The Evolution of Curling Coverage – Sports Illustrated

Pay-per-view streaming returned to the world of curling last weekwith a twist.

The World Mixed Doubles Championships in Geneva once again saw World Curling Television use the Recast (recast.app) service, which charges 0.50 per match. This is the same service that was used at the Olympic Qualifying Event and European Championships earlier this season,which prompted thiscolumn, as well as the recent mens and womens worlds.

Regional blackouts were applied (for example, any game shown on TSN was not available in Canada on Recast), but there were at least two matches per draw that were given the full broadcast experiencewith on-site commentary, multiple cameras and production, and so on.

Now for the twist. If your favourite team didnt make the cut for coverage, the WCF added a light coverage option to the three other matches that werent given the full treatment. Light coverage consisted of two stationary cameras pointed at the two houses in a split-screen presentation, and the action was shown without commentary, replays or alternate angles.

Scores of the other four sheets ran along the bottom of the viewers screen.

WCTV light coverage view

The audio wasnt great, as the players microphones werent on and they had a microphone picking up ambient noise near the ice (and the microphone for sheets A and B must have been near the ventilation system or something, because there was a lot of white noise going on there).

This light coverage costs 0.25; half as much as the matches with commentary, bells and whistles.

While the level of coverage matches that of a curling club dabbling in streaming league play league to YouTube, at least it gives the option to be able to follow any game, which is a vastly superior experience than waiting for line scores to update after each end. Well probably never see four or five fully-produced games at onceother than at the Olympicsso this light coverage, which has been requested on many a curling chat group over the years, is a fine compromise.

While cable TV sports coverage isnt going away, internet streaming is on the rise and will only get more commonplace. I know most will grumble about having to pay to watch a match, but these are essentially micro-transactions, and compared to what you have to pay to subscribe to a cable channeleither directly or through a cable subscriptionthis doesnt break the bank.

So, the question that I asked back in December remains how much is broadcast curling worth to you?

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The Evolution of Curling Coverage - Sports Illustrated