{"id":676061,"date":"2026-07-06T04:05:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T04:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/676061\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T04:05:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T04:05:23","slug":"why-is-the-tour-de-france-not-on-itv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/676061\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is the Tour de France not on ITV?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many years, every stage of the Tour de France was screened free-to-air in the UK on ITV. That ceased after the 2025 edition, when the channel lost the broadcasting rights.<\/p>\n

The Tour de France is run by the Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) and television coverage is organised by France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions, the national broadcaster.<\/p>\n

ASO sells global coverage rights to broadcasters in 190 countries. This is a major source of revenue for the Tour, representing around 55% of total income with most of the balance coming from advertising.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In some countries, such as Australia, the race is still broadcast on a free-to-air station, while in others the rights have been bought by a subscription channel.<\/p>\n

The move to TNT Sports
\n\"\"5’s agreement with TNT\/HBO Max will see race highlights broadcast in 2026 and full stage coverage from next year. Liam Cahill \/ Our Media<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the case in the UK, where TNT Sports\/HBO Max<\/a> has secured broadcast rights until 2030. ITV had been showing the race since 2001 and before that it was free to view on Channel 4.<\/p>\n

UK-based viewers now need to pay for an HBO Max subscription to view each stage live or longer highlights. <\/p>\n

But all is not lost for Brits. Channel 5 will be broadcasting highlights<\/a> of the 2026 race free-to-air and will have full coverage from 2027. It’s also secured an agreement with TNT Sports to show highlights of the Tour de France Femmes and Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a this year and highlights of the Giro d’Italia in 2027.<\/p>\n

A range of other ASO-organised races, such as Paris-Roubaix<\/a> and Paris-Nice, are also locked into the deal. So it’s likely there will be no free-to-air live coverage of these races until at least 2030.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inspiring generations
\n\"DavidCommentators David Millar, Peter Kennaugh and Ned Boulting were for years a fixture of many UK cyclists’ July viewing. Elliot Keen \u200b \u200b\u200b\u200b\/British Cycling \/ via SWpix.com<\/p>\n

For many cyclists, ITV\u2019s full stage and highlights coverage<\/a> provided their first taste of racing. It piqued their interest in the sport, inspiring generations of cyclists, both amateurs and professionals.<\/p>\n

The former ITV team does have plans to cover the 2026 race<\/a>, however, via a free-to-air commentary, although without live images from the race.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ned Boulting’s 23-edition association with the Tour de France will continue. Joseph Branston<\/p>\n

In the US, rights are shared by NBC Sports\/Peacock and FloBikes. This means a subscription is needed, although highlights of some stages will be aired free on NBC Sports.<\/p>\n

Our how to watch the 2026 Tour de France guide<\/a> covers worldwide broadcasters, subscription costs and free-of-charge options.<\/p>\n

More on the 2026 Tour de France<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many years, every stage of the Tour de France was screened free-to-air in the UK on ITV.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-676061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}