On Friday, it was announced that streaming giant Netflix has agreed a £54bn deal to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery’s film and TV studios, a huge move that could potentially revolutionise Hollywood, the entertainment industry, and your viewing habits at home. But, most importantly, what does it mean for cycling fans?
Well, quite a lot actually – including the potential for cycling coverage in the UK and Ireland to up sticks and move to a new ‘home’ for the third (or fourth) time this decade.
On the face of it, the deal struck between Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) this week – pending some scrutiny from competition regulators and potential complaints from outbid rivals such as Paramount – only relates to WBD’s studio and streaming businesses.
That means film and television studios HBO and HBO Max, along with the likes of Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, The Sopranos, and the DC universe, will form part of Netflix’s enlarged portfolio once the deal is completed late next year.
However, the deal does not include WBD’s networks, which fall under the Discovery Global banner and include TNT Sports in the US, as well the Discovery+ app and legacy cable networks such as CNN.
Cycling coverage moves to TNT Sports (credit: road.cc)
But this is where it gets complicated.
In June, WBD announced its plans to separate its Streaming and Studios and Global Networks divisions into two distinct publicly traded companies. The deal with Netflix is reliant upon the separation of these two entities, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2026.
However, while TNT Sports’ US branch became part of WBD’s Global Networks division in the split, TNT Sports International (including the company’s entire sports offering in the UK and Ireland) will fall under Streaming and Studios.
That means TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland – and by extension, its season-long cycling coverage – has been bought over by Netflix as part of the streaming giant’s deal with WBD.
So, what does that mean for British and Irish cycling fans, who currently fork out £30.99 a month to watch bike racing on TNT Sports and the Discovery+ app?
At the moment, nobody seems sure. When approached by road.cc, a TNT Sports spokesperson emphasised that there was “nothing to share at this point” concerning any changes to the company’s position or its subscription fees.
“Obviously news of the transaction is very new so that’s just being worked through right now,” the spokesperson told road.cc.
That transaction, in effect, means that Netflix, from the end of 2026 if the deal goes through, will own TNT’s rights to sports coverage almost everywhere in the world, except for the United States (which, factoring in Netflix’s standardised global approach to content, could cause issues).
But it’s currently unclear whether sport will simply be incorporated into the streaming giant’s platform, which would surely necessitate a steep (and presumably unpopular) rise in fees for current Netflix users.
Netflix has, after all, been dipping its toe into boxing, WWE, and NFL in recent years. But a full sports package like TNT’s, including football, cricket, tennis, UFC, and all the old Eurosport offerings, currently priced at £30.99 a month, is another matter entirely.
The most likely outcome would probably see Netflix, in a similar way to the Discovery+ app, include TNT Sports as a paid add-on to their streaming service, with subscribers paying extra to watch live sports. So, there’s the possibility that you may have to take out an extra Netflix sub to watch the start of the Tour de France in Edinburgh in 2027.
Meanwhile, Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros also comes at a time when TNT Sports, which took over as the ‘home of cycling’ in the UK and Ireland following Eurosport’s closure at the start of this year, is coming under increasing pressure, thanks to the loss of its lucrative Champions League football rights, amid reports the business is “haemorrhaging money”.
Last month, it was revealed that TNT had lost its UK rights to the Champions League, which it had inherited from the old BT Sport channel, to Paramount+, as well as the second-tier Europa League to Sky Sports.
And this week, those woes were compounded by the news that TNT had also lost the rights to international rugby union, after ITV paid £80m for the inaugural Nations Championship.
While sources within TNT have insisted that a “fire sale” will not take place, the loss of two key viewer and subscriber-pulling sports could have a knock-on effect when it comes to the value of their subscriptions.
TNT Sports Tour de France reaction (credit: Discovery +)
Thanks to the decision to integrate Eurosport into TNT earlier this year, to watch bike racing on the TV in the UK and Ireland cycling fans currently have to pay a £30.99 a month subscription to get the full premium TNT Sports package with their Discovery+ app.
That’s a far cry from the previous £6.99 monthly subscription to the now defunct standalone Eurosport app, and the even cheaper options offered by the old, cycling-only GCN+ platform, which closed in 2023.
But, in the eyes of TNT, that marked jump in price was offset by the greater variety of sports on offer, including top-level European football featuring punditry by Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen.
In a bid to attract customers who don’t want to shell out the big bucks for the full sports subscription, the TNT spokesperson also revealed to us that next year’s Winter Olympics in Italy will be made available across all subscription tiers on Discovery+.
That means subscribers to Discover’s basic £3.99 a month plan can watch every event from the Games, without having to take out a premium TNT Sports subscription, a one-off offer that could possibly be repeated come next year’s Tour, the first to not also be featured on free-to-air TV in the UK for four decades.
But despite the loss of the Champions League, a TNT source told the Guardian this week that there is no panic when it comes to recalibrating subscription fees.
“We’ve got 18 months to really think about other opportunities regarding pricing, packaging and buying other rights. We’ve already got a broader portfolio of content than ever before, and the FA Cup seems like a very timely acquisition now,” the source said.
However, with TNT coming under increasing strain and losing rights to big events, will Netflix even want the added hassle of an expensive and financially draining sports package?
When it comes to cycling, when WBD’s current rights deal expires in 2030, they may simply decide not to renew it, letting other broadcasters bid for the coverage, once again causing confusion and potentially causing prices to change once again.
(Which, when you consider Netflix only backed the Tour de France’s Unchained documentary for three series before dumping it, is a distinct possibility.)
To sum it all up, by the early 2030s, we could be looking back on a decade of cycling television coverage in the UK and Ireland which jumped from GCN+ to Eurosport, then onto TNT Sports and Discovery, then Netflix, and potentially onto Sky Sports or Paramount, with myriad price changes and the loss of free-to-air Tour coverage in between.
Bike racing on TV, it’s never straightforward, is it?