There are only a few weeks left before it comes back on. Cross-country skiers hope it will be less noisy in winter.
Six weeks to the start of the cross-country skiing season with the national opening in Beitostølen on NRK. The following weekend, the World Cup starts in Ruka on Viaplay. Then there is the World Cup in Lillehammer on TV 2. Then there is the World Cup in Beitostølen, which is broadcast on NRK. Before continuing in Davos on December 17 and 18 in Davos, aired on Viaplay.
Olympic winner since 2018 Ragnhild Haga notes that audience numbers have fallen and that fewer media attend press meetings with cross-country skiers.
– It’s a challenge. I know they work hard with social media and a number of other measures to show what the ski association can do. So cross-country skiing in WCs 2023 and 2025 will be broadcast on NRK, fortunately, Haga tells VG.
For the World Cup in Planica in February and the World Cup in Trondheim in 2025, Viaplay sold to NRK. Emil Iversen is the reigning world champion in the five thousand and clearly what he means about it.
– Last year there was a lot of excitement, TV 2 and NRK broadcast something, the Olympics were on Discovery. This year it will be easier that way. There will be more Viaplay and then there will be NRK in the toilet, Iversen says and continues:
– It’s a pretty shocking strategy when Viaplay first got hold of cross-country skiing, they forgo the icing on the cake. Having a league is equivalent to securing as many people as possible on that platform.
Emil Iversen believes Viaplay is missing out on a huge opportunity to secure a lot of viewers.
– For us it is good, there will probably be good TV numbers on NRK, but I think it is a strange strategy when Viaplay gives up the greatest opportunity to pressure people to go there, says Iversen.
Viaplay Group Norway sports manager Kristian Oma will not comment on why they sold the toilet to NRK. He believes cross-country skiing should now be tested and what it’s worth.
– My advice is that cross-country runners deliver results and understand that a new era is coming. Now they can prove themselves in the commercial landscape and if it’s sustainable, Oma tells VG.
– When you sell the greatest thing in cross-country skiing, the WC, does that mean you don’t really care about cross-country skiing?
– Then we wouldn’t have invested in cross-country skiing. We took it seriously, for us it has a great commercial value, replies Oma.
In October, Sponsor Insight reported that cross-country skiing plummeted as a sponsorship object from 2nd to 12th place in two years. Earlier this year, there was hardly any press at the media meetings for background women.
Harald Østberg Amundsen joined the circus with the WC bronze in the 15km race in 2021.
– We are very concerned about the visibility of our sport and we want it to be as big as possible. There are many challenges: if we get snow under our feet, competitions of other sports and athletes, as well as recruiting. We need to take the TV theme seriously and put in as much effort as possible to build the sport as much as possible, by entertaining ourselves on social media or by telling more about our lives, so that more people have access to us, Amundsen tells VG.
Didrik Tønseth, who is returning to the national team this season. He thinks it’s good that WC is being broadcast on NRK, but he doesn’t fear chaos with cross-country skiing on all channels.
– It is a good channel in sports and many have done it. We are very happy that it will be NRK. But last season’s Viaplay broadcasts were also very good. I just see crossing the country spreading across multiple platforms. It could be a great solution that cross-country skiing should be very happy with, says Tønseth.
Hans Christer Holund believes cross-country skiing suffers from the fact that it’s hard to break people’s media habits.
– Even though Viaplay showed the race last year, I think most people associate cross-country skiing with NRK early in the morning, so I think it’s good that the WC takes place there. NRK has been broadcasting cross-country skiing for so many years that people expect it to go there, says Holund.
Sports manager Espen Bjervig lost his biggest star after the Olympic season, Therese Johaug resigned. Sprint queen Maiken Caspersen Falla did the same.
– We need to make ourselves more relevant. So that the media see the value of traveling and meeting us. It’s something we talk about. We live in a world of entertainment. Some are better than others, and some have a more interesting history than others, says Bjervig.
– The foundation of cross-country skiing, those who want to watch cross-country skiing regardless of where it is broadcast, are a few hundred thousand TV viewers down from NRK?
– I do not know. We want the best TV numbers possible. I think it’s going to be an exciting winter so we have to do our best to get great results, Bjervig replies.
Olympic team sprint winner Erik Valnes got a phone call from a neighbor just before the start of the race last season.
– There was a farmer below me at home, who called me 45 minutes before the start of the Tour de Ski in a race. He asked what channel it was on. He is over 80, then. It’s actually a bit comical, but it’s a good example. He can’t find it. He is interested. There are probably more people like that who are struggling to find their way, says Valnes.
