Norwegian Ski Association, TV rights | Pee into pants to keep warm

The Cross-Country Skiing World Cup will be held this weekend no It is broadcast on TV 3, but on V Sport 1.

This seems to raise concern in the Norwegian Ski Association.

For those who don't keep up with the channel names, this means that on the weekend you may have to pay to see Klæbo on track.

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and what

Who cares?

At least he should be silent.

Director of the national cross-country skiing team, Ulf Morten Aoun.

“We are very excited to see how it turns out. We want all viewers to have as easy access as possible to our product,” Aune tells VG.

Hey, unnie, that's not how we talk about Viaplay Group, which paid expensive premiums for cross-country skiing rights, among other things. It ensures that you, Aune and others get your money back.

If the most important thing is for as many people as possible to sit in front of the TV screen, the skating association should sell the rights to NRK.

Short-term thinking

However, Aune and the Ski Association peed their pants to keep warm. In the short term, it was believed that the skating rights from 2021/2022 would be sold to the Viaplay Group.

The Ski Association has of course long seen that the viewing figures for skiing on TV 3 are “miles” away from what NRK can offer.

And it has nothing to do with what Viaplay people serve. I dare say their streaming software is actually better.

Fewer viewers – less money

But fewer viewers means lower market value. And less money. The Ski Association has taken notice. Hence this somewhat rude statement from Aune.

What Viaplay is doing now, which should be at the weekend, is only the result of huge costs on the one hand, and a huge failure in advertising revenues on the other.

Viaplay wants to get more subscribers. But I don't think Viaplay is getting any “boom” from people paying to watch cross-country skiing.

Little willingness to pay

Because who, by the way, watches cross-country skiing on TV today?

Yes, there are elderly people. And being willing to pay to watch cross-country skiing isn't great. Cross-country skiing is not like selling English football.

This makes cross-country skiing a weaker product for ad-funded television.

I think the director of the national cross-country skiing team, Oni, and everyone else in the ski federation, would do well to face reality a little:

Young people hardly know that cross-country skiing in Oberhof takes place on weekends. They also don't watch TV.

And for people who watch TV, people around my age, there are so many other sports that it doesn't matter if the Cross Country World Cup isn't on the TV schedule this weekend.

There will be no revolution for the elderly.

Here you can read more by Ernst A. Lersveen

Negative spiral

As far as I know, only Viaplay and NRK exist as Norwegian media to cover the WC in Oberhof.

Medie-Norge is also struggling financially, and has to prioritize hard. This further reduces interest and reduces exposure for ski association sponsors.

Cross-country skiing is in a negative spiral.

Less media coverage, fewer readers/viewers/users, reduced sponsorship income, failed recruitment, even weaker market value of media rights. Over and over, over and over…

What skateboarding association management needs to figure out is who will bother to look at five grand in ten to twenty years, and how the product should be presented to the TikTok generation.

The heyday of cross-country skiing is over.