Be interesting to see what happens next year if people are not paying for TNT in the UK.
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/tnt-killed-the-tv-star
the harsh reality, frequently ignored by the cycling media in the UK and so not acknowledged by most UK cycling fans is, those 1,273 people probably accounted for most of the UK audience ITV were getting
Ok Im exaggerating, the viewing figures werent that bad, but there werent actually that good either. in fact most days of live TdF coverage vs the regular schedule, theyd get more people watching highlights of football matches from the 70s/80s, or repeats of shows from the 70s/80s/90s.
when they actually showed live football instead,and we arent talking majorly important world cup games, they were cup game replays, or international friendlies, theyd get millions of viewers watching.
this is why ITV struggled to get advertisers for the cycling coverage, this is why ITV have never imo being truly open and honest about what they wanted to do with the TdF. as ITV are losing ad revenue, having to do rounds of cost cutting, their shareprice has sunk 75% in the last 10 years.
do we really think they wanted to pay lots of money to fill 3 weeks of a schedule for viewing figures which are poorer than 40-50 year old repeats, and which they can get no marquee advertising available for, and so even though I suspect the budget for ITVs TdF broadcast was very small, they probably were losing money on it.
of course the perceived narrative is the nasty TNT came along and demanded exclusivity, even though that would be against the principles the EBU uphold on tv rights distribution,and so accidentally got ITV out of a bind.
though TNTS deal regardless of its setup, was never about grabbing ITVs audience, because as weve highlighted that was pretty small, and whilst they obviously wouldnt mind if they could upsell to new cycling subscribers, their current philosophy was/is all about using the breadth of sports they cover and to get people who view football or rugby or the NBA to start watching cycling more.
Because if they can do that, and theyve published evidence before that shows theyve managed to do it with their existing portfolio of sports, they can get advertisers who are keen to advertise to football or rugby fans, taking up slots for cycling coverage too, and if they can do that, that makes cycling much more profitable for them.
its interesting that the 2005 Ashes always gets cited as the "bad example" of pay walls, cricket was always a bit of a niche sport on tv, and it faced many of the issues the TdF has, took out lots time in a schedule, generally had low viewing figures during the day,also could be unpredictable with weather, though at least most games lasted 5 days back then.
the 2005 Ashes standout as they were different in many ways, it was the first time in nearly 20 years that England not only competed but beat Australia in an Ashes contest, ask any of the people claiming they can remember the last ball bowled on Channel 4 that year (and Channel 4 were cutting away to cover horse racing at various points in the games that year thats how bad FTA cricket coverage had become) if they can remember the 2001 Ashes, which were also FTA, or the 97, 93 surely they remember ball of the century live...no probably they can not, because they werent watching.
and yet here we are 20 years later and you can barely get tickets to watch test cricket anymore, they nearly always sell out, even if you could afford them. whereas most grounds you could walk up and buy tickets on the day back when the coverage was FTA. So has the paywall affected the sport ? its behind a paywall now and theres plenty of discourse in the UK media still about it, doesnt feel like its niche.
so what does it mean for cycling, well its been FTA for years (upto a point but Ive rambled on too long already) and the likes of Pog,Ving still dont make it into the conciousness of the British public, theyre still talking about Wiggo or Thomas, Hoy,Boardman those are the people that represent cycling as a sport to them, none of them will have a clue who Oscar Onley is.
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