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Comment by buro9 | Hacker News Reader

And yet the TV rights are a joke as it's really difficult to watch in a lot of countries and the rave would be worth more to France if the audience was expanded greatly.

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That was true up until the last couple seasons (around 2020).

As of today, it is finally easily available cheaply via streaming.

- Peacock TV streaming service which is $5 a month (I got a $20 annual plan deal a few weeks before TdF)

- GCN+ Streaming service which is $8 a month (or $50 a year)

The GCN stream is available globally. I think it is also available on France24 and Sky Sports' streaming app.

If this feels like bad distribution to those reading this, you have no idea how far we have come. TdF used to be on very obscure cable channels only, like Outdoor Network that required very premium satellite plans as it was only included as a specialty channel and not available via many cable or satellite providers, making it entirely inaccessible to most people.

NBC eventually moved it to NBC Sports, which made it better. It was available through almost all providers now and available on more basic packages.

We finally got our first streaming options (meaning you didn't need to have a cable/sattelite subscription) about 6 or so years ago, but it was on a terrible app that had terrible infrastructure and it cost $80-120 per TdF season!

So with mainstream streaming, it is finally pretty accessible, just not discoverable. If you are looking to watch it, you can get it. It's also finally cheap enough for more people to justify it without needing to be a mega-fan. Again, on peacock it is only $5 a month. If you sign up and cancel immediately starting and following the TdF you can watch it all in one billing cycle. So that's pretty fair.

Also, to NBC's credit, they are trying to make it more accessible. The first stage was actually on the main NBC channel, which I think is a first. Stages 2-7 have been on USA Network, which is on all basic cable packages. Stages 8+ now require Peacock. It's obviously not perfect, but progress deserves to be recognized!

We've been watching TDF 20-30 min highlights on Peacock.

It's great to get them but unfortunately they haven't bothered to edit them in a dramatic way. It is literally just splicing together the 5 hour feed, so it makes for some choppy viewing. You don't really get the "gist" of the stage unless you pay really close attention.

If you haven't already, take a look at the official Tour's highlights (only 8-10min though) - I find the broadcast and editing better than NBC's. They're usually decently quick to come out too post-stage.

Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSpycUnuU0IVF7gGIhGojhg

Yesterday's (Stage 7; 8 will probably drop in an hour or so): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMpFcgyXl8s&list=PLg3WzTG3Lf...

Right you are. In the 90s, ESPN covered each stage with a nicely edited but short recap, about 30 minutes each as I recall. Not much, but better than nothing. The race has since moved around, and coverage of each stage has expanded--which, incidentally, coincides with the gradual expansion of cable channels and streaming.

If you are in Europe then the Eurosport sub is only €25 for a year. No ads and you also get Wimbledon (and the other majors), Women's Football World Cup, Olympics (not this year of course) etc.

Wasn't Eurosport free to view across Europe via satellite on Astra 19.2° East via Luxembourg in the 80s/90s? I guess the sports organizers started charging serious money.

It's currently a little less than €18 per month, if you get the online service. I think they're running a discount at something like €130 - 140 per year right now, still not unreasonable if you're into various types of sports.

I can see myself having a subscription just to have Tour de France running in the background while I'm working, had I thought about it and if I had an extra monitor or TV in the office.

Really? It's 25€ a year for me, maybe depends on the location (I'm in Hungary) https://files.catbox.moe/dhq7ne.png

Oh wow, it's 999DKK per year in Denmark, and that's a special offer, or or 129DKK per month. So €135 for a year or €17-18 per month.

I think it has to do with the cost of the various right for different events in each country, and purchasing power. It's really an area where the EU has absolutely failed, licensing of content should be union wide, but in reality it's still country by country. That might be a good thing, because €135 is a hell of a lot more in Hungary, compared to Denmark.

Don't get me wrong, 999DKK is actually a pretty good deal. I'm not into sports in general, I only watch Tour de France, rowing and a few winter sports, but 999DKK is actually within what I'd pay for that.

But you are subbing through Discovery+ right? Maybe that’s the difference because here it’s just Eurosport only, nothing else

Interesting, it's the same price regardless of you buying it directly on Eurosports Danish website, or going via Discovery+. So you can either get Eurosport for 129DKK per month, or get Discovery+, which includes Eurosport, for 129DKK.

It doesn't look like you can get Eurosport as a standalone subscription.

> it's really difficult to watch in a lot of countries

please name some?

I think for most countries you can watch it in the GCN app with a subscription.

There’s all kinds of funky geo restrictions for the tdf and a bunch of other races. The rights are a mess. In the US you need to use a vpn to watch the tdf on GCN+.

You can subscribe to Peacock for something like $7 a month and watch the TdF.

Yea but they only have the TdF and a smattering of the French races (Paris-Roubaix, etc.), if you want to watch cycling year round it's not sufficient. As an American, I think the only way to watch everything is with a VPN and GCN+ or maybe Eurosport.

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