RIP GCN+

[Rob5091]

Itv4 will show the tdf this year but after that, it's curtains. Tg4 will show the tour this year and it looks like they will continue to show it next year. Tg4 have lost the rights for the women's tdf.
Lemme get this straight: it's relatively cheap to watch cycling in countries where it's an established sport, but in countries where it's an obscure outlier sport like surfing, it's exhorbitantly expensive. Clear discrimination against the wasp community.

I think you'll find it's expensive to watch an established sport like soccer in the UK too.

 

[topcat]

I think you'll find it's expensive to watch an established sport like soccer in the UK too.

I don't watch soccer so that's free. But we're only talking about cycling and hurling here.

 

[JR1012]

Discoveryplus changed their X name to discovery + UK. 🙄

 

[titan31]

No ad free coverage on TNT anymore it seems

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

No ad free coverage on TNT anymore it seems

On the Discovery player app do you mean? If you are watching TNT as a TV channel then there are ads, just as there always were for ES as a channel.

On the laptop app it says either TNT or TNT with a number: select the one without a number for add free.
On the TV app, it also shows two different feeds, but it seems to be trial and error as to which is the version with ads.

 

[titan31]

On the Discovery player app do you mean? If you are watching TNT as a TV channel then there are ads, just as there always were for ES as a channel.

On the laptop app it says either TNT or TNT with a number: select the one without a number for add free.
On the TV app, it also shows two different feeds, but it seems to be trial and error as to which is the version with ads.

I'm using Now TV as have TNT via subscription on that. Guessing we only get the direct TV feed

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I'm using Now TV as have TNT via subscription on that. Guessing we only get the direct TV feed

But ES on that would also have had adverts, yes?

 

[titan31]

But ES on that would also have had adverts, yes?

ES was never in NowTv. Had Eurosport Player and then Discovery Plus for cycling but when it was all merged, I already had NowTv for TNT and Sky for football so didn't want to subscribe separate again (and it costs a lot less with NowTV deals). Got to deal with ads now

 

[awavey]

It's just crazy to lose Eurosport and particularly Tour coverage in terms of free access. It's like you aren’t a cycling nation any more. Hopefully UK can fight this draconian state of affairs off eventually and to prevent it spread further.

but its the UK broadcasters choice that has left us in this situation, thats the point, none of the FTA channels (and btw you still have to pay £169.50 per year regardless to watch any live tv in the UK so its not free whatever people claim) want to pay the rights fees to show cycling, because the audience is so small for it they dont see it as a priority for them.

 

[awavey]

Gotta love pro-cycling, the day Eurosport goes off the air in the UK, they announce the probable Grand Depart for 2027 in the UK.
What's the chance of a limited offer for new TNT Sports subscribers in the month before the Grand Depart, or some other despicable corporate shenanigans?

theres alot of shoulds and coulds in this info, plus its decisions made by people who have no clue about the broadcast situation at the moment. plus plus its info leaked, and Ill choose my words carefully so as not to get into trouble, but people who struggle to know their aris from the elbow most of the time.

Id heard the Tour de France Femmes was a possibility for a UK set of stages including Leeds in 2027, that makes more sense to me and I believe is more likely to happen, but then theres no way the TdF would also choose a UK stage in the same year, and their recent pattern has been to alternate each year with a France vs other nations depart, well Barcelona is 2026, so UK can only be 2028 then ???

the daft thing is Im sure if it happened the UK stages would be shown in their entirety on UK "FTA" channels regardless of the current setup with Discovery as Im sure I remember the 1994 Tour stages in London and Kent, back in the days when you only got the 1hr highlights on C4, they showed the vast majority of the Kent stage live. the BBC would probably pick it up.

 

[Rob5091]

From what WarnerBrosDiscovery have been saying, they are fumbling around trying to work out what to do with cycling and sports. The deal with ASO for the Tour etc runs until 2030, so I'm guessing there will be more changes before then.

 

[Andy262]

Well, still in two minds what to do about TNT. £30/month is too much for me when VPN options are available and the Tour this year will be fta. £15/month I would pay so I may take the introductory discount then cancel.

 

[Wyndbrook]

TNT seems have blown a fuse, my cycing listing appears to have the Trondheim womens 10k classic on Tuesday.

 

[kingjr]

TNT seems have blown a fuse, my cycing listing appears to have the Trondheim womens 10k classic on Tuesday.

Might be a blessing in disguise

 

[argyllflyer]

I see Warner bros sh*tification channel “Quest” now occupies the same slot UK Gold used to.

It isn’t fit to clean the boots of Gold, many fond memories of my adolescence, coming back at 5 in the morning leathered, kebab in hand and watching a coke fuelled Craig Charles commentate episodes of Takeshi’s Castle from his portacabin in Leicester. Raw, one take, cost nothing to produce, absolute magic. How dare Blythe and Orla stand where Craig once did.

As my old man used to say, you wipe down the walls and I'll call the priest. Sayonara Eurosport.

The only time I have heard the phrase 'one up the bum, no harm done' pre-watershed was a Takeshi commentary from Craig Charles

 

[hayneplane]

On the Discovery player app do you mean? If you are watching TNT as a TV channel then there are ads, just as there always were for ES as a channel.

On the laptop app it says either TNT or TNT with a number: select the one without a number for add free.
On the TV app, it also shows two different feeds, but it seems to be trial and error as to which is the version with ads.

I bit the bullet and paid having been able to get Discovery+ inclusive with my Sky package before and not wanting to miss the cycling.

It’s weird and annoying seeing 2 shows for each race on the TV app but as streaming the TV version with ads feels pointless when you can watch the ad-free version which, so far at least, has reliably been the one with just TNT in the description rather than a channel number as well.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Member of British parliament expresses concern that UK could lose a "gateway to a sport that is otherwise comparatively inaccessible" without free-to-air Tour de France broadcast

British public is still mourning the loss of free-to-air Tour de France broadcasts from 2026. The matter became so delicate that even a discussion in parliament was held on the topic this Wednesday. "...

cyclinguptodate.com

'Eurosport's demise is a hammer blow for coverage of cycling in the UK' - Debate over free-to-air bike racing reaches Parliament

MP says it will be a "tragedy" if a Tour de France UK Grand Départ is not available to watch for free

www.cyclingweekly.com

 

[CyclistAbi]

Would Sky era even happen or to be as influential as it was if Tour would be behind a paywall?

 

[Sciatic]

Would Sky era even happen or to be as influential as it was if Tour would be behind a paywall?

It’s always been the case in the U.S. Unless one counts the 2 hr CBS delayed broadcasts of the Tour in 1990s and 2000s as “coverage.”

 

[awavey]

Would Sky era even happen or to be as influential as it was if Tour would be behind a paywall?

Influential to whom though ?

 

[awavey]

It’s always been the case in the U.S. Unless one counts the 2 hr CBS delayed broadcasts of the Tour in 1990s and 2000s as “coverage.”

ITV in the UK didn't start showing live stage coverage of the Tdf till about 2010.

Prior to that Eurosport only existed from 1989 onwards, but I remember it stopped being really free, as in you needed some form of subscription as opposed to a satellite dish/receiver maybe mid 2000s.

 

[CyclistAbi]

AFAIK in USA there was a period on where Tour was broadcasted on a national level and to view it one was not required to pay a hefty fee for it? Said that USA and EU are in my opinion a bit different, on when it comes to sport. I still consider UK as a part of Europe.

 

[Sciatic]

AFAIK in USA there was a period on where Tour was broadcasted on a national level and to view it one was not required to pay a hefty fee for it? Said that USA and EU are in my opinion a bit different, on when it comes to sport. I still consider UK as a part of Europe.

It wasn’t free: it was on cable. Probably most folks who had cable anyways thought of it as “free” but for those of us who don’t want to pay for a cable subscription it wasn’t free at all.

 

[awavey]

It wasn’t free: it was on cable. Probably most folks who had cable anyways thought of it as “free” but for those of us who don’t want to pay for a cable subscription it wasn’t free at all.

There are still a bunch of people who think Eurosport was free because Sky bundled it in with the entertainment channels, not the sports, so actually forgot they were paying for it.

Technically I was paying about £60 per month to watch Eurosport via my Sky subs, plus £15 a month for a tv licence.

It would be funny how expensive "free" tv is if it wasn't reality

 

[CyclistAbi]

From that point of view one could argue broadcasting Tour on public TV in most of Europe isn't free either:

Television licence - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

But in reality it isn't perceived like that. Even if and when some sport is moved to some sports oriented channel on cable TV, on where a reasonable monthly fee is required and most households in the country have access to it. That is still rather OK-ish. Moving some sport to some special TV scheme, on where most households in the country don't have access to it any more, due to high cost. If it would work like that world wide, then forget about the Tour as being a thing. That is once the existing audience is milked, presumable middle age men, then it's mostly over.