The news that Eurosport will disappear in the UK and Ireland, with cycling moving to TNT Sports from the end of February, has not been popular.
From 28 February, those wishing to watch live cycling will have to subscribe to TNT Sports, which on its own is £30.99 a month. Until now, Eurosport has been offered at no extra cost to Sky TV and Virgin Media customers in the UK, while Discovery+ passes have cost £6.99 a month.
TNT's argument for taking this approach is that fans will now be able to enjoy more sports, in one place - with football, rugby or UFC fans potentially crossing over. However, it's not a viewpoint that former UCI president Brian Cookson shares, telling Cycling Weekly: "It’s very unhelpful for UK cycling. It’s a misunderstanding by WBD of the nature of cycling fans. The language of packaging up premium deals is nonsense. Most people who are interested in cycling don’t care about other sports very much. By packaging up with other sports, you’re not making an attractive proposition.
"The danger is they will lose more than they gain, from a commercial point of view. If they don’t offer a cycling-only package, or similar sports, I think it’s going to be a commercial misstep for them."
"It’s very disappointing," he continued. "I don’t think there has ever been as good an era as there has been in the last couple of years for watching cycling on television. The whole nature of broadcasting is changing, and we’re not immune to that in our sport, but this whole thing seems to be a mistake."
Cookson was not alone in his disappointment in the new status quo, which will see subscription prices rise by over 300%. CW readers also registered their opprobrium.
"Absolutely terrible news," Ben Whale commented. "I only want to watch live cycling, I have zero interest in any of the other sports that they broadcast.
"I get the impression that cycling doesn’t bring in as much money for them as football or rugby and that they’d be quite happy to see it die a slow painful death.
"North of £30 is daylight robbery. As much as I hate to lose it, I simply can’t justify that amount just to watch a bike race. Surely they must be able to offer a sliding scale depending on what you actually want to watch"
"I don’t want to start paying for premium Premier League football on TNT, because I’m never going to watch any of that," Cookson added. "At the moment, there’s almost almost too much cycling to watch, but that has its attraction too. GCN+ was mold-breaking, but it almost seemed too good to be true," he said, referring to the Global Cycling Network app which showed viewers live racing for less than £10 a month, but folded in November 2023.
This opinion was echoed by many. "We are pensioners and have followed cycling for over 40 years," Sandra Jarvis wrote. "There is no way we can afford this enormous hike in monthly premium."
"Going behind a massive paywall has done wonders for Test cricket...
"I've already cancelled my Discovery subscription and I'm sure many others have," CampagYOLO added. "There's no way I can justify spending 30.99 a month on watching cycling and a couple of football matches. I know 6.99 a month wasn't much but I cannot see how this makes financial sense for Discovery."
However, not everyone is as down on it. "Probably a slightly controversial view here, but whilst I agree that the price hike from £6.99 per month to £30.99 appears excessive to say the least," Paul Barron argued. "I don't feel that £1 per day is too much to pay to watch hours of coverage of my favourite sport. I imagine a lot of people probably spend more than that on their daily coffee or lunch without thinking twice about it."
Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment further.
