Maybe Channel 4 will pick it up again at some point?
It sounds like the issue is that WBD have exclusive rights rather than that ITV don't want it (or can;t afford to outbid WBD for the UK rights exclusion) - although that's based on me reading this thread, not listebed to the podcast yet.
I’m not sure how devoted you are to riding your bike if 45 minutes of TV can hijack your whole evening.
this also assumes you're only ever watching the highlights and not getting drawn in to watching an entire stage!
Advertising revenue is affected by the low viewing figures, and look at some of the adverts…….Give me strength.
If they'd have bothered to do even the slightest bit of audience research - maybe not even research, just some basic common sense! - they'd probably have realised that funeral plans and help the whales/donkeys/cats/children with cleft palates are not exactly the sort of "products" that the average Tour viewer is going to get enthused about.
I always felt it was a missed opportunity not to combine the homeless donkey with the helpless child walking 5 miles for water, I think both would have benefitted from that arrangement.
I’m not sure how devoted you are to riding your bike if 45 minutes of TV can hijack your whole evening.
this also assumes you’re only ever watching the highlights and not getting drawn in to watching an entire stage!
That's what people seem to be saying. I'm in complete agreement that trying to watch entire stages can affect your mid-week riding. 45 minutes of highlights can be viewed while you're eating your evening meal, if needed.
Anyway, I once had a nice walk around a local hill with Brian Venner, who owned the company that started doing the highlights. We were organising a stage of the MTB Tour of Britain and VTV were filming it. I remember him making the shape of a screen using his thumbs and 'filming' a climb as imaginary riders came up it, with the valley as a backdrop. It didn't look all that great on the TV because the 1 in 4 gradient didn't really translate.
just some basic common sense! – they’d probably have realised that funeral plans and help the whales/donkeys/cats/children with cleft palates are not exactly the sort of “products” that the average Tour viewer is going to get enthused about.
I suspect it's bang on for the audience of time-served, wrinkled old roadies and STW posters. The reality is that younger folk these days don't consume their media on conventional, scheduled TV channels, so you're likely left with a viewership composed of people who remember the Channel 4 highlights programme and think of David Millar as a young whippersnapper.
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I saw Ned Boulting's TdF show in Buxton last night, he made some occasional references to the TV coverage changes. The show was also peppered with video pisstakes of the adverts that litter the ITV4 show, some of them very funny.
He's a very good stage presence - mix of low key acting, good story telling, deadpan humour and thorough preparation.
https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/ned-boulting
The main part of the show is the story of the 1923 Tour, the bit of film he discovered and the research etc behind it all but there's a lot of references to the current Tour, some stories from commentary and being on the road.
If you get a chance, it's well worth seeing.
Ned's show last night was indeed very good. He more or less said what many on this thread have deduced, that some youngsters could miss out on watching the 'free' highlights show, which could easily start a little seed in the back of their brain that they could get into cycling and one day be the very next Sir Cav, Pidders or Pog. It's not good for British cycling and getting people 'on their bikes'.
He also let 'slip' that Pete Kennaugh will be a DS for Astana, interesting thought I.
Daniel friebe has some interesting points in this weeks cycling podcast. As well as lamenting the loss of an excellent TV thing, he notes the changing media landscape, and that the young ‘uns don’t really watch tv. Perhaps we’re all being a bit too stuck in our ways to realise that today’s kids will probably get hooked on cycling from TikTok, YouTube etc in the way we did from Ch4/ITV.
It doesn’t stop me being sad that my favourite TV show is going off air, but I think there’s something in that
