GCN Race Pass

G1032

Anyone sign up for the GCN Race Pass?

Was a pure disaster for me on Saturday. Couldn't get coverage of the race via the app until I DM's them on Twitter and they sent me a link, which opened via the app, and streamed the race. But had to leave the phone down for a while and it was an ordeal to get the race back up again

Since then I haven't been able to watch anything on it. Trying to get highlights of La Route d'Occitainie but all I'm getting is the red screen on the app.

They don't seem to have any answers for me re how to resolve, excpect to force stop the app and start it again to "give it a nudge"

godtabh

not signed up but seeing a lot of issues on twitter.

Steve SilverMint

I was thinking of purchasing the yearly subscription as doing a deal for €19.99 at the moment.

It seems a decent offering as long as the app sorts issues and is running smoothly.

It's been very poorly communicated if at all as to what extent Eurosport will continue to show cycling? I'd imagine they will show the big races still surely as a large part of their audience will be watching on regular TV and have no interest in apps and subscriptions. It's weird when they plug GCN during races I'm clueless as to whether they are talking to me as a ES player subscriber or their TV audience as for the moment I get the same ad-free stream as GCN has.

Theres is no reason the ES player can't show me the same level of racing as GCN for my money as they have the same owners and streaming from the same servers in the same data center most likely, but who knows how rights work.

One things for sure though , if you want to see a woman race a bike on the roads at least you'll have to pay for GCN :mad:

It's no way to grow the sport and hardly what the UCI envisaged when they mandated the minimum coverage for womens races but hey that was as poorly thought out as most other UCI decisions around growing the sport overall with audiences.

Macy0161

Subscribed, but having casting issues in the pain cave. Which is why I went for Fire TV to play Eurosport Player. On the list to try a possible solution today actually (as I found an old router!)

dastardly00

I signed up to the app on Saturday morning. Not entirely sure why because I have a Eurosport Player subscription also... I've watched a lot of GCN over the years so I don't mind giving them a few quid anyway.

Everything worked perfectly for me for Strade Bianche (both men's & women's race). No issues with the app (Android), no connection problems, video quality was excellent, and it cast to my Sony TV (Android) seemlessly. I'm watching Milan-Torino now and all working good

Macy0161

In fairness, the problem is partly distance from the router casting, but not to say I found the Eurosport Player Android App very flaky.

I would've thought it would be easy for GCN to do a "lite" version of the Fire TV Eurosport Player App, which has been pretty flawless for me for the last few years.

dastardly00

Macy0161 wrote: »

In fairness, the problem is partly distance from the router casting, but not to say I found the Eurosport Player Android App very flaky.

I would've thought it would be easy for GCN to do a "lite" version of the Fire TV Eurosport Player App, which has been pretty flawless for me for the last few years.

There were tonnes of comments on the app from users complaining that the live feed wasn't working so you're not alone

G1032

Got a DM from them on Twitter this evening and told me to try again!! Opened app and it updated automatically and everything working perfectly now.

Chips Lovell

dastardly00 wrote: »

Not entirely sure why because I have a Eurosport Player subscription also... I've watched a lot of GCN over the years so I don't mind giving them a few quid anyway.

Eurosport own GCN, so you're throwing a few quid to the same people.

Macy0161

I'd previously hard wired ethernet to the pain cave, so got a router in there this week. Have to say I'm impressed with the Race Pass now I'm able to cast it.

Struggling to see what will be on eurosport that won't be on the race pass, so I think I'll be cancelling that subscription. About the only thing is it's handy having the eurosport player on the various Firesticks around the house.

koutoubia

Is there an app for android smart tvs for GCN racing app or will I have to cast it from laptop/Phone?

Daroxtar

GlobalCyclingNetwork (@gcntweet) Tweeted:
Race Pass Web Player is now in open beta! That’s right, the web version of Race Pass is now available. We’ve a few glitches to iron out (you can’t watch highlights, only replays for example) but if you’re a subscriber head to https://t.co/RXlSZ0t7ur and get involved! https://twitter.com/gcntweet/status/1297088619547701248?s=20

MyDarkArts

Experience with it hasn't been flawless, but I'm prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt for now, since it's a newly launched service. They seem to be pro-active about ironing out bugs so I expect if they sort out minor annoyances like being bounced back to the start of the video if the app is interrupted, and landscape view being hit-and-miss, I'll more than likely pick-up a renewal subscription when it rolls around next year.

Glad they got the web player up, sooner than I expected too. Hopefully that's decent even in Beta mode.

Z_a_x

I thought €20 for pretty much everything for a year ad free was decent value, a few issues going going full screen which were sorted by an app update. Still a few little niggles but they seem to be sorting them. Overall worth the money already and the grand tours haven't even started...

Cormo87

I have to say that I agree, for €20 it's great value. I also like the highlight playback function so you can watch the highlights when it suits.

Will the TDF be available to Ireland on this? I can see it as an upcoming race but its not listed on the website as being shown in Ireland

dahat

I used 3pay to sub for year 1 so effectively free really. I've enjoyed what I've looked at so far.

Cormo87

Cormo87 wrote: »

I have to say that I agree, for €20 it's great value. I also like the highlight playback function so you can watch the highlights when it suits.

Will the TDF be available to Ireland on this? I can see it as an upcoming race but its not listed on the website as being shown in Ireland

I think at this stage they'll have everything Eurosport have here, the issues arise with places like the US and Australia I think were they may be waiting out multi year rights deals to lapse. Flobikes etc. which is extortionate to say the least if you want to follow bike racing in the US.

G1032

Cormo87 wrote: »

I have to say that I agree, for €20 it's great value. I also like the highlight playback function so you can watch the highlights when it suits.

Will the TDF be available to Ireland on this? I can see it as an upcoming race but its not listed on the website as being shown in Ireland

It's available in Ireland
See this link
Look at Aug 29th
https://help.globalcyclingnetwork.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360015571739-Republic-of-Ireland

joey100

Can you get an app for this on apple TV or do you need to cast from your phone to a TV?

koutoubia

Yesterday I used the web page , used a hdmi cable to run from my laptop to an old tv and was perfect.
Watched the last hour of Milan - Torino while spinning on the rollers.

CantGetNoSleep

Is there any advantage of having this if you are a Eurosport Player subscriber too?

Macy0161

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Is there any advantage of having this if you are a Eurosport Player subscriber too?

Struggling to see the need for both, but it'll be the Eurosport Player I'll be dropping I think. I only watch cycling on it. Once GCN have their firetv app, Eurosport will be going for me.

MyDarkArts

Watched La Course on the web player, worked perfectly. No issue pausing and rewinding.

Seemed to have ironed out the issues on the app that I mentioned earlier too.

connie_c

Is anyone having issues accessing the long highlights on the app? Tg4 have long highlights. I'm wondering is there a licencing issue and the app won't give me long highlights access?

Cormo87

connie_c wrote: »

Is anyone having issues accessing the long highlights on the app? Tg4 have long highlights. I'm wondering is there a licencing issue and the app won't give me long highlights access?

Yeah same issue here, stage 1 was fine then had issues streaming the 2nd yesterday and can't see long highlights for stage 3. I emailed support and will let you know there reply. I hope it's not the case that we don't have access to them

Macy0161

I may have used the web streaming yesterday afternoon (depends who's reading!) - it worked well.

I can't help with the long highlights for the Tour, only used the App to catch up on "The Breakaway". Obviously the format is taking a COVID hit, but not sure I'll put up with 3 weeks of Wiggins "insights" (I do generally think he's alright, but he doesn't seem interested this year. Again maybe understandably).

keane2097

I wish you could watch the catch-up stuff and analysis sped up to 1.5X like you can with Youtube videos. Other than that it's a good service.

Cormo87

Stage 4 long highlights worked fine for me this evening. I have had no reply from GCN support.

G1032

Anyone having issues watching the racing on an android phone in landscape mode?
App keeps freezing when I put into landscape mode. Turning phone back to portrait mode unfreezes it but then I just get a black screen when I rotate back to landscape mode. Can only watch issue free in portrait mode which isn't ideal.

keane2097

G1032 wrote: »

Anyone having issues watching the racing on an android phone in landscape mode?
App keeps freezing when I put into landscape mode. Turning phone back to portrait mode unfreezes it but then I just get a black screen when I rotate back to landscape mode. Can only watch issue free in portrait mode which isn't ideal.

It's happened me a few times, if I kill the app and restart it works as normal again. Sometimes I've had to do so a couple of times in quick succession which is not ideal.