The opening Alpine World Cup races in Soelden, Austria this weekend are not expected to be broadcast on NBC Sports or any of its affiliated streaming services, an NBC spokesman has confirmed to Ski Racing Media.
Media rights to Austrian races are sold independently from the rest of the FIS Alpine World Cup events, and those rights-holders have not completed an agreement with any U.S. media company to present those races.
NBC’s World Cup coverage will commence on Nov. 21-22 with coverage of the women’s slaloms in Levi, Finland. The remainder of the schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.
The schedule for Levi is as follows:
| Olympic Channel | 11/21 | Saturday | 7:00 AM (ET) Live | Women’s Slalom – Levi, Finland |
| NBCSN | 11/21 | Saturday | 12:00 AM (ET) Replay | Women’s Slalom – Levi, Finland |
| Olympic Channel | 11/22 | Sunday | 7:00 AM (ET) Live | Women’s Slalom – Levi, Finland |
“We’re proud of our ski and snowboard programming and will present hundreds of hours of coverage this year; however, we do not have media rights to events in Austria,” said Chris McCloskey, vice president of communications for NBC Sports Group.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard confirmed the lapse in coverage.
“Broadcast and digital distribution are negotiated between the event’s rights holder and media companies,” said Andrew Gauthier, marketing and communications director for the organization. “We are as disappointed with this situation as anyone, but we do not control the media rights to Austrian races.”
Very nice, but start faster, because you would get enough rest.
Get to work now!
Extraordinarily disappointing! As a long time paid subscriber to NBC Sports premium channels to obtain World Cup coverage, this is very upsetting. Soelden is one of the year’s most interesting races as the first race of the year where we get to see emerging talent as well as the fall off of some of the old guard. This year, with no racing since early last March and challenging/limited training for some while others appeared to have great training, this years results will be more interesting than ever to watch. Very disappointed in NBC!
Why am I paying full price for NBC Sports Gold if I can’t get this race!!!
It would be great if SkiRacing could figure out and let us know how we can stream it from Austrian TV or other online source.
I’m trying Eurosport with VPN … no joy this far.
ITS ON EUROSPORT UK
TODAY IN ABOUT 30 MINUTES AND GETS REPEATED OFTEN IN THE WEEK
Very disappointing! I agree with Mike and Steve about paying full price for NBC Sports Gold and not getting the seasoning opener televised. Would that happen in any other sport? Such a bummer!
Did you get a partial refund for last season?
Is there an Austrian site or channel viewers can subscribe to see the race?
Once again we get crap from NBC. Cute they try to shift blame. How about just being honest. We pay full price, you did not do your job and now you are trying to blame Austrians. Does this also mean we will NOT get all the other Austrian races this season.
VERY disappointed!
None of the Austrian races? how can NBC claim to cover WC skiing, but not broadcast the Austrian races? we may miss Kitz, too? What ever money the Austrians are asking, they deserve it. Pay em, NBC
If your upset with NBC, post on NBC…
If enough of us do maybe the will get the hint and at least get to see Kitz somehow
No Kitzbuhel? Come on!