympics should be great in terms of skating talent!

mom2

[Helene]

I watch figure skating over the internet on Russian Eurosport (usually on Sport 2, but sometimes they move around) through TVTeka. They eventually show everyone that exists on the host feed. A subscription is $30 for three months and includes a lot of other channels, including Kultur (Rossiya K), where I can sometimes catch some ballet and ballet-related news stories/features with some dance clips.

I don't understand Russian and used Google translate to get through most of the screens and to translate emails I receive, but while there's sometimes buffering if the servers are overloaded, I've had very good luck with them, and they archive, so you don't always have to watch real-time. Plus, there's an advantage to not understanding a word the commentators are saying, although you have had Hogner.