TheUniversal Sports network skating contract is certainly a step in the right direction. However--Universal Sports coveragle is not widely available in many US markets. Neither of the two large satellite broadcasting companies carry it (Dish Network, DirectTV). When I emailed Dish Network about 6 weeks ago, about when they planned to add Universal Sports to their coverage, the reply email stated that if enough interest was generated they would consider it. Yeah, right! They would have to be deluged with email requests for it before either one of them would "consider" offering it.

Universal Sports is available in some TV markets, over-the-air, but this is not wide spread. Over-the-air HDTV has its own problems, mainly with antenna issues and whether or not your home is in a direct line with the broadcast tower which sends out the HDTV signals. So, while this all sounds wonderful for the US skating fans, it really has a lot of hidden accessibility problems.

The local station which is broadcasting Universal Sports in my area is not a well-known station (it's a small station) and it's broadcast signal power isn't all that great. I'm located just inside their eastern most broadcast boundary but, nevertheless, I can't always pull in a good signal from that station. When I can get it, it's great but when I can't it's 'snow.' LOL

Mary C.

Lambiel new LP is La Traviata: http://www.stephanelambiel.ch/journal/?p=482


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Izadora

Thanks for the news Sheena!!! It's fantastic that Universal Sports will be covering skating for a while. Their coverage of the Grand Prix was excellent. Luckily, it's one of the channels we get, so I'm a very happy camper.

Thanks for the link, Iza!

taviata???? why, oh why??? i keep asking myself this every new season, but is there such a shortage of music in the world???

Cohen says she's a go for U.S. Championships
http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100108&content_id=7891556&vkey=ice_news

I hope so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wMDe_r8I08&aia=true

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU2A_fT6uRc&feature=related

For anyone interested, here are a couple of links to Mark & Chrissie's programmes at the iceSheffield Christmas show, the first one is lovely & graceful, the second one fairly funky!

http://worldskating.blogspot.com/search/label/Interviews

Thanks a lot Sheena!!

New interview with Johnny Weir:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-12/the-outrageous-johnny-weir/full/

Quote:

The Daily Beast: You should write a book. Weir: I definitely want to write a book. Not about figure skating! Just about the beauty and the ugliness of figure skating. The dirt. The Daily Beast: Will you tell all? Weir: I will name names. I don't care who sues me after it. People will love it. I always have my Mafia connections if nothing else. As soon as I don't need to be politically correct anymore, I will drop the bomb.

I want to read J.Weir's book, for sure! Tell all dirty, Johnny


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Izadora

this mede me
" Weir is the Adam Lambert of figure skating; or, perhaps, Adam Lambert was the Johnny Weir of American Idol."

well, i don't know if i would read johnny's book because even if he named names i wouldn't know who they are. i am not accustomed with the american fs authorities.

"Music can help win Olympic figure skating medal"
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/figure-skating/news/newsid=25710.html

Another long and interesting Johnny article:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=100114/JohnnyWeir

I think that skating is going to be so much more boring when Johnny retires - his book should be worth reading!!!

Elvis Stojko talking about masculinity again:
http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100117&content_id=7929494&vkey=ice_news

well elvis annoys me ever since the days when he was still skating but he has some valid points like this one

" "Patrick Chan scored 90 points in the short program, with a double, triple [combination] and a hand down on a flip?," the three-time world champions, who also won seven Canadian titles, said.

"That's ridiculous. I will say that straight out. Here, [Jeremy] Abbott had a clean, beautiful short, and he got 87 points. Two mistakes and 90 points?"

or this :
"A quad in a program just changes the equation. It takes years to master. It's worth what, about the same as a triple flip, triple toe [combination}? The difficulty level, it's not even close."

but his views of what is masculine and what is not make me fall asleep.