Cycling fans report Warner Bros. Discovery to market regulator for “abuse of monopoly” and “price gouging” after moving cycling behind £30.99-a-month paywall, as Tory MP slams “terrible decision”

Warner Bros. Discovery’s controversial decision to close down Eurosport in the UK and move its cycling coverage to the £30.99-a-month TNT Sports channel has been reported to the Competition and Markets Authority by some disgruntled fans, who argue the move is an abuse of the company’s monopoly position and constitutes price gouging.

Meanwhile, on Friday morning Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty also criticised the decision – which means fans will have to shell out almost £400 a year to watch cycling on TNT Sports from March – which he said will ensure that cycling coverage “is going to become a prohibitively expensive luxury to a huge number of fans”.

On Tuesday, it was confirmed by Warner Bros. Discovery that Eurosport, after over three decades of broadcasting, is set to close down in the UK and Ireland from 28 February. The closure comes as Warner Bros. Discovery integrates all the channel’s content onto its main TNT channels, meaning cycling will now be broadcast on TNT Sports rather than Eurosport and, as it is already, available to stream on discovery+.

> How to watch cycling for less now it's moving to £30.99-a-month TNT Sports

However, Discovery’s longstanding integration project – which was cited as the key factor behind the demise of cycling-specific streaming platform GCN+ in late 2023 – also means that cycling fans will now have to pay a £30.99-a-month premium discovery+ subscription to watch bike races on TNT, a package which also includes the channel’s other sports coverage, such as Champions League and Premier League football.

That £371.88-a-year package is a whopping 443 per cent more expensive than Discovery’s previous £6.99-a-month basic subscription, a price hike that has understandably been condemned by fans, who have branded it “exploitation” and a decision that will “destroy our sport”.

(ASO/Billy Ceusters)

And now, a number of those fans – as well as cancelling their subscriptions – have lodged formal complaints about Eurosport’s closure and cycling’s move to TNT Sports to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the principal competitive regulator in the UK, responsible for promoting competitive markets and tackling unfair behaviour by businesses.

According to one road.cc reader who’s submitted a complaint to the CMA this week, Ben Taylor, Warner Bros. Discovery’s ‘integration’ policy represents an “abuse of a monopoly position”.

“I, like many, am flabbergasted at the Discovery+ change to cycling coverage,” Ben told us on Friday. “I’ve reported them to the Competition and Markets Authority for abuse of a monopoly position, quoting the price increases since they built that position.

I would encourage others to do the same. If we hit the CMA with lots of demands, it’s more likely that they’ll take action.”

> The rise & fall of GCN+ – is the livestream party over for cycling fans?

Ben’s stance was echoed by fellow cycling fan and Reddit user Mike, who urged his fellow viewers on the platform to report the move to the CMA for “price gouging”.

“Warner Bros. have a monopoly in sports broadcasting in several sports and have just gouged the prices,” Mike said.

“It takes two minutes to fill in the form. Putting a snarky comment when cancelling a subscription won’t do much. They’re up as long as one person pays the £31 for every four snarky comments they get.”

(ASO/Charly Lopez)

If these complaints do eventually prompt some form of action, they wouldn’t represent the first time, of course, that Warner Bros. and its sports offerings have come under the CMA microscope.

In 2022, the regular investigated – and ultimately cleared – plans to form a joint venture between Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, which led to BT Sport’s transformation into TNT Sport and, eventually, this year’s merger between TNT and Eurosport.

“BT Sport and Eurosport UK will be brought together to form a sports joint venture for customers, providing the JV with one of the most extensive portfolios of sports rights in the UK and Ireland,” BT said at the time of the CMA’s decision in July 2022.

“Both BT Sport and Eurosport UK will initially retain their separate brands and product propositions in the market before being brought together under a single brand in the future.”

While the venture’s chair Marc Allera described it as “an exciting new offer for live sport programming in the UK”, Discovery Sports Europe’s president Andrew Georgiou said: “Combining the capabilities, portfolios, and scale of BT Sport and Eurosport UK will be a big win for fans in the UK and Ireland, offering a new destination that will feature all the sport they love in one place.”

> “The Tour is the only race that matters. And that’s gone now”: Ned Boulting on the end of free-to-air Tour de France coverage in the UK and his “deep sense of loss”

The idea that Eurosport’s closure represents a “big win” for cycling fans – particularly in the wake of last year’s news that the Tour de France will no longer be broadcast on free-to-air television in the UK from 2026 – has not gained much traction both within and outside the sport in recent days, it must be said.

Responding to the news on Friday morning, Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative MP for Huntingdon, wrote on social media: “A terrible decision by TNT Sports to put cycling coverage behind a paywall with a 400 per cent price hike.

“With ITV having also lost the free-to-air rights of the Tour de France, next month cycling coverage is going to become a prohibitively expensive luxury to a huge number of fans.”

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

On Wednesday, Lidl-Trek’s British star Tao Geoghegan Hart became one of the first pros to speak out about the decision, which he described as a “huge shame”, while also questioning the “monopoly” on coverage in the UK.

“As of yet, I’ve seen little comment from pro cycling itself, especially from the many GB riders whose profiles, families, and fans it impacts so greatly,” the 2020 Giro d’Italia winner wrote in a lengthy post on Instagram.

“Let’s be clear, the sport going behind such a large paywall is a huge problem. Professional sports are all competing for the same audience. Cycling is completely reliant on this audience, it is how teams justify themselves to sponsors spending millions a year.

“Only a few teams can realistically promise a sponsor to win the Tour, but all teams can demonstrate good ROI when capturing so many eyes, hearts, and minds. It’s not only wins that can be of value. It’s the journey and the heartache too.

“I find it hard to believe many fans will be able to justify this increase in costs to follow our races and those of our female colleagues. This is a huge shame. Cycling provides such great entertainment and inspiration to so many.

“GB fans are living a real high point of the sport. There are so many GB professionals, with Tom Pidcock winning his first race for his new team this afternoon a great example of that.

> "A huge problem": Pro cycling disappearing behind £372-a-year TNT Sports paywall a "huge shame", Tao Geoghegan Hart says in lengthy post questioning "how many people have cancelled subscriptions" over price hike

“To be clear on something that many don’t understand, teams receive zero remuneration from TV rights. What do I want to say? For amateur riders, cycling has become a very expensive sport or passion. Now as a GB fan, following the upper echelons of the sport has also suddenly and massively increased in cost.

“I think it is now very relevant to realise where this money is going and where it is not. And perhaps to question the monopoly held over the sports UK coverage.

“I welcome all opinions on this and am curious to hear how many people have cancelled their subscriptions. This season I’ll try to champion more accessible media. I’ll remain incredibly grateful to our sponsors. I’ll also be very interested to hear from you all which platforms myself and Lidl-Trek should consider collaborating with.

“We want and need to remain available to all of the huge British audience that has been built up over the last 15 years of astronomic success.”