This year’s Tour de France is the end of an era for British cycling fans, the race’s free-to-air coverage to disappear from our screens at the end of July. You’ll no doubt be aware by now that Warner Bros. Discovery has bought the rights to exclusively broadcast the race in the UK via its TNT Sports channels from 2026, meaning fans will need to stump up £30.99-a-month to watch.
The repeated line from TNT Sports has been that it will be “levelling-up” coverage of professional cycling and bringing the sport to new audiences by broadcasting races on its channels, adjacent to Premier League and Champions League football, tennis, rugby, cricket and the rest.
However, many fans we’ve heard from feel they’ve been asked to pay a significant price hike for what is largely the same product as was appearing on Eurosport for £6.99-a-month last year.
It’s also been argued that the end of ITV’s free-to-air coverage also risks excluding more casual viewers who may not care about professional cycling for the other 11 months of the year, but tune in every July for a summer sporting tradition. Likewise, for those who discovered cycling flicking through the channels or simply because it was there, free and available, it’s hard to see how the end of free-to-air coverage will make the sport more accessible to newcomers.
> “No plans” to save free-to-air Tour de France coverage
TNT Sports would argue it will convert new fans who’ll discover cycling from watching other sports on their channels and that its extensive free highlights and clips on YouTube and social media are targeted at the younger generation who increasingly watch sport on smartphones and through social media.
This week we asked our readers for their thoughts on the end of free-to-air and TNT Sports’ coverage, and 70 per cent of those who confirmed they would be watching the Tour de France this July said they would do so on ITV. On TNT Sports? That figure dropped to 18 per cent.
Now that’s hardly surprising, considering the ITV viewing figures and the fact it doesn’t cost £30.99. However, significantly, 12 per cent said they would be watching foreign coverage via a VPN, suggesting plenty of people who aren’t overly loyal to ITV or who might want advert-free viewing would still rather go elsewhere than pay for a TNT Sports subscription.
“I’d rather not watch the tour than have to pay £31 for 21 days”
As we’ve heard plenty in the months since the closure of Eurosport in the UK was announced, its sports moving across to TNT Sports at the end of February, the price of the “premium” TNT subscription is a prohibitive factor for many.
Many readers have told us they would pay to watch cycling and did when it was on GCN+ or Eurosport at £6.99-a-month. Those are people who are already ‘through the door’ as cycling fans and almost certainly follow the other Grand Tours and at least some other races too.
However, reading social media comments suggests there is also a more casual viewership who only watch the Tour de France and have no intention or interest in paying to watch cycling (let alone £30.99), regardless of if it’s only for one month a year.
> “TNT price hike is two fingers to cycling fans,” says ex-WorldTour pro Harry Tanfield
“I’d rather not watch than pay £31 for 25 days,” one road.cc reader told us, the number of Tour stages in fact only 21 so making that money-to-racing ratio worse.
Picking up on Warner Bros. Discovery’s favourite line that TNT Sports’ coverage will be “next level”, another reader told us: “For £372/yr it’d have to be next level. I guess for a one-off payment of £30.99 it MIGHT be worth a try next year. Maybe. But probably not.”
On Facebook, Olly Evans commented: “Love the ITV4 highlights. Seen some of the TNT highlights of previous races recently and I wouldn’t pay for them, even at reasonable prices. 2025 could be my final TdF.”
Alan Quinby agreed: “I will be watching on ITV, the greed of WBD has put me off pro-cycling so in future years I’ll just be riding my bike instead.”
Of course, if 18 per cent of our readers are going to be watching on TNT Sports that suggests that a decent chunk are happy to pay £30.99, especially when there is still a free alternative available.
Ray Blow told us: “If you only watch cycling, TNT is costly but I also watch superbikes, MotoGP, speedway and footy and already had subscription via Sky so in my mind, it’s worth it.”
Philip Kelly is also an example of why it doesn’t necessarily have to cost £30.99, as there are broadband-related deals and negotiation-related discounts to be had.
“TNT live and ITV for highlights. I used [the threat of] leaving Virgin Media and switching to Sky if they made me start paying full whack for TNT [to get it discounted]. It worked.”
However, even for some of those that aren’t paying full price either, the decision for this summer’s channel choice isn’t so simple, Claire Cocquyt saying: “We got TNT at reduced rate but will watch ITV coverage as soon much better and interesting.”
Anecdotally it seems TNT Sports has a long way to go to convince many cycling fans that the offering is worth the price. The big news the broadcasting giant was keen to tell the media this week was that its ‘quad screen’ from the Giro will be available to viewers again at the Tour.
> OPINION: Has the UCI sold cycling’s soul to Warner Bros. Discovery?
This allows you to have four screens in one, watching all the camera feeds simultaneously for views from across the peloton. Recently retired Romain Bardet will also be on punditry duty but again, are those two features really taking cycling coverage to the “next level” and would a quad screen even appeal to the more casual viewer who may be left behind once free-to-air coverage ends?
Maybe we’ll need to run another poll this time next year once TNT has the monopoly. What’s going to happen to that 70 per cent watching ITV? Some, we’re sure, will ultimately pay to watch on TNT Sports so you can expect its figure to be higher in 2026, but surely too VPN use will be on the rise too. How many people simply won’t watch? Time will tell.
36 thoughts on ““I’d rather not watch than pay £31 for 21 days”: Just 18% of road.cc readers to watch Tour de France on TNT Sports, as UK fans say farewell to ITV’s free-to-air coverage”
This premium to watch the TDF
This premium to watch the TDF is not being charged across Europe. The argument about it costing more for the coverage is horse manure, this is abuse of a monopoly position, which is the position corporate America prefers. They will wring every additional $ they can get out of the UK market until they can’t any more, then they will discard or slash the coverage and drop the price.
This all came about because
This all came about because ITV chose not to bid for the rights anymore, so TNT became sole provider by default.
And they arent charging more for the cycling, the TNT subscription hasn’t increased in price for 2 years now I think, and you get MotoGP, MLB, premier league football league, champions league/Europe league football etc etc etc.When Discovery bought Eurosport their merger of channels was inevitable and yes they stated as much on day 1 of the deal.
We will of course be able to see ITVs viewing figures for their TdF coverage, so be able to see just how many of these ‘casual’ race fans there are.
But it will no doubt completely support ITVs decision that there just aren’t enough to justify the costs to them broadcasting it anymore.
stonojnr wrote:
Just because you keep repeating this (so, so many times) it doesn’t actually make it true. ITV were presented by ASO with the amount that WBD had offered for the exclusive rights and asked if they wanted to make a higher offer. As the amount offered by WBD was in excess of the amount ITV could raise from advertising during the Tour they declined. They didn’t just decide that they didn’t want the rights or couldn’t be bothered to bid for them, there was no opportunity to make a bid as they were simply presented with a fait accompli by ASO which was more than they could reasonably afford.
Plenty will not be interested
Plenty will not be interested in the other sports you’ve listed, so it will be £30.99 a month rather than the £7.99 previously.
So far, I’ve missed the Giro for the first time in a long time and it will be the same for the Vuelta as well as the other smaller races.
Superb, thank you wbd.
dubwise wrote:
I think this was intended as a reply to stonojnr rather than Rendel, but exactly this. The people who are pissed off by this are not those who already had a TNT subscription to watch MotoGP etc. It’s the people who are only interested in watching cycling (or indeed only Le Tour) for whom it’s a massive price hike.
D’oh! Yup, must have pressed
D’oh! Yup, must have pressed the wrong reply button. Really should pay attention.
well unfortunately there just
well unfortunately there just arent enough of them to make it viable to sell at the price theyre happy with
Giro highlights were free to
Giro highlights were free to air on Quest.
well likewise, as Ive
well likewise, as Ive repeatedly told you the European Broadcasting Union deal with the tv rights for the likes of ITV, not the ASO, and yet you keep repeating that the ASO made some special deal with TNT, against the EBUs stated policy of never allowing a territory an exclusive paywalled deal, and presented ITV with something they couldnt afford.
So lets deal with the facts, not the supposition
stonojnr wrote:
well now…
So you claim that the EBU would not allow an exclusive paywall deal, and yet here we are with TNT themselves proudly trumpeting the fact that they have secured an exclusive deal and funnily enough I believe you will find that they are behind a paywall.
well we’re making progress,
well we’re making progress, youve accepted the EBU do play a part. And go to their website to read all about their policies & mission statements for them promoting FTA sports coverage, its a pretty big part of what they see as their purpose.
Which is why I say I dont believe WBD could bid for an exclusive deal, they might have ended up with one by default, because the EBU cant force other competing broadcasters to pay for things they dont want. But had ITV been gazumped by a WBD exclusive deal, which ITV have never once mentioned happened, they and no doubt other members of the EBU who might similarly be affected by future exclusive deals, would have had a very good case to take all the parties involved to a European court and nullify the whole thing.
If less than one fifth of
If less than one fifth of your readers are watching the premiere sport event for cycling, but you’re running constant articles about pro-level racing, reviews of pro and semi pro bikes, and breathless live blogs about sports cycling, perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate the focus of your publication.
Do you want to re-read the
Do you want to re-read the article again and think about what you posted?
It’s just that I’m having a day where I don’t fancy sticking the ball in the back of the net, despite the wide open goal.
Actually, road.cc runs
Actually, road.cc runs relatively few articles about racing. The exception is during the Tour de France, when they post articles with titles containing spoilers for each day’s stage, which is why I’m logging off after posting this comment. See you all in a little over three weeks.
ubercurmudgeon wrote:
It’s not like they’re the only media outlet doing that, they all do it! You’d better hide from the internet all day every day. Even in the 70s this was a problem.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0089881
The full price of £31/month
The full TNT price of £31/month is just too much, no question about that. I took up the offer of 7 months at half price and that is tolerable for now. The TNT coverage is good, the technical quality is high, and they do ad-free streams.
Much as I love the ITV4 coverage, their frequent long ad breaks are maddening.
Come on though some of that
Come on though some of that stuff from Careco looks pretty attractive, and have you made your will/ booked at no-fuss funeral?
Come on though some of that
Come on though some of that stuff from Careco looks pretty attractive, and have you made your will/ booked at no-fuss funeral?
Come on though some of that
Come on though some of that stuff from Careco looks pretty attractive, and have you made your will/ booked at no-fuss funeral?
The knock on effect for me is
The knock on effect for me is that I will move away from mainstream advertisers and suppliers and look more closely at Chinese suppliers for bikes and bits.
Quote:
I presume you mean ‘18% of the responses by a self-selected group of readers who saw and bothered to respond to a Live Blog poll’?
To borrow a phrase, “This kind of ‘journalism’ really really irks me”.
mdavidford wrote:
I presume you mean ‘18% of the responses by a self-selected group of readers who saw and bothered to respond to a Live Blog poll’?
To borrow a phrase, “This kind of ‘journalism’ really really irks me”.
Okay, so they need to do a follow-up poll – “Do you answer respond to our polls? – Always, Sometimes, Never”
I coughed for it …BUT for
I coughed for it …BUT for £249 for a samsung TV and “free” Discovery plus for 2 years.
I know they are trying to suck me in… but have watched only cycling…nothing else.
I will be paying for the
I will be paying for the month of July. There’s something special about the tour.
And I always have a week off around my birthday. Normally the second week, but this time the first.
Often took July as a fallow month when temping/looking for gainful employment in my 20s, brother worked for sky so dad got free sky. Eurosport’s coverage started fairly late back then 2:30ish, but it was Paul and Phil. Days of big mig and the saeco train, the lion leaving before the mountains.
Somehow caught the lemond TT shocker, did C4 show that one live? And their half hour highlights were quite good back then. Especially the intro tune and graphics.
And the mysterious “change to
And the mysterious “change to scheduled programme” on quest. It will happen a couple of times in the vuelta and giro.
ktache wrote:
They did! Remember watching it with my girlfriend of the time who went from “Are you seriously telling me you want to waste an afternoon together watching this rubbish?” to utterly enthralled. By golly that was a long time ago…
I used to go to France for 3
I used to go to France for 3 weeks during tour time for a cycling holiday and watch the tour on French TV in a bar or hotel room – great atmosphere in a bar if it is full of French, Belgians or Dutch supporters.
I for one won’t be watching
I for one won’t be watching whether on TNT or ITV. Then again I haven’t owned a TV for 29 years now, so don’t feel like I’m going to be missing anything. Hopefully, I’ll ride my bikes more instead.
Owd Big ‘Ead wrote:
Smug, much?
Unless I’m missing something,
Unless I’m missing something, it appears you can’t get an advert free stream on Discovery Plus unless you want the multiscreen coverage.
I watch on Discovery Plus and
I watch on Discovery Plus and get advert free though not always easy to identify it. I see several screen options and none are labelled ad free but when/if ads come on I flick to the other option and it is ad free.
CreepingAlong wrote:
Not anymore. The only free option is the multiscreen (and any article has appeared on here saying that since I posted).
Ned Boulting, David Millar
Ned Boulting, David Millar and Lizzie Deignan setting up new free TdF coverage –
https://escapecollective.com/ned-boulting-david-millar-and-lizzie-deignan-reveal-plans-for-free-tour-de-france-coverage-in-2026/
james-o wrote:
This looks very interesting, thanks. I’ve signed up for the newsletter.
I’m also interested in how they will fund their expenses for this, hopefully they can make that work. Will David be pushing NSF merch and CHPT3 stuff during the ad breaks from the TNT feed?
I’m also assuming they’ll be watching on the TV with no sound, and then streaming their own commentary over the top. Hopefully this won’t cause any legal issues with TNT or the EBU – talkSPORT did exactly this for Euro 2000 when they didn’t have the broadcast rights or membership of the EBU, instead they were sat in an Amsterdam hotel room watching the TV with a stadium sound effects tape playing in the background. The BBC went to court to get it shut down, in the end they were able to continue providing they made it clear to listeners that they weren’t in the stadium, it wasn’t live and they didn’t have the broadcast rights.
The difference here with the TdF and why they could be on a sticky wicket, is that, back in 2000, it was simply a MW radio broadcast with no streaming video feeds available. Now, there would be multiple video feeds available (“I believe they use a VPN to receive them m’lud”), and this could be seen as encouragement to seek out an overseas feed, and then have commentary in English over the top.
there are any number of fan
there are any number of fan commentaries for various paywalled football games on youtube, they often stream playing the game on a console with the same teams as the substitute for pictures. I think TalkSport still do the cricket remotely like that for some of the away series that TMS dont acquire.
as long as you arent broadcasting from within the stadium without permission, then yeah you can sit there and describe pictures you are watching. its no different to a bunch of people on a live blog reacting to the same events imo.
Interesting article in the
Interesting article in the Guardian comparing the end of free to air TdF coverage to the same happening for Test cricket 20 years ago.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jul/09/cycling-tour-de-france-itv-terrestrial-tv-coverage-ending-cricket-test-the-spin