Tour de France TV rights

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mjr
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Re: Tour de France TV rights

Post by mjr »

Pendodave wrote: 29 Jan 2025, 6:06pm Tiz it illegal to transmit the stream, receive it, or both?
If you mean over the internet, usually both.

If you mean over satellite, usually neither, as long as you're not holding public viewing sessions. The transmission of the stream outside the licensed service area (aka overspill) is for the licensor and broadcaster to agree upon. Americans like Warner Bros seem to act as if no English commentary is sufficient protection against UK viewing.
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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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Pendodave wrote: 29 Jan 2025, 6:06pm Tiz it illegal to transmit the stream, receive it, or both?
Both, it's a breach of copyright as you don't have permission from the rights holder to view or distribute it. As you're either paying for it or installing software to be able to view the transmission out of territory, then it's a deliberate breach and a criminal offence.
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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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Pendodave wrote: 29 Jan 2025, 6:09pm And as for the "spirit" of the activity, I don't feel the Warner bros/discovery deserve any benefit of the doubt...
Why? They entered in to a rights auction and won. The problem is that the governing bodies are taking short term cash at the expense of bigger audiences. Cricket did exactly this in the late 90s, it disappeared behind a paywall, grass roots participation went through the floor and it has taken them 25 years to even start to recover. UCI really needs new product to attract and retain the under 35 audience - who do not watch long form TV in the same numbers.

WBD also have the European rights for the Olympics - the only reason you can still see them in the UK is that the UK requires them to be free to air, so WBD have had to sell on a (very limited) set of feeds to a UK broadcaster with full Freeview coverage.
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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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st599_uk wrote: 3 Feb 2025, 9:48am
Pendodave wrote: 29 Jan 2025, 6:09pm And as for the "spirit" of the activity, I don't feel the Warner bros/discovery deserve any benefit of the doubt...
Why? They entered in to a rights auction and won.
The TdF rights were not auctioned by ASO, nor were UCI involved much.
Last edited by mjr on 3 Feb 2025, 5:52pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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mjr wrote: 3 Feb 2025, 12:14pm
st599_uk wrote: 3 Feb 2025, 9:48am
Pendodave wrote: 29 Jan 2025, 6:09pm And as for the "spirit" of the activity, I don't feel the Warner bros/discovery deserve any benefit of the doubt...
Why? They entered in to a rights auction and won.
The TdF rights were not auctioned my ASO, nor were UCI involved much.
They were sold by ASO to the EBU (a members organisation of which ITV is a member) who offered them at a cost split to the membership (I'm not sure if it was offered to all members or just the incumbent rights holder in each country). This was taken up by a members in 13 countries (France TV is the host broadcaster, so whilst an EBU member don't need to take up the offer). For regions where it wasn't taken up (including the UK and Ireland), then a sub licence was offered which WBD bought - so they have the rights to all European countries that didn't take up the EBU offer.
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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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Been looking at ways to get TNT cheaper than the £31 a month. There appears to be a deal for people on the EE network, a SIM only deal called the All-Rounder, where you get unlimited calls, texts and data, free EU roaming and you can choose one Inclusive Extra. The Inclusive Extras are Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple One(which includes Apple Music and Apple TV), Netflix, XBox Gaming or TNT Sports. It’s £27 a month for the All-Rounder Sim. My wife is on EE and currently pays £23 a month for just Unlimited calls, texts and data, so it’s only £4 a month more. YMMV. (I’m on 3 and only pay £14 a month for unlimited data, calls and texts).
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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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Is that EE deal limited to only watching on a phone?
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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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Paulatic wrote: 7 Feb 2025, 8:23am Is that EE deal limited to only watching on a phone?
If you have a Casting facility on whatever the player is that's not really an issue, as long as your TV is modern enough to take a Chromecast input (be it physically from a Chromecast or directly by signal).

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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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It's a sporting event which must cost millions to organise and pay for. Why do people expect to watch it free of charge?
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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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pete75 wrote: 7 Feb 2025, 1:01pm It's a sporting event which must cost millions to organise and pay for. Why do people expect to watch it free of charge?
No-one is expecting it to be free. They are objecting to paying £360 per year vs £84. Cycling didn't just get several 100 percent more expensive to cover.
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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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pjclinch wrote: 7 Feb 2025, 11:41am
Paulatic wrote: 7 Feb 2025, 8:23am Is that EE deal limited to only watching on a phone?
If you have a Casting facility on whatever the player is that's not really an issue, as long as your TV is modern enough to take a Chromecast input (be it physically from a Chromecast or directly by signal).

Pete.
I realise that but the point I was raising It can be an issue if you’re out of the house with your phone and the other half doesn’t have an EE sim at home and wants to watch.
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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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pete75 wrote: 7 Feb 2025, 1:01pm It's a sporting event which must cost millions to organise and pay for. Why do people expect to watch it free of charge?
well, it's hardly unusual ...

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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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pete75 wrote: 7 Feb 2025, 1:01pm It's a sporting event which must cost millions to organise and pay for. Why do people expect to watch it free of charge?
Partly because we always have, which isn't a reason in itself, but there again the reason we always have is that there's no shortage of folk still making a tidy sum by letting us watch it free of charge. So when the rationale becomes "some of us want an even tidier sum and we think we can screw it out of folks" rather than "this event will die if they don't pay a lot to watch" then it grates a bit...

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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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Pendodave wrote: 7 Feb 2025, 1:16pm No-one is expecting it to be free. They are objecting to paying £360 per year vs £84. Cycling didn't just get several 100 percent more expensive to cover.
Exactly that. I don't mind paying for cycling, I just don't want to have to pay for football (and rugby, and hurling, and formation goat dancing) when I have no interest in football (or rugby, or hurling, or formation goat dancing).
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Re: Tour de France TV rights

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Paulatic wrote: 7 Feb 2025, 8:23am Is that EE deal limited to only watching on a phone?
Access seems to be via the EE App, which I’ve successfully downloaded onto my iPad and logged on using my wife’s login details. There’s a section which says “ View your additional add-ons”, which is where the TNT access will be when and if we upgrade. It’s currently saying I can get TNT Sports for £20 per month, but I’ve not upgraded to the All-rounder SIM deal yet, which should give free access to TNT.

So I should be able to watch TNT on my iPad, at the very least, which is pretty much how I watch Discovery+ now.
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