Tells us what cycling is coming up on TV....

[mjr]

The Inner Ring | Lost Serendipity – https://inrng.com/2024/10/itv-ends-tour-broadcast/

"hundreds of thousands won’t clear the paywall or tunnel beneath geo-restrictions. It’s the loss of this casual audience that is a pity. A significant chunk of the UK audience is there for the scenery. In time a share of those people will learn how the yellow jersey is awarded, fall off at traffic lights because they forget to unclip from their new pedals and so on. Maybe you’re reading this blog having started out this way?"

"All this matters because plenty of ITV’s viewers won’t switch to Eurosport. Some of those that do move wanting their dose of the Tour de France may not stay if they find coverage spends more time discussing aerodynamic socks than softly-lit holiday destinations; if the day’s reportage is about tire pressure rather than ancient caves. Exclusivity maybe good for Eurosport today but in the medium to long term the supply of new subscribers could dry up. The UK TV audience for pro cycling is set to shrink"

 

[tarric]

But Eurosport is totally & utterly unreliable in highlights coverage, ITV4’s coverage was on when they said it was, & imho the production was 1000 times better than Eurosport

I know Eurosport are still on sky but I thought it was all Discovery + now and yes for some of the smaller races they are dependant on the race broadcaster and there can sometimes be delays, as for highlights they are on demand and if you don't like the show which I don't you can just rewatch the whole thing on demand and use the timeline to create you're own highlights.

 

[mjr]

and if you don't like the show which I don't you can just rewatch the whole thing on demand and use the timeline to create you're own highlights.

By the same token, if we don't like the TV coverage, we can hire a helicopter and zoom lens and go to the race ourselves! 🤪 Where does this reasoning end? There is value to decent highlights and ASO and WBD have done us a disservice by locking itv out.

 

[DRM]

I know Eurosport are still on sky but I thought it was all Discovery + now and yes for some of the smaller races they are dependant on the race broadcaster and there can sometimes be delays, as for highlights they are on demand and if you don't like the show which I don't you can just rewatch the whole thing on demand and use the timeline to create you're own highlights.

Nothing to do with the race broadcaster, they only show something like the last 30 km, not highlights, and then chop and change times around when any old carp runs over, as for the CGI studio, it’s laughable

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Nothing to do with the race broadcaster, they only show something like the last 30 km, not highlights, and then chop and change times around when any old carp runs over, as for the CGI studio, it’s laughable

Not only that - they only show the last 30 km
and instead of introducing them in some way they just leap directly into the race commentary and let you try to work out who is where and what on Earth is going on

 

[matticus]

At least one gets replaced by Polish Border Patrol or something. Why does a border even need polishing anyway?

Is there any market for this product IN THE UK?? Why promote it here? What say you, @Dogtrousers ??

 

[matticus]

Meanwhile Sean Kelly rambles on and insists on saying pelatone. Pelatone? Did he get that pronunciation from Rob Hatch?

As posted earlier, pretty sure this is due to his authentic (and charming) Oirish accent.

We KNOW he didn't get it from Hatch, because he pronounces it "pel'tun". (which is no doubt the charming northern way to pronounce it. Odd - it's a French word, and he goes to extraordinary lengths to pronounce Paree, or Mulhouse as the locals would ... )

 

[si_c]

I find the Eurosport coverage pretty unwatchable, the ITV coverage has always been much much better and the highlights generally excellent. I certainly won't be paying for it.

But as noted repeatedly elsewhere it's the casual viewership which will suffer most, my Dad for example happily watches it when it's on, but he wouldn't go out of his way to watch it and certainly won't pay either. He just likes watching the cycling through pretty landscapes, often he's bemused as to what's happening in the wider race.

 

[rich p]

It seems to me that this thread is really only relevant for those who only watch one race a year, which is a bit like loving football but only watching the FA Cup final.
Anyone who watches the whole lot, or a percentage of it, the cyclo cross, mtb, the Tour of Romandie, Paris-Nice etc etc won't be much affected by no ITV.

 

[Exlaser2]

What does that mean? I googled EBU - European Broadcasting Union is the world’s foremost alliance of public service media,

I guess this means people in European countries getting free to air?

Given that cycling is more of a minority sport in the UK than, say Belgium that's not altogether surprising.

We could have had free to air coverage in the uk too from the EBU .
BUT ITV or any of the other uk broadcasters , didn’t bid for them . ☹️

 

[Dogtrousers]

It seems to me that this thread is really only relevant for those who only watch one race a year, which is a bit like loving football but only watching the FA Cup final.
Anyone who watches the whole lot, or a percentage of it, the cyclo cross, mtb, the Tour of Romandie, Paris-Nice etc etc won't be much affected by no ITV.

This is true, but it's a BIG race.

Losing the TdF free to air won't affect my TV watching personally. But it will mean that - say - work colleagues or friends with whom I might discuss the race won't have seen any of it.

I think that having a large number of people who only watch one race a year becoming a large number of people who watch no races per year will have some effect overall.

 

[mjr]

It seems to me that this thread is really only relevant for those who only watch one race a year, which is a bit like loving football but only watching the FA Cup final.
Anyone who watches the whole lot, or a percentage of it, the cyclo cross, mtb, the Tour of Romandie, Paris-Nice etc etc won't be much affected by no ITV.

ITV also had Paris-Nice, Dauphine, Paris-Roubaix, LBL and some others, but have progressively been outbid by WB/D/GCN.

The biggest drawback of this loss for those who watch the whole lot is that itv4/itv1 used the Tour de France quite effectively to promote the bits of the Tour Series and Tours of Britain that followed it, and sometimes the National Championships (but not always because I think TV rights weren't always confirmed early enough). Those events have already been struggling and skipping editions for various reasons, and I doubt losing their key "lead-in" event will help their audience figures and stability.

 

[mjr]

We could have had free to air coverage in the uk too from the EBU .
BUT ITV or any of the other uk broadcasters , didn’t bid for them . ☹️

I wonder why not. I wonder if we'll ever know.

 

[mjr]

Back to this year, some EPGs are showing itv4 having London Three-Day highlights at 8pm on Thu and Fri, repeated Saturday morning from about 0825. It's shown on itv.com/watch/tv-guide so might actually happen. No idea where the third day is!

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

If the lack of ITV highlights means the people who only watch a couple of races go to not watching any
then it will also loose the ones they might have encouraged to have a look

and the ones who might have started by watching a few races

in the end the overall interest goes well down

and the Tour of Britain was shorter this year already