Or are the UK and Ireland insignificant?
I feel like it's either this, or they think we're mugs, or they're trialling it here.
But perhaps continental Europe has legislation (e.g. cycling having to be free-to-air) that complicates it?
And the French would take to the streets if they had to pay 30eur a month to watch the Tour, eh?
dc1988Full Member
I’m with BT mobile and get Discovery+ as an add on, I’ve not been informed of a price increase so hopefully I’m protected from it. Mine is a very old contract when I think BT Sport was at first a free add on and then about £5 per month.
Do you get access to TNT sport at the moment? I have D+ free with Sky and I haven't been told anything either, but I'm assuming that it's just going to be that I lose all of the sport when Eurosport gets switched off.
I'm not paying £30, that's a lot for football but at least with footie you get multiple games per week. I ain't paying £30 to watch the tour of Poland.
It's also making me question the value of Sky in general, the TV part is pretty cheap now, but there's f-all on it.
It's ridiculous that we are all subsiding (if we carry on) their football offering whether you want to watch it or not.
It’s ridiculous that we are all subsiding (if we carry on) their football offering whether you want to watch it or not.
What ?
You think the amount of money incoming is more than the cost to produce it ? Nah, i can't see it. If you ask me, the football is subbing the MTB stuff. (or the Golf/Rubgy/Tennis/Cricket/Roadie) not the other way around.
What ?
You think the amount of money incoming is more than the cost to produce it ? Nah, i can’t see it. If you ask me, the football is subbing the MTB stuff. (or the Golf/Rubgy/Tennis/Cricket/Roadie) not the other way around.
I assumed it was satire.
Given that the cycling used to be cheaply available on GCN (didn't it? my wife organised our viewing so I'm not 100% sure), who was paying for it then if it was so expensive to broadcast? Why does it suddenly need to cost so much more?
Given that the cycling used to be cheaply available on GCN (didn’t it? my wife organised our viewing so I’m not 100% sure), who was paying for it then if it was so expensive to broadcast? Why does it suddenly need to cost so much more?
It's not 'cycling' really IMO but certainly DH. I'd guess the road stuff and probably the XC/CX does OK as they've all got a tonne of sponsors. But DH has next to none and that's what all the other sports are propping up now. But back then, it was RedBull sorting the DH stuff and Eurosport doing the rest.
Lets not forget, they've not 'sold out cycling' they've binned/integrated Eurosport, so things like the Dakar that'll be another that's being propped up, possibly the Skiing stuff as well and certainly all the other littler sports.
Still not sure how they expect to grow a niche sport in to the 'F1' of mountain biking by sticking it behind a paywall. How are they expecting to attract outside sponsors?
I watched Ski Sunday last night and the Women's DH slalom was sponsored by tyre manufacturer Vredestein , some drinks/food brand Rauch (who also sponsor Red Bull F1 and a few other things) and Audi - so a good mix of non-ski sponsors - how do you do that with DH?
I don't mind paying to watch sport, and had used both GCN and Discovery, but I do object to subsidising footy which I'm sure most of the fee will go towards. It doesn't need the money or the viewers! I can only think that Warner Bros think their footy viewer retention will be higher if they give them something to watch between matches because I can't see how this is for the fans of the other sports.
Tiz is also on demand isn’t it
I'll get my mate to look closer
I watched Ski Sunday last night and the Women’s DH slalom was sponsored by tyre manufacturer Vredestein , some drinks/food brand Rauch (who also sponsor Red Bull F1 and a few other things) and Audi – so a good mix of non-ski sponsors – how do you do that with DH?
By putting it on a dedicated sports channel that already has millions of subscribers across Europe. It will probably be seen by more people by accident from existing subscribers than the committed dh fan.
Just spotted this being advertised on Quest - only a brief trailer but it looks like a weekly round-up of all things cycle sport related...
...and has anyone received a survey email from Discovery+? My sub has just expired but I can't get the survey to load.
My gut feeling is that that rust cycling is fine. I assume that mos Counties in main land Europe will have deals in place for highlights at least for the grand tours. Like we use to with itv 4. Plus if your a massive road fan then your subscription bring loads for your monthly subscription. I might well pay for a few months in the summer to watch the 3 gravel tours. Say it costs £90 I’ll get a good 60 evenings viewing. Mrs Ampthill is keen on the road stuff too.
Its the mtb that’s stuffed.
Firstly as the season is spread out my £90 could jump to say £150 to watch all of it. But only get a few extra xc races for the extra £60.
The mtb sponsors must be fuming. I can’t think any sponsors that aren’t cycling specific. They are not going to be happy if viewing figures stay the same but instead of cyclists they get “general” viewers who are unlikely to be looking for a bike.
Again it’s different for road. For the sponsors like Lidl they don’t care if you’re a cyclist.
@the-muffin-man I also got that survey - it just went to a Cloud flare error page for me too
Half-term bunking today, and while I waited for my family to stir I thought I'd have a poke about on the old TiVo, seems there's still lots of 'lower tier' coverage on the (linear) Eurosports schedule both live and highlights tour of Andalusia, UAE our, etc plus the spring classics like Roubaix, as you'd expect this time of year what's missing now seems to be CX and MTB previously they'd still be running old races and highlights this time of year.
They've also been trailing some sort of cycling show with Orla and friends on 'Quest' which makes me suspect there will still be a "highlights and analysis" type show on a free to air channel covering European Road (Inc the grand tours) this summer.
But yeah there's even less FTA coverage of MTB it seems now and a very cut down schedule for most other things. What there is suits casual watchers like me as I can just schedule some series links and fill the box with hours of general content, most of which I'll never get round to watching.
A sad PSA that that tomorrow will be the last day you can enjoy Eurosport in the UK and all its cycling content without having to pay £30+
https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-26-february-2025-312779
I try thought about paying the new OTT price for a couple of months for Classics season but I think I’m just going to spend a few pounds on NordVPN then watch the racing for free on SBS Australia.
Going to give Tiz a go for opening weekend.
Usually I would have watched a decent amount of short highlights of UAE, Algarve etc already (and in fairness probably could have done on YouTube) but not bothered with it yet in absence of a Discovery Plus subscription which got cancelled after Lombardia.
Going to give Tiz a go for opening weekend.
I do wonder if they're going to drive a lot of people in the UK to pirate streams, who might then be reluctant to return when they inevitably make their pricing a bit more realistic next year.
I took the BT Option at £20 a month and i've not seen any notifications that it will go up from that in the coming months, if £20 a month is the cost for Classics, Tours, DH and XC, i'm cool with that.
Checking my bill it states it's £20 next month etc.
I try thought about paying the new OTT price for a couple of months for Classics season but I think I’m just going to spend a few pounds on NordVPN then watch the racing for free on SBS Australia.
Heh, I'm based in Oz, but had been tunneling in the opposite to watch Disco+/Eurosport to avoid the SBS commentary on SBS. 🙂
I think that the first episode of The Ultimate Cycling Show is on Quest tonight at 10:00pm.
I took the BT Option at £20 a month and i've not seen any notifications that it will go up from that in the coming months, if £20 a month is the cost for Classics, Tours, DH and XC, i'm cool with that.
Add in WEC for me and it's enough to start me twitching over the "order" button. It still really irks that I was getting all the same stuff for a third of the price last year though
I phoned Virgin Media last week and explained that I wanted to lower my TV package (only ever had the MegaTV bundle as it included Eurosport). I explained that I wanted to reduce the TV package, to get rid of all the useless channels, but add TNT Sport. I came away with the same TV bundle, plus TNT Sport and an upgrade to their 500mb broadband at the same price I was paying before. Give your provider a phone and see what they offer. I'm happy enough.
Yep, need to get on the phone to sort something out post Eurosport:
I don't have a TV provider - only Freesat and what I subscribe to so there's no one to call.
Yep, need to get on the phone to sort something out post Eurosport:
It's telling that not a single MTB event is listed on their flagship list of cycling events they're covering...
It's telling that not a single MTB event is listed on their flagship list of cycling events they're covering...
I too phoned my provider (Virgin, TiVo box) mainly to complain/negotiate a reduction in cost. They offered me TNT as a direct replacement for Eurosport at the same price. Happy enough with that (for now, they reckon the same deal will cost me 50 quid more in 18 months)
Mountain Bike is a separate category. Apparently they are covering the whole of the Whoop UCI MTB World Series.
Also I stumped up for the 50% off 7 month "offer" so that will see me through to September. Then I'll decide what to do. In the meantime I now have access to a huge selection of sports I'm not interested in. I'll do my best to avoid shouty Orla.
@mildbore Yep, that's pretty much the same offer I got. 18 months at no extra cost then a jump in price by £50. I'm terrible for not checking or renegotiating contracts, but that will certainly get looked at again before next August!
I think that the first episode of The Ultimate Cycling Show is on Quest tonight at 10:00pm.
I've enjoyed watching paint dry more than last night's show.
Yep, need to get on the phone to sort something out post Eurosport:
that's all road shit - where's the MTB? Ginger step child territory.
Mountain Bike is a separate category. Apparently they are covering the whole of the Whoop UCI MTB World Series.
They've already said anything that clashes with a bigger event will likely only be shown live on the app, not on one of the broadcast channels. That happened a couple of times last year when the DH was on the app and something more important was on Eurosport
ITV Cycling have just confirmed they're showing highlights of Paris-Nice, from 9th March
Give your provider a phone and see what they offer. I'm happy enough.
I had a look at my Sky options online, the nice people there have a special offer on TNT!
Instead of £30.99 a month, they're offering it at....
/you ready?
£29/month.
🙄
I think a phone call is in order....
Just checked this morning, BT Broadband user, I have full Discovery/TNT Sports access. No extra cost. Didn't realise until a week ago when I checked on-line as I thought I just had the basic Discovery. Just clicked enable and full access to sport. Worth checking. I know BT isn't cheap at £75 a month, but hey ho.
My sky package including netflix is £30 a month. Not a chance I'm doubling my costs to subsidise a bunch of sports I have zero interest in
Just checked this morning, BT Broadband user, I have full Discovery/TNT Sports access. No extra cost. Didn't realise until a week ago when I checked on-line as I thought I just had the basic Discovery. Just clicked enable and full access to sport. Worth checking. I know BT isn't cheap at £75 a month, but hey ho.
We have BT and discovery+, although it shows access to sports when you click on them it just gives a increase passes prompt, TNT is another £20 pcm.
Just reminded me to get rid of BT broadband, crazy expensive.
I get disco+ as an add-on with my EE contract and it seems that TNT has slipped through their cracks. Currently watching Omloop and paying a lot less than £30 a month for it. WBD can suck it.
I looked at switching my phone to ee as a way of getting the cycling. TNT now seems to be the add on option rather than discovery plus. However, the plans are so expensive compared with other providers that I’m fairly sure discovery are getting their £30!
I managed to get the £10 a month with a 43" 4K TV offer through my EE account, so I'm happy for now. TNT for 24 months for £10 per month and a new TV for the garage Zwifting sessions.
I was able to just add the TNT sub to my existing Disco+ login. Seems to give me complete access to everything on Disco+ (which isn't saying much as it's all bobbins). If EE keeps this offer going for the foreseeable future, then I'll have to start selling off unwanted TV's.!!
Worryingly, I read somewhere that WBD other streaming service HBO Max is being launched in the UK in 2026 and might mean that some or all sports get bumped to that service.! Not sure what happens with existing TNT subs if that happens, and no doubt the price will go up again. 🙁
Super easy to get US HBO Max sub in UK with a bit of Amazon US account and VPN magic.
