It's Autumn... Skaters, Coaches and Fans Alike, Let's Get Busy.

Things are ramping up again in our little skating universe. Need proof? I’ve got plenty:

Exhibit A: the ISU Junior Grand Prix continues this week; the action started up again yesterday in Karuizawa, Japan and will continue through Sunday. I’ll try to make a mention of any medals picked up by the U.S. team.

Exhibit B: It’s Nebelhorn time… that means we are now into the equivalent of the NFL’s pre-season. The always-interesting list of competitors this season—as far as names you might be familiar with—include Belgium’s Kevin VanDerPerren (still??) and Czech Republic’s Michal Brezina, the latter of whom sits in a surprisingly low 8th place after the SP… Finland’s Kiira Korpi and Germany’s Sarah Hecken… pairs Berton/Hotarek (from Italy) and USA junior champs Zhang/Toth…and ice dancers Cappellini/Lanotte (also from Italy) and Pechalat/Bourzat (from France)… you can check starting orders and placements here. Follow-up on this event is imminent as well.

Exhibit C: The “broadcast/digital schedule” is up regarding NBC and Universal Sports’ coverage of the Senior Grand Prix. Take a look here and see what you think…here’s a quick summary for those just don’t want to take a look there:
+ Each GP event will get two hours of coverage on NBC (or what a source from my book likes to call “BIG TV”)
+ Universal Sports will again get the lions’ share of coverage—“More than 34 hours of original programming from five events,” according to the press release
+ More, more, more than ever from Ice Network
+ Continued streaming of events from Universal Sports’ website… much as they did with Worlds back in March… but with a notable catch: a “one-time subscription fee” of $14.95. (That would be in addition to the Ice Network’s subscription fee.)

Let me know what you think of the schedule (and the fees); I’ll post more about the topic in the coming week!