An executive at Warner Bros. Discovery has said the viewing numbers of women’s cycling “blow up” when races are scheduled immediately after the men’s races, and says the broadcaster does make “heavy suggestions” to race organisers and the sport’s governing body.
Guy Voisin is the Vice President of Cycling at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports and has overseen the company gain complete coverage on professional cycling across Europe, including at the expense of free-to-air broadcasters.
Among some fans and riders, there is a preference for women’s cycling to be held on a separate day, with advocates pointing to the lack of divided attention with a men’s equivalent, and an ability to broadcast more of the race. In contrast, when women’s racing is held after the men’s race, limited media capabilities mean coverage can sometimes only begin when the men’s race has finished, leading to large swathes of coverage being missed. Most notably, coverage of this year’s Paris-Roubaix Femmes began with approximately 50km remaining after around half of all cobbled sectors had been ridden.
But Voisin pointed to clear evidence that the approach was justified by the increase in viewing figures that was first seen during the coronavirus pandemic.
“During COVID, they moved the women’s Omloop [het Nieuwsblad] and Tour of Flanders to finish an hour, an hour and a half after
the men’s race, for strictly organisational purposes. And we watched the numbers on our broadcasts and said, ‘wow, okay, wait a second. This is the highest rated women’s race we’ve ever had!’ Like, it just, the numbers just blew out of us.
“We called up Flanders [Classics – race organisers] and said, “can we do this again because the numbers are great and it’s giving exposure to the women’s racing and women’s racing is exploding, it’s getting much bigger, right? But we still need to, we still need to help it. We still need to grow that sport, right? Because it’s a sport worth growing.”
Voisin is also pleased by changes made to the women’s professional calendar that are more accommodating around the men’s races. Beside classics frequently being held on the same day, Grand Tours are now better synced to their male equivalent. The Vuelta Femenina now opens the women’s Grand Tour season, coinciding with the beginning of the men’s Giro d’Italia.
The Giro Donne has also changed race organiser and now starts on the same weekend the men’s race finishes, where previously it was held in July, overshadowed by the the men’s Tour de France. Meanwhile the Tour de France Femmes has alternated in its relatively short history between overlapping with the closing weekend of the men’s Tour de France Hommes and starting as a standalone event the week later.
“We strongly hoped for and pushed on the UCI for calendar changes as well.” Voisin said. “Not that we can change the UCI’s mind, they’re notoriously difficult to work with, but they’re good partners and they listen. But they’ve made this calendar change where you have the Vuelta Femenina and after you have the Giro women, which are in a much better position now they’re not in the middle of the Tour de France.”
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But despite the risk of overlapping events on the same day, Voisin is excited by the viewing numbers that can exist from competing Grand Tour days across men’s and women’s calendars noting, “We were on the [men’s] Giro d’Italia when the Vuelta Feminina was going up L’Angliru, and we said, ‘you know what, we’ll leave the Giro on linear, we’ll go to L’Angliru for an hour and a bit, finish that race, come back to the Giro to finish the stage’. Again, record numbers.”
As the exclusive rights holder of professional cycling in the UK through TNT Sports, and with a complete racing portfolio across much of Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery are major powerbrokers through which the sport’s growth and outreach are measured. However, Voisin played down the control and influence the broadcaster has compared to local race organisers, whilst reiterating the extent to which their £30.99 a month subscription service exceeds the offerings of a free-to-air broadcaster.
“We have some influence… if I call up ASO and say, ‘no, no, you have to cover from the beginning of the race’, they’ll just say, ‘yeah, okay, how much are you going to pay?’ But we do make heavy suggestions.
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“If you look at the broadcasting history of cycling in this market on free-to-air, it was never complete. It was a very limited story. You’d see the Tour de France, maybe Paris-Nice, once in a while the Criterium [du Dauphine], and that was it. Apart from the Women’s Tour of Britain, you didn’t see anything else of the Women’s Tour, right? This is where we’ve really dug our heels in and said we’re going to be the home of cycling and we have to stand behind that phrase. And we’ve got everything.”
7 thoughts on “Viewing figures for women’s cycling “explode” after men’s races, says TNT Sports – as exec reveals channel lobbies “heavily” to change calendar”
Somewhat disingenuous of Mr.Voisin to talk as if the alternatives are limited free-to-air or blanket coverage for £30.99; one doesn’t need the memory of an elephant to recall when one could have what his company now offers for £6.99 on Eurosport, something I believe European fans can still get for not much more, e.g. €10.99 a month in the Netherlands and France.
I’d imagine that Mr. Voisin would be even more shocked than Cap’t Renault to discover how much our European cousins were being charged!
I have taken out a £30.99 one month TNT Sports subscription to watch the Giro d’Italia. I’m a former GCN+/Discovery+ subscriber, and I think the race coverage is pretty much the same as I used to get for £6.99 – with the “added bonus” of very frequent advert breaks. I also get cycling commentators pushing other sports such as football and tennis, plus trailers for HBO Max offerings.
This is so far from acceptable that I won’t be renewing.
I’ve seen a couple of these interviews with TNT Sports people in the last week or so, are they on a PR push re rehabilitate their lost reputation?
@Grumpy Bob Fits with my findings. I subscribed for the classics. Coverage was awful. Constant advert breaks (we interrupt Paris Roubaix to suggest you watch the classics on TNT). Highlights would take up to 36 hours to arrive and then not be highlights but just the last x kilometres of the race, no catch up on what was happening or skipping the dull bits. I gave it a go but it wasn’t worth £31 for that quality. I’ll stick with the free options available.
@Grumpy Bob which is precisely how streaming services stole cable tvs lunch. They offered much of the benefits of cable without adverts and super high price tags. I use my partners parents Sky subscription and it blows my mind that people pay upwards of £100 a month for it and still have to be bombarded with constant adverts.
Smarmy gits (TNT). If stuck with them, go to cancel, it offers a deal at same £32! Hit Cancel again, it offers 6mth @ £22. Not great but a start, split with a mate for £11 ,or sod them, go VPN!
In Belgium, we get women’s racing on the Sporza channel.
It is often more fun than mens as it is more unpredictable, less robotic and full of Hail Marry attempts. I love it.