UKC

Peter Crane, creator of the ongoing petition to cancel the recently announced IFSC livestreaming subscription deal  - which has now received over 5,000 signatures and counting - wrote us this piece on why he is against the IFSC's decision and why he launched the petition. Peter is 26 and lives in Dornbirn, Austria. He is a former member of the Australia National Youth Climbing Team and now works in film production and livestreaming.Read more

In reply to UKC Articles:
I'm surprised this hasn't generated more comments by now.
Charging for these events will disenfranchise anyone who is not well off, including thousands of young people just getting involved in the sport, climbers from poorer countries, and casual viewers who might have got hooked if they'd been able to watch. Even as an older traditional climber, I have had huge pleasure watching IFSC competitions, and learnt a lot about technique in the process. I could afford to pay the fee but I won't in protest. The IFSC needs to be adequately financed, but this is not the way to do it.
I know indoor competitions aren't to everyone's taste, and IFSC is far from perfect - some might even relish the idea of it pricing itself out of the viewing market. But I believe it's important to maintain common ground between competition climbing and the rest of the climbing community, otherwise it will become a monster controlled exclusively by business interests.
I've signed the petition, emailed all the people at IFSC, and re-posted the petition in as many places as I can think of. I hope many of you will do the same.

In reply to Derek Ryden:

Update from Peter Crane:
7 APR 2017 — More than 10,500 supporters later, things are finally looking up. Thanks to our collective voice, IFSC have decided to take temporary measures and re-think terms of the FloSports deal. The World Cup in Meiringen will be streamed for free, but at this point we still have little information on the long-term future of IFSC live-streams.

We would like to thank IFSC for taking this very, important first step. It is unfair for federation officials to ignore the community they are here to serve, which is why we hope they will be more transparent in the future.

What happens now?
Over the next few days. we hope to hear what IFSC's official plan is for the future of live-streaming. With your support, we will continue to fight for fairness and equality for climbers around the world.

Thank you all – but remember, we're not finished yet.

Peter Crane

In reply to Derek Ryden:


I suspect the only reason is that there are actually several other threads on this topic already. The response has been overwhelmingly against the IFSC's decision.

Current petition figure is 11,762.

In reply to UKC Articles:

First well done for starting the petition.


I totally agree with this. I'd also add to that list: the people who fork out the money to host the competitions in the first place. Some of that comes from sponsors (separate from athlete's sponsors). If the events only get seen by a small percentage of the current number I'd have thought they're going to be less willing to put money forward, thus possibly jeopardizing the future of competitions themselves.

In reply to stp:
"This announcement is purely a selfish one that does not benefit spectators, athletes, climbing brands or the climbing communities that make this sport unique and wonderful."

What a load of rubbish, the announcement might have been mis-thought, but having enjoyed watching the IFSC boulder coverage for free for many years, I have always been grateful to the IFSC and thought it was a privilege not a right.

In reply to Jody:
Well I think you have to bear in mind the IFSC is not private company that's generously donating free media to us climbers. It's very much part of the climbing community. It's raison d'etre is to serve the climbing community.

The work that goes into competitions is huge and involves many different groups working together. The live streaming is great but only a small part of the whole thing. The biggest share surely comes from the event organizers who sort everything out from the venue, lighting, building the wall, routesetting etc. Then there are the climbers themselves who commit a lot of time and energy and funds to getting around the circuit. This is not to diminish the role of the IFSC, just to point they're only part of a larger whole.

In reply to stp:

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