Sky Sports deal with Hickstead

Dovorian said:
Does this 'exclusive' deal mean that there will be no BBC coverage or does it only apply to HD coverage provided by Sky? H&H article was a bit unclear.
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There is no BBC coverage listed on their scheduling tbh . I don't know anyone who has sky sports bar one person whose husband has it for footie. Its too expensive to have the sports package for the little jumping they show. The BBC Hickstead Derby commentary was slated on here last year so maybe auntie beeb thinks we're ungrateful and don't think its worth broadcasting. Also so few people who have horses have any interest in national sport.
 
LHS, I suspect that you are correct. Fortunately I will be at the show myself but losing if from 'normal' TV channels seems a great loss. As you state, so few people have these specialist sports subscription channels.

You comment about lack of interest in the National sport is a troubling one I think. On a personal level I have always looked to the top of the pile for inspiration and to learn, we are talking Harvey Smith, Jennie Loriston-Clarke and Lorna Clark here so not too recent. It was a huge occasion to go to premier competitions and I remember staying up very late to watch show jumping on TV. Do people prefer to only watch whey they can actually be there now?

With this change looming over us, how much longer will horse sports remain Olympic disciplines?
 
You only have to look at the Windsor Europeans to see how little interest there was in the showjumping. The dressage folk did their sport proud and were there in droves but the showjumping was empty and on tv the camera's panned to rows of empty seats. Olympia is always an institutional event though and that is on the Beeb schedule.

Many many people have little or no interest in national showjumping, either watching it on tv or keeping abreast of current news relating to it. Tbh at the moment why would you, all you see and hear of is bad behaviour and fall outs. The horses are fantastic but unfortunately some of the people let the sport down.

National pride and interest isn't developed or helped with only a highlights program on the Beeb usually on a sunday lunchtime for an hour or so when most of us are having a roastie in the pub or out with our own horses.

It would be nice to think that media interest will be increased when the NC results are better but i'm not sure as its still not a mainstream sport offering value for money vs viewer numbers.
 
Personally I'm gutted if it's not going to be on the Beeb. The commentary was poor last year from what I remember but I still watched & I'd have watched this year.

As far as interest in the national sport goes, no I don't think there is much and that's sad but not really all that surprising. There aren't really any personalities any more - no Harvey Smith types (love him or loathe him he got people talking), no Milton etc etc - and the SJ'ers have struggled for consistent results. Dressage got a great turnout at Windsor because we had a genuine chance of medals plus the added draw of LauraB & superstar horses like Totilas. The tickets were just too expensive and the location an utter arse to shell out for just to watch round after round of SJ where GB had little real chance of a medal.

Class sizes are also often too large I find. Much as I enjoy watching SJ there is a limit to how interesting it is watching 40+horse jump the same course. While dressage competitors may all do the same test there is at least variation in how well movements are performed and of course the freestyle is always interesting. Additionally the dressage commentators tend to have more to talk about while the SJ guys seem limited to breeding, comments about taking out a stride or oh dear he's had that one down. Not exactly the most exciting stuff to listen to, round after round. And I realise I'm getting further away from the topic so I'll stop here... :-)
 
LHS said:
Many many people have little or no interest in national showjumping, either watching it on tv or keeping abreast of current news relating to it. Tbh at the moment why would you, all you see and hear of is bad behaviour and fall outs. The horses are fantastic but unfortunately some of the people let the sport down.
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I agree. I used to be mad about showjumping but I never watch it anymore. It doesn't help that loads of the horses have long unrecognisable names! And that GB doesn't do very well in championships.
It would be a real shame if Hickstead wasn't on the BBC though, the derby is a lot more appealing and interesting to the general public I would have thought.
 
Really disappointed to read this. I don't have sky and have no plans to get it so I won't be seeing the Derby this year.

I do think that interest in SJ is really on the wane. I follow it as much as I can but have been to big meets at the likes of Ingliston EC where some of the biggest names are competing and there is onley ever a handful of spectators who are not involved with someone jumping.

Olympia does buck the trend and long may it continue to do so!
 
To be honest, i don't think the fact that Sky has the rights is the issue here...after all they have the rights to the majority of football...and have had cricket in the past...and other 'lesser' sports. They still manage to sell them commercially though. The issue here is that SJ'ing just does not have the mass market appeal of many other sports. Horses are seen as elitist...luxury items...beyond the means of most...and those that ride/compete with them must be rich bourgeoises :(

There are few sports that require the sort of financial outlay that SJ'ing (and other equestrian disciplines) require. Motor sport does...but then by default it has a huge following as most of us drive cars. Take other 'elite' sports though like ocean yacht racing (and horses actually make that look quite cheap), pylon racing, aerobatic flying etc...and just ask yourself how much 'primetime' tv coverage they get !? Like it or not, SJ'ing IS an elitist sport....it is not uncommon for top riders to have horses that have cost £2m+...and they don't just need one of them ! Look at the people who participate....many, many, many of them are multi-millionaires...if not billionaires. This is not a sport of the masses, or of the ordinary individual by any means. Even at 'local' level i come across people who turn up at small shows in £100k lorries. Gone are the days when you could turn up at a major show in your coverted cattle truck and walk away with the biggest prizes in british showjumping.

I love SJ'ing...more than anything else on this planet...but even i can see why it's not mainstream tv :(
 
Yeah I can see why its not mainstream and I agree its hugely expensive at the top levels but I still do think more could be done to enhance the appeal and the more people you reach out to the more chance of investment. After all many many people own horses on a smaller cheaper scale and at lower levels you don't have the outlay of top competition. Your comment about 100k boxes maybe true but its not a necessity to have a 100k box. Horses don't give a xxxx how they arrive, its just the owners wanting to impress the Jonses'.Thats what can make it seem an inaccessible sport.

I think more of a concerted effort should be made to look after and increase the number of grass roots competitors affiliating to BS. When you think over a million people own horses and only 16,000 belong to the BS thats a huge untapped volume of people to encourage into the fold. Only another 16,000 and you've doubled your membership, thus increasing your income which can presumably be used in part to offer greater prize money eg.

I also think some regulation needs to be introduced as its all too familiar for genuine people to be ripped off by unscrupulous trainers , dealers, etc. And that element is not confined to just shady murky characters. We know from this forum some well known names have been caught shafting people. Even those with ' accreditation' to the disciplines. That can't be right surely.
 
Dear forum members

If this event isn't on the BBC this year, would you be interested if we ran our H&H Live service during the Hickstead DFS Derby? That would enable you to keep up to date with the action, but you won't be able to actually see it, just read our written commentary on the action, post your messsages etc. We ran it last year but the uptake was disappointing because we expect most people were watching it on TV. We weren't planning on running it this year, but may reconsider if there are enough people interested.

Please post below if you are interested in us running this.

HHO Admin
 
I'd be interested in an H & H feed as I have no intention of putting any money Sky's way and I can't be at the show. The Derby has suffered from declining quantity and quality of competitors over quite a few years, and it's not too surprising that the BBC has not renewed the contract. This event is no longer such a true highlight of the SJ calendar.

Terrestrial TV coverage is still essential to foster interest in equestrian and other sports. TV was how my lifelong interest was nurtured.

Having moved from the south, I've found that there is more spectator interest in shows in the north/midlands than in my old haunts.

I think more could be done to remove the elitist image of show jumping by highlighting at example of successful and excellent young riders such as Dan Moseley and Dan Neilson, who both come from families which could not fund their continued participation. Their parents have done what they could and both these talented and dedicated lads have been given good chances to reach the very top of the sporting tree. In fairness to the BBC they did run a feature on Dan N.
 
This is a great shame. Being an oldie I can remember when HOYS was on TV all week, when the Nations Cup from Hickstead was shown on BBC, etc etc and you have to admit that with being two rounds over the same course even for those really interested in show jumping a NC can be quite hard going to watch.

I can remember having plenty of friends whose parents watched the show jumping even though they had no interest in horses - they liked the horses, the personalities such as Harvey Smith and David Broome.

Is it a chicken and egg situation - is it because less show jumping is on TV, there is less interest in it? I for one readily admit I would recognise hardly any show jumpers now and have very little idea about the horses.

However at Devon County recently the main arena was more or less packed with people watching the show jumping class which was nice to see.

I felt that the BBC was making an effort with Claire Balding who has wide appeal, interviews etc but it probably does come down to cost and numbers at the end of the day.
 
I'm with you their humblepie and I don't see myself as that old at all - I remember when they showed the nations cup on TV and the one where the riders swapped horses as well (was that part of the nations cup?) whatever that was it was fantastic fun to watch as the teams swapped their rides and it was very interesting to see the top riders struggle with the other riders' more quirky horses.

I think it's a real shame these things go on to Sky - Sky obviously feel they have a market for it or they wouldn't take it on surely? Shame it's not gone to ITV or CH4 as they'd probably do better coverage. I don't have Sky and won't be getting it either so it's sad that we can not see the Derby this year.

I enjoy watching Showjumping, I disagree with it being tiresome watching 40+ horses jump the same course and then say that at least dressage they do different movements?! Eh? Sorry, I appreciate dressage but I think it is not an interesting sport to follow for non-horsey people whereas I think they could make showjumping appeal more, there's more potential to make it interesting. What happened to the competitions where the showjumper jumped a round then had to drive a car round a 'course'? What about the jumping 'race' they used to have at HOYS and Olympia where two competitors jumped over mirror images of the same course and the fastest one won?

The fun seems to have all been taken out of it - maybe they need to start showing the fun side of showjumping and horse riding in general. Geoff Billington's 'impressions' of fellow riders for example, the top showjumpers doing pony club games on the pony clubbers ponies??? What happened to it all?

I think it does need to be shown that riding is fun and can be enjoyed by people outside of the sport as both entertainment as well as a skilled sport.
 
It is the world championship final where they swop horses and yes that used to be really good to watch.

I agree with you that classes like the knock out are good spectator classes and I know years ago I did a couple of those classes where you jump and then drive a car round a course and whilst those were county shows not on TV they did used to get a good crowd.
 
You might not find it boring watching 40+ but I guarentee non-horsey folk do. It becomes like watching Formula 1 after a certain point. I would imagine if the general public found televised SJ so exciting they'd be watching & we wouldn't be in the situation we are now where the Derby is dropped. Jump offs are exciting, speed classes are exciting, the derby is exciting because of the course but first rounds of big classes just get dull after a while - all in my humble little opinion of course. My point re dressage is there is variation and with the kur at least there are obvious differences for every competitor.

I totally agree there is the 'potential' for SJ to be more interesting but I don't see BS doing anything about it and that is what is so frustrating. The races were fun & exciting to watch, the Masters (I think that was it, where the rider got to choose a fence to be raised every round) was also good to watch - again, something different. Not sure the current crop of riders would be up for the fancy dress though. What happened to all the publicity after the Sport Relief celeb show jumping from a few years ago? We had the Puissance live on the Beeb for one year and that was it.
 
The BS don't and are not doing anything to try and promote the sport, certainly not at grass roots levels anyway. The point with the TV coverage is though that it seems to have got worse anyway over the years. When I was kids I used to stay up late to watch Olympia for example. It seemed to be on for hours and they showed EVERYTHING. The serious showjumping, the fun classes, the ponyclub games, dog agility etc etc. Now it seems they concentrate on the big classes only and yes that is of NO interest to non-horsey people.

However, showjumping does have more thrills and spills than dressage and although you mention Kur, not even I have any idea what that is and I can watch about 2 dressage tests and that's it, I am bored. So, for a non horse person who has no idea what dressage is about, they do not know what movements are being done so to them it seems the horse is just prancing round in circles! At least SJing, people may fall off! Lol. I wouldn't watch F1 either - as far as I am concerned that's only interesting if there's a crash!

It's a shame, horses are part of our history and culture but still horse sport is seen as elitist, which in reality it really is not these days, it is a sport anyone can become involved in.
 
The BBC didn't drop the Hickstead Derby, I was gutted when I heard this decision as this always belongs on the BBC. There are many parties to blame for this decision, first and foremost the (company) who want and have the monies to buy the rights to these events and want a little piece of every sport so they then can make all to pay for the right to view. Other (parties) maybe through no fault of their own, or maybe through bad management cannot resist the (Big Bucks) that a company throws at them for the rights to show these events, whether they are equestrian or not.

I personally am right now enjoying the nations cup from this week again, cos I have the facility to do that but as for paying for more and more, I will not do it and I am a lover of all sports, so therefore where does the charging stop?

Thank whoever that the (channels) still have the Football World Cup and even Wimbledon, god forbid we dont have them in the future for all to see.

'Thank you HHO admin' and I hope the above post wasn't too much. Myself personally found
your coverage of the Badminton dressage very useful in the format that you suggest and so would welcome similar for the Derby.

Just have to say one thing right now though, my partner of two years, although a footballer knows and enjoys the 'Kur', can recognise a half pass and appreciates all aspects of the horse world having no previous experience. Even though in certain situations he make me laugh when meeting strangers, he says 'don't tell them I know about dancing horses' it's a private joke but it makes me giggle.

I for one will be logging in to the Derby commentary if you so chose do it..
 
zefragile said:
I agree. I used to be mad about showjumping but I never watch it anymore. It doesn't help that loads of the horses have long unrecognisable names! And that GB doesn't do very well in championships.
It would be a real shame if Hickstead wasn't on the BBC though, the derby is a lot more appealing and interesting to the general public I would have thought.
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I agree, plus there are no recognisable personalities in the saddle (and under it) to root for, probably because SJ is no longer on TV as much as it was viewers don't know who they are watching.
Are there any dvds of the old televised HOYS/RIHS Hickstead etc?
 
Very disappointing that it's not on the beeb this year :(

We already have Sky Sports (OH's minor football obsession will pay off for once) so I will be able to watch it, but I still find it very sad. They'll be getting shot of Badminton next....

As I have said in the other thread - I must be getting old as I remember when Gatcombe used to be shown on the BBC!

Times are a 'changing......
 
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