The handball EC starts on Thursday for women. TV2 shows Norway’s opening match. But the final is on a different channel. Ice skating on TV? Forget it.
Sports on old-fashioned TV has long been in a turning point. Last weekend, the Alpine World Cup races went live without a single minute on Norwegian TV screens. This week the World Cup in ice skating has started in Asia. No Norwegian TV companies are interested.
That is, they are. But not at the price the sport wants. And for the sports that disappear, it is a crisis. As skater Ragnhild Wiklund tells NTB. She feels that the sport she plays is becoming less important.
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Once upon a time In the past, sports on TV were communal property. Only for many decades, when NRK was alone in the election, did TV2 come with an equally heavy focus on sports in the mid-90s. But now linear TV has become the reminiscence of sixty plus. Streaming applies, where you can watch on mobile or tablet. The major TV sports players in Norway are struggling financially and they have to weigh viewer interest against the price. When Vålerenga’s women’s team qualified for the Champions League this autumn, TV2 pulled out of the bidding race after the first round. Viewer interest is not high enough. VG took the rights to cheap sales.
Then there are the handball girls much more important for TV2, which is why it ended in a horse trade with rights holder Viasat earlier this autumn about the championship that starts on Thursday. TV2 can show up to five matches with Norway, including a potential semi-final. But Viasat takes the final in addition to all the streaming on their various channels.
Friday starts the World Cup in cross-country skiing in Ruka, Finland. After NRK showed every pole vault from Beitostølen last weekend, it is Viasat that broadcasts from Finland. And if you want to see Therese Johaug’s international comeback, you have to access a pay channel. Viasat has previously shown the most interesting cross-country skiing on TV3. Now it will be different. The TV companies must also have subscribers. Cross-country skiing still has a hold on the Norwegian public. But the sport will move on to both TV2 and NRK this winter. WC in Trondheim is the state channel that has.
This is how we could still, but the new thing this year is that some major winter sports disappear completely. Skating is completely out, alpine skiing was out last weekend, but may come back. For the TV companies, this is continuous buying and selling and commercial values set against each other.
The Norwegian Football Association has a long-term agreement with TV2, but is very excited about what the next round of negotiations will look like. The media houses are under pressure. Maybe Facebook and YouTube will take over. Nobody knows the technological solutions in five years.
We do not note lap times and jump lengths longer. We snap and chip our way from channel to channel where we find something exciting. We couldn’t find alpine skiing and ice skating. Then you always find something else.
It is a crossroads. Both for sports and the media. And the audience.
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