TNT Sports says the audience for its live coverage of the Tour de France has grown by 55 percent compared to 2025, and 41 percent overall in the first year that the broadcaster has had exclusive rights.
Having previously shared rights for the biggest cycling race in the world with ITV, the increase is expected, with TNT claiming it demonstrates “the continued momentum behind its cycling coverage” – however, TNT has not released the raw viewing numbers for its live coverage, making it difficult to gauge how many (or how few) viewers of ITV’s free coverage the broadcaster has managed to convert, and how many have either stopped watching or moved to a cheaper VPN service to access broadcasts from other territories.
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After producing free-to-air Grand Tour highlights, which have been broadcast either on Quest or DMAX, TNT announced shortly before the race that it had agreed to produce a highlights programme that would be broadcast on Channel 5. The programme is hosted by Rebecca Charlton, but unlike the broadcaster’s previous free-to-air programmes, the show does not incorporate studio punditry or elements of ‘The Breakaway’ post-stage show.
TNT has also been criticised in the past for removing its ad-free cycling stream shortly before last year’s Tour de France, and dramatically hiking its prices. Now accessed through the HBO Max streaming service, a TNT subscription is £30.99 per month, though customers now have the option of paying £311 upfront to bring that down to £25.99 per month.
Warner Bros. Discovery Vice President Scott Young defended the new prices in May, saying that the folding of cycling into TNT’s larger sports portfolio meant it was possible for “football fans to discover how great the Giro is”, and that the £30 per month package represented “genuine value”.
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In its press release, TNT said that Channel 5’s highlights programme was averaging more than 500,000 viewers a night. ITV’s highlights programme, also broadcast at 7pm, did not feature in BARB audience tables in recent years. However, archive data shows the highlights programme in 2018 consistently achieved nearly a million viewers in the final week when the race was won by Geraint Thomas.
In 2012, the first highlights programme of the race averaged around 700,000, peaking at 960,000 in the final week when Bradley Wiggins became the first British winner of the race.
Since those heady days, both British success in the Tour de France and the popularity of linear television has declined, making a proper comparison difficult. However, a source told road.cc that the highlights programme for Mark Cavendish’s 35th stage win exceeded one million viewers. Nevertheless, declining viewership was a factor in ITV’s decision not to bid for broadcasting rights in 2026 and beyond.
road.cc has asked TNT’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery for the viewing numbers on its live Tour de France coverage, and we’ll update this article with additional context if we hear back.
16 thoughts on “TNT Sports hails 55% growth of its Tour de France audience following controversial demise of free-to-air coverage”
Yes TNT. Just wait until October after the Tour Of Lombardy. I will be saying goodbye for 4 or 5 months.
I wonder what the numbers are like compared to 2 years ago when they were charging £4 for cycling alone (under the discovery branding). Somehow I doubt they would be bragging about the change in press releases.
I’ve begrudgingly paid the £31 just to watch the tour, I’ve now cancelled it so that’s all the greedy yanks are getting out of me!
I wouldn’t pay their exorbitant fees so I just watch the Channel 5 highlights.
It’s disappointing and I miss the live broadcasts, as well as the ITV highlights with Ned & David.
I’ve been watching on NOS.tv in the Netherlands using Nord VPN. All the action live, no registration required, no adverts.
English comms available or flemish/dutch only?
I got six months of TNT for €17.99 when I got to the end of a similar Sky Sports offer. That will get me through to September or October. It’s already cancelled from the end of the six months and I begrudge them every cent I give them.
The Channel 5 highlights show is decent except for the host, who needs to learn how to talk without smiling – it makes the tone extremely annoying. I use the mute and skip buttons a lot whenever she comes on, but unfortunately some of what she says is useful/necessary to fill in the gaps in the highlights.
I’m glad to see Rebecca Charlton smiling, as she’s undoubtedly happy to be alive. She came into presenting the Channel 5 show after treatment for an aggressive form of breast cancer.
Regarding TNT, it speaks volumes that they didn’t provide their viewers figures.
If you have signed up for a month to watch the tour don’t forget to ring up and cancel your payment, you can do it now as it’s a 30 day wait cancellation. I was going to sign up for a month but when they announced the highlights on Chanel 5 I’m just watching that instead
55% of hardly anyone isn’t that impressive. I like to think they’d do better with a fairer price for marginal interest sports. I nearly paid but went through sky to discover that they wanted £34 not £31 and I just couldn’t stomach it. Especially as they still expect me to watch adverts for that money.
I’m using Nord vpn and watching the aussie sbs service – it does have adverts but its a similar format to the old ITV offering , they even have one of their presenters riding the last 20-30km. They also give some history of the places that are being shown on the TV so all I’m missing is ned and david
‘ though customers now have the option of paying £311 upfront to bring that down to £25.99 per month instead of 30.99 per month’
So it takes about 5 years to break even? Blimey – that’s not a very good deal. Use a VPN. I watch RAI but there must be English speaking channels somewhere in the world that broadcast for free. I don’t want to sound too old fashioned and leftie, but these huge US media corporations are poisonous. They are actually killing choice and sucking us into a US hegemony (as if we are not already in one)
[That may have been intentionally specious, in which case ignore, but for anyone who’s genuinely confused…]
It’s £311 (actually £311.88) upfront for the year, which *works out* to £25.99/month, not on top of it.
Ah, yes I see. Pay the total upfront and it works out less. Like most subscriptions.
I subscribe monthly and keep my sub going all year.
I’m spoilt for choice really, some days there are 4 or 5 races on.
However I have a major issue with the persistent, repeated advert breaks during the Tour de France. It is beyond irritating, it seriously disrupts one’s ability to follow the action. Imagine having two long ad-breaks during the descent of the Tourmalet, missing both Pogi’s 70mph exhibition and the yellow jersey’s crash!
So far this year, there’s been an ad-free digital stream option for every race apart the Giro and TdF. But after last year’s TdF, the greedy idiots started putting ads in these digital streams as well! The test for me AND for TNT Sports will now be whether they’re going to repeat this slap in the face all over again.
Personally I doubt that their TdF viewing figures are anything to boast about at all because I can’t believe many real cycling fans can endure such crass vandalism of live cycling action! If there has been a genuine increase in viewers, I expect this is folk wandering in from other sports out of curiosity.