RIP GCN+

[hayneplane]

When my sunscription at 15.49 is up. I will quit and either use VPNs or other internet means to watch. As posted above. There's more and more on youtube these days. But how will I cope without Adam Blythe?

Seemingly making Blythe their most prominent voice in the commentary booth early season is not the best way to attract people to fork out big bucks for the switch to TNT.

 

[awavey]

They are leaving the door open for ONE cycling to deliver value.

did you read who theyre talking to as a broadcaster host ? DAZN, £25 per month, currently though they were talking about an £85 per month sub , and it kind of has to be that much because thats how they pay the teams the money they demand, so it will be an even bigger pay wall.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

When my sunscription at 15.49 is up. I will quit and either use VPNs or other internet means to watch. As posted above. There's more and more on youtube these days. But how will I cope without Adam Blythe?

You must have a particularly irritating neighbour you could invite in for a cup of tea...

 

[Potomac]

did you read who theyre talking to as a broadcaster host ? DAZN, £25 per month, currently though they were talking about an £85 per month sub , and it kind of has to be that much because thats how they pay the teams the money they demand, so it will be an even bigger pay wall.

It's a joke, son.

 

[Rob5091]

Another eulogy over the passing of Eurosport behind a hefty subscription cost -
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/feb/03/eurosport-sport-satellite-tv

Its demise was announced in a press release oozing double-speak and misdirection. “Combining Eurosport and TNT Sports content in the UK and Ireland will enable us to offer a single, premium viewing experience,” it claimed, before talking more nonsense about giving audiences “a slightly simpler journey to find the sports they love”.

Really this is about squeezing cash out of fans – and profits for shareholders. Sky and Virgin Media customers now get Eurosport for free but soon will have to fork out £30 or £18 a month respectively for TNT, with no guarantee that the sport they love will get as much coverage.

However, we will still have our memories. Mine involve being a teenager in Luton, and those rambling summer holidays watching the Tour de France. It gave me a window into another world – one which, a couple of decades later, I was fortunate enough to enter.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Apparently if you have virgin media, you get a free upgrade to TNT for this year. check your emails.

 

[Unterlenkerfahrend]

Is there any noise if (or better when) something similar will happen in other countries? I still get the traditional subscription offer on discoveryplus in Germany, not a subscriber atm because last year it worked out cheaper for me to simply go with March-September on a monthly basis and I thought I'd do the same this year.
But if something similar is coming quickly maybe it would make sense now to quickly get the yearly subscription and then force them to upgrade without additional cost(?)

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Is there any noise if (or better when) something similar will happen in other countries? I still get the traditional subscription offer on discoveryplus in Germany, not a subscriber atm because last year it worked out cheaper for me to simply go with March-September on a monthly basis and I thought I'd do the same this year.
But if something similar is coming quickly maybe it would make sense now to quickly get the yearly subscription and then force them to upgrade without additional cost(?)

At least in the UK, the only level of Discovery+ subscription available on an annual basis was the Basic package, without any sport. Neither the being-wound-down Standard deal nor the Premium (TNT) one were priced other than monthly.

 

[Rob5091]

Is there any noise if (or better when) something similar will happen in other countries? I still get the traditional subscription offer on discoveryplus in Germany, not a subscriber atm because last year it worked out cheaper for me to simply go with March-September on a monthly basis and I thought I'd do the same this year.
But if something similar is coming quickly maybe it would make sense now to quickly get the yearly subscription and then force them to upgrade without additional cost(?)

I see at
https://media.wbdsports.com/post/worlds-greatest-cycling-races-will-remain-on-warner-bros-discove
that a "potential ASO sublicence in Germany" means that Germany might be a special case. Otherwise keep an eye on the business pages as sports streaming is being shaken up at the moment.

 

[Lequack]

One Cycling wants to rebuild a GCN-like streaming service

One Cycling wants to rebuild a GCN-like streaming service

Pro cycling’s nascent reform project wants to fill the GCN+ shaped hole in your heart.

escapecollective.com

"The proposed One Cycling project has a medium- to long-term ambition of developing a media hub that broadcasts all televised races, providing a single outlet for live cycling content similar to the glory days of GCN, Escape Collective can reveal.

Major stakeholders within the sport are concerned over the loss of free-to-air race coverage at broadcasters like ITV, which will stop delivering the Tour de France to UK households after this year. The pending closure of Eurosport UK and the subsequent 443% price rise for British fans to continue watching cycling on TNT has prompted outcry among fans, and multiple WorldTour teams are preparing to express their own dismay with the broadcaster, according to sources inside those teams. They are concerned that a key market for both their respective teams and One Cycling will be priced out and viewership will drop."

 

[Raest]

I am a Disco+ subscriber. I used their "Help Chat" function today...asked for a human advisor and explained that I would be leaving as I only subscribe to watch cycling (despite, ironically having been a content provider for them) ...and I expalined that £30 a month was not viable. I would not subsidise the football deals they are trying to recoup on. They offered me a deal on the premium TNT package for existing subscribers of £15 a month for the next seven months. I may actually take that. But told them that when it expires, they lose me, full stop. I said that other cycling fans would also leave and watch by other means. I asked that a full complaint be raised and passed upstream, explaining the reasons why they will lose my custom. Which the young lady did. I recommend that anyone who is a D+ subscriber who will not pay the £30 a month TNT service lodge their own complaint and intent to leave. They were, I can tell you, very keen that I didn't leave. I pointed out that a premium VPN service would be much cheaper and would enable me to watch Eurosport elsewhere.

For whatever it's worth, followed your example and advice, got offered the same deal which I rejected and pretty much told them that's either VPN or nothing from now on. Politely of course as their rep was very kind and helpful (not that they could do much). I don't think they care much they'll probably attract more customers with the 31 pound offer as it includes a number of other sports so they will offset any losses they have from us, cycling fans, from fans of other sports in the package.
Only bad publicity or a competitor is going to make this cheaper. Anyway, I am now looking for a service that I can access through VPN, any suggestions welcome (though I am not sure that is legal to discuss this on an open forum)

 

[armchairclimber]

For whatever it's worth, followed your example and advice, got offered the same deal which I rejected and pretty much told them that's either VPN or nothing from now on. Politely of course as their rep was very kind and helpful (not that they could do much). I don't think they care much they'll probably attract more customers with the 31 pound offer as it includes a number of other sports so they will offset any losses they have from us, cycling fans, from fans of other sports in the package.
Only bad publicity or a competitor is going to make this cheaper. Anyway, I am now looking for a service that I can access through VPN, any suggestions welcome (though I am not sure that is legal to discuss this on an open forum)

Eurosport are still operating in europe I believe. I have a house in Sweden, so might look into that.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

"The proposed One Cycling project has a medium- to long-term ambition of developing a media hub that broadcasts all televised races, providing a single outlet for live cycling content similar to the glory days of GCN, Escape Collective can reveal.

But One Cycling's vision for what "all televised cycling" will look like is in itself problematic.

 

[awavey]

One Cycling wants to rebuild a GCN-like streaming service

One Cycling wants to rebuild a GCN-like streaming service

Pro cycling’s nascent reform project wants to fill the GCN+ shaped hole in your heart.

escapecollective.com

"The proposed One Cycling project has a medium- to long-term ambition of developing a media hub that broadcasts all televised races, providing a single outlet for live cycling content similar to the glory days of GCN, Escape Collective can reveal.

Major stakeholders within the sport are concerned over the loss of free-to-air race coverage at broadcasters like ITV, which will stop delivering the Tour de France to UK households after this year. The pending closure of Eurosport UK and the subsequent 443% price rise for British fans to continue watching cycling on TNT has prompted outcry among fans, and multiple WorldTour teams are preparing to express their own dismay with the broadcaster, according to sources inside those teams. They are concerned that a key market for both their respective teams and One Cycling will be priced out and viewership will drop."

One cycling spotting a passing band wagon they can hop on to exploit

Their solution is still pay walled, their solution is likely to want to extract more than an old GCN subscription because One Cyclings all about generating more money for the teams and where is that money coming from...that would be the fans wouldn't it.

Dazn who are their preferred broadcast partner are also quite as happy as the others to have pricing models that maximises their profits.

Really it's a press release complaining about others are making money, when really they're the ones who want that money in their bank accounts instead.

No one in this business is a charity and wants to give this stuff away for free anymore that time has passed, GCN worked because it capitalised on how low the value of broadcast rights to alot of cycling was at the time and so could exploit that value gap successfully and bring it together as a unique selling point.

GCN wouldn't be able to do that now even if they wanted to because cycling organisations & races mostly recognise the value of their broadcast rights, need to maximise their revenues as the costs to organise and run races have ballooned massively and so would make a GCN style setup pay alot more, which means their costs rise, which means either more advertising though cycling coverage really doesnt hit ad companies sweet spot, donkey sanctuaries, or their subs would have to increase.

Maybe it would double, triple even from what it was, would people pay that ? Probably not either, and they'd only be getting cycling for that sub.

Even if you disagree with the WBD pricing model from a cyclist fan only perspective you are getting alot of sport for that 30.99 sub, that clearly a whole bunch of people are willing to pay even before all of Eurosports content gets added to it.

 

[Sciatic]

One cycling spotting a passing band wagon they can hop on to exploit

Their solution is still pay walled, their solution is likely to want to extract more than an old GCN subscription because One Cyclings all about generating more money for the teams and where is that money coming from...that would be the fans wouldn't it.

Dazn who are their preferred broadcast partner are also quite as happy as the others to have pricing models that maximises their profits.

Really it's a press release complaining about others are making money, when really they're the ones who want that money in their bank accounts instead.

No one in this business is a charity and wants to give this stuff away for free anymore that time has passed, GCN worked because it capitalised on how low the value of broadcast rights to alot of cycling was at the time and so could exploit that value gap successfully and bring it together as a unique selling point.

GCN wouldn't be able to do that now even if they wanted to because cycling organisations & races mostly recognise the value of their broadcast rights, need to maximise their revenues as the costs to organise and run races have ballooned massively and so would make a GCN style setup pay alot more, which means their costs rise, which means either more advertising though cycling coverage really doesnt hit ad companies sweet spot, donkey sanctuaries, or their subs would have to increase.

Maybe it would double, triple even from what it was, would people pay that ? Probably not either, and they'd only be getting cycling for that sub.

Even if you disagree with the WBD pricing model from a cyclist fan only perspective you are getting alot of sport for that 30.99 sub, that clearly a whole bunch of people are willing to pay even before all of Eurosports content gets added to it.

Can’t speak for others, but personally I think the last point, which you suggest is a benefit, is part of problem—or at least the reason for much frustration. That is: having to pay substantially more for possibly less coverage, and feel like we’re paying for all the other stuff we don’t give a sh&t about. Streaming services going back to the cable package concept and being told “look at all this stuff you’re getting.”

 

[Raest]

One cycling spotting a passing band wagon they can hop on to exploit

Their solution is still pay walled, their solution is likely to want to extract more than an old GCN subscription because One Cyclings all about generating more money for the teams and where is that money coming from...that would be the fans wouldn't it.

Dazn who are their preferred broadcast partner are also quite as happy as the others to have pricing models that maximises their profits.

Really it's a press release complaining about others are making money, when really they're the ones who want that money in their bank accounts instead.

No one in this business is a charity and wants to give this stuff away for free anymore that time has passed, GCN worked because it capitalised on how low the value of broadcast rights to alot of cycling was at the time and so could exploit that value gap successfully and bring it together as a unique selling point.

GCN wouldn't be able to do that now even if they wanted to because cycling organisations & races mostly recognise the value of their broadcast rights, need to maximise their revenues as the costs to organise and run races have ballooned massively and so would make a GCN style setup pay alot more, which means their costs rise, which means either more advertising though cycling coverage really doesnt hit ad companies sweet spot, donkey sanctuaries, or their subs would have to increase.

Maybe it would double, triple even from what it was, would people pay that ? Probably not either, and they'd only be getting cycling for that sub.

Even if you disagree with the WBD pricing model from a cyclist fan only perspective you are getting alot of sport for that 30.99 sub, that clearly a whole bunch of people are willing to pay even before all of Eurosports content gets added to it.

I was thinking about that yesterday, I am not a sales person and I may be way off-base here but I can't see how niche sports are going to make people join their 31 quid/month package en masse. There are a lot more popular sports in that bundle, with much larger audiences that will attract the vast majority of subscribers, if you are only, or mainly, interested in cycling (and/or snooker) I'd think you'd me more likely to cancel the 7 quid/month subscription that pay 5 times that much for the same product. Some will of course but overall it will be a loss. Their tiered bundle doesn't make sense, they have a basic package for 3 quid I think which is garbage for the most part (or stuff that you can find on other platforms that most people already pay for i.e. Netflix/BBC/Sky) then the 31 quid one with everything else in there and no tier in the between. I've never seen this before and probably for a good reason. It doesn't make sense!

 

[search]

Is there any noise if (or better when) something similar will happen in other countries? I still get the traditional subscription offer on discoveryplus in Germany, not a subscriber atm because last year it worked out cheaper for me to simply go with March-September on a monthly basis and I thought I'd do the same this year.
But if something similar is coming quickly maybe it would make sense now to quickly get the yearly subscription and then force them to upgrade without additional cost(?)

in Germany it's unlikely to happen, I think. The situation in the UK is special, because Warner Brothers bought the UK pay-tv channel BT Sports in 2022 (later on renamed to TNT Sports) and joined it with Eurosport, owned by them as well. So it's more about making the already existing pay-tv product more "attractive" by adding content previously on Eurosport.

Warner doesn't own any sports-dedicated pay tv services in most other parts of Europe, as far as I know. So for a similar move to make sense in Germany, they'd first need to by Sky or something like that.

 

[AmRacer]

I was thinking about that yesterday, I am not a sales person and I may be way off-base here but I can't see how niche sports are going to make people join their 31 quid/month package en masse. There are a lot more popular sports in that bundle, with much larger audiences that will attract the vast majority of subscribers, if you are only, or mainly, interested in cycling (and/or snooker) I'd think you'd me more likely to cancel the 7 quid/month subscription that pay 5 times that much for the same product. Some will of course but overall it will be a loss. Their tiered bundle doesn't make sense, they have a basic package for 3 quid I think which is garbage for the most part (or stuff that you can find on other platforms that most people already pay for i.e. Netflix/BBC/Sky) then the 31 quid one with everything else in there and no tier in the between. I've never seen this before and probably for a good reason. It doesn't make sense!

We don't know the numbers, but maybe cycling subscribers are just a small number and it's a loss anyway. So bundle minor sports with others that will fund the minor sports until the broadcasting rights end.

 

[AmRacer]

in Germany it's unlikely to happen, I think. The situation in the UK is special, because Warner Brothers bought the UK pay-tv channel BT Sports in 2022 (later on renamed to TNT Sports) and joined it with Eurosport, owned by them as well. So it's more about making the already existing pay-tv product more "attractive" by adding content previously on Eurosport.

Warner doesn't own any sports-dedicated pay tv services in most other parts of Europe, as far as I know. So for a similar move to make sense in Germany, they'd first need to by Sky or something like that.

Discovery?

 

[search]

Discovery?

Warner Brothers and Discovery are the same company since 2022.

edit: Theoretically they could massively increase the price for Disco+ in the rest of Europe as well, of course, but to me it's unlikely. In UK people pay 30 quid a month to watch live football, not cycling and snooker. That's just a side product now included in the same package.

 

[AmRacer]

Warner Brothers and Discovery are the same company since 2022.

But isn't sports available as a streaming service? Sports bundled with other programs maybe

 

[Rob5091]

But isn't sports available as a streaming service? Sports bundled with other programs maybe

WarnerBrosDiscovery own Discovery, Max, TNT sports and Eurosport. At the moment (and things can change) Discovery is being wound down, so sports will be only on TNT instead.

In selected European territories, Discovery+ offers sports content via Warner Bros. Discovery's Eurosport and TNT Sports networks, subsuming Eurosport's previous streaming platform Eurosport Player. ...Discovery+ will continue to wound down in European Max markets, including the UK where it will launch in early 2026

 

[AmRacer]

In selected European territories

So that's the magic word.

 

[awavey]

I was thinking about that yesterday, I am not a sales person and I may be way off-base here but I can't see how niche sports are going to make people join their 31 quid/month package en masse. There are a lot more popular sports in that bundle, with much larger audiences that will attract the vast majority of subscribers, if you are only, or mainly, interested in cycling (and/or snooker) I'd think you'd me more likely to cancel the 7 quid/month subscription that pay 5 times that much for the same product. Some will of course but overall it will be a loss. Their tiered bundle doesn't make sense, they have a basic package for 3 quid I think which is garbage for the most part (or stuff that you can find on other platforms that most people already pay for i.e. Netflix/BBC/Sky) then the 31 quid one with everything else in there and no tier in the between. I've never seen this before and probably for a good reason. It doesn't make sense!

And the biggest clue to that scenario was in the announcement how they talked about using the prime sports to boost figures for other sports, they even quoted some stats from rugby I think that shows they think they can do it.

 

[awavey]

We don't know the numbers, but maybe cycling subscribers are just a small number and it's a loss anyway. So bundle minor sports with others that will fund the minor sports until the broadcasting rights end.

Sadly they don't report the figures, or they're so low they don't register in BARB But I've seen figures of around 100k bandied around for things like the TdF. There are amateur YouTube channels about cycling that get more views than that, and they really are free access, not free as in my existing tv subscription bundled it in.

I really do think, sadly as it means we will lose access to the minor sports, we really don't command the major audience numbers I think alot of people just assume exist.