British Cycling puts paywall on National Cyclo-cross Championships

Cycling fans in the UK will have to pay £2.99 to watch the live stream of the British National Cyclo-cross Championships this weekend.

The paywall comes as part of a “pilot initiative” by British Cycling, and follows on from no live coverage of the event in 2025.

The stream will be provided by Monument Cycling and broadcast on British Cycling’s YouTube channel. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, the governing body live streamed the event for free.

The new £2.99 subscription fee, described by British Cycling as “modest”, will give users access to the elite, under-23 and junior races, and can be cancelled at any time.

British Cycling’s sport and participation director Amy Gardner said the subscription “forms part of our dynamic new approach to domestic sports coverage, to reach and inspire new fans and deepen engagement with existing audiences”.

“We are investing in the coverage to make top quality Championship racing accessible and engaging, so sign up today, so you don’t miss out,” Gardner added.

Cycling fans in the UK have witnessed a surge in the cost of watching the sport in the past year. Last January, it was announced that fans would need to pay £30.99 a month to access live cycling on TNT Sports, having previously paid £6.99 a month to do so on Discovery+.

This summer, the Tour de France will be exclusively available on TNT Sports in the UK, a paywall that ends 40 years of free-to-air coverage of the race.

The Lloyds National Cyclo-cross Championships will take place in South Shields this Sunday 11 January. The defending champions in the elite categories are Cameron Mason (Seven Racing) and Xan Crees (OGT p/b USE).

British Cycling’s subscription-only live stream will be available from 9:30am.

My view

It might not have been explicitly written in the press release, but there’s a lot to suggest in this announcement that cycling fans should get used to paying to watch British National Championships events from now on.

First, there’s Gardner’s comment that the subscription fee is British Cycling’s “new approach” to coverage. Likewise, the fact it’s a monthly fee, rather than a one-off, implies there are more plans in the works; don’t be surprised to see similar paywalls on the National Track Championships next month, or the National Road Championships in the summer.

Fans naturally feel sorely about initiatives like these. In previous years, tens of thousands have enjoyed the Cyclo-cross Nationals free of charge (the free YouTube feed gathered 46,000 views in 2024) and being asked to pay is unlikely to come as welcome news. Still, if the alternative is no live stream at all, like in 2025, then I imagine £2.99 is a cost some will be willing to meet.

I remember standing at the start line of the elite women’s race last January in a frosty Gravesend. Beside me, a lady held up her phone and live streamed the start to her Instagram followers. I’m not sure how many people were watching, but for them, those first few pedal strokes were the only action they saw. Would they have paid £2.99 for a well-produced broadcast of the whole event? I probably would have.

Perhaps cycling fans in the UK have had it too good for a long time now – that’s what those building up the paywalls say, anyway. We have no legal right to free cycling coverage. In fact, there aren’t many sports you can pull up and watch for free on YouTube, not mainstream ones anyway.

A “modest” subscription fee – “less than the average price of a coffee,” as British Cycling says about this one – might actually be fair. It's certainly better than no coverage.