The lack of free-to-air television coverage of the Tour de France is a “big loss” for British cycling and has the potential to reduce the sport’s audience ahead of next summer’s double UK Grand Départ, says TNT Sports pundit Brian Smith.
The 2025 Tour de France marked the last time cycling’s biggest race will be shown on ITV for the foreseeable future after Warner Bros. Discovery announced the previous year that it had agreed a new exclusive rights deal for cycling’s biggest race.
The rights deal, which will run until at least 2030, will mean that the Tour de France will not be freely available in the UK for the first time since the 1980s, when Channel 4 began broadcasting its now iconic evening highlights programmes.
That development coincided with the closure of Eurosport in the UK and cycling’s move to TNT Sports, placing the sport behind a £31-a-month paywall, a steep price hike that has been roundly criticised by fans and was the subject of a petition to parliament.
2024 Tour de France peloton (credit: ASO/Charly Lopez)
And with the men’s and women’s editions of the Tour de France starting in the UK in 2027, as part of a bumper festival of racing on British roads, questions marks remain over whether the race, and even the Grands Départs, will be freely available to watch at home.
The organisers of the Tour’s visit have given little away when it comes to the potential of the opening stages being broadcast on terrestrial TV, only admitting that talks are “ongoing” over a potential deal.
Speaking to the road.cc Podcast this week, double British road race champion Brian Smith – who has worked as a pundit and commentator for TNT Sports for 15 years – admitted that the Tour’s split from ITV could have a severe impact on viewing figures.
“I think a lot of people, the general public, watch the Tour de France on ITV and terrestrial TV. To take it away from them, I think it’s losing a lot of fans,” Smith told the podcast.
“Your cycling fans will always watch on Warner Brothers, Discovery, Eurosport. And I can totally understand why they’ve put it behind a paywall, because you’re not just getting just cycling, they want to appeal to people who watch snooker, football, rugby union, you name it. There are a lot of sports behind that paywall, but I can totally understand why cycling fans don’t like it.
“Nowadays you have to pay for most sports. But I do think it’s a big loss not having ITV. That’s how I got into watching cycling. People I know who aren’t cycling fans will tell me they’ve watched the Tour de France, and say ‘that Scottish boy is doing alright’.
“And we’re not going to have that anymore, because they’re the sort of kind of punters that aren’t going to pay to watch the sport. They’re just watching it because it just happens to be on TV. Nobody really knew who Mark Cavendish or Bradley Wiggins were until the Olympics and now they all know about it.
“For Joe Public, it’s a shame to lose these guys, because they’re not going to pay, so how are they going to find out about the Tour de France? I know of some cyclists who are cyclists because they watched it on ITV, they saw it, and they saw the British riders.”
And with the men’s Tour starting in Edinburgh in 2027, Smith admits that it’s a “shame” that fewer people will be able to watch how new home hero Oscar Onley gets on after the race leaves British shores.
“Look at look at Scotland now, Scotland has someone that’s a contender,” he said. “And there are a lot of Scottish people out there that have really no interest in cycling, but will think, ‘oh, this Scot is in this race in France, I’m going to watch it’.
Oscar Onley on Superbagnères, stage 14, 2025 Tour de France (credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
“But how are they going to watch it? They’re not going to pay to watch it. That person watching it with their son might go, ‘well, I might try that’.
“I can see both sides, of course. That paywall pays for a lot of things, the production, the coverage we get, and everything around it. And what Warner Bros. Discovery, Eurosport bring, the studio, the behind the scenes, it’s not cheap, especially at the Tour de France.
“But I can totally understand [the disappointment of] losing the ITV coverage, because it’s been a kind of stalwart, you had Channel 4 before that, then ITV. It does bring a certain audience. And that certain audience is required in cycling.
“We need that that platform, we need that kind of general person that sits there and it might be the only race they watch all year.
“And for the Scots now, having someone in there and they can’t watch it. It’s a bit of a shame.”
To listen to Brian’s full interview with the road.cc Podcast, in which he also discussed Onley’s “desperate” move to Ineos and the pressures of life as a pro cyclist, click here.