Bummer…GCN+ was great for watching cyclocross during the winter months while doing trainer road workouts. Not sure how to watch now that they cut us off in the USA!

I'm just surprised there were apparently no buyers for the GCN/GCN+ app. It took years to develop, there are probably millions of capital invested in it. And it's, as far as I can tell as a user, *good*. I'd though it'd be the crown jewel of GCN assets, other than their core personalities. Maybe it's just so maintenance-heavy or generating such huge cloud service costs that self-supporting monetization is just impossible. Don't know.

Hopefully the shutdown is just short-term cost cutting while the app app is shopped around. Though from my experience in the tech world, once you shut something like that down and all the maintainers walk, the cost of re-start goes up exponentially.

Tiz a shame.

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http://www.savagesentiments.blogspot.com/
http://www.tricoachmartin.com/
https://www.facebook.com/teameverymanjack

I also would have paid double......this really stinks.

I also dont know why they didnt go down the path of incorporating digital advertising into their app - its the hottest area in digital ads these days...

In amusing irony just now in my inbox I got a notice on how to claim my portion of the class action lawsuit against FloSports for their deceptive renewal process. I can get up to $30 or 10% off a renewal. Guess which option I picked.

GCN+ is practically the only thing we watch on the big screen TV. The wife is nuts about bike racing, we got a dedicated laptop because the Firestick was glitchy then a VPN to get all the European content. It was like a comforting fluffy blanket to "have the race on" and listen to Carlton Kirby's stream of consciousness:

"The Peloton approaches the iconic Egyptian monolith; Eye. Hawk, Lamp, Cat. And you know what that means. I think Tadej Pogacar has a rather lean and hungry look, don't you agree Robbie?


I can't go back to NBC, I like Bob and Christian but I've been totally spoiled.

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"They know f_ck-all over at Slowtwitch"
- Lionel Sanders

Along these lines, I had GCN+, loved it. Also have a vpn that allows me to watch restricted content in the US, so basically all the races I could ever want to watch. I'm wondering if I'll be able to do this with Discovery+. In the US it's $9/month add free. I wonder if I sign up in the states, but use my VPN if I'll be able to access all that content from overseas. Anyone know? Even at $108/year, I still think it's a good enough deal. I know Eurosport is pretty much a no go because they don't allow US payment forms. Wondering if Discovery will be easier to work around.

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USAT Level 1 Coach
Team Next Level
http://goteamnltri.com/

Doesn't look like it will work. I just signed up for a free trial. When I turn on my VPN it doesn't accept my username/pwd.

Shoot. We may have to create some kind of sticky thread type thing to collectively arrive at the sets of VPN+site/app+payment that work.

Also I know the Escape Collective site has promised to create an article listing all the ways for each part of the globe. But for both of those it may be worth waiting until deeper in December as things get shuffled around.

You'll probably have to turn on VPN first and then create an account. Depending on the level of checks they do though, the issue you may encounter is that when you enter your CC number, it will be flagged as a US-based card.

Yeah, I tried that too. The credit card step threw it for a loop even though it was a free plan.

Dang - I was hoping that would work. I too am searching for an alternative. I had really gotten spoiled with being able to watch all the races I wanted to watch.

I am hooked, too. But don't worry. WB/D+ will have a plan for you that has GCN+. And lots of other irrelevant programming. For more $. They are not interested in just cutting the avid US customer base off - more interested in extracting additional $ from the avid US customer base...

Would it work do you think if you ran it through your VPN and in my case have my family member in the UK use their CC as payment ?

I'm guessing that would work. Of course if it does work you're obligated to share the username and password with all of us!

So, I'm doing two things in response... I subscribed to triathlontv (new for me). Obviously different/less content thna GCN+, but with the Olympics this year, it might be pretty good. During the winter (starting now in the northern hemisphere), I'll watch some of the 2023 races that I did not see (while on the trainer, so more background than anything). Fresh races in 2024. Then, I blew the dust off an old video recorder that has an HDD (and a DVD). This was a pretty cool device at the time but can only handle SD (no HD) recordings. Still, it outputs upsampled video through HDMI, so I fired it up and connected it to our giant HDTV. The video quality (there were old bike races on there, recorded from NBC (TdF, mostly)) was just so-so, but fine for casual watching from the trainer. The only pieces that were useless are the text-based 'miles/km to go' or '1:44 back' kinds of things - too pixelated to really read. So...I watch GCN+ through a Fire Cube. Got an inexpensive HDMI-to-RCA video converter. Connected the Fire Cube to the HDD video recorder, not expecting much. Dang - works great. I still have 80 hours of empty space on that HDD and intend on filling it up with GCN+ cyclocross and other content before GCN+ goes dark. I figure that I should have enough to watch through this winter.

Maybe by then Xfinity will have fixed my broken connection to Peacock+. I have not been able to watch that since before the 2023 TdF. I call Xfinity monthly...they say it will be up and running in 48 hours...for four months now...

Looney Tunes was saved. And I love Looney Tunes. So, all good there. But with GCN, are we just not screaming and yelling enough?

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/looney-tunes-streaming-max_n_65661b58e4b03ac1cd178975

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cock-up before conspiracy

Bike racing streaming coverage from the defuncted GCN + will be back on Max. Downside is that your $50 yearly subscription is likely going to cost north of $250


We’re happy to announce that starting in February 2024, an expansive roster of 300+ of the biggest live races across Road, Mountain Bike, Track, BMX and Cyclocross — including the Giro d’Italia, Classics, Mountain Bike World Series & UCI Track Champions League — will be available for U.S. Max subscribers via the B/R Sports Add-On.

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BoulderCyclingCoach.com

And they don't list what's included. Which 300+ races? Who has Paris Roubaix? NBC? Who has Milano San Remo? What CX is included? And then there's the fact that February means no Christmas 'cross this year :-(

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Janyne

Another downside is likely ads with Max unless you pay even more.

A lukewarm upside is they announced some decent talent like Robbie McEwen.

I had rage-quit Time Warner-Discovery (despite not actually subscribing to any of their products so it was an unsatisfying rage-quite), but I'll give this a shot. I do give them some credit for turning it around pretty quick after they decided to close GCN+ - I'd assumed they'd do the math and find it's not worth serving the very small niche of second-tier bike races at all.

We have a Max subscription through our cable package. Just looked and currently there is no on-demand option that I can find for sports. Maybe it will be different for cycling, but that's kind of a deal breaker for me.

Oh yeah, I've been cable-cut for decades now. If there's no a la carte streaming, I'll re-rage-quit. It'd beyond me how in nearly 2024, cable companies are still trying to force us into a dying business model instead of letting us pay for a la carte streaming as we go.

Right.. as of now there is no a la carte streaming for sports on the Max app. So, that would have to be a new feature for cycling that's not available for other sports. Not holding me breath..

My guess would be that anything that was on Peacock last year will stay with the Cock. Not sure with regards to Flo....that might be a little more fluid.

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"one eye doubles my eyesight, so things don't look half bad" John Hiatt

that is my understanding. all ASO will stay with Peacock...TDF, PR, PN. All the Flanders will stay with FLO. most everything else including the MTB WC races. If you have Max already, the $9.99 add on is pretty good deal for all those races. if you have to buy MAX as well, it definitely makes it pricey. But at least we have an option in US to see most races and it's still a better deal than FLO. I do hope the user interface is good. On demand for us west coasters is absolutely a deal breaker.