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Universal Sports to Shut Down November 16
- Thread starter Joey1986
- Start date
I remember when the channel was one of WVIT Hartford''s subchannels. It always seemed to me that there wasn't enough programming being produced for it. You'd get a track meet or a swim meet premiering on a Saturday and running at least twice a day for a week or two afterward. It had potential as a niche channel for the relatively few American viewers with an interest in international sports, or domestic sports outside the entrenched "big four" of football, baseball, basketball and hockey, but lack of content -- and the baffling decision to go from OTA subchannels to a paywalled Internet service -- doomed it.
Back when Universal Sports was carried as a subchannel of our local KIAH (which was carried on our cable system) my wife would watch it quite a bit for its international ice skating coverage. Seems we see less skating on the sports channels these days, outside of U.S. events programmed opposite football or basketball.
USA Track & Field will probably have to buy time from whoever it can from here on in. Track & field (or "athletics," as it's known outside North America) is a very big deal in Europe, and gets a lot of attention just about everywhere else -- except the good old USA. Cycling is another big Euro sport that gets the "who cares" treatment here.
M
Mario500
Guest
I am sure some folks in Europe and other continents would treat cycling and track and field games the same way.
In the same way that there are some folks here who ignore the NFL, even though that gets "a lot of attention" here. I feel like I'm missing your point.
For anyone interested in the Olympics, summer and winter, this is a disappointment. I'm surprised others have said above "no big deal." While there are plenty of sports channels on cable, there are few outlets for Olympic-style competitions, which often help athletes qualify for making the Olympic team. Every four years, we care about the young people who are representing our country, rooting for the U.S.A. to win the most medals. But with no Universal Sports, you won't see the competitions that lead up to the Olympics.
I also don't think anyone was being too big for their britches. I think NBC simply thought the subchannels of the O&Os were too important, later used for Cozi, to dedicate for Universal Sports, so it got shifted to cable.
I also don't think anyone was being too big for their britches. I think NBC simply thought the subchannels of the O&Os were too important, later used for Cozi, to dedicate for Universal Sports, so it got shifted to cable.
I was shifted to satellite, not cable; Xfinity(which carried NBC O & O subchannels), Uverse(which did not), and the other major providers were shut out. And if you didn't have satellite service, then even with Universal Sports, you weren't seeing any Olympic-sports competitions.
The worst thing about Universal Sports is that once they were off cable. they suddenly began showing more than just he same figure skating event or track meet repeated 800 times a week. The people who wanted to see even more events couldn't watch them.
So Universal Sports wasn't a part of NBC Universal before?
That's what has me scratching my head, too. Who is (or was) behind World Championship Sports Network?
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