Have you had problems with cycling.tv?: A poll

Cycling.tv

As what I consider a “charter” member of the cycling.tv group, I have been a faithful and loyal subscriber for many years. However in the past few years it has been one headache after the other, change of platforms, change of ownership, you name it. Paris-Nice was the last straw unless something magical happens tomorrow.

by bbnaz on Mar 20, 2009 2:13 PM EDT reply actions

Uhmmm... I had problems signing up

Didn’t get it to work when I tried a couple of years ago. And didn’t bother to retry. So yes, and no.

No longer that I call them tights, I call them freedom ware.

by TheFigurehead on Mar 20, 2009 2:17 PM EDT reply actions

has there been debate about this?

I thought there was basic consensus about everyone having problems except for a small minority.

by plinytheelder on Mar 20, 2009 2:41 PM EDT reply actions

there was some debate about it in the "Cycling.tv to carry MSR" thread

by Susie Hartigan on Mar 20, 2009 2:57 PM EDT up reply actions

Ctv! Don't get me

started………..#*&#!$%!

by Teel22 on Mar 20, 2009 3:39 PM EDT reply actions

Some of the issues I have with cycling.tv, and why I am on the fence about renewing this year

Apologies for a post of the same info in 2 different threads; I wrote the paragraphs below the broken line earlier today in the post about cycling.tv carrying Milan-San Remo.

In 2008, I paid cycling.tv for 2008 Giro, Premium and Vuelta. As I understand it, I won’t have access to 2009 Milan-San Remo unless I pay for the 2009 Giro package, yet there is no guarantee that cycling.tv will be able to successfully complete negotiations for the 2009 Giro. They already advertised 2009 Tirreno-Adriatico and didn’t deliver it. Last year, I also paid for 2 months of RAI-International so that I would have TV coverage of the spring and Giro races, and unfortunately it looks like that alternative is gone for 2009.

I do appreciate cyclingfans’ listings of alternatives. I am more than willing to pay for coverage, but at this point, cycling.tv has me feeling more of a sucker than a valued customer.

Perhaps cycling.tv should consider providing 2009 M-SR coverage to those of us who paid for 2008 Giro, or to make up to Premium customers who didn’t receive some of the races they were promised last year?

———————————————————————————
(the part below was posted in http://www.podiumcafe.com/2009/3/18/802205/how-to-convince-vs-cycling)

I have 3 areas of concern about c.tv. 1) they advertise races to which they don’t already have rights; 2) their capacity to deliver to existing subscribers; 3) the way they have previously handled technology transitions.

I’ve been a cycling.tv subscriber for years. My renewal time typically occurs right before or during Tour de Suisse. Last year’s c.tv’s July beta transition was really poorly handled. My account, along with an untold number of others, was dropped during the transition, and I had to "prove" by way PayPal receipts that I had paid for the Giro, Premium and Vuelta in 2008. If there had been good public communication on their website about the transition, it would have mitigated a lot of my and others’ frustration; I made this point directly to them during a previous "beta" transition, and so it was particularly frustrating to have an even worse experience last July.

Pete- if you are interested, here are just a few previous threads about my and others’ experiences.

First, on cyclingtv’s own site:
http://theinnertube.cycling.tv/service/displayDiscussionThreads.kickAction?as=2501&w=27428&d=38294&d-1169404-p=1
http://theinnertube.cycling.tv/service/displayDiscussionThreads.kickAction?as=2501&w=27428&d=66782

Then some threads from here:
http://mobile.podiumcafe.com/2008/7/1/562893/ctv-beta-debuts
http://www.podiumcafe.com/2008/8/1/584869/cycling-tv-beta-check-it-a

I have a technical background in IT system administration and in IT management. I have been responsible for larger and smaller transitions than the ones that c.tv has made from year to year, and never have I personally seen such poor communication from a company charging for services. I’m not even talking about the poor technology and web design choices. Often, how one communicates and how one recovers from mistakes make much larger lasting impressions, in my experience.

Usually a company learns something about how important communication is from a previous transition. In this situation, there appears to be a couple of individuals on staff at cycling.tv who do what they can, in a reactive way, but there hasn’t been evidence that the company itself has learned much along the way.

On the quality of the stream itself, I am usually in northern California, connected via a 3-6Mb DSL line. Pretty often, 1200 service buffers too often for clean viewing, and I move between 800 and 400 in order to be able to hear audio and see some video without too much frustration. Too often last year, during the last few kms of a race, or right before the end, the stream freezes.

Often, I have used and appreciated cyclingfans info of alternate streams so that I would have another system here running here and have a cleaner viewing experience from one of the cyclingfans’ alternatives. I did enjoy the commentary of Brian and Anthony when I was able to hear it, and so was willing to continue to pay. Now, with the various changes of commentators and ongoing poor customer service, I am not sure what I am willing to pay further for this year. How they handle the Silverlight transition will certainly factor in to my decision process.

I hope you find this background helpful, -Sou

—————————————————————————————————

by souvenir on Mar 20, 2009 4:12 PM EDT reply actions

On the Fence as Well

I like the idea of cycling.tv and I want it to work well. I started with cycling.tv when we paid race by race rather than a season subscription. I have paid for a subscription of some sort every year (one year I even paid twice, although I was able to get one refunded).

When I have been able to reach a customer service person, they have been helpful. I realize that providing an internet TV service has many challenges that can be beyond the control of cycling.tv.

My problems in the past were not being able to sign-in for races. In those instances, servers were overwhelmed and I was told to keep trying. Sometimes I got in, sometimes not.

Overtime I have begun to count on cycling.tv less and less. My subscription is up at the end of this month. This year I have only tried to log-in toward the end of a race and watch the finish. I’ve done this from home, work, on different computers, on different operating systems (linux, XP, vista) and I am yet to be able to watch a race at all.

I would like to support cycling.tv because they offer access to races, but it seems that what I would be doing would be joining with others to provide a grant to cycling.tv to experiment with providing live race coverage.

I am still undecided about renewing as I rather enjoy watching the races and I am an avid cycling fan (and cyclist). I purchase cycling products and would likely be part of the demographic advertisers on the site would want to reach. So, do I pay for a subscription for a chance to watch cycling? (and I would dearly love to watch Paris-Roubaix). I’ve yet to make a final decision.

by John.. on Mar 20, 2009 4:28 PM EDT reply actions

Account lost

Bad Informaton on what you were buying, a bad platform from the beginning, not understanding when the peaks would occur in a bike race (from the technical end), losing my subscription. Money and time down the drain. I will not renew.

On the other hand CTV has had great announcers, and picked good races that they could get. I love the idea!

Basically their back end technical platform has really been the killer. Narrowstep and Microsoft were not the way to go. The worst Web front end of anything I have ever used a lot. Shows how I like cycling. It is too late for me.

by Markk on Mar 20, 2009 8:06 PM EDT reply actions

Never had it .. never had a problem.

by Christopher See on Mar 21, 2009 2:58 AM EDT reply actions

I just subscribed

though I didn’t get the full year package, since this is basically a trial run to see if it worked better for me since I’m in the same state as umwolverine. So today was the first test. It worked more or less ok until near the top of the Poggio, then more or less froze. Not a good place for that, so in my mind it basically failed the first test. I hope it gets better when they install Silverlight or I doubt I’ll resubscribe.

by Le Comte on Mar 21, 2009 2:18 PM EDT reply actions

It seems to be better now

The het-whatever had substantial problems, but since KBK it’s been pretty much flawless for me. The previous two years had been very hit and miss.

by Uncle Ted on Mar 21, 2009 7:22 PM EDT reply actions

Today, CTV made me happy

They refunded my money.

Brooklyn Chewing Gum: Vlaanderens Mooiste

by Koppenberg on Mar 22, 2009 11:56 AM EDT reply actions

There's a first - well done.

"I didn't look for him and I didn't see him. If you base your race on another rider, most of the time you lose."

Tom Boonen

by Drew Davis on Mar 22, 2009 5:21 PM EDT up reply actions

How did you get your refund?

I emailed cycling.tv last summer, after they failed to broadcast one of the races I had paid for, to tell them that I would not be renewing my subscription when it expired. Then I went on paypal and cancelled my recurring payment to cycling.tv, and I checked again a month ago to make sure there was no recurring payment or subscription on my paypal account. So, imagine my surprise when I opened up my email today and saw a receipt from paypal for a fraudulent $99.99 charge to cycling.tv.

Without my authorization, and contrary to my express directions, cycling.tv billed $99.99 to my paypal account.

Word to the wise: If cycling.tv can find a way to take your money, they will do so, whether you authorize it, or not. Apparently, if you used paypal, the only way to stop continuing, unauthorized charges from cycling.tv is to cancel your paypal account.

Koppenberg, I’d really appreciate hearing what steps you took to secure your refund.

by Susie Hartigan on Mar 22, 2009 7:55 PM EDT up reply actions

refund

I had a subscription for about a week a year ago, so was also surprised when a charge showed up last week. I e-mailed cyclingtv-at-jumptv-dot-com once, no response, then again a few days later and got a response within an hour from support.team-at-jumptv-dot-com with an immediate refund.

It sounds like you already did this, but just in case, you can’t just cancel the payment, you have to go into history and get the subscription and cancel that.

I have a Mac, so no use subscribing, although the new update coming soon is supposed to be compatible.

Julie

by JMatt on Mar 23, 2009 8:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Thanks!

I’ve sent an email to the address you mentioned. I haven’t heard anything back yet, but I only sent it today. It’s reassuring to hear that you were able to resolve things this way. Thanks for letting me know.

by Susie Hartigan on Mar 23, 2009 10:15 PM EDT up reply actions

The jump one is also the one that

has offered up the extensions. I’ve dealt with Aric from that one and in the least they have at least heard my frustrations. Last week I even asked to have my email forwarded on to the group that deal with the technical side to offer up some explanations on what is being done to fix things. I appreciate the correspondence at least. It at least made me feel a little better than just complaining here.

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."

by nikki on Mar 23, 2009 10:24 PM EDT up reply actions

This poll is very relevant if . . .

. . . it’s 2006.

But in 2009, it is just a group pity party which is similar to those in Seattle who complain about the rain.

Move on.

by Ryan_Liles on Mar 23, 2009 8:55 AM EDT reply actions

In honesty Ryan, I think the poll was put up

the verify whether a lot of people were in fact having trouble or if it was a small but vocal minority that was not satisfied.

That this was the case was suggested in a thread but seems to be refuted by the poll-result . I suppose the remaining question is whether the PdC population is representative of the CTV audience as a whole?

Did your favourite rider just win Montepaschi Strade Bianch Eroica Toscana? OK then.

by Jens on Mar 23, 2009 9:22 AM EDT up reply actions

Regardless if the PdC population is representative of the CTV audience as a whole . . . .

. . . . to what constructive value does this achieve at creating yet another thread on how crappy CTV is?
Why is there a chronic desire to kick this dead horse?
It’s been dead for a long time now.

by Ryan_Liles on Mar 23, 2009 11:46 PM EDT up reply actions

resist......urge.....to.......click....

If it were not serving a function for someone, it would not have 105 votes, 44 posts and 6 “recs.” So far as I can remember, for all the years of bitching, this is actually the first poll—the first time that the quiet people and the loud people get exactly the same say in the matter. For sure it’s the first serious poll since the last total revamping of the site.

I’m actually impressed with the 20% who have few or minimal problems. It suggests that CTV may be doing something right for some platform, somewhere.

Not turning your crank? Welllll…..next time you see “CTV” featured prominently in the thread, you will know that you can save yourself valuable cycling time by not clicking there.

by JFS_PGH on Mar 24, 2009 5:29 PM EDT up reply actions

that's okay, Ryan

You’re still invited to all the other parties.

by Sui Juris on Mar 23, 2009 1:56 PM EDT up reply actions

Dood, I crash parties like it’s 1999 . . .

by Ryan_Liles on Mar 23, 2009 10:25 PM EDT up reply actions

Really?

1) 2009 Het Nieuwsblad
2) 2009 Kuurne Brussels Kuurne

I sure wish it would stop raining…

More Muur...

by Jimbo... on Mar 23, 2009 2:34 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, go back to 2006, and see what happened then.
Guess what?
The same thing.

Just to be clear wishing and complaining are two very different things.

I do wish it would stop raining also; in Taiwan.

by Ryan_Liles on Mar 23, 2009 10:31 PM EDT up reply actions

just curious

For those who are having problems, what kind of interwebs connection are you using? For anyone with a dialup connection you’d expect to have a lot of problems with a video feed.

I’m not trying to say that all the cyclingtv problems are due to dialup connections, but i wonder how many people in the poll who reported mucho problems had dialups.

by yeehoo on Mar 23, 2009 1:38 PM EDT reply actions

I'm on a cable connection at home and solid line at work.

Honestly not sure I’d ever had even thought of trying the subscription with a dial up. Suicide no?

I personally think there’s more to the geography thought. Issues being worst the further you are from the east coast.
Just my thought though and not much to back it up other than personal chats with friends from East to West coasts.

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."

by nikki on Mar 23, 2009 1:45 PM EDT up reply actions

FIOS 10/2

(for those not familiar with Verizon’s FIOS, that’s fiber to the home, 10 down, 2 up)

~

And I’d be shocked if anyone was both a dialup subscriber AND a CTV customer. Not really overlapping demos.

by Sui Juris on Mar 23, 2009 1:55 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, I would have to think

that any video stream, no matter how good it was, would be slow as molasses on a dialup connection.

by Le Comte on Mar 23, 2009 1:58 PM EDT up reply actions

DSL @ 3mbps at home

haven’t tried it at work.

I don’t get the sense that many people here are using dialup connections.

by Le Comte on Mar 23, 2009 1:56 PM EDT up reply actions

Anyone

who pays a hundred bucks for live streaming aces and only has access to dial-up deserves to have their money stolen.

"Never swing a small stick. " Andy Hampsten

by Hons on Mar 23, 2009 2:18 PM EDT up reply actions

I asked to get the races sent to me on Betamax tapes

They never replied. Bastards.

Did your favourite rider just win Montepaschi Strade Bianch Eroica Toscana? OK then.

by Jens on Mar 23, 2009 2:29 PM EDT up reply actions

did you accidentally

shoot the carrier pigeon with the reply?

by Sui Juris on Mar 23, 2009 2:36 PM EDT up reply actions

Could be

I was trying out these new crossbow thingies a while back

Did your favourite rider just win Montepaschi Strade Bianch Eroica Toscana? OK then.

by Jens on Mar 23, 2009 2:41 PM EDT up reply actions

Have you had squab lately?

I know you have…

More Muur...

by Jimbo... on Mar 23, 2009 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions

bahahahaha!

You kidz are on fire today. This is good.

by Jen See on Mar 23, 2009 6:45 PM EDT up reply actions

Cable at home

which is stupid fast. I do not watch it at work, because then I would have to fire myself, which nobody wants…

More Muur...

by Jimbo... on Mar 23, 2009 2:38 PM EDT up reply actions

well

that’s what i figured but someone had brought up the question on another forum. Just making sure.

by yeehoo on Mar 24, 2009 5:28 AM EDT up reply actions

FiOS and ethernetAnd I got a new mac laptop 1.5 years ago precisely because it was supposed to work with CTV.

Which it actually did do (except when the feed stuttered or died for most folks). At least, until the update, when the feed was fecked more often than not. So I didn’t renew this year.

by JFS_PGH on Mar 24, 2009 5:32 PM EDT up reply actions

I was thinking.. You can come in my house for 100 euro..

And watch cycling.. That’s a goldmine…

Crashdan: "Veni Vidi Vici beats Wing Kong Exchange... … and I’ll change my signature to a backwards smile for a month."
Franzoi wins Parijs-Roubaix and I win a date with the VDS of Team Txirrindulariak..

by Frinking on Mar 23, 2009 6:50 PM EDT reply actions

lol

Any idea how long it would take to fly from the West Coast of the US to your place?

I’ll help: A very very very very long time. But, if I’m ever in the neighborhood, I’ll stop by. And bring the beer :-)

by Jen See on Mar 23, 2009 6:58 PM EDT up reply actions

MSR an PR take also a very, very long time!

But stop by.. Not too soon because I slightly exaggerated with the word house… ;)

Crashdan: "Veni Vidi Vici beats Wing Kong Exchange... … and I’ll change my signature to a backwards smile for a month."
Franzoi wins Parijs-Roubaix and I win a date with the VDS of Team Txirrindulariak..

by Frinking on Mar 23, 2009 7:25 PM EDT up reply actions

You will have to pay me more than 100 euro

to come in your house… And allow me to apologize to everyone who just read that.

More Muur...

by Jimbo... on Mar 23, 2009 7:18 PM EDT up reply actions

That's so wrong....

But I live just 20 minutes from Amsterdam… You don’t have to pay 100 euros their/there

Crashdan: "Veni Vidi Vici beats Wing Kong Exchange... … and I’ll change my signature to a backwards smile for a month."
Franzoi wins Parijs-Roubaix and I win a date with the VDS of Team Txirrindulariak..

by Frinking on Mar 23, 2009 7:26 PM EDT up reply actions

American outcalls are expensive.

That’s what Jimbo tells me, anyway.

by Sui Juris on Mar 23, 2009 7:29 PM EDT up reply actions

I'll do it for 50, but only if no one is watching,

Thinking hard - really hard - of something witty to say....

by Cyclingrush on Mar 23, 2009 10:36 PM EDT up reply actions

OK, excuse my assumption above

that the posts would continue to be about CTV.

P.S. Laughing even harder because this thread has 6 recs, and is never, never going away from the top spot!

by JFS_PGH on Mar 24, 2009 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions

May have to change my vote

or have an at-work and at-home vote. At home, not so good. At work, flawless, even with CyL streaming on justintv at the same time. So today was a good day.

by Le Comte on Mar 25, 2009 12:17 PM EDT reply actions

Ctv sucked today

DDV was a mess… I had 2 free justin.tv feeds up and c.tv would not load for an hour before that. It is so not my connection.

"…I saw bloody Cavendish coming, really fast…"
HH

by ELVISGOAT on Mar 25, 2009 7:11 PM EDT reply actions

Renewing CTV

Warning

Someone posted that if you paid with a normal credit card or paypal CTV cannot automatically renew your subscription. Wrong. Be warned.

by bradBordeaux on Mar 26, 2009 12:21 PM EDT reply actions

delete your pymt info once your pymt has gone thru

"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind

by umwolverine on Mar 26, 2009 3:40 PM EDT up reply actions

thanks...........i sorted it out.......

by bradBordeaux on Mar 26, 2009 5:53 PM EDT up reply actions

I can live with CTV...

I don’t have the expectation to watch races live on CTV as I don’t have the inclination to lose sleep in order to see a race in the middle of the night. Instead I watch the race at my convenience at a later time. I guess some here might consider that as blasphemy but that’s okay. Its not like I’m going to hear the results on my local sports report so I can pretend I’m seeing the race live when I can get around to it.
CTV coverage is a heck of a lot better than reading about a race on-line or in a magazine a month later. Before CTV, my pro cycling viewing was restricted to three weeks in July. And watching (or re-watching) races while I’m on my indoor trainer certainly helps with the monotony of indoor training over the winter months.

by bikenik on Mar 26, 2009 12:58 PM EDT reply actions

for the first year

the delayed video was totally unavailable to me. Last year’s redesign fixed that, but some of the screwed up stuff (pixillated swirlies) was still bad even later—not sure how that works or what it means, except it has to be upstream of the feed that they’re putting out. (It wasn’t the race feed, because the crapola low res free version, so far as I remember, did not have the problem.)

Maybe they should offer a half price version that lets you watch only saved stuff that’s more than 36 hours old. That would cut down on the traffic on race day a little, right?

by JFS_PGH on Mar 26, 2009 3:41 PM EDT up reply actions

As Live

always seems to come through just fine which suits my cyclist husband. Me? I want to be in the trenches (even dark thirty early in the morning) watching it live. That is when I have the most difficult time. I must admit that E3 and Brant today both worked fine, logged in and got there speedy delivery. Maybe the silverlight delivery is good (it worked well for me during the Olympics).

I went in and cancelled my subscription in Paypal Mine was still going to “Narrowstep” and was only for 19.99bp. Maybe I should not have complained as it was still cheaper than what they charge now. I guess if they take my money in May, I will see how the next year goes.

I know that UM gets the feed with little or no problem but you see she is familiar with wizards (check her tagline) and can get amazing results.

by bbnaz on Mar 29, 2009 11:40 AM EDT reply actions

They haven't gone to silverlight yet

or am I misreading what you’re saying?

I’ve found that it seems to work well at home and at work so long as I stay away from Firefox. At work I run it on IE and it works fine (though through work the connection speed is 100 mpbs, so there’s plenty of juice, so to speak). At home I have a mac and, if I use Safari, it works decently, though with the occassional hiccup (connection speed is allegedly 3 mpbs; can’t get FIOS yet, but when it’s available I’m upgrading to the 20 mpbs package asap as I have noted speed problems with other websites, such as youtube on my current connection).

So, I missed the end of MSR because I made the mistake of running it on Firefox, but DdV & E3P were both just fine.

by Le Comte on Mar 29, 2009 12:37 PM EDT up reply actions

Tremendous sack of CRAP...

…is the best way to describe cycling.tv. I subscribed and the service was terrible. I asked for a refund and they were so inept I never got it! I finally gave up. i saw about 15 continuous minutes of coverage of racing total!! I would have had better luck just looking at graham watson photos really fast and pretending it was live. the worst part was they renewed my service and didn’t authorize it and it took forever to get that sorted out.

terrible service. I hope they quite stealing peoples money. disgracefully bad

by chrisda88 on Mar 31, 2009 8:17 PM EDT reply actions