TNT Sports claims it set a “new benchmark” for its cycling viewership at this year’s Tour de France, following the news that the broadcaster’s average audience increased by over half at the 2026 race, the first to be exclusively broadcast live on the channel.
According to a report published this week by Warner Bros. Discovery, TNT’s parent company, the 2026 Tour (won by Tadej Pogačar, for a fifth time) saw a “record number of viewers” across the broadcaster’s streaming, television, and digital platforms.
In the UK and Ireland, TNT Sports said its live Tour coverage grew by 58 per cent compared to 2025, the last year the channel shared the rights to the race with ITV4.
Meanwhile, its daily highlights show on Channel 5, the only Tour coverage to be broadcast on free-to-air television in the UK, attracted an average of 557,400 viewers per stage.
The programme, which aired at 8pm every night on Channel 5, was hosted by Rebecca Charlton, but unlike the broadcaster’s previous free-to-air grand tour highlights shows on Quest or DMAX, it did not incorporate studio punditry or elements of ‘The Breakaway’ post-stage show.
Warner Bros. Discovery has not responded to requests to release its full figures, but says its coverage “reached millions of viewers” in the UK and Ireland. The company’s streaming platform HBO Max also saw a 22 per cent growth in its audience, making the UK the largest market for viewing subscribers.
Total hours viewed on the service were also up five per cent, as the numbers streaming the Tour on HBO Max across all its European markets increased by eight per cent.
Eurosport 1’s pan-European linear coverage also grew by nine per cent despite, WBD says, “wider industry decline in television consumption”, as France, Spain, and the Netherlands all reported record linear audiences.
> TNT’s impressive investment in cycling doesn’t hide the sport’s increasing inaccessibility
Earlier this month, WBD and TNT Sports hailed the increase in their viewing figures as evidence of the “continued momentum behind its cycling coverage”, following criticism of the platform’s subscription costs in the wake of its exclusive rights deal with the Tour.
The 2026 Tour de France was the first edition of the race for over three decades to have no free-to-air live coverage, after ITV lost its broadcasting rights and WBD signed an exclusivity deal until at least 2030, leading to concerns about the future visibility and accessibility of the sport in the UK.
TNT, which took over broadcasting cycling following the closure of Eurosport in the UK, was also criticised 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”.
> Loss of ITV Tour de France coverage “a shame” before UK Grand Départ, says TNT Sports pundit
And while the company may view a 58 per cent jump in its audience as a success, has TNT’s exclusive Tour deal, in reality, led to a drop in viewership as feared? Without the channel releasing its raw figures, it’s hard to say.
According to Ned Boulting, the opening stage of the 2025 Tour was watched live on ITV4 by 600,000 people. Meanwhile, BroadcastNow reported that the free-to-air channel’s highlights show for stage 10 last year, a mountainous stage won by British rider Simon Yates, attracted over 420,000 viewers.
In that context, Channel 5’s average audience of 557,400 for each stage appears impressive. Behind the paywall on TNT, however, the picture is less clear.
According to audience measurement organisation Barb, TNT Sports 1 reached just over 1.5 million viewers in total in July 2025 across all its programmes. Obviously, a fraction of that number – we’re unsure how big – watched the Tour on the channel, with that fraction increasing by 58 per cent this year, WBD says. Whether that was enough to fill the void left by ITV4’s withdrawal is currently unclear.
What is clear, however, is that the UK’s Tour audience is considerably lower than it was during the heady days of British success in the 2010s.
Archive data from Barb 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 then, 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 this month 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.
So, has TNT Sports’ exclusive Tour coverage proved a success? For TNT, certainly, based on this week’s figures. For cycling in the UK? We’re not so sure.
19 thoughts on “TNT Sports hails “record” Tour de France audience in the UK – but can first paywalled Tour be viewed a success?”
You say that ITV ‘lost’ the broadcasting rights, I thought ITV declined to put a bid in as they were looking to cut costs.
@kinderje As I understand it they didn’t put in a bid as they were told by ASO what TNT had said they were prepared to pay and it was way above what ITV could afford or make a profit on. So they didn’t formally lose it as in were outbid, but it amounted to the same thing.
@Rendel Harris Thanks. So does this explain the pared back Channel 5 coverage that uses TNT commentary and also only has one presenter – a way of reducing cost of producing the show (which I quite like)?
I haven’t watched Le Tour at all this year and have mainly been watching rugby instead. I wonder where these ‘record’ numbers come from?
@Andrewbanshee Lets say I charge £100 to watch the TdF and other sports and someone else charges £0 for just the TdF. A lot of people will already be paying that £100 for the other sports and watch the TdF as a result. I then get exclusive rights to the TdF and people have the option to pay £100 or not watch it. My original audience will continue to pay and I will likely get some of the people who were watching it for free. Bish bash bosh, record audience.
Yes, C5 leases a highlights package from TNT, they will also be showing Giro and Vuelta highlights and live coverage of the UK Grand Depart next year. It was more or less an afterthought, I assume to try and deflect some of the criticism TNT got for more than quadrupling the cost of watching the race live. A pretty good deal for TNT I would’ve thought, a bit of extra money to offset whatever they paid for the rights (still a secret, I believe), unlikely to deter any keen fans from paying for flag-to-flag coverage and presumably they hope it could act as a shop window to pull in more viewers to the paid option having had their appetites whetted.
Indeed, that pillock Scott whatsisname of TNT reckons millions of football fans will suddenly start watching cycling & so grow the sport , ha ha ha
I paid for my month, first week off work so I wanted proper full day coverage.
Enjoyed it, nice to be able to pause live coverage, but then they make you watch the adverts when trying to catch up.
Channel 5 for when I was working, alright, less chat. Seemed to use the tnt virtual studio.
Already cancelled, of course, but will be catching the TdF femmes until I’m booted off.
Even though I could watch the commenwealth games I haven’t, I hope the games have done well securing the rights because their viewing figures will be right down, such coverage benefits being on the BBC.
I suspect some liberal number-wanging from TNT on this one.
Absolutely….. wonder why they don’t release the actual numbers rather than percentages??
TNT wouldn’t keep the cycling data secret if the audience numbers were high.
The percentage increase is meaningless without the actual audience numbers. When TNT only gives the percentage—but hides the audience size—it suggests that viewer numbers aren’t ideal.
Not sure about that – it’s standard practice among streamers now that they just don’t release any actual figures for anything. I’m not even sure that they would have a particular benchmark for what ‘high’ would be in the first place – cycling is and will always be a rounding error and a bit of an afterthought in their portfolio.
I watched the Australian SBS feed using a VPN provided as part of my anti-virus software. Occasionally got kicked out but overall well worth it. Commentators tended to focus on Aussie riders but much better than spending £31 on TNT. Will watch the Vuelta the same way 🤞
I watched it on SBS
Did anyone else watch the TDF live on S4C , that channel 4 in Welsh , it’s free to air . Just find a YouTube commentary in English.
I stumbled across that on the last Friday. Sounded funny when the odd English word suddenly popped up amongst the Welsh!
I stumbled across that on the last Friday. Bit miffed I didn’t find it earlier
@VIPcyclist
Yes, the live coverage on S4C was a few stages at the beginning and a few at the end. Shame it wasn’t the whole lot. Stage 19 was particularly good live. Setting the record for the fastest time up the Alpe. He went a bit faster than I did a few years ago 😮. Amazing watching Pogačar hit the bottom of the hill with the breakaway over 3min ahead of him.
S4C is available to watch again on the BBC iPlayer if you want to rewatch. The adverts seem to be stripped out too 👍🏻. S4C are looking forward to next year when some stages are here at home in Cymru 🙂. Non-welsh speakers can just watch the video I guess. I like it in my own language, but the iOS app ‘Tour Tracker’ is very very good too, especially for time trials. It’s also more ‘live’ than the live video. So, if it announces some sort of incident you can focus on the live feed to wait for it!
(Cymraeg is one of the British Isles oldest living languages BTW.)
I’d be curious to know what the percentage growth has been in viewing figures for SBS over VPN compared to last year?
I watched it on France TV myself, but did miss the ITV4 coverage