One of the UK’s most beloved televisual sporting traditions of the summer will come to an end in 2026, following the news that the Tour de France will no longer be shown on ITV after next year, after Warner Bros. Discovery and Eurosport announced that they had agreed a new exclusive rights deal for cycling’s biggest race.
The rights deal, which will run until at least 2030 according to Warner Bros. Discovery, will mean that the Tour de France will not be shown on free-to-air television in the UK for the first time since the 1980s, when Channel 4 began broadcasting its now iconic evening highlights programmes.
On Friday morning, Warner Bros. Discovery – which last year closed the GCN+ cycling streaming app after moving its live cycling content to its Discovery+ platform – announced that a new long-term agreement with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Tour de France organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) has secured exclusivity rights for the Tour from 2026 to 2030.
According to the deal, the Tour de France will now be exclusively shown live on Eurosport and Discovery+ in the UK, bringing an end to ITV4’s coverage, currently fronted by Gary Imlach, Ned Boulting, and David Millar, and extending Eurosport’s own relationship with the race beyond the 40-year mark.
In 2025, ITV is set to broadcast its 25th edition of the Tour de France, after taking over the UK televisual rights from Channel 4 in 2001.
When approached for comment by road.cc, a spokesperson for the broadcaster said there was “nothing for ITV to add on this one”.
> The rise & fall of GCN+ – is the livestream party over for cycling fans?
Warners Bros. Discovery also announced that the Tour de France Femmes will now be exclusive in Ireland and Norway, alongside coverage for viewers in every market in Europe.
The “colossal” deal also means that Eurosport and Discovery+ will continue to broadcast live and on-demand linear, streaming, and digital coverage of most of the rest of the cycling calendar, including the grand tours and classics, which the broadcaster says “guarantees broad access for millions of viewers across Europe”.
(A.S.O./Charly Lopez)
Announcing the deal, Trojan Paillot, head of Sports Rights Acquisitions and Syndication at WBD Sports Europe, said: “For many years, we have been trusted to act as the custodian for cycling and have worked tirelessly to maximise the opportunities fans have to engage with their favourite sport.
“Our commitment to cycling has seen us invest in the most comprehensive live rights portfolio, which includes every men’s and women’s Grand Tour race, and we’re delighted to now extend our relationship with our partners at ASO and EBU to take us into a fifth decade of covering the world’s greatest races including the Tour de France.”
“Our role as the Home of Cycling has seen us harness the most passionate team of cycling experts to consistently elevate our coverage of the sport while telling its stories to the widest possible audience,” added WBD Sports Europe’s head of content Scott Young.
“From being the first broadcaster to offer every minute of the Grand Tours live across Europe in 2018, to developing unique innovations and studio analysis tools to better explain the action, our work in this sport continues to break new ground.
“Announcing our new rights agreements today means that we can continue to produce quality, immersive content that connects fans with their favourite races and riders for years to come.”
In November last year, Warner Bros. Discovery closed the popular GCN+ app, which had been provided live and on-demand streaming of the cycling calendar since 2021, as part of its move to consolidate its live cycling output (for which it owned the rights) on its own Discovery+ platform.
Discovery, which merged with Warner Brothers in 2022, first bought a 20 per cent stake in GCN’s parent company Play Sports Group in 2017, before taking full ownership in 2021 in a bid to “amplify” its position as the “home of cycling”.
In June, it sold GCN back to its founder and CEO Simon Wear, a move that saw the collapse of the GCN website and the loss of several jobs.
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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.
Does that mean we have to listen to Carlton Kirby and his awful segueways 😱
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.
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.
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?
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.
Wow, absolutely gutted with that news. I've watched every one of the tours on ITV (and lots previously on C4), really love the highlights programme. The coomentators are a great bunch, was chatting with Ned a couple of days ago and he didnt mention this.
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).
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