Bit gutted that my nightly fix of cycling on the telly has come to an end before the quality cycling is done. Sigh. Most disappointing, particularly as the coverage of the men’s TdF has been wall to wall with great adverts lamenting sexism in football 🤷‍♂️

Indeed. I believe you can get a free pass to GCN to watch it though.

They did apologize and explain, they don’t have the TV rights. Still think they should have bought them though.

PSA: Free 8-Day GCN+ pass

Sadly ITV4 wouldn’t get the advertising revenue to pay for the rights. They probably only just get enough to cover the men’s race as it’s not football so the non cycling fan doesn’t care.

At least the women’s football has better coverage but yea football 🤷‍♂️

It’s all about money. Will the advertising revenue deliver the margin after costs etc. well something else make them more money instead. Clearly the men’s race does and presumably enough people pay to enter the competitions to make a few more quid.

They aren’t likely to achieve that revenue either.
Build up the following and audience for and with the mens tour, then dash all hope of achieving a following for the womens by not showing it. Thereby banging the brakes full-on against any impetus gained . Bang goes a whole load of support for the womens tour or helping get women, or anyone else for that matter gaining more and more interest in cycling. Nothing ventured…. Nothing happens.
For one , that’ll be me done with Itv4 until next July.

It’s on Eurosport 1. I suppose I’ll watch a bit as there’s no football.

I agree, a real shame they don’t have the rights to show it as I think they’d do a great job of it.
Childishly, ITV4 is now showing original Magnum pi so I’m still watching it!

I’m amazed they manage to make the business case for the tdf to be honest, a big chunk of me thinks it’s someone senior’s baby and it’ll vanish the year after they leave.

The I’d be amazed if the appetite for the men’s tdf globaly is the same as for magnum pi* in the the UK alone. A (UK only?) commercial channel has to make that decision based purely on cost. The beeb or CH4 on the lithe hand could and should be trying to get all women’s sport on equal billing as men’s.

*OK, maybe not magnum pi but macguyver or airwolf.

When I watched the last stage of the men’s TDF on ITV4, I actually watched the credits whilst enjoying the closing tunes…
There seemed to be a VERY large number of production staff even though French TV provides all the race coverage. So I guess the costs to cover that race must be pretty substantial*…and I can’t see it being much less to cover then woman’s race.

(*Or they pay Gary Imlach an absolute fortune 😉)

Worth noting that ITV4 also show other far less popular races, such as the Dauphine, Tour of Britain, the Womens Tour (of Britain) and even the Tour Series crits. I gather the Womens’ Tour has been a bit of a ratings success for them.

I suspect the lack of TdFF on ITV might be something else. Perhaps Discovery (part of Warner Bros I think?) have pressured ASO into granting more exclusive rights or something.

Or they pay Gary Imlach an absolute fortune

Worth every penny, IMO. I’m always surprised he’s never on anything else, he’s a superb broadcaster.

The I’d be amazed if the appetite for the men’s tdf globaly is the same as for magnum pi* in the the UK alone.

Prepare to be amazed. This site has global TV audience in 2021 of 150 million.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1254337/tour-de-france-tv-audience/

They said at the weekend that they didn’t have the rights.

They said at the weekend that they didn’t have the rights.

that’sa bit of a cop out imho. What they really mean is they weren’t prepared to pay the price. I’m sure they could have had the rights if they were prepared to pay

I’m sure they could have had the rights if they were prepared to pay

Not if the other bidder(s) have exclusivity clauses. Possibly some conditions put on by the host broadcaster too.

Or maybe they could afford the rights but didn’t have the production crew/commentators etc to bring it to screen.

There’s far more to it than simply “buying the rights”…

EuroSport coverage of it isn’t bad but I’m not a fan of the commentators. Been spoilt by 3 weeks of Ned Boulting and David Millar!

Somebody mentioned ASO, and I’d always assumed that ITV bought a package off them; as they have highlights of Paris-Nice, Dauphine, etc
But don’t bother with other ASO races, like Paris-Roubaix, LBL…

It looks like Discovery have gone for exclusive coverage for the UK; they seem to be trying to be the ‘Home of Cycling’. And one still has concerns about their MTB coverage next year……

This site has global TV audience in 2021 of 150 million.

Numbers wise that would put Europe wide viewing at 8.5m a day ish I guess.
That’s actually a lot higher than I’d have expected given a high rated PL match is pulling about 20m globally. From here (guardian)

I wouldn’t assume that they didn’t try to get the rights.

They have done the Women’s Tour for years and covered it well, this would have been a really good fit for them.

I got the impression when they talked about it on Sunday, that the team in Paris would have wanted to cover it and thought it was important but that the decision had been made higher up.
Atleast they featured it and had interviews with the riders who competed back in the 80s. I’d have loved to have watched it if it had been covered in the same way on ITV as the men’s race.

As a contrast to MTB, where the genders get a fairly even coverage. Admittedly fewer female DH entrants so the programme is shorter).

Makes an interesting contrast where some of the top XC men are being lured away for the $$$ – in many but not all cases going from podium contender to nameless domestique.

But the women, Neff, Courtney and Prevot especially come to mind have very decent tarmac palmares but choose to remain in mountain biking.

I’d say all three are MTB-ers first, and enjoy it the most. Road racing looks to be a grind. I recall a comment from PF-P recently, and she had no wish to return to a road team, as she can’t be bothered with all the ‘5hit’ from DS’s….

There is a question here as to whether easily accessible TV coverage drives public interest or vice versa. Given the predicted audiences for tonight’s women’s football game on prime time BBC1, I would say the former.