After months of aimlessly clicking buttons, have you finally got used to the Discovery+ app? Are you now able to find the Tour of Oman before the final climb starts? Well, I’ve got some bad news for you – cycling’s on the move again in the UK and Ireland, thanks to Monday’s announcement that TNT Sports is set to be absorbed into the brand-new HBO Max Service from March.
According to a statement issued by Warner Bros. Discovery this afternoon, HBO Max – already a fixture in over 100 countries – will launch in the UK and Ireland on Thursday 26 March, with all content on the current Discovery+ app set to move to the new platform.
That includes TNT Sports, which will now sit alongside HBO’s film and television content, including the likes of Dune, Superman, House of the Dragon, and Euphoria. While TNT Sports’ on-demand streaming will move to HBO Max, its linear TV channels will remain the same.
The move forms part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s long-stated aim to “consolidate” all its various content in one place, and sees cycling coverage in the UK and Ireland move to a fourth different primary streaming platform since late 2023.
The news also comes almost exactly a year since cycling first moved to TNT Sports, following the closure of Eurosport in the UK and Ireland, and just over two years on from the shutting down of GCN+, the specialist antithesis of HBO Max’s ‘everything under the one umbrella’ approach.
The move to TNT, of course, has proved highly controversial, as cycling fans were suddenly asked to pay £30.99-a-month for what is, mandatory adverts and a few extra races a year aside, essentially the same coverage as the previous £6.99-a-month available through Eurosport.
Fans may take some comfort (or not) in the fact that this latest move to HBO Max will not make things more expensive, with the TNT Sports package for HBO Max remaining at £30.99-a-month. HBO Max subscriptions without sport range from £4.99 to £14.99-a-month, depending on the package.
The transition should be an easy one, meanwhile, with Warner Bros. Discovery stating that fans can access their TNT Sports streaming subscription through HBO Max once the switchover takes place on 26 March.
According to an email sent to subscribers, viewers are not required to create a new account and will simply need to log in to HBO Max using their Discovery+ details on that date, with no change set to impact billing plans.
> Loss of ITV Tour de France coverage “a shame” before UK Grand Départ, says TNT Sports pundit
The latest stop in the cycling streaming merry-go-round also means that streaming coverage of this year’s Tour de France will be on HBO Max only in the UK and Ireland, after Warner Bros. Discovery gained exclusive rights to cycling’s biggest race, the 2025 Tour being the last to be broadcast on ITV, and free-to-air television in the UK, for the foreseeable future.
And this may not even prove the last time bike racing is moved around the televisual landscape in the 2020s, with Warner Bros. Discovery currently the subject of a bidding war between streaming giants Netflix and Paramount.
In December, it was announced that streaming giant Netflix has agreed a £54bn deal to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery’s film and TV studios – a portfolio that crucially contains TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland.
However, days later, Paramount lodged a hostile takeover in an attempt to secure the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery – which WBD advised its shareholders to reject – leading to a prolonged conflict which shows no signs of slowing down as yet.
The lesson here? Don’t get too used to HBO Max when it rolls around in time for the spring classics.
6 thoughts on “Cycling coverage set to move (again) in UK and Ireland from Discovery+ to HBO Max – but it won’t get any cheaper to watch”
Cycling is just an unwanted junket, being thrown about from pillar to post as part of the corporate machinations of a bunch of sociopaths who care nothing about the sport. What on earth are ASO, RCS, FLCS and other race organisers thinking handing over the well being of the sport to those idiots?
Bring in a law that hands coverage back to GCN+!
It’s regarded as an airtime filler and nothing much more apart maybe from one stage race it seems.
guess i’ll start watching french tv then via my vpn , and hope that ned boultings plan/format works out
You know things are bad when you want Netflix to get the rights
That maybe explains why Discovery + has got extra poor lately. Any other app buffers when there’s a second drop in WiFi, but Discovery +/TNT goes off and you’ve got to manually restart it. Cr@p when you’re listening to a race whilst on the trainer etc.
I had Eurosport just to watch cycling. Now I don’t watch cycling…
It’s a shame