Free-to-air highlights of the Tour de France are to be shown on 5 in the UK this July, it was announced on Wednesday, after an agreement with TNT Sports.

The terrestrial channel, formerly Channel 5, has signed a deal until 2028 to show daily coverage of Tour, as well as highlights of the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, presented by Rebecca Charlton. The station will also show live coverage of the UK Grands Départs of the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2027. Highlights will be on 5 at 7pm every evening, starting Saturday 4 July in Barcelona. Daily highlights of the 2027 Tour de France Femmes will also be available on 5.

This season will be the first season in decades that the Tour will not be shown live, in full, on television for free. In 2025, it was revealed that ITV would no longer televise the Tour, the exclusive UK rights having been sold to Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), the parent company of TNT Sports.

Live coverage in the UK will remain on TNT Sports and HBO Max, with contracts costing £30.99 a month, although it can be purchased for £25.99 a month on a 12-month contract.

Last month, Scott Young, EVP at Warner Bros Discovery Sports Europe, said: "I think you need to have a free-to-air product. And there will be a free-to-air product."

The announcement followed a "competitive tender process", according to a press release. The deal for Tour and Vuelta highlights lasts until 2028, with the Giro deal going to 2029.

"The Grand Tours are the most prestigious cycling events in the world, watched and adored by millions, and we are delighted that 5 will be their new free-to-air home in the UK," Reemah Sakaan, the president of 5, said. "Our daily highlights show for the Tour de France will be available to everyone at 7pm each evening this July and we’ll also have daily highlights through both the Vuelta a España and the Giro d’Italia for the next three years, plus next year we’ll have live coverage of the Tour de France’s historic return to the UK.

"The Tour de France kicks off an incredible summer of sport on 5, adding to the rapidly expanding range of premium sport we have for people to watch, including the best of the action from the Commonwealth Games this summer. This new deal with TNT Sports reflects our long-term commitment to bringing brilliant coverage of the world’s best sporting events to millions of viewers and providing access to premium audiences for advertisers."

"By combining a strong free-to-air highlights offering with our comprehensive live coverage, we are delivering unprecedented access to the sport across every platform," Young said. "Cycling is one of the most compelling sports in the world, featuring extraordinary athletes and unforgettable moments, and it's important that those stories are shared with the widest possible audience.

"Expanding reach and engaging new audiences across our rights portfolio remains a key strategic priority, and partnerships such as this play an important role in achieving that ambition."

Charlton added: "It’s an absolute dream to have the opportunity to bring the racing to life for all of the cycling fans out there as well as guiding some new viewers along for the ride. We’ll be bringing highlights of all of the action as well as telling the stories around the racing and I for one, cannot wait!"

The 2026 Tour de France begins on Saturday 4 July, running until Sunday 26 July.

It all started with a song by Queen. No, not Bicycle Race, or Tenement Funster for that matter. It was I Want It All, which Guy Voisin, now Warner Bros. Discovery Sport's VP for cycling, sent to his company's head of rights, when he was asked just how much cycling he wanted to be able to show.

'All' is a pretty accurate word to describe the level of live cycling coverage that WBD, through TNT Sports and HBO Max, show in the UK. After the demise of ITV's cycling coverage, and the closure of Eurosport, TNT Sports is now truly the home of cycling , something the company has taken care to construct.

"Whether it be rights, production, the team on site, having the right commentators, and having the right experts talk to an audience, we haven't left any stone unturned," Scott Young, EVP at WBD Sports, argued last week. "I genuinely hope that's how the industry feels that we tackle cycling. I would say we don't do it as consistently through the year with any other sport."

TNT Sports, and therefore HBO Max, has exclusive rights to the Grand Tours, including the Tour de France for 2026, and the Classics, as well as all WorldTour and Women's WorldTour races, cyclo-cross, and UCI MTB World Cups too.

For all the justified criticism of TNT Sports, including its cost (£30.99 a month on a rolling contract, or £25.99 on a 12-month plan), and the removal of the ad-free streaming option last summer, it is hard to avoid the fact that it is the home of cycling, and that a team of passionate people work hard behind and in front of the scenes. The idea for the audience is to "take me there and make me care".

"It’s a journey, and we’re asking cycling fans to come on that journey with us," Young says. "We need to demonstrate our commitment to cycling. If Eurosport was the base product, that’s a fantastic base to start with. We need to explain to cycling fans that whilst the price point has increased, so has our commitment to cycling, we continue to invest in cycling at every level.

"I think they just need to come along with the journey. And then it's really up to the individual, whether they believe the value is there or not. We can't tell them if the value is there or not."

To show us how they go about creating that value, Cycling Weekly was taken on a trip to Italy for stage six of the Giro d'Italia, and then to the TNT Sports studios in Stockley Park, west London to see how it all comes together.

The highest-profile member of that passionate team is Orla Chennaoui, who is firmly established as the face of cycling on the home of cycling. Her passion radiates through the screen, and is based on strong foundations – she reveals that she listens to podcast upon podcast of cycling content every night, and reads all the reaction and reports too.

"The whole live programme is quite an orchestrated dance," Chennaoui explains, taking time out of her busy schedule of watching the Blockhaus stage to talk us through her day. "Everything in that post [stage] show comes from our heads, which I love. It's the spontaneity of it. It's the potential chaos of it that never tips over. But it's that genuine reaction off the back of whatever we've just seen. If something shocking has happened, it's a real shock. There's nothing fabricated about it, which is the joy of live television."

There's organised chaos behind the cameras, too, as the director in the gallery back in Stockley Park decides what feed is shown to the viewer, both before, during, and after the stage. The main feed itself comes from the Giro's organisers, RCS Sport, with TNT Sports having little say over what footage is beamed over from Italy, but everything after that is decided here.

The commentary teams are currently split between WBD's London and Paris offices, with Matt Stephens, Robbie McEwen and Adam Blythe coming from the UK, and Rob Hatch and Sean Kelly coming from France. Not that you'd know that they were not only in different rooms, but different countries.

For the dozen weeks of the year that she is based in west London, covering the Grand Tours and the Classics for TNT Sports, pro cycling for Chennaoui is everything.

"It's really hard to switch off, and mostly I kind of don't want to, I think, when you're in the Grand Tour bubble," she says. "I come here for work, my family are all in Amsterdam, so I'm FaceTiming them, but I'm here to work. I'm here to fully absorb myself in the bubble of the Giro or the Tour de France or the Vuelta, and I really enjoy living and breathing all of that. So sometimes it's actually really hard to switch off and get to sleep, because I'm still hyped about that."

While Chennaoui is in her Grand Tour bubble metaphorically, ensconced within it are TNT Sports' on-site reporters, Hannah Walker, Anders Mielke and Jens Voigt, who provide the on-the-ground reporting and insight that the TV commentators are unable to. This might be interviews around the race, general vibe checks, or, in the case of Voigt, reporting from the back of a motorbike during a stage. Or, as Walker showed last week, a brief bit of football.

After finding a ball in the paddock ahead of stage five, Walker attempted some keepy uppies, which ended with the ball flying into an innocent bystander. All of which was caught on film. "I don't know if you saw it," she tells Cycling Weekly ahead of stage six in Paestum. "That's probably the most spontaneous thing to date. Everyone was fine, by the way. VAR didn't need to get involved. So that was probably the most fun, spontaneous thing. It just happened."

"There's not been a time where teams haven't given us full access to whatever we might need, and it's always very ad hoc," Walker told us when we caught up with her in Italy, shadowed by her loyal cameraman, Bob Vanveen, who carries not just a camera but the transponder sending her reports home. "They're always very willing to allow us that, that access, which is appreciated.

"It's juggling everything, really. I think it's a fine balance of knowing when's the right time, and finding the right tone."

Jens Voigt's in-race experience

Voigt gets to his motorbike after a "minimal programme of fitness" every morning, which consists of 40 press ups and squats, and a bonus 10km run before the stage.

After a convoluted journey involving a transmission unit on his bike, a plane circling above, and satellites, his feed reaches our screens – hence the delay in his conversations with commentators.

"If you look at the way the signal travels, it's mind blowing," the ex-rider says. "How little goes wrong. There's a million things that could go wrong."

"I'm not allowed to talk to the riders," Voigt adds, with a wink. "If they approach me and say hi, I can smile and so on, but I cannot do an interview. We had that some years ago, but they put a stop to it. Of course, there are really precious little moments when riders talk to you. There have been rumours that people have their microphone covered to talk to the riders but I have never seen that, of course."

It has been an adjustment for the man who rode 17 Tours de France, with many peers now working as DSes. "I ask, as a friend or former colleague, how are you?" he explains. "And then, now I ask as a job question, whatever you see now I'm gonna use later. You cannot mix it up, even if they give you something really precious in private."

The product team, steered by Voisin, are excited about new technology on it's way, and those recently adopted, such as multi-view, which has been upgraded for this year's Giro. With commentary running over the top, it offers different views of the race, along with stats; according to Voisin, it was partly created at the behest of cycling teams. 15 HBO Max passes are handed out to each WorldTour and Women's WorldTour team, allowing them to keep up with the action in their cars.

Key moments are now logged by an editorial team, allowing viewers on HBO Max to go back to re-watch, or skip through if they're catching up. Notably, there is a strict policy on crashes to only show them if the rider is known to be OK. Other possible features on the horizon include 'double box adverts', meaning that there might not be any interruption in coverage during an ad break, and also a listen-only feature.

It might be more expensive than fans are used to, and on yet another different platform this year, but it feels as if cycling has a good custodian in TNT Sports. They definitely 'have it all', and are conscious of that. "Cycling is not a small cog or wheel," Young says. "It's a major part of that wheel, and I can't see that changing in the foreseeable future, irrespective of all the other sports around it."

In the US, the Giro is currently also being shown on HBO Max. Keep up to date with how to watch cycling in the UK and across the world with our streaming guide, and take a look at our guide on how to watch cycling for free.

TNT Sports is the Home of Cycling in the UK, with every stage of the Giro d’Italia live on TNT Sports and HBO Max.

Fans concerned about following the Tour de France in the UK this summer after the demise of ITV's coverage can have hope that at least some of it will be shown on free-to-air television.

Speaking to journalists last week, Scott Young, EVP at Warner Bros Discovery Sports Europe, said: "I think you need to have a free-to-air product. And there will be a free-to-air product.

"It could entail having a partner that will show parts of the Tour de France to a free audience, but we're just working through how much [of the race], what duration, frequency, we're working through all the elements of that."

Young would not be drawn on what the FTA package would look like, and there was no suggestion that it would include live coverage, but this was also not ruled out.

This season will be the first season in decades that the Tour will not be shown live, in full, on television for free. In 2025, it was revealed that ITV would no longer televise the Tour, the exclusive UK rights having been sold to Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), parent company of TNT Sports.

Last year, Eurosport also closed, with the price of a monthly subscription to HBO Max with TNT Sports going from £6.99 to £30.99 a month, although it can be purchased for £25.99 a month on a 12-month contract.

Full details of the coverage are promised in due course. Daily highlights of the current Giro d'Italia are available nightly on free-to-air channel DMAX, along with YouTube and social media clips.

"We have relationships with free-to-air partners across nearly everything that we do," Young said, which includes with the BBC for the Olympics and the FA Cup, and ITV for rugby union.

A survey by Cycling Weekly last year revealed that 71% of respondents said they watched the Tour on ITV. Of those 1,273 people, 1,120 said they would not subscribe to TNT Sports to watch the race live in 2026, and almost half said they had never paid to watch cycling on TV.

"Companies like us and Sky invest in sport, and that's why sports like the [football] Premier League have been going since day one behind a paywall," Young said. "There’s a clear audience in this market that accepts paying for sport. Sport in this market generally sits behind a paywall one way or the other.

"We need to have a relationship with free-to-air to do exactly that for us to continue to have the value coming in through the subscription, so we can invest in sport and have a free-to-air partner, so that a certain amount of that content is also accessible to people who choose not to subscribe and maybe watch the entire 21 stages, but get to see enough of it through free."

"There are some people who will not convert from a free-to-air point into paid television," Young admitted. "I think you have to accept that there’s an audience out there who will do that. But there is also an audience that will watch content, either on free-to-air or on YouTube and actually want the rest of the story. They don’t want to just watch highlights, they want to watch the entire Tour de France.

"There is a genuine package and offer that says, If you subscribe for a year, we haven't left any cycling that we know about untamed."

For critics who suggested that the inflated subscription fee was subsidising football, Young said: "Cycling is not a small cog or wheel. It's a major part of that wheel, and I can't see that changing in the foreseeable future, irrespective of all the other sports around it. So the Champions League coming or going makes no difference to our cycling strategy."

Last year's Tour also saw TNT Sports' ad-free streaming option dropped. Young said: "I think, as a commercial sports broadcaster, an ad-free product doesn’t make a lot of sense."

However, it is understood that a different way of showing ads might emerge soon, where the action is shown as a dual screen alongside the commercials.

Despite the noise, Young and his team, including Guy Voisin, the VP of cycling at WBD, are looking forward to their debut Tour as exclusive rights holders in the UK.

"It’s really exciting, because I know we’re going to commit to it," Young said. "I know what we’re going to deliver on the Tour is going to be extraordinary. Guy guaranteed it’s going to be epic. What we’re going to do on the Tour will elevate our coverage of cycling."

In the US, the Giro is currently also being shown on HBO Max. Keep up to date with how to watch cycling in the UK and across the world with our streaming guide, and take a look at our guide on how to watch cycling for free.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has renewed the TV rights to show the Giro d'Italia in Europe and the USA, on TNT Sports and HBO Max, until at least 2029, it was announced on Wednesday.

The rights are exclusive in Europe, outside of Italy, and include the men's and women's races, alongside Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, and other RCS Sport-organised events.

The full package includes the Giro d'Italia, the Giro d'Italia Women, the Giro Next Gen, Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo, Milan-Torino, Il Lombardia, Gran Piemonte, and the UAE Tour.

According to WBD, its coverage of last year's Giro was the most-watched ever, with a 44% growth on streaming platforms, and 84% growth across social media.

WBD also hold the rights to the Tour de France, Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and other ASO-organised races like Paris-Roubaix, alongside the Vuelta a España. In the UK, cycling is shown on TNT Sports or through HBO Max, with HBO Max used across Europe and the USA too; in the USA, non-exclusive coverage will also be shown on truTV.

"Cycling is at the heart of our live multi-sport offer and no-one covers this sport like we do through unparalleled race coverage and rider storytelling," Trojan Paillot, SVP Sports Rights Acquisitions and Syndications at WBD Sports Europe, said in a statement. "With a rich cycling heritage that spans multiple decades, we are recognised as the home of cycling and go-to destination for cycling’s greatest events including the Giro d’Italia and Giro d’Italia Women."

"By extending our rights to show the Giro d’Italia, Giro d’Italia Women and a whole host of premier Italian races, we have underlined our commitment to supporting the long-term growth of the sport. As a trusted partner to RCS and the Giro, we will continue to invest in enhancing our coverage and know we can attract the widest set of viewers around the world with this approach to help inspire the next generation of cycling stars."

"We are proud to continue and strengthen a long-standing partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery, which for over thirty years has helped bring the Giro d’Italia and our races to millions of fans around the world with unparalleled reach," Paolo Bellini, CEO at RCS Sport, said. "This is especially true in the European market—including the UK through TNT Sports—and in North America, thanks to the HBO Max platform.

"This agreement reaffirms the global value of our events and their growing appeal, across both men’s and women’s racing. Together, we will keep pushing the boundaries of cycling storytelling, building on the rich heritage of our competitions while showcasing the achievements of the sport’s new generation of champions. Our goal is to further expand our global fanbase and inspire new audiences to connect with cycling."

TNT Sports and HBO Max will broadcast a new weekly programme called The Cycling Show starting this Tuesday evening.

The show, limited to 10 half-hour episodes, promises to go behind the scenes of men’s and women’s professional cycling teams, with insights into performance, nutrition and equipment from staff and rider interviews.

The first episode will be aired on TNT Sports and online on HBO Max on Tuesday 31 March at 19:30 UK time. It will cover the UCI ProTeam Tudor Pro Cycling, founded in 2022 by Fabian Cancellara, the three-time winner of both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

Episode two will then look at SD Worx-Protime on 7 April, before a third episode on Decathlon CMA CGM on 14 April, both at an earlier time of 19:00. The remaining teams involved are still to be announced.

The new series will run until the start of the Tour de France in July, but will go on a break in May throughout the Giro d’Italia and Roland Garros tennis tournament.

The Cycling Show is different to The Ultimate Cycling Show, a magazine show produced and broadcast last year by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), the parent company of TNT Sports, HBO Max and Eurosport.

While The Ultimate Cycling Show counted Orla Chennaoui and Adam Blythe as hosts, and was shown free-to-air on Quest, The Cycling Show will be presented by an off-screen voiceover, and is exclusive to WBD’s paywalled channels in the UK and Ireland: TNT Sports and HBO Max. It will be available in Europe on Eurosport.

WBD closed its Discovery+ streaming platform in the UK and Ireland last week and moved the service to HBO Max, the company’s “premier global streaming platform”. The switch marked the third time in as many years cycling has changed streaming service in the UK.

The sport was previously available to watch live and ad-free for £6.99 a month on Discovery+. In February 2025, it was put behind a £30.99 a month paywall following the migration from Eurosport to TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland.

New customers to HBO Max can currently purchase a 12-month ‘saver plan’ priced at £25.99 a month to access TNT Sports. This is a saving of £5 a month on the standard package, but still almost four times the price it previously cost fans to watch cycling.

TNT Sports is moving its streaming service to HBO Max in the UK and Ireland today, 26 March, and is offering a discounted ‘saver plan’ for sports fans.

Customers who wish to purchase standalone online access to TNT Sports will be able to do so for £25.99 a month, provided they take out a 12-month subscription. This is £5 less than the currently monthly price of £30.99, which will remain the same after the switch.

The move to HBO Max only affects online viewing previously available on Discovery+, the streaming platform of TNT Sports. On live television, cycling remains on TNT Sports, as before.

All existing Discovery+ subscribers are still able to access their current package by signing in to HBOMax.com with their same email address and password.

The first live bike races shown on HBO Max will be stage four of the men’s Volta a Catalunya, and the women’s Ronde van Brugge (formerly the Classic Brugge-De Panne), both of which take place on Thursday afternoon.

HBO Max, like TNT Sports and Discovery+, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and is already live in 100 countries around the world. It is described as WBD's "premier global streaming platform", and also includes films and TV series.

Customers can purchase subscriptions containing all of HBO Max's services and TNT Sports, or either strand separately.

This latest switch for cycling broadcasting marks the third time the sport has changed streaming service in the UK in as many years. In late 2023, fans lamented the closure of GCN+, a platform that offered live, advert-free racing for £6.99 a month, or £39.99 a year.

Cycling was then moved to the Discovery+ platform, still priced at £6.99 a month, before it was placed within a broader subscription package following the migration from Eurosport to TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland in February 2025. This put the sport behind a £30.99 a month paywall.

Following ITV's relinquishing of broadcast rights, this July will mark the first time in decades that the Tour de France won't be shown on free-to-air TV in the UK.

A survey by Cycling Weekly last year revealed that 71% of respondents said they watched the Tour on ITV. Of those 1,273 people, 1,120 said they would not subscribe to TNT Sports to watch the race live in 2026, and almost half said they had never paid to watch cycling on TV.

Cycling coverage in the UK and Ireland is to move to HBO Max from the end of March from Discovery+.

TNT Sports will be part of the new Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) platform from Thursday 26 March. HBO Max is already live in over 100 countries around the world.

It will be the third time cycling has moved around a streaming service online in the last few years, after the closure of GCN+, and the end of Eurosport last year. On live television, cycling will remain on TNT Sports, as before. This year will be the first year for decades that the Tour de France won't be broadcast on free-to-air TV.

The subscription plans will remain the same, with HBO Max with TNT Sports at £30.99 a month. However, moving over to the new service should be seamless, with users able to login to HBO Max with their Discovery+ account. Plans or bills will not change with the switch.

It's understood that the move is WBD consolidating its multiple avenues. HBO Max will bring together content from HBO, Warner Bros Pictures and Television and DC Studios, as well as TNT Sports.

Cycling has been a very small part of the WBD empire since Warner Bros Discovery was formed in 2021 after a merger of AT&T and Discovery.

Discovery had bought into Play Sports Group, the company that owned the GCN operation since its inception on YouTube, in 2017 and increased its shareholding in 2019. In 2021 it took a 100% stake in the company in a deal that reportedly valued it at £70m.

That included the YouTube channel, and the then newly-created GCN+, the streaming service which comprehensively covered professional cycling with a dedicated platform and app.

However, at the end of 2023, the GCN+ streaming service and app were closed, with Warner Bros. Discovery moving the television rights to its Eurosport, Discovery+ and Max, leaving Play Sports Network responsible for just the YouTube channel.

Then, last year, Eurosport was closed down in the UK with TNT Sports becoming the home of live cycling. It meant the sport was placed within a broader sports subscription package, priced at £30.99 a month – more than four times the GCN+ offering.

Late last year, it emerged that WBD had entered exclusive talks with Netflix over a potential takeover. However, it is not known at what stage that process is now at, or what this might mean for the future of cycling on TV.

A survey by Cycling Weekly last year revealed that 71% of respondents told us they watched the Tour on ITV. Of those 1,273 people, 1,120 said they would not subscribe to TNT Sports to watch the race live in 2026 (and almost half said they’d never paid to watch cycling on TV). That’s 88%, an overwhelming majority of TV-watching cycling fans in the UK.

The organisers of the UK’s Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift Grands Départs in 2027 have said securing free-to-air television coverage of the stages is “important” and negotiations are “a work in progress”.

The UK will host six stages of the Tour next year, split equally across the men’s and women’s events, it was announced on Thursday.

Both races currently sit behind a paywall in the UK, after TNT Sports owner Warner Bros. Discovery signed an exclusive broadcasting deal last year that ended 40 years of free-to-air coverage. A TNT Sports subscription costs £30.99 a month.

Speaking during a press conference in Leeds on Thursday, the managing director of the UK Grand Départ, Paul Bush, said he and his fellow organisers “have a commitment to work with Christian [Prudhomme, Tour de France race director] and the ASO team to look at how we can bring the six stages in the UK to free-to-air coverage, and that is currently ongoing.”

Cycling Weekly then questioned Bush further on the matter. “It’s still a work in progress,” he said. “I would hope that in the next six months we can reach some sort of conclusion on that. I think it’s important, Christian knows it’s important, but obviously contractual situations with current rights holders need to be negotiated carefully and sympathetically.

“As Jon [Dutton, British Cycling CEO] said, this is a moment for the nation. It’s bigger than a sporting event, and I think that deserves to have that platform.”

Race director Prudhomme previously voiced his optimism about free-to-air coverage of the two UK Grands Départs when he first announced them last March.

“There will be discussions, of course,” Prudhomme said last year. “But I do hope – and I do believe – that the stages will be live and free-to-air in 2027 in the UK. There will be discussions and we’re optimistic.”

The men’s Tour will start in Edinburgh in 2027, with an opening day finish in Carlisle on 2 July. Stage two will then begin in Keswick in the Lake District, finishing in Liverpool, before an all-Welsh third stage between Welshpool and Cardiff.

The women’s race will open on 30 July in Leeds. Stage one will cross the Pennines to Manchester, where stage three will also start, before finishing in Sheffield. The third stage, still to be revealed, will start and finish in London.

This feature originally appeared in our Cycling Weekly's Review of the Year on 18 December 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

It’s 5:57pm in south London, 12 September 2005, and the shadows are lengthening at the Oval. Steve Harmison bowls the final ball of the men’s Ashes; Justin Langer misjudges it, the ball glances off him, runs away to the boundary for four leg byes, and the umpires call stumps. England fans launch into wild celebration, having won the Ashes for the first time in 18 years – and at that exact same moment, live Test cricket disappears from UK free-to-air television.

The consequences were almost immediate: viewing figures collapsed – from a peak of 8.4 million viewers during that 2005 Ashes to struggling for a single million – and cricket slipped from national conversation to something closer to a niche interest.

Almost 20 years on, at 7:32pm on 27 July 2025, rain is still slick on the cobbles of the Champs-Élysées as Wout van Aert sweeps through the final corner of stage 21 of the Tour de France. Moments later, Tadej Pogačar rolls across the line to secure his fourth yellow jersey – and the day’s coverage wraps up, the world’s biggest race disappears from UK screens.

From next year, ITV will no longer televise the Tour, the exclusive UK rights having been sold to Warner Bros Discovery, parent company of TNT Sports. Earlier in the year, the cost of watching all the other big races jumped from £6.99 per month on Discovery+ to £30.99 on TNT Sports – a sharp rise that echoes cricket’s slide into subscription-only (relative) obscurity. The parallel isn’t perfect, but the warning is hard to ignore: when access narrows, audiences shrink, and a sport begins to slip from the national consciousness.

Turning off

A recent survey by Cycling Weekly revealed the stark reality: 71% of respondents told us they watched the Tour on ITV. Of those 1,273 people, 1,120 said they would not subscribe to TNT Sports to watch the race live in 2026 (and almost half said they’d never paid to watch cycling on TV). That’s 88%, an overwhelming majority of TV-watching cycling fans in the UK.

If they keep their word and refuse to stump up for a TNT subscription, they won’t be watching the Tour next summer. What then for the future of the sport? It’s a disturbing prospect.

The average cycling fan’s mood on this matter is dour. One commented to CW: “Terrible. Shocking. Saddening. Greedy. So bad for our sport.” Another: “I have been watching the Tour since Greg LeMond’s days. I can't afford to keep watching now though. Maybe I’ll go out for a ride more often.”

Ex-ITV pundit and former pro David Millar told me earlier this year: “A whole generation is going to lose the Tour because they’re not going to buy a subscription.” His colleague, Ned Boulting, echoed the sentiment: "I wish TNT all the success in bringing the Tour de France to the widest possible audience. That's really important for the health of the sport in our country. But I have my doubts. It’s not so much how many people are willing, it's how many people are able to pay the extra.”

Cycling is not cricket. It is a far smaller sport, with a much smaller audience. If cricket – with its large and largely affluent fanbase – has suffered from not being on TV, pushed to the margins, what hope does cycling have?

WBD Sports Europe's senior vice president, Scott Young, has previously made clear that free-to-air live cycling is not on the broadcaster's "road map". He has also said that there are no concerns within WBD that putting the sport behind a paywall will stunt future fan growth.

A petition urging the UK government to legislate to keep the Tour de France on free-to-air TV gained over 18,000 signatures – but went unheeded.

TNT future

The removal of free Tour de France coverage comes hot on the heels of the closure of Eurosport, and the axing of the cheap Discovery+ subscription, replaced by a single option: £30.99 a month for TNT Sports. There might be more cycling available on live TV than ever, but only for those who are able and willing to pay for it.

TNT has trumpeted its broadcasting of every WorldTour and Women’s WorldTour race, and almost every moment of the Grand Tours, but it remains too expensive for many. The only professional races that were free to watch live on TV in the UK this year were the men’s and women’s Tours of Britain, and the World Championships.

Despite paying more to watch cycling, new subscribers have found the coverage unimproved. There are a few new features – post-race analysis in The Breakaway, green screens and roving reporters beaming live interviews to the studio – but there has been no step change justifying the higher price. Besides, the respondents of our survey told us they didn’t want better programming, only a cheaper subscription.

It was salt in the wounds for fans when, out of the blue, TNT scrapped the ad-free streaming option before the Tour de France. Instead, a new split-screen option presented a Hobson’s choice between a worse viewing experience and watching the adverts. The ad-free steam has not returned.

As one survey respondent put it: “I have always paid to avoid the adverts, but I was aghast to have to sit through adverts, even though paying for the 'full' package.” It may be another example of ‘enshittification’ – Cory Doctorow’s phrase describing how, once a company has captured paying customers, its loyalty switches to its advertisers.

The latest Ashes series is currently underway in Australia, broadcast in the UK by TNT Sports – and the reaction from cricket fans feels familiar. Coverage is widely viewed as a step down, with fewer pundits than before, and cycling commentator Rob Hatch repurposed to call the action. This is no criticism of Hatch, who is knowledgeable and professional, but it underlines the sense that subscribers are paying more for less.

Ultimately, people are already watching less live cycling in the UK, and the long-term picture is deeply concerning: with fewer casual viewers stumbling across the sport, its ability to grow is seriously compromised.

As Matt Rendell, formerly of ITV, put it: “I don't really see how it grows from behind a paywall because, you know, people aren't going to be glimpsing it out of the corner of their eye.” Race organisers, governing bodies and broadcasters may want to reflect on one statistic above all: 79% of our survey respondents said they have watched less cycling since the TNT shake-up. Unless something changes, that number is only going to rise.

Free-to-air cycling gone for good?

While it very much is the end for ITV’s Tour de France coverage, and TNT Sports doesn’t look like giving up the rights any time soon – its deal runs until 2030. However, there are green shoots and alternatives. From next year, Ned Boulting, David Millar and Lizzie Deignan will be present on the roads of France with NSF Live, a new free audio and video show throughout the race. Similar to how cricket’s going behind a paywall forced people back to listening to radio coverage, cycling fans may elect to tune in aurally – or so Boulting hopes.

Separately, with the 2027 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift beginning in the UK, race director Christian Prudhomme has made encouraging noises about at least those stages being broadcast on free-to-air TV. Then again, if the race disappears from free TV immediately after the Grand Départ, it won’t be much of a sugar coating on the bitter pill. Respondents to our survey have turned to highlights on YouTube, VPNs to access free coverage overseas, and CW news reports to fill the gap.

Adam Blythe, 36, was born in Sheffield and raced from a young age with Sheffield Phoenix club. He enjoyed a decade-long professional career from 2010 to 2019, earning a reputation for his sprinting strength, sharp tactics and infectious personality. Racing for top teams including BMC Racing Team, Orica–GreenEdge, Tinkoff and Lotto-Soudal, he claimed standout victories including the 2014 RideLondon-Surrey Classic and the road race at the 2016 British National Road Race Championships.

Since retiring, Blythe has brought the same energy and insight to the commentary box, becoming a familiar face and voice for Eurosport and TNT Sports. Now, with his trademark humour and honesty, he reflects on life after racing, the pressures of punditry, and why cycling needs more flair, fun and individuality – on and off the bike.

You were recently involved in a PR stunt where you were on a horse while jockey Harry Skelton was on a bike. How did that come about?

I’d never really been around horses. So I went down to Harry Skelton’s place, his house and stables, where he’s got about 200 thoroughbred racehorses. Just before I left, I said, “Can I at least sit on one?” They’re such big, powerful animals. I was bricking it a bit – more a mental challenge than anything else – but it was a great experience.

You wanted to compare the two worlds, cycling and horse racing?

Exactly. Harry’s really into cycling, so he invited me down to see how their world works, and to compare it. It was eye-opening – there’s a lot more that goes into horse racing than I realised.

You retired a few years ago. How did you find the transition from pro racing into media?

Different – but in a good way. I loved bike racing, but in my last year as a pro I had a lot going on. I already had a little boy at home, then we had twin girls. That was a challenge in itself, and I had to focus on my personal life. By March of that final season [2019] I’d already decided I was going to stop. I was going through a whirlwind of troubles, really, so I didn’t enjoy that last year much.

Moving into media was great. I still get to travel, but I also get to spend proper time at home with my family, which is what I wanted. I still love talking about racing and being involved, just in a different way now.

With a bit of distance from it, what do you miss about life in the peloton?

Honestly, I left at the right time. The sport was becoming more about marginal gains – power, nutrition, numbers – and less about the tactical side that I loved. I don’t miss the process – training every day, getting your head kicked in by the peloton – but I do miss being in top condition, when you could play with a race a little and really enjoy it. Those moments when you had super legs; that’s when racing was fun.

Sometimes when I’m commentating, I look at a situation and think, ‘God, I’d love to be in that right now, to read it, to play with it, to have the legs to make a move.’ But the day-to-day grind – the buses, the team meetings, the suffering – I don’t miss that at all.

You’ve built a really distinctive on-screen and commentary presence. Was that always the plan?

It kind of evolved. I did a little bit while I was still racing, some co-commentary here and there, which I enjoyed. When I stopped, I knew I wanted to do more. I contacted Eurosport straight away and said, “I want to do this.” It took two or three years before I was really on screen full-time. Now I absolutely love it.

You come across very naturally. Is that just you, or did you have to work at it?

I think it’s natural. For me, it’s about dissecting a race, not just saying the obvious things. You’ve got to imagine you’re the strongest rider in the peloton and think through what options are available, then explain why something didn’t happen, or why someone didn’t make a move. The key is remembering it’s not PlayStation – riders don’t always have perfect legs. I like highlighting those nuances and trying to educate the viewers a bit.

Another part of your persona and reputation is your flamboyant style: the kit, the clothes, the gold bikes. Has that always been part of who you are?

Yeah, I’ve always loved that side. I grew up wanting to look like [Belgian] Iljo Keisse on the track with his white and gold bikes, and on the road you had Italians [Mario] Cipollini, [Paolo] Bettini, [Alessandro] Petacchi – riders with a bit of flamboyance. Back then, between 2000 and about 2015, you could still project your character with little touches of individuality. Now, pro cycling is much more uniform – same bikes, same bars, white shoes, black socks. It’s very slick, but there’s less individuality. When I retired, Genesis let me go wild with bike designs, which was brilliant.

Were you criticised for challenging cycling’s traditional image?

Maybe from people who didn’t know me. They’d see a gold bike and think, ‘That’s awful.’ But people who knew me got it – it was just me expressing myself. Same with my clothes: not everyone likes what you wear, but if you feel good in it, that’s all that matters.

Have you done any collabs with brands on fashion or kit design?

A little bit, here and there. I’d love to do more of that. I think cycling clothing could be simple, but with a little detail that stands out. I’ve worked with [fashion brand] Reiss recently, in their Richmond store; I love that side of things. I love clothes and using them to express who I am.

Looking at the pro peloton now, what’s changed since you started?

Nutrition has changed massively – fuelling strategies, training methods – and that’s made the racing faster and more exciting. I think that’s a positive. The downside is the lack of individuality. Teams are stricter about everything: interviews, kit, what you can wear. You spend 99% of your life as a bike rider on the bike, and it’d be nice if you could still project your personality a bit more. Even small things – white handlebar tape, different stems – details that might seem trivial, but they make you feel good, sharper, more confident, like putting on a suit.

Do you think cycling struggles to attract youngsters into the sport?

I think, in terms of TV coverage, cycling is in a very good place right now. With TNT, for example, you can watch more cycling today than ever before. People sometimes forget that TNT has to pay a lot for the rights to those broadcasts. When criticism came out about ‘making people pay’ last year, it was directed at us, but actually, ITV didn’t even bid for events like the Tour de France Femmes. TNT were the only ones investing in putting it on TV at all.

Some fans say £30.99 a month, amid a cost of living crisis, is too big an expense just to watch cycling.

It isn’t the cheapest subscription in the world, but it’s no different to football or boxing – you pay to watch those sports too. For years cycling [coverage] was cheap, even free on demand, but the reality is the feed costs money, and without investment it simply wouldn’t be on TV. At least now it’s there, and [TNT] are the ones keeping it on air. If we stepped back, there would be nothing.

What about accessibility? How easy is it for kids to get into the sport?

That’s where cycling is very different from sports like football or basketball with their pitches and courts. Cycling doesn’t have that central facility. Sure, there are velodromes, but first you need a bike, which isn’t cheap, even if second-hand. There isn’t really a [talent identification] pathway, unless you’re already racing, or maybe posting big numbers on Strava. For young people who haven’t got into it yet, it’s difficult. I’d love to see a clearer pathway – something that teaches not just the physical side but also tactics, handling skills, and even the business element of pro cycling.

At the moment, it’s very much: ‘Can you do 500 watts? If yes, we’ll sign you.’ There’s so much more to the sport than that.

You touched on the business side – is it important that riders understand it?

Hugely. Pro cycling is a business, just like any other. You’re effectively a freelancer: you sign a contract, do a job, and if you don’t deliver, you might be out at the end of that contract. People talk about ‘bands of brothers’ and ‘wolf packs’, which sounds great, but when contracts are up, it’s every man for himself. That’s the reality.

Do you think cycling could learn from other sports in terms of national infrastructure?

Definitely. In football, you’ve got academies and stadiums where kids are picked up and developed. In cycling, there’s no single place where that happens. Velodromes are great, but road racing is different, and you’ve got mountain biking, cyclo-cross, time trialling. I think there’s a huge opportunity to create a structure where youngsters can learn across disciplines in one place, but right now it doesn’t exist.

Are we going to see you on horseback again?

Definitely not full-time [laughs]. I wouldn’t say no if I was being properly looked after, but those racehorses, they’re big, powerful creatures. If one of them decides to do its own thing, you’ve got no chance.

Series 2 of ‘Champions: Full Gallop’, featuring Adam Blythe, is available to watch on ITVX.

This interview was originally published in the 20 November 2025 print edition of Cycling Weekly magazine – available to buy on the newsstand every Thursday (UK only) while digital versions are available on Apple News and Readly. Subscriptions through Magazine's Direct.

Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland, and Eurosport in Europe, has entered exclusive talks with Netflix over a potential takeover.

According to reports on Friday morning, a deal could be agreed within a week, in a move which would transform the film and TV landscape.

However, for cycling fans thinking that their method of watching sport might change for the third year in a row, the deal will be for WBD's streaming and studio business, not for its networks, which includes TNT Sports and Eurosport.

The company was separated in June this year into two separate business: streaming and studios, which is the part expected to be bought; and global networks. This paved the way for this deal, which could see Netflix's streaming platform and global reach combined with WBD's films and TV, including HBO.

Netflix was in competition with Paramount Skydance and Comcast, which owns Universal Studios and Sky, although the bidding could still reopen. WBD shares closed at $24.54 on Thursday, giving the company a market value of $61 billion, and Netflix has reportedly offered between $28 and $30 a share, which means its bid is somewhere in the region of $70 to $75 billion.

For the deal on its streaming and studios to be completed, WBD would have to finish its spin-off of its channels, like TNT. Paramount had been thought to be the frontrunners, and it was thought that the US giant was keen to include all of the company in a takeover.

Cycling has been a very small part of the WBD empire since Warner Bros Discovery was formed in 2021 after a merger of AT&T and Discovery.

Discovery had bought into Play Sports Group, the company that owned the GCN operation since its inception on YouTube, in 2017 and increased its shareholding in 2019. In 2021 it took a 100% stake in the company in a deal that reportedly valued it at £70m.

That included the YouTube channel, and the then newly-created GCN+, the streaming service which comprehensively covered professional cycling with a dedicated platform and app.

However, at the end of 2023, the GCN+ streaming service and app were closed, with Warner Bros. Discovery moving the television rights to its Eurosport, Discovery+ and Max, leaving Play Sports Network responsible for just the YouTube channel.

Then, this year, Eurosport was closed down in the UK with TNT Sports becoming the home of live cycling. It meant the sport was placed within a broader sports subscription package, priced at £30.99 a month – more than four times the GCN+ offering.

It is unclear what the future holds for cycling on WBD, via TNT Sports and Discovery+, but if, as expected, Netflix win the takeover bid, fans will continue to have to use TNT to watch cycling in the UK and Ireland, and Eurosport in Europe.

Keep up to date with our guide to how to watch cycling around the world.

Cycling fans in the UK dealt with a lot of changes to their experience of watching live sport in 2025. Eurosport closed down, TNT Sports became the home of live cycling and ITV's live free-to-air Tour de France coverage ended.

All of this meant that watching cycling became a lot more expensive this season, which some might have become used to, while for others it is still a big issue. At Cycling Weekly, we are all too aware that it is still something people are discussing, almost a year on.

We've dedicated endless column issues to the changes, which have ranged from price hikes to the ad-free coverage ending too. There has been hope, from free highlights to Ned Boulting's plans for Never Strays Far, but it has been a reasonably bleak year in terms of TV news.

As a result, we want to hear from you. Cycling Weekly is running a short survey to gather reactions from our readers on how this shift will impact their viewing habits. Did you subscribe to TNT Sports? Did the increased cost force you to watch less cycling, or are you seeking alternative ways to follow the action? How are you feeling about the end of ITV?

Your input is invaluable in understanding how this change has affected and will continue to affect the UK cycling community. Please take a moment to share your thoughts in our survey – your voice matters. Results will be used for an upcoming article in Cycling Weekly’s review of the year and then online.

Coming at a time of stretched finances, if not a cost of living crisis, the huge increase in the cost of cycling coverage represented a major blow for UK fans of the sport, and the sport itself. Inevitably for some the new subscription proved unaffordable, and with no free option available, these viewers were priced out.

Has the price hike alienated casual fans and decimated the sport’s popularity, or will the majority of the UK cycling community absorb the cost to retain access to live bike racing? And what does this mean for future accessibility of the sport in the UK, particularly for younger fans and those taking an interest in cycling for the first time?

Daily highlights of the Vuelta a España will be broadcast on free-to-air television in the UK, TNT Sports announced on Thursday.

The Spanish Grand Tour, which begins on Saturday in Italy, will be broadcast live solely on TNT Sports 1 and 3 and its streaming platform, discovery+. It is the third men's Grand Tour since live cycling moved to TNT Sports and Eurosport was closed down.

All 21 stages will be broadcast, not in their entirety like the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France, but a minimum of 75 live hours of action will be shown. The big names on the start list include Jonas Vingegaard, Tom Pidcock, and João Almeida.

Fans without a subscription will be able to catch up with the action on free-to-air channel Quest, with highlights aired daily from 7-8pm in the UK. There will also be highlights available on TNT Sports' YouTube channel and on social media. ITV used to show highlights of the Vuelta, too, alongside its coverage of the Tour, but this is no longer the case.

There is no multi-screen view, as was available for viewers of the Giro or the Tour, and it appears ad-free streaming is a thing of the past, too.

Scott Young, EVP of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, said: "An incredible Grand Tour season continues to unfold and we are privileged to have another three weeks of epic and unpredictable racing ahead of us featuring some of the most inspiring athletes anywhere.

"This is not the final chapter in this monumental season however. We have the greatest collection of world-class races and a year-round approach to storytelling, and following just seven days after La Vuelta, we will be in Rwanda covering a historic Road World Championships. We can’t wait to see what new stories are written and promise to bring these to the widest possible audience in our role as pan-European broadcaster and the home of cycling."

The press release also detailed what viewers will see on their screens in the UK - Orla Chennaoui will present coverage on The Breakaway with Adam Blythe and Robbie McEwen as pundits throughout. Commentary will be provided by Rob Hatch and Sean Kelly, while on the ground reporters include Anders Mielke.

Keep up to date with how to watch cycling in the UK and across the world with our streaming guide.

Watch cycling on the move with a VPN. Our colleagues over at TechRadar rate NordVPN as the best VPN out there right now.

It’s not every day that people such as Mark Cavendish, Mathieu van der Poel and Ned Boulting are name-dropped in the UK Parliament, but all three were cited on Wednesday morning in a half-hour debate about the merits of free-to-air cycling coverage.

Proposed by Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, the debate stemmed from the recent closure of Eurosport, and cycling’s shift to Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) premium channel TNT Sports, carrying with it a 343% price hike, from £6.99 to £30.99 a month.

Speaking in Westminster Hall, Obese-Jecty described the loss of free-to-air cycling coverage as a “metaphor for the crisis that has befallen professional cycling in the UK”.

“Eurosport’s demise is a hammer blow for coverage of cycling in the UK,” he said.

“Cycling is one of those sports that people almost fall into by accident. Everyone had a bike growing up, everyone learns how to ride a bike, and I think the inspiration for riding that bike, and potentially taking it further and wanting to ape some of those successes that we see in the Olympics every four years is something that comes from having that on TV in front of you.”

A self-professed “cycling bore”, Obese-Jecty said he had been inspired to take up cyclo-cross after watching Van der Poel race on Eurosport.

The MP went on to say that he thinks it would be a “tragedy” that a potential Tour de France Grand Départ in the UK in 2027 will not be available to watch for free. This is because WBD, the parent company of Eurosport and TNT Sports, has signed an exclusivity deal in the UK for the race from 2026, meaning it will go behind a paywall, ending a 25-year run on ITV.

“For many, terrestrial coverage of the Tour de France has been their only entry point to a sport that is fundamentally extremely niche,” Obese-Jecty said.

“The Tour de France is more than just a famous cycling race, it is the gateway to a sport that is otherwise comparatively inaccessible, now made even more so by the decision to remove live free-to-air coverage from our TV screens.”

Obese-Jecty was congratulated on securing the debate by the Minister for Sport, Stephanie Peacock, who said she “sympathised” with his points about price hikes, but added it is “not for the government to intervene in such decisions”. The debate was not well attended, with around 10 people present in the room.

“To be popular, a sport must be visible. To be visible, a sport must have a television presence,” Obese-Jecty said. “The government would never allow the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games, or Wimbledon to be put behind a paywall.”

The MP concluded by expressing his concern that “the visibility of the sport will be limited to slightly overweight, middle-aged men, like myself, pootling around on a Sunday morning in their lycra, inspiring very few.”

Even though the issue has been raised in parliament, there is little guarantee the government will take any action.

WBD Sports Europe's senior vice president, Scott Young, has previously made clear that free-to-air live cycling is not on the broadcaster's "road map". He has also said that there are no concerns within WBD that putting the sport behind a paywall will stunt future fan growth.

TNT Sports has released its full calendar for cycling on TV, as the day that Eurosport closes down looms closer.

The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned channel is to become the sole place for most live cycling coverage in the UK and Ireland from Friday 28 February, with Eurosport being discontinued on the same day.

More than 1,000 live cycling broadcasts and 2,500 hours of racing is to be shown on TNT Sports via Discovery+, with every race of the men's and women's WorldTours shown.

The cost of a TNT Sports subscription is £30.99 a month – although this is available cheaper as an add-on to other TV packages, and deals – an increase of 343% from the previous Eurosport-only subscription.

Alongside a new pro cycling programme, The Ultimate Cycling Show, which begins on free-to-air quest this Thursday, there will be free-to-air daily highlight shows of two of the three men's Grand Tours - the Giro d'Italia, the Vuelta a España and the men's Paris-Roubaix.

This is the last year of free-to-air coverage of the Tour de France on ITV.

"Our commitment to cycling has no boundaries, and we will continue to deliver further investment to elevate the fan experience across linear, streaming and digital," Scott Young, the group SVP for content, production and business operations at WBD Sports Europe said in a press release.

"Our approach to the 2025 season continues our mission to shine a light on every aspect of this epic sport – from the world’s greatest male and female riders to the stories from the passionate people at grassroots level keeping this industry spinning."

"Our live race coverage is unprecedented, broadcasting 100% of the men’s and women’s UCI World Tours for the first time ever," he continued. "The Ultimate Cycling Show will serve as the perfect story-telling platform across the season with engaging analysis, discussion and content formats. Its free-to-air access will ensure a broader audience reach, whilst satisfying the seasoned viewer and attracting new fans. We will have an enriched digital operation with upscaled presence at key races, providing added depth and insight to the experience."

Alongside this, 'Just Ride', TNT Sports' "grassroots cycling initiative", is set to be launched. The project will offer kits and cash prizes for "cycling tribes" who demonstrate their passion for the sport by submitting videos through a new nationwide competition.

Judging will take place between May and July, and the winning entry will be announced on the final day of the UCI Road World Championships on 28 September.

While 2025 will see TNT Sports' cycling output broadcast on Discovery+, WBD's other streaming service, Max, which operates in the US and select parts of Europe, is set to be launched in the UK in 2026; cycling fans might therefore have to switch service again next year.

The full calendar can be seen at www.tntsports.co.uk.