Tour de France TV rights

[st599_uk]

European Broadcasting Union and Amaury Sporting Organisation have sorted the rights for:

Men’s: Tour de France, La Vuelta, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Flèche Wallonne, Paris-Nice, Criterium du Dauphiné , Cyclassics Hamburg, Eschborn Frankfurt, Clasica San Sebastian, Paris-Tours, Tro Bro Leon, and Volta Catalunya.

Women’s : Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour.es, Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift, Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes and La Flèche Wallonne Femmes.

It's being shown by 13 EBU members, it doesn't look like EBU member ITV have taken an option for the UK but Warner Bros have sublicensed for other European territories.

[TrevA]

This means no more TDF on ITV after 2025. Live coverage or highlights. Shame as the commentary team on ITV4 is far better than on Eurosport.

[Paulatic]

the commentary team on ITV4 is far better than on Eurosport.

I think that’s a matter of opinion
I believe each source have their own irritations but the insights from David Millar are a top irritant for me.

[mattheus]

This means no more TDF on ITV after 2025. Live coverage or highlights. Shame as the commentary team on ITV4 is far better than on Eurosport.

Agreed.

(SURELY Carlton Kirby is many times more irritating than DMillar? And Kirby is the main talker, at least Millar is just the "pundit" so he's not jibbering over 80% of the airtime. I actually mostly like Millar, but appreciate he's a bit marmite for some reason ...

Rob Hatch seems well informed, and does good podcast - but he's a really poor commentator IMO. Just nowhere near as bad as Kirby!!!)

[TrevA]

We may still get free to air highlights on Quest, which is owned by Discovery. It will just be the same highlights programme that gets shown on Eurosport with Orla and Co.

[Audax67]

In any case, with Pog crushing the field the TdF Femmes will be much more interesting.

[carlislemike]

In any case, with Pog crushing the field the TdF Femmes will be much more interesting.

Absolutely agree on that assessment of the TdF Femmes. Far better racing all round and not dominated by one rider!

[mattheus]

In any case, with Pog crushing the field the TdF Femmes will be much more interesting.

Absolutely agree on that assessment of the TdF Femmes. Far better racing all round and not dominated by one rider!

These things come in waves.

[Postboxer]

I find the ITV highlights to be far better produced than the ones on Quest, which just seem to be a short clip from the start of the race then skip to the last 25 mins. The ITV highlights show a lot more incidents from throughout the race and then also have the short documentary pieces on history, technology, geography etc. I hate the stupid CGI studio on Quest too.

[rogerzilla]

I'm always fascinated by Orla's choice of footwear, often completely at odds with the rest of her wardrobe

[cycleruk]

I usually watch the Tours on Eurosport because "no adverts". (£3.99 / month)
Guarantee something will happen when the Ad's are on which ITV have.
Unfortunately now that Eurosport has gone to Discovery I will probably unsubscribe if the price goes up come next year.
So I will be looking for an alternative if this happens.

[Richard Fairhurst]

It’s not ad-free if you’re watching the highlights sadly - you can fast forward through the ad breaks but it’s an unnecessary faff.

[TrevA]

Interesting article on Bike Radar by Ned Boulting:

https://www.bikeradar.com/features/opin ... nce-on-itv

It seems that the viewing figures have been dropping in recent years, which led ITV to question whether it was worth continuing with the coverage, and ultimately not wanting to renew their contract with ASO. You can only speculate about why the viewing figures have dropped, perhaps because the Tour is no longer dominated by British riders.

[rjb]

looks like i will be watching it on U tube then.

[kylecycler]

looks like i will be watching it on U tube then.

At least this year, unlike previously, maybe since the demise of the GCN+ live streaming service, Eurosport hasn't given away the race or stage result in the YouTube highlights video thumbnail (this year they've been showing the last kilometre(s) first, not long after the finish, then the highlights later in a separate video, both without giving away who's won).

That's been for road races, anyway; they've recently gone back to their bad old ways with the cyclocross races, so you can't watch the CX highlights on YouTube without already knowing who's won. Whether they'll do that with the road races next year I wouldn't know, hope not, but it's obviously to encourage people to subscribe to Discovery Plus (Warner Brothers), which includes the Eurosport coverage, but if it causes such animosity that they don't then it's counterproductive.

Actually the subscription that includes sports, currently I think £6.99 per month, though a fair bit more than GCN+ was, isn't an arm and a leg when you consider that it's less than a couple of quid a week. I'm not even slightly rich and there was a time when I couldn't even have afforded that, but I find it surprising that more folk don't subscribe. Few if any of my cycling pals do, so I've no-one really to talk about the racing with except online, which is a shame. Also if you're interested in other sports you can access them too (the rest of their content, mind you, I find weirdly and completely unwatchable - pure dross - I mean, how can something be so bad that you can't find anything worth watching, although maybe that's just me!).