TNT Sports witnessed a 58% year-on-year increase in viewership of the Tour de France in the UK and Ireland this month, in the first year of its exclusive broadcasting deal for the race.
A report published on Wednesday by the channel’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), said it enjoyed a “record number of viewers” of this year’s Tour across its streaming, television and digital platforms.
Although WBD did not provide specific numbers – and refused to do so when contacted by Cycling Weekly – it said that an audience of “millions” watched the race on TNT Sports, and record numbers streamed it on its HBO Max platform in the UK.
This coincided with the first edition of the Tour de France in four decades that had no live coverage on free-to-air television in the UK.
Last autumn, ITV dropped the rights to broadcast the race after 25 years. In its place, WBD signed an exclusivity deal in the UK, putting the race behind a paywall that currently costs £30.99 a month, or £25.99 a month on a 12-month contract.
"Companies like us and Sky invest in sport, and that's why sports like the [football] Premier League have been going since day one behind a paywall," said WBD Sports Europe’s executive vice president Scott Young earlier this year.
"There’s a clear audience in this market that accepts paying for sport. Sport in this market generally sits behind a paywall one way or the other."
A survey by Cycling Weekly last year found that 71% of respondents said they watched the Tour on ITV. Of those 1,273 people, 1,120 said they would not subscribe to TNT Sports to watch the race live in 2026, and almost half said they had never paid to watch cycling on TV.
Although WBD did not provide free-to-air live coverage of this year's race, its free highlights show on Channel 5 recorded an average of 557,400 viewers per stage.
Across Europe, the Tour was shown on WBD's Eurosport channel, which was absorbed into TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland last February. The company reported a general 9% increase in viewership across its territories on Eurosport for the race.
France Télévisions, the race's host broadcaster in France, announced on Monday it had beaten records with its coverage, reaching an audience of more than 46.5 million over the three weeks – an increase of 600,000 from 2025.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) won his fifth Tour title this July to equal the all-time record held by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin.
