World Champs Won't Go Toward the 'Light!

by Chris Fontecchio on Aug 14, 2008 2:06 PM EDT in News

Universal Sports, broadcasters of the UCI Cycling World Championships and some other races, will not require the Microsoft Silverlight plugin that (probably) prevented a large number of viewers from watching the Olympic cycling events. Although Universal Sports is a joint venture with NBC, along with WCSN, they have so far decided not to copy the NBCOlympics.com video streaming setup.

Presently, the Universal Sports homepage has a number of videos you can test out. I tried and couldn't get the video content loaded... so we're not in the clear yet. But I've been told they're still working out the bugs, so no worries yet. At least the player loads instantly, and looks nice and large. I'll keep you posted on more info, and hope to have a full list of system requirements to post as we draw closer to the Worlds. I'm sure, like any new stream source, it probably won't work on every machine, but unlike NBCOlympics.com they seem intent on making it as easy as possible to get on.

update: Among those other races they're showing are the Deutschland Tour.

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Just checked it out

and the video loaded and ran flawlessly in FF on Windoze. Wonderful video of Sven Njis winning WC # 4 last year, so I’m both pleased at the quality and looking forward to cross season all at once.

Any idea of the cost for Worlds? A per event subscription of maybe a 1 month thing (which they did last year IIRC?). I’d pay $4.95 to watch Worlds.

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum."

by Drew Davis on Aug 14, 2008 2:34 PM EDT reply actions

Well

it might be free. But don’t quote me yet.

"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."

by Chris Fontecchio on Aug 14, 2008 3:25 PM EDT up reply actions

Update

Actually, they told me events would be free. I would plan on that for now.

Also, I heard back that the site has been on and off all day as they tinker. In other words, it’s going to work fine.

"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."

by Chris Fontecchio on Aug 14, 2008 4:19 PM EDT up reply actions

certainly not bad

there’s a 40 second delay (or more) before anything happens in my player, but leave it up and it starts playing. Screen snap of the quality (Nys / Boom / etc cyclocross):
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