The 2027 Tour de France’s UK Grand Départ will be broadcast live free-to-air on Channel 5, as part of a three-year deal which will also see the channel host daily highlights of the Tour, Giro d’Italia, and Vuelta a España.
This year’s Tour de France marks the first edition of cycling’s biggest race to not be broadcast live on free-to-air television in the UK for three decades, following the demise of ITV’s longstanding coverage after Warner Bros. Discovery secured an exclusive rights deal, which will run until at least 2030.
However, on Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery and TNT Sports announced a deal has been agreed with Channel 5 to produce a daily highlights package for each of cycling’s three grand tours, including next month’s men’s Tour de France, fronted by sports presenter and journalist Rebecca Charlton, and airing at 7pm every night.
According to TNT, the agreement with 5, the result of a competitive tender process, will see the channel broadcast free-to-air highlights in the UK for the Tour de France and Vuelta a España between 2026 and 2028, and the Giro d’Italia between 2027 and 2029.
> Loss of ITV Tour de France coverage “a shame” before UK Grand Départ, says TNT Sports pundit
The deal also means that the opening three stages of both the 2027 men’s and women’s editions of the Tour de France, which will be held across England, Scotland, and Wales, will be broadcast live on 5. Daily highlights of the 2027 Tour de France Femmes will also be available on the channel, it was confirmed.
In a statement, Scott Young, an executive vice president at WBD Europe, said TNT’s partnership with Channel 5 “represents a major step forward in expanding the reach of elite cycling across the UK”.
“As the Home of Cycling, we are committed to bringing fans closer to the biggest races in the world across both men’s and women’s cycling, and this agreement ensures even more viewers can experience the drama, emotion and storytelling that define grand tour racing,” he said.
“By combining a strong free-to-air highlights offering with our comprehensive live coverage, we are delivering unprecedented access to the sport across every platform.
“Cycling is one of the most compelling sports in the world, featuring extraordinary athletes and unforgettable moments, and it’s important that those stories are shared with the widest possible audience.
“Expanding reach and engaging new audiences across our rights portfolio remains a key strategic priority, and partnerships such as this play an important role in achieving that ambition.”
Paul Bush, the managing director behind next year’s GB Grands Départs, also welcomed the news, saying: “We want to bring the 2027 Grands Départs to as wide an audience as possible, so it is fantastic news that fans can look forward to following this year’s edition with free-to-air coverage to build their excitement for what to expect when the Grand Départ arrives in Britain in 2027.”
When its evening programme summarising the opening team time trial stage in Barcelona airs next month, 5 will become the third free-to-air channel in the UK, after ITV and Channel 4 (which began airing its now-iconic highlights programme in the 1980s), to broadcast cycling’s biggest race.
“The Grand Tours are the most prestigious cycling events in the world, watched and adored by millions, and we are delighted that 5 will be their new free-to-air home in the UK,” Reemah Sakaan, the channel’s president, said.
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“Our daily highlights show for the Tour de France will be available to everyone at 7pm each evening this July and we’ll also have daily highlights through both the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro d’Italia for the next three years, plus next year we’ll have live coverage of the Tour de France’s historic return to the UK.
“The Tour de France kicks off an incredible summer of sport on 5, adding to the rapidly expanding range of premium sport we have for people to watch, including the best of the action from the Commonwealth Games this summer.
“This new deal with TNT Sports reflects our long-term commitment to bringing brilliant coverage of the world’s best sporting events to millions of viewers and providing access to premium audiences for advertisers.”
5’s Tour highlights programme, airing for an hour each during the race at 7pm, will be hosted by established cycling presenter Rebecca Charlton, and will be produced separately from the live TNT Sports coverage, which once again will be fronted by Orla Chennaoui.
“It’s fantastic news that the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana will return to terrestrial television with highlights on 5 this summer and I am delighted to be able to tell the world that I will be the host,” Charlton said in a statement.
“It’s an absolute dream to have the opportunity to bring the racing to life for all of the cycling fans out there as well as guiding some new viewers along for the ride. We’ll be bringing highlights of all of the action as well as telling the stories around the racing and I for one, cannot wait!”
Today’s news may provide some solace to fans still mourning the loss of ITV’s live Tour coverage, a development that coincided with the closure of Eurosport in the UK and cycling’s move to TNT Sports.
That televisual upheaval, which has also led to cycling being shifted across a number of different streaming platforms (HBO Max now operating as the sport’s latest ‘home’), placed the sport behind a £31-a-month paywall, a steep price hike that has been roundly criticised by fans and was the subject of a petition to parliament.
The deal with 5 will also seen as something of a relief for the team behind the Tour’s visits to the UK next summer, the Grands Départs’ organisers previously only willing to admit that talks were “ongoing” over a potential free-to-air arrangement.
Speaking to the road.cc Podcast earlier this year, double British road race champion Brian Smith – who has worked as a pundit and commentator for TNT Sports for 15 years – admitted that the Tour’s split from ITV could have a severe impact on the sport’s viewing figures in the UK.
“I think a lot of people, the general public, watch the Tour de France on ITV and terrestrial TV. To take it away from them, I think it’s losing a lot of fans,” Smith said.
“Nowadays you have to pay for most sports. But I do think it’s a big loss not having ITV. That’s how I got into watching cycling.
“For Joe Public, it’s a shame to lose these guys, because they’re not going to pay, so how are they going to find out about the Tour de France? I know of some cyclists who are cyclists because they watched it on ITV, they saw it, and they saw the British riders.”
5’s partnership with TNT Sport means that, despite Smith’s fears, the Tour will not disappear entirely behind a paywall in the UK.
But whether the deal, as TNT exec Scott Young put it today, “represents a major step forward in expanding the reach of elite cycling across the UK” – especially after a quarter of a century of live ITV coverage – remains to be seen.
