No Tour de France on ITV from 2026 as Eurosport becomes exclusive UK broadcaster

Smoggysteve wrote:

But how does this attact new younger fans to the sport if its ultimately invisible to them to casually view it? 

Devil's advocate - younger viewers don't really watch anything as it's broadcast / live on air anymore. 

My kids do and so do their friends, they watched the Olympics. Regularly watch football and I have sat and watched the world champs with them. Went into Glasgow last year for road and track events, so kids do watch sport. Maybe not as many as before but this only compounds it further. 

I may have overstated the point, even as devil's advocate. Of course some do. But I suspect the number of the younger generation who are casually channel hopping on the TV now to be able to stumble across cycling is relatively small, when they can choose from a huge range of stuff on demand, or scroll endlessly.  

I agree - you'll notice after my first sentence in which I said I was happy to pay for it, the rest of my comment was saying exactly the same as you as to how damaging to participation I thought it was to take a sport wholly off free-to-air.

I think I saw them in concert once

(NB: image added before Velovite updated the spelling) 

or sean kelly and his complete disregard for anything thats not to do with the race at that moment - French Baroque Castle being shown on tv , no I'm  talking about the race, stunning view of the french country side, no I'm still gonna talk about the race, some display being shown on tv that the locals have put together, no you guessed it I'm ignoring that and still talking about the race.

at least with Ned and Millar you get jokes, laughs and discussions about other things than cycling - I've learnt alot about the geological features of France and its volcanoes for instance with their little films made by that chap from Utrecht.

Try the Natural History channel, you will love it.

Gbjbanjs wrote:

Try the Natural History channel, you will love it.

Their cycling coverage isn't great though.

I think that's a bit unfair on the Eurosport coverage (although it is to an extent true about Sean), they pay plenty of attention to the glories of France as they travel through and even have a dedicated commentator in Jonathan Harris-Bass who provides a plethora of information about the history and geology of the parcours and a daily recipe related to the foods and wines of the region the race is passing through. You very much can't please everybody, obviously, a lot of the criticism I read here and elsewhere of the Eurosport coverage is that you have too much "jokes, laughs and discussions about other things than cycling"!

Agree. I know it mostly comes from the ASO routebook, and they sometimes bemoan having to do it, but to my mind it's one of the things (honourable mention to Friebe and Rendell's feature pieces too) that helps to contextualise the race and elevate the Tour from mere 'bike race' to 'experience' each year.

If you like them talking about things other than the bike race, I'd really recommend their Never Strays Far podcast...      

You forgot to say talking about the race in banal cliches and platitudes. Great rider in his day, terrible commentator.

The Peter Alliss of cycling. I do like Sean Kelly, he comes out with some stuff - sometimes I find myself thinking in Sean Kelly's brogue. I don't mind paying to be rid of all the adverts. Boulting and Miller can get a bit breathless in what's going on and with an odd fixation on INEOS - a team that usually come to the front 4km out and nowhere to be seen at the line. I hate to say it but the Eurosport part of Discovery is worth it for its coverage of all things cycling.

BertYardbrush wrote:

sometimes I find myself thinking in Sean Kelly's brogue.

A number of terms in this house are only used by self and Mrs H during the Tour in Sean's accent, including the ever-present pronuncation of fatigue as fat-eeg and the fabulous pronunciation of Bauke Mollema's name as Bow-key Moll-ay-ma.

Is it Pocka-char or Po-catcha though?

NotNigel wrote:

Is it Pocka-char or Po-catcha though?

Ah, he likes to go freestyle with that one - depends on what he's had for lunch I think, bless him. He's got about six different ways of saying Evenepoel too.

Yeah this is depressing news.  The C4/ITV TdF is an institution.  It's what got me into cycling as a kid.

There is no one on the Eurosport team as good as Gary Imlach.  The Eurosport show is bland by comparison.

The breakaway is just annoying talking heads, give me Imlach, Ned & Miller any day of the week.

And ITVs 1hr evening highlights was the perfect package for those of us not able to dedicate 7+hrs every day for 3 weeks to watch the racing live.

Eurosport hide their highlights away late at night in between endless repeats of snooker or whatever tiddlywinks championships they've covered that week.

The result is just ill be watching less of the TdF when this deal starts, not paying more to access it.

Don't know where you're watching but Eurosport highlights generally are at 8pm in the UK (when they don't just ditch them because a first round junior singles tennis match at Roland Garros has dragged on into a fifth set).