How to watch cycling for less now it's moving to £30.99-a-month TNT Sports

It's been a tough week for cycling fans in the UK and Ireland, the news confirmed that watching the sport we all love is about to get considerably more expensive.

Here are the all-important details about what's happening and when, plus if there are any ways to avoid paying quite so much.

What's happened and why is cycling moving to TNT Sports?

TNT Sports and Eurosport are both run by Warner Bros. Discovery who have made the decision to close Eurosport down in the UK and Ireland, integrating all the channel's content onto its main TNT channels. It means cycling will be broadcast on TNT Sports rather than Eurosport and, as it is already, streamable on discovery+.

TNT Sports says the move is about consolidating all its sports content on one platform, making it simpler for viewers and growing smaller sports by broadcasting them adjacent to larger, more popular sports such as Premier League football fixtures. TNT also believes it will take cycling coverage to the next level.

Scott Young from WBD Sports Europe told us it "will enable us to offer a single, premium viewing experience for sports fans".

But what's it going to cost?

Get your wallet out

Cycling fans will no longer be able to simply purchase a cheaper £6.99 monthly subscription to watch racing and will have to buy a £30.99-a-month premium discovery+ sub.

That £30.99 is a monthly fee and currently there is no annual or six-month savings available either. In short, if you want to watch bike racing in the UK and Ireland it's going to cost £371.88-a-year. That's considerably more (443 per cent more, in fact) than the £83.88-a-year your old £6.99 sub would have cost. Oh, and that's before taking into account you could get it cheaper by buying an annual pass or via various promotions.

Yes, for your £30.99 you'll get a Premier League football match each weekend, Champions League fixtures, rugby, cricket, tennis and the rest of it, but the bottom line for fans who only want to watch cycling is that for the same races (bar the women's Giro d'Italia which has been added to TNT Sports' rights for 2025 and wasn't previously available on Eurosport), you'll be paying a hell of a lot more for them.

When's it all happening?

Eurosport will be integrated to TNT Sports on 28 February, after which point the channel will close in the UK and Ireland, although it will continue elsewhere in Europe.

What about the Tour de France on ITV and any other free-to-air cycling coverage?

In 2025, ITV will still have its free-to-air coverage/highlights of the Tour de France, Paris-Nice and Critérium du Dauphiné. After this year, Warner Bros. Discovery has exclusive rights to those races and they'll be on TNT Sports.

When pushed on if there will still be free-to-air coverage of the Tour de France after 2025, the TNT Sports figures we've spoken to haven't given much cause for optimism, but equally didn't completely rule it out. A free-to-air highlights package seems the most likely option, although TNT Sports says it is too far in the future and production plans haven't been finalised. Given this week's price hike, they'll have to forgive cycling fans for assuming the worst on the free-to-air front.

Warner Bros. Discovery also owns Quest and will be putting some free-to-air content on there, including highlights of the Grand Tours and Paris-Roubaix from this year. There is also to be a new weekly cycling show. 'The Ultimate Cycling Show' will be hosted by Orla Chennaoui and Adam Blythe and launches for 15 weekly episodes on February 27th, promising to cover "key parts of the season" and editorially "designed to cater to the seasoned fan, plus attract and engage new audiences".

Do we have to pay £30.99 a month?

There currently is not an option to pay less per month by taking out an annual subscription and the £30.99 is a flat rate to be paid every month. The 'basic' discovery+ subscription is a tenth of the price, £3.99-a-month, but only includes the entertainment channels. No sport. 

There are a few ways you might be able to get a cheaper deal...

Option 1: Attempt to cancel your subscription and hope you're offered a better deal

Loads of our readers have been in touch telling us they've already cancelled their subscriptions and can't justify paying the price hike. A few have also pointed out that, like with many subscription services, if you try to cancel it you might get offered a better deal.

For example, one road.cc reader, PpPete, told us that he'd "bothered to engage with the discovery+ 'Help Centre' chatbot for long enough" to be offered a reduction to £15.99-a-month for the next seven months. "I told them they could put that where the sun don't shine, but it may be of interest to some..." they told us. 

Option 2: The broadband/TV add-on

There are plenty of service providers (often TV, mobile phone contracts or broadband) who'll let you add TNT Sports to your package for less than £30.99, although admittedly the monthly sub can still be pretty eye-watering. Virgin Media, BT and EE have had deals running in recent times, so it might be worth checking what you're eligible to add to your existing phone/broadband contracts to see if there is a TNT option.

For example, if you had Virgin Media TV and broadband the provider would let you add TNT Sports to your package for £18.

In most cases we've seen online these still seem to be around the £20 mark so your victory would be only paying three times what the old Eurosport sub was, rather than four and a half times, but maybe worth checking.

Option 3: Get TNT Sports for £10-a-month... (sort of)... if you have an EE contract AND buy a TV

Another one we shared on the live blog earlier in the week and another one that'll take a fair bit of small print reading.

Mobile network and internet service provider EE, as part of its tech winter sale is currently selling a bundle which includes a 43" Samsung TV and 24 months of TNT Sports for just a tenner a month:

Of course, forking out for a new telly is an interesting way to go about the task of trying to save money, and the deal is only available to current 'consumer' or 'small business' EE customers on a pay monthly phone, 12-month SIM plan, or with a tablet on a 4GEE WiFi price plan. We'd have a few reads of the small print, but I guess the underlying point is TNT Sports can sometimes appear in these tech bundles, so perhaps keep an eye out if you're already on the hunt for a new phone or TV and spot a way in.

Option 4: Go halves with a mate

While info on this is unsurprisingly a bit tricky to find on TNT Sports' website, it does appear (from the road.cc office's own personal experiences + info online) that you can stream TNT Sports on more than one device at the same time, opening the door to sharing an account with a mate and cutting the price in half.

Unfortunately — given how popular, good value, and accessible the old Eurosport (and GCN+ before that) days were — from the vast majority of comments, messages and emails we've heard from readers, the move to £30.99-a-month with TNT Sports is going to push more people to unsubscribing, either resulting in them not watching at all or using VPNs or other means of accessing a feed of a bike race.

As always, please do let us know in the comments if you've spotted any other deals or have other (legal) ideas...