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The deal is on BT Internet site after login as an internet subscriber and as BT TV and internet pivots to EE. They also have TNT only for £16. But I need the NowTV for marital harmony. And a much prefer access via Apple TV box as I have one in the garage, but could rejig as needed.
Just cancelled my D+ subscription, which I balked at after the great and cheap coverage GCN+ offered up till 2023.
It's no wonder people are turning to fire sticks or sharing accounts when subscription services are taking the piss like this.
What a shame, I only used discovery+ for DH, was FOC as part of my Sky contract. I won't be paying for it so, for me, WC DH is dead, I'll never watch another DH world cup. I expect many will be the same. More for other things, most things are replaceable.
I want to think there's a combination of subscription losses and viewing patterns that means they decide that cycling isn't worth the effort and they can make more by selling off the rights to someone like GCN.
Probably wishful thinking, it's just crazy that with silly numbers of different streaming platforms and personalised everything, the only sports coverage I've ever subscribed for is now only available like it's a 90s sky tv package.
I want to think there’s a combination of subscription losses and viewing patterns that means they decide that cycling isn’t worth the effort and they can make more by selling off the rights to someone like GCN.
It's a nice idea, but after some googling, I think that it's mostly about the agglomeration of rights to minor sports across the world - Eurosports basic model - but then paywalling them on one big channel, TNT, so sort of the opposite of what you're suggesting. Getting rid of GCN was kind of the opposite of that, ie: deciding that a single channel for a 'minor' sport wasn't part of their business model going forward.
I guess the ultimate end-game would be to own rights to every sport across the globe, then charge a whopping great single fee to access them all on a single subscription. Maybe from high up in Warner, the audience breaks down to 'sports fans', who just consume 'sport' rather than any awareness that some people are only interested in one particular minor sport. It's more convenient that way, maybe.
I wonder why GB Eurosport has been singled out though? Are we somehow a special case. Or a pilot / experiment. Or is it something to do with the way rights work for the UK market? Is it in some way related to how ad sales are structured - eg you can sell TV spots on a football match for more...
Anyway, none of this really matters and I'm sure I'm absolutely overthinking it and, if I really cared, some specialist media site out there would explain it all in excruciating marketing speak gibberish with lots of stuff about market penetration and segmentation.
Bottom line, very expensive if you want the same level of cycling coverage from end of Feb as you had before.
It may be that Warner Brothers has more exclusive rights in the UK. In other markets where free-to-air broadcasters still have rights putting Eurosport coverage behind an expensive paywall would make less sense commercially.
Aware we are geographically still Europe, but could it just be as daft as we aren't in the EU now so Eurosport is not being made available as it would be getting exported to us as we are outside the EU?
I don't tend to watch cycling, so this isn't really impacting me - I also don't subscribe to sports channels, so even less of an impact.
However, I coach kids who do watch the cycling - all disciplines in a lot of cases so if this avenue is removed then the chats are going to change drastically and I suspect some of the kids may turn off a bit from cycling - which isn't a good thing at all.
From the outside it looks to be a greedy driven decision, I have no doubt broadcast cycling isn't cheap and the market (especially in the UK) isn't going to be large, so combining it under 1 package sort of makes sense...however, it appears the price is far too high and the volume of sports now accessible via this price is also too much. Hopefully that'll be fixed moving forward if enough people drop their subscription.
Other issue they'll have is finding out if the viewers are genuinely interested in the cycling or just stumbled across it by accident and left it on.
B*gger me, it seems like 6 Nations rugby is also going that way to, cycling and rugby are the only two sports i follow really, although i used to enjoy some of the random sports on Eurosport, like speed climbing or the surfing..
Aware we are geographically still Europe, but could it just be as daft as we aren’t in the EU now so Eurosport is not being made available as it would be getting exported to us as we are outside the EU?
It's UK and Ireland impacted iirc
I reckon that either Eurosport is a more established and important revenue stream for WBD in Europe, or they're just trying it out on us mug punters first.
However, I coach kids who do watch the cycling – all disciplines in a lot of cases so if this avenue is removed then the chats are going to change drastically and I suspect some of the kids may turn off a bit from cycling – which isn’t a good thing at all.
We've just had the same conversation between our coaching group.
BC doesn't seem to want to support grassroots MTB so it's a constant battle, but removing the motivation for some of the kids in the form of being able to watch their idols will have a negative impact.
Maybe from high up in Warner, the audience breaks down to ‘sports fans’, who just consume ‘sport’ rather than any awareness that some people are only interested in one particular minor sport. It’s more convenient that way, maybe.
But again, if you were listening to what Chris Ball, Loic Bruni, etc have been saying then this has been the plan all along. The people they are interested in is people who are too gormless to do something else between MotoGP and the football so the theory is they will continue sitting on the couch watching downhill mountain biking while waiting for the sports they usually spend their weekends watching to come on.
It was pretty uninspiring to hear when they were talking about it at first and now that we are seeing what that is actually going to look like in practice it's just depressing.
We (mountain bikers) were never part of this equation so the idea that WB will pay attention if enough mountain bikers cancel their subscriptions is laughable, unfortunately.
We (mountain bikers) were never part of this equation so the idea that WB will pay attention if enough mountain bikers cancel their subscriptions is laughable, unfortunately.
True, but this is also affecting WEC, WSB, BSB, Road and Track Cycling, Skiing, Climbing, Sailing and god knows what else fans.
AFAIK a TV service has never tried to piss off as wide a variety of sports fans in one go, normally it's just one group at a time, football, golf and F1 happened over a couple of decades. I'm hoping that the blow back is enormous and they change their minds, but if not I can't see if working out well for them
but this is also affecting WEC, WSB, BSB, Road and Track Cycling, Skiing, Climbing, Sailing and god knows what else fans.
I had a similar thread with snooker fans moaning about it suggested to me by the algorhithm.
Honestly can't see this sticking for them if they do stay at that price. But this might go down as the year that nobody watched (or paid to watch) cycling or other niche sports - and they will do something more realistic next year.
Have we ever thought that this is the ONLY choice for MTB at the moment. Lets say for example a MTB series costs £2,000,000 a year to broadcast and the current Discovery+ income brings in £1,000,000 from the £6.99s that people are paying. We're obviously £1,000,000 short and the rest of the sports are actually taking up the slack, not the other way around.
This isn't the UCI/whoever screwing the sport, WSBK has done the same, BSB the same, CX, XC, i bet things like Biathlon, Skiing and all the other sports on Eurosport are up in arms too. This isn't some sort of conspiracy to kill of MTB and DH racing.
Is it a great answer for people who only want to watch DH, heck no, of course it's not. But if there's not enough people who are prepared to pay, then who exactly foots the bill ?
The comments on PB are full of "i didn't pay for Freecaster or RBTV, so i'm not paying for this"... but who does then ? Someone has to cover the costs ? Either partially or in full...
Imagine how many people it takes at a World Cup DH to provide coverage, 50? Someone has to pay their wages for the weekend
Have we ever thought that this is the ONLY choice for MTB at the moment. Lets say for example a MTB series costs £2,000,000 a year to broadcast and the current Discovery+ income brings in £1,000,000 from the £6.99s that people are paying. We’re obviously £1,000,000 short and the rest of the sports are actually taking up the slack, not the other way around.
So you end up with Schroedinger's sport, where it can only function because football fans are paying huge amounts to watch the Premier League/Champions League, but virtually no-one who actually wants to watch the sport chooses to pay out the exorbitant monthly subscription?
If none of the sport's actual fans are watching it, does it really exist? 😉
it can only function because football fans are paying huge amounts to watch the Premier League/Champions League, but virtually no-one who actually wants to watch the sport chooses to pay out the exorbitant monthly subscription?
Pretty much yeah.
Wonder how many of the beer & fag swilling obese underclass that watch wendyball on TV for their daily exercise will be watching skinny foreigners riding bikes uphill and through muddy tracks for hours on end ?
In the equestrian world they produce their own TV coverage with loads of small events covered.
This is one of the bigger sites - £130 for a year though, no monthly option...
https://www.clipmyhorse.tv/en_GB/
...but single big events like Burghley Horse Trial they do their own and you can watch for £20.
How did Red Bull TV make their money from showing DH & XC?
The obvious aim is to settle at 15-17 quid a month by a series of rolling discounts or bundled deals. They are simply testing the market to see what is the maximum that even their core users/payers will accept, and to fool a few into thinking they are getting a bargain because they are paying much less than the 'headline' price.
I can see it being an add-on to a Sky Sports package, for example.
I assume Red Bull cross subsidy the xco/dh world cups from other parts of the business - other event production and soft drinks. Might be wrong, but as they are already in the sport, it would be easier for them to see the benefits of cross-subsidising.
How did Red Bull TV make their money from showing DH & XC?
It was probably just out of their marketing budget so no profit needed.
They can then use the clips of those crazy MTBers in other advertising posts on social media.
If they were better technically they could potentially do PPV for the DH World Cups at £5-10, but they are woeful so that's not really an option either.
@martinhutch That's pretty much how I see it. When Eurosport's switched off, I'm going to get in touch with Virgin Media and drop my TV package to the bare minimum, then take out their £18 a month TNT. I only had the bigger TV package to include Eurosport, so I might be lucky and actually save a few bob whilst still enjoying the Spring classics.
I was using. it for the UK speedway now cancelled, i guess if people don’t watch they will just cancel the sport coverage and it will turn into another football channel.
That might be for the best. Then another provider could pick up the cycling.
“ In the equestrian world they produce their own TV coverage with loads of small events covered.”
But it used to be covered by the BBC and you watched it on the red button. Haven’t watched horsing since then!
There is so much I hate about the 21st century…
Is this to cover Rob Warner's new contract fee?
I guess ill stick to crankworks this year
How did Red Bull TV make their money from showing DH & XC?
They sell a caffeinated high-sugar drink which costs little to produce and the company likes sporty people to give the impression that they drink the stuff for performance enhancement. Ronan Dunne is... I'm not sure how he does that.
The video he made about returning to the world cup a couple of weeks back suggested it was a possiblity (to me at least)
BUGGER
the Video is a year old..
Just cancelled my D+ sub via the app and as a parting shot they offer a new monthly sub at £15.49 for the first 7 months, reverting to £30.99 after that. From my reading it's cancelable at any time.
Perhaps this is what a normal monthly amount will be? Or at least available as limited time offers.
Far from ideal having an £8.50 price increase, but there's a lot of racing on over the Classics season which according to Cyclist mag is scheduled to be on D+, so may just jack it in after that and go with TdF on ITV4 (which I prefer anyway)
Anyone (Australians on holiday only obviously) with practical experience of VPNing into SBS free feeds?
They have the GTs and most of the big classics on their 2025 schedule.
A network that showed global cycling would be great. I have the perfect name.
All we need now are some commentators.
Far from ideal having an £8.50 price increase, but there’s a lot of racing on over the Classics season which according to Cyclist mag is scheduled to be on D+, so may just jack it in after that and go with TdF on ITV4 (which I prefer anyway)
That's my plan at the moment, then maybe another month for the autumn classics.
Just get a dodgy firestick.
SBS works for me using <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14.000001px; background-color: #f5f5f5;"> https://www.smartdnsproxy.com/?afid=1b3633477256
Using their app
or you could try using the same app to watch French tv either L'Equipe or France 2/3
or subscribe to Max in France for 59.99€ a year +5€ month for Eurosport 1+2
How did Red Bull TV make their money from showing DH & XC?
They believed it sold more cans of drink. That’s why they were outbid. Somebody at RB would have built a spreadsheet that worked out the financial benefits of broadcasting v just sponsoring events and come up with a prove they were prepared to pay.
Cancelled via AppleTV subscription. No offer added just the basic £3.99 renewal. Have joined TNT via the BT Broadband offer including Sky Sports. Will. Ow send an email to the CEO complaining of the 3x price increase.
Im on EE mobile, how do you get discovery+?
They believed it sold more cans of drink
I assumed they'd also get some kind of ad revenue from the various companies with advertising stuff on track as they were using the broadcast to reach their target customer. Whether that came directly from the UCI or from the companies like Mercedes etc that would have one of their cars strategically placed under a big jump for maximum exposure. Plus I'd expect the UCI were actually paying them too. I'm sure Red Bull weren't doing it for free and relying on selling their own juice to cover the costs
Red Bull are just a special case tbh, they sell a product that costs them less than the little can it goes in for £2 a pop, which gives them pretty much free rein to spend fortunes on nonsense. No doubt the overall result helps them sell more little cans for £2 but they've never been very stressed about which bits actually work and which bits are just cool to do.
Not sure if it’s covered above but I have discovery+ as part of my EE mobile plan. Just got a message to say Eurosport will be available on there soon. My mobile bill is £20 per month, no extra for discovery+.
Thanks for this. I had chosen Xbox unlimited when I set my EE contract up but haven’t been gaming in ages. Swapped my extra to TNT for no additional cost. Contract up this year but my tempt me into staying with EE.
Is that a very old plan by any chance? The only way I can see to add TNT (not seeing D+ at all) is paying £20/month extra
Is that a very old plan by any chance? The only way I can see to add TNT (not seeing D+ at all) is paying £20/month extra
Same for myself, I'm on an £8 month contract/unlimited data and I can add TNT for £20, not that I'll consider to pay that anyway.
When I signed up you could have one extra for an additional amount per month (think it was £6). I was online gaming at the time and took XBox. Don’t use it now but still paying for it, so this change is cost neutral to me. If you don’t have an extra then it’s either £20 a month or upgrade your contract but probably be tied in to a new 24 month term.
When I signed up you could have one extra for an additional amount per month (think it was £6). I was online gaming at the time and took XBox. Don’t use it now but still paying for it, so this change is cost neutral to me. If you don’t have an extra then it’s either £20 a month or upgrade your contract but probably be tied in to a new 24 month term.
Yeah it is around that so you can get Apple Arcade, Music, etc. So D+ would’ve been the same(ish) price. I’m afraid I don’t see your deal lasting forever, but finger crossed for you
I have signed up to staylive.io for about £5 per month for Road and cyclocross, seems to have most of the races there. Not available ifor UK IP addresses but works with a VPN to Switzerland.
Is that a very old plan by any chance?
When I moved from BT to EE 18 months ago I got TNT as an extra - I hadn't initially intended to, but I phoned them when sorting out the details and was offered it as part of the package. I currently pay £26 per month but get uncapped 5G and 50gb data.
Yeah it is around that so you can get Apple Arcade, Music, etc. So D+ would’ve been the same(ish) price. I’m afraid I don’t see your deal lasting forever, but finger crossed for you
Deal isn’t for D+ it’s for TNT sports (including D+) . Also specifically mentions including Eurosport 1 & 2. Contract up in May anyway, gives me a few months to try for no extra cost.
Deal isn’t for D+ it’s for TNT sports (including D+) . Also specifically mentions including Eurosport 1 & 2. Contract up in May anyway, gives me a few months to try for no extra cost.
I get that, but D+ doesn’t exist in a meaningful manner now. Hope you can keep it, but would expect terms to change now unfortunately.
I have signed up to staylive.io for about £5 per month for Road and cyclocross
That's what I used to watch the DH and XC last year in New Zealand. It was fine on a tablet but I could never get it working very well if I tried to cast it to the TV but the price was pretty reasonable. I'm hoping it's the same for this season .
My EE deal is an “all rounder” which allows me to pick an extra. I’ve picked Discovery+. Get some rugby on it, occasional football and now Eurosport.
In the last week I've watch Pidcock winning 2 stages and an overall, I've watched WChamp CX racing, world cup CX racing, races from Australia, I watched Liverpool in the champions league.
I personally see it as decent value even if it ends up being £31 a month. I'm hoping the £20 a month I subscribed to last week is the price, but if not, then meh, I'm ok with it.
I do t do Netflix, prime, Spotify etc, so it's my main thing.
Yeah looking at EE it's £20 to add on the TNT package, which is £20 more than I currently pay to watch the sports I like, and of course when the access gets removed from my existing Sky package, I'll see no reduction in my monthly cost
WBD and everyone involved with this shambolic decision can go **** themselves
WBD and everyone involved with this shambolic decision can go **** themselves
Exactly this ^
I currently have the £6.99 version of D+ since Eurosport’s were removed from my BT package; I watch occasional DH & Enduro but mainly the road season & the Alpine skiing.
Where do I get all of that now? That £30.99 a month from from WBD is more than my whole TV contract with BT. I couldn’t care less about all the other content so I’m out. They can go **** themselves.
"Much of the Eurosport 1 & 2 content will be available on TNT channels 1 - 4. Select Eurosport events will be available via discovery+ only."
Copied from D+ website. Make of that what you will.
I have unsubscribed after watching MVdP win the worlds. Tiz a shame.
Select Eurosport events will be available via discovery+ only
DH most likely if it clashes with a bigger sport.
If I'm not mistaken, the cracked Amazon fire sticks won't be able to access the Discovery+ app???
If I’m not mistaken, the cracked Amazon fire sticks won’t be able to access the Discovery+ app???
correct - only the the main tnt channels are on there - not all the app content
Tiz a shame
yes it is. I’ve avoided most of the news all day to watch it this evening on the turbo. Spoiler alert, but hardly unexpected given his form. My D+ runs to the 20th then EE TV with TNT will take over with Sky Sports thrown in for the same as NowTV.
Cancelled my D+ sub today after watching the Men's CXWC
Just cancelled mine after the CX Worlds,
I shall wait until the end of the CX season before cancelling.
Anyone used Tiz? Any good? Asking for a friend, obvs
My friend says it works fine (on a Brave browser, not sure how it is without ad-blockers).
I wouldn't know. I would never use such a disreputable site.
With a slight irony this is going to cost me less!!
I was paying for the Sky Sports part of an ex girlfriends Sky subscription £20 at month.
My BT Fibre Broadband was up for renewal and they dangled the £15 Disco+ TNT & Eurosport package.for me. They are sending s TV box out but TBH I tend to use my PC and big monitor, which I've already tested out the Disco+ on and all is good.
Bring on the classics 🙂
Tiz fine but obviously live only no on demand....
GCN+ was £40/year.
The first thing the greedy Discovery+ execs did was more than double the cost to £84/year.
Now they think jacking the price up by 443% to £372/year is ok with us...?
**** them .. I've CANCELLED.
I still don't get how this is a good thing for ASO and the other race organisers and rights holders. WB probably don't care if cycling fans are subscribing as long as the overall numbers work out for them, and ASO get paid either way I guess.
But ASO need the teams, and the teams need sponsors, and sponsors need viewers, and so do the French tourism people I suppose. So if viewing numbers take a dive that's bad news isn't it?
Or are the UK and Ireland insignificant?
I'm with BT mobile and get Discovery+ as an add on, I've not been informed of a price increase so hopefully I'm protected from it. Mine is a very old contract when I think BT Sport was at first a free add on and then about £5 per month.
Or are the UK and Ireland insignificant?
I feel like it's either this, or they think we're mugs, or they're trialling it here.
But perhaps continental Europe has legislation (e.g. cycling having to be free-to-air) that complicates it?
And the French would take to the streets if they had to pay 30eur a month to watch the Tour, eh?
dc1988Full Member
I’m with BT mobile and get Discovery+ as an add on, I’ve not been informed of a price increase so hopefully I’m protected from it. Mine is a very old contract when I think BT Sport was at first a free add on and then about £5 per month.
Do you get access to TNT sport at the moment? I have D+ free with Sky and I haven't been told anything either, but I'm assuming that it's just going to be that I lose all of the sport when Eurosport gets switched off.
I'm not paying £30, that's a lot for football but at least with footie you get multiple games per week. I ain't paying £30 to watch the tour of Poland.
It's also making me question the value of Sky in general, the TV part is pretty cheap now, but there's f-all on it.
It's ridiculous that we are all subsiding (if we carry on) their football offering whether you want to watch it or not.
It’s ridiculous that we are all subsiding (if we carry on) their football offering whether you want to watch it or not.
What ?
You think the amount of money incoming is more than the cost to produce it ? Nah, i can't see it. If you ask me, the football is subbing the MTB stuff. (or the Golf/Rubgy/Tennis/Cricket/Roadie) not the other way around.