Other Sports....

[Shaw S Hunter]

Afraid so. Alternative is to pay £30.99/month for TNT Sports subscription. No way would I do that for sports I have no interest in. However if it is still the same for next year, I may take out one months subscription for next July, then cancel it when the Tour de France has finished. For the 21 Stages this works out at approx £1.47p per stage which I can live with.

Trouble is that despite recent history cycling as a spectator sport is just a minority interest in this country and TV audiences are quite small. It's no accident that Eurosport only sold off its UK&Ireland operation.

Single sport TV channels are few and far between and tend to be expensive when purchased as standalone deals. The massively dispersed nature of cycle racing also makes it relatively costly to broadcast. Even following the most popular sport of football couldn't be described as cheap if you are keen.

OTOH if you are a genuine fan of road cycling then the sheer volume available all year makes the cost of TNT better value than the example you have quoted. Perhaps all those lesser races don't actually interest you after all?

 

[dangie]

OTOH if you are a genuine fan of road cycling then the sheer volume available all year makes the cost of TNT better value than the example you have quoted. Perhaps all those lesser races don't actually interest you after all?

That is a valid point, especially so if £30.99/month (£372/year) was the only outgoing I had. But adding that to all the other costs involved with everyday life and living, it’s an avoidable cost I don’t wish to add.

What I don’t understand is that it’s not UK television companies who are recording and transmitting the cycling coverage. It’s the French, Belgian, Dutch, Italian etc etc. I’m sure ITV in the UK have always paid to use these recordings, as other countries probably do as well. To me it makes little sense to stop this.

Having said this I’m not an accountant, and it’s accountants who run sport.

 

[JamesT]

That is a valid point, especially so if £30.99/month (£372/year) was the only outgoing I had. But adding that to all the other costs involved with everyday life and living, it’s an avoidable cost I don’t wish to add.

What I don’t understand is that it’s not UK television companies who are recording and transmitting the cycling coverage. It’s the French, Belgian, Dutch, Italian etc etc. I’m sure ITV in the UK have always paid to use these recordings, as other countries probably do as well. To me it makes little sense to stop this.

Having said this I’m not an accountant, and it’s accountants who run sport.

ITV will be paying WB Discovery for the rights, usually these things are done on multi-year deals. I suspect either WBD have hiked the price up further than ITV are willing to pay, or they've just refused to licence to ITV as they're trying to drive people to use their own platform.

 

[Non Multi]

Trouble is that despite recent history cycling as a spectator sport is just a minority interest in this country and TV audiences are quite small. It's no accident that Eurosport only sold off its UK&Ireland operation.

Single sport TV channels are few and far between and tend to be expensive when purchased as standalone deals. The massively dispersed nature of cycle racing also makes it relatively costly to broadcast. Even following the most popular sport of football couldn't be described as cheap if you are keen.

OTOH if you are a genuine fan of road cycling then the sheer volume available all year makes the cost of TNT better value than the example you have quoted. Perhaps all those lesser races don't actually interest you after all?

You've got your facts wrong.

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) the heavily debt laden ($30Billion+) owner of Eurosport, bought out BT's stake in the BT Sport TV channels. BT sport was then rebranded as TNT Sport a few years ago. Earlier this year, Eurosport programming in the UK and ROI was moved to the TNT Sport portfolio to bulk it up.

Ultimately we're* all being forced to pay for the very expensive football rights that came with the BT Sport takeover. Less than 2 years ago you could watch the entire cycling season online from them for £40. On the continent you can still subscribe to Eurosport or Max for a mere fraction of what we pay over here.

*Not just cycling fans but all those other niche sports and winter sports fans too.

 

[signed]

The Tour is broadcasted on France 2. Chances are any VPN with a France region option will allow you to use the France TV website to wiew it for free. I don't watch TV, but I think they have English captions

 

[dangie]

The Tour is broadcasted on France 2. Chances are any VPN with a France region option will allow you to use the France TV website to wiew it for free. I don't watch TV, but I think they have English captions

This is spreading into ‘geek’ territory. I know absolutely nothing about VPN. All I want to do is watch cycling.

Less than 2 years ago you could watch the entire cycling season online from them for £40. On the continent you can still subscribe to Eurosport or Max for a mere fraction of what we pay over here.

*Not just cycling fans but all those other niche sports and winter sports fans too.

Yes I had the £40/year subscription with GCN (Global Cycling Network). Very happy with that. Then the cycling transmission went to Warner Brothers/Discovery. It went up to £7.99/month (£95/year. This was a big hike in price, but for the cycling coverage I got I was ok with it. I’m sure there were many cycling fans who subscribed to this. But £30.99p/month is a price hike too far.

It actually goes beyond ‘cycling fans’. I know and have known, many sports and non sports lovers who really have no interest in cycling*, but love to watch the Tour de France* on TV, both for the actual cycling and the trip around France. The Tour de France is a massive advertisement for the French Tourist Board.

*This also goes for other sports such as tennis. No interest for the rest of the year but glued to the TV for Wimbledon.

 

[styles]

It actually goes beyond ‘cycling fans’. I know and have known, many sports and non sports lovers who really have no interest in cycling*, but love to watch the Tour de France* on TV, both for the actual cycling and the trip around France. The Tour de France is a massive advertisement for the French Tourist Board.

*This also goes for other sports such as tennis. No interest for the rest of the year but glued to the TV for Wimbledon.

I'm in this boat quite often.

I have little interest in football generally (though I put this down to not liking the culture surrounding it), but I'll watch Wales and Scotland play in the World Cup. I don't watch every snooker tournament, but I got tickets for the World Championship this year and was buzzing.

Ultimately, this is basically the Olympics in a nutshell. Few people care for gymnastics or basketball for 3.9 years, but for the two weeks the events run in the Olympics, literally billions of people tune in.

The biggest events are always going to be like this. Partly for me I enjoy doing sports, but am less interested in following specific teams or athletes. There's a bit of pride in rooting for your country I think in international events, but I'm not really out there cheering for Adam Yates at every cycling event.

Mind you, possibly this is because I've been 'lazy' and merely haven't chosen a team or athlete to support. Maybe if I decided to support Celtic FC or Dalkeith RFC I'd get right into it?

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

You've got your facts wrong.

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) the heavily debt laden ($30Billion+) owner of Eurosport, bought out BT's stake in the BT Sport TV channels. BT sport was then rebranded as TNT Sport a few years ago. Earlier this year, Eurosport programming in the UK and ROI was moved to the TNT Sport portfolio to bulk it up.

Ultimately we're* all being forced to pay for the very expensive football rights that came with the BT Sport takeover. Less than 2 years ago you could watch the entire cycling season online from them for £40. On the continent you can still subscribe to Eurosport or Max for a mere fraction of what we pay over here.

*Not just cycling fans but all those other niche sports and winter sports fans too.

I'm afraid your version of events is also inaccurate. BT Group was effectively required by government to get out of sports broadcasting to pay more attention to the rollout of fibre broadband. When it couldn't find a buyer at a reasonable price it came up with the joint venture with WBD. This continues to exist though WBD is expected to exercise its right to completely buy out BT in the next few weeks.

The joint venture was always intended to merge BT Sport with Eurosport (UK & Ireland) but the net outcome has been to close down Eurosport. This is not surprising: its content was dominated by cycling and winter sports, the former has a small audience here, the latter a tiny one, and separated from Eurosport's wider operations simply wasn't viable. The coverage has only continued by rolling it into a larger package hence the increase in subscriptions.

As for the cheapness of the GCN coverage you should consider why it not only no longer exists but also that there is nobody proposing to start something similar. And Eurosport's more affordable prices on the continent are possible due to the sports covered having very much bigger audiences there.

Ultimately what we're paying for is the greater commercialisation of elite sports generally with athletes now expecting to be handsomely rewarded for their efforts. Yes the Premier League is a big influence on the sports broadcasting environment here but it is also by far the most popular sport here with all the others trailing in its wake. There is no way to escape that, at least not in economically challenging times.

 

[Harpo]

The Tour de France is a massive advertisement for the French Tourist Board.

Definitely. Tour de France lost me in the era when it should have been awarding ‘best drugs’ shirts but yes, the spacious beauty of France was sold to me.

 

[dangie]

I totally understand the huge costs involved in getting sport onto our television screens, but pricing this beyond what many are prepared to pay seems negative to me. Of course the broadcasting company will say that they give 24/7 transmission of a multitude of sports. But who in reality watches more than a handful (if that) of sports, and certainly not twenty four hours a day. It makes more sense to me to transmit sports as separate entities and price them accordingly.

Yes, this may make the production and transmission more expensive, but surely many subscribers is better at a lower price, than a few at a higher price. But as I said earlier, I’m not an accountant.

 

[JD2168]

The Open Golf tournament started today at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland. The defending champion is Xander Schauffele. Live coverage is on Sky with highlights on BBC 2.

 

[Jimini]

Around this time last year, I found myself in a boozer in Caversham randomly watching a fascinating Hurling final (the pub in question has a decent sized group of old Irish chaps who frequent there regularly).

Fast forward to today, and I stumbled across the 2025 final on BBC2. Cork vs. Tipperary, the former being massive favourites. Cork were six up at half time, and then they imploded (including getting a man sent off), going on to lose to the rank outsiders 1-18 vs. 3-27 (what would be known in common parlance as a bit of a spanking).

Might have to make it an annual tradition to watch it now!

 

[THC]

Around this time last year, I found myself in a boozer in Caversham randomly watching a fascinating Hurling final (the pub in question has a decent sized group of old Irish chaps who frequent there regularly).

Fast forward to today, and I stumbled across the 2025 final on BBC2. Cork vs. Tipperary, the former being massive favourites. Cork were six up at half time, and then they imploded (including getting a man sent off), going on to lose to the rank outsiders 1-18 vs. 3-27 (what would be known in common parlance as a bit of a spanking).

Might have to make it an annual tradition to watch it now!

Best sport ever. And yes I'm biased.

THC

 

[JD2168]

The winner of the Open Golf Championship was Scottie Scheffler who won by four strokes on 17 under par.

 

[THC]

Kerry 1-26 (29) - Donegal 0-19 (19). The Kingdom won their 39th All-Ireland senior (Gaelic) football championship at Croke Park this afternoon in front of a full house of 82,000. The Clifford brothers David and Paudie were relentless in driving Kerry on, making it resemble a training ground affair at times. Although Donegal clung on, a goal right at the death from Joe O'Connor confirmed what had been coming from the first 15 seconds, when Kerry scored the first point of the match. They never looked like being caught and are worthy champions.

THC

 

[JD2168]

Tadej Pogacar won the Tour de France from Jonas Vingegaard.

A great race as well from Oscar Onley threatening a podium finish for much of the race

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Tadej Pogacar won the Tour de France from Jonas Vingegaard.

A great race as well from Oscar Onley threatening a podium finish for much of the race

Special mention for Ben Healy, the English born (Kingswinford) Irishman, who won a stage and wore the yellow jersey for a couple of days.

But overall a disappointing Tour: Pogacar established his dominance so early that the outcome was never in doubt. And yet again French riders failed to make any real impact.

Bring on the madness of the Vuelta!

 

[SuspectUsual]

It’s the final stage of the men’s Tour of Britain today, and it’s also the last day of Geraint Thomas’ career.

Rather fittingly, the stage starts at the Geraint Thomas velodrome in Newport, goes past his first club Maindy Flyers, and finishes in his hometown of Cardiff.

He’s always seemed one of the good guys to me, and it’ll be nice to see him get a good send off into retirement.

There’s coverage on ITV4 from half eleven with the stage starting at 11:45 and finishing at roughly 14:45

 

[JD2168]

At this week's Athletics World Championships in Tokyo, Japan Team GB & NI failed to win any Gold medals for the first time in 20 years. They only picked up 5 medals: 3 Silvers (Jake Wightman in Men's 1500m, Amy Hunt in Women's 200m & Georgia Hunter Bell in Women's 800m) & 2 Bronze's (Keely Hodgkinson in Women's 800m & Katerina Johnson-Thompson in a share for the Women's Heptathlon)

Great Britain fail to win gold amid worst World Championships return for 20 years

Great Britain and Northern Ireland fail to win a gold medal at a World Championships for the first time in 22 years in Tokyo.

www.bbc.co.uk

Sweden's Armand Duplantis broke the world record by one centimetre again in the Pole Vault

After the heavily disrupted Vuelta Espana bicycle race won by Jonas Vingegaard the Men's & Women's World Championship's have started this weekend in Kigali, Rwanda although some big names are missing from the action.

 

[dangie]

I see golf’s Ryder Cup is starting on Friday. Golf is yet another sport which used to be frequently televised now fading into obscurity. I very much doubt if I could name a handful of current top worldwide golfers.

In fact off the top of my head I can name only two. Rory Mcllroy & Justin Rose. However if both of them appeared on TV I wouldn’t be able to recognise either of them.

 

[Jimini]

I see golf’s Ryder Cup is starting on Friday. Golf is yet another sport which used to be frequently televised now fading into obscurity. I very much doubt if I could name a handful of current top worldwide golfers.

In fact off the top of my head I can name only two. Rory Mcllroy & Justin Rose. However if both of them appeared on TV I wouldn’t be able to recognise either of them.

That was epic. A great two days from Europe setting the standard Friday and yesterday, but quite the fightback from the US in the singles this afternoon. Europe win away 15-13 in the end.

Thoroughly enjoyed watching that!

 

[Rover]

Thoroughly enjoyed watching that!

I'm not a huge golf fan but I watch all the majors on sky but that was the first time I'd watched the Ryder Cup and I agree it was great entertainment, at one point I thought the US were going to overhaul Europe but what a moment when Shane Lowry holed that putt, the outpouring of emotion was incredible and infectious, I can't wait for the next one in Ireland - I hope the US are better behaved, some of them were a disgrace.

 

[JD2168]

That was epic. A great two days from Europe setting the standard Friday and yesterday, but quite the fightback from the US in the singles this afternoon. Europe win away 15-13 in the end.

Thoroughly enjoyed watching that!

A great win for Europe after the fight back from USA. The heckling & some of the things said to some players, particularly Rory Mcilroy were pretty poor throughout the matches & are a sour point of a great contest

 

[BAFRA77]

It's the best time of the year coming up in a couple of weeks for one of the UK's lesser known sports- with the start of the 2025-26 University American Football Season.

Fixtures have been released - and the first couple of weeks have been fully announced:

19th October:
Premier North (2nd Tier) - Leeds Gryphons vs. Newcastle Raiders
Premier South (2nd Tier) - Brunel Burners vs. Portsmouth Destroyers

25th October:
National League Premier (1st Tier) - UWE Bullets vs. Leeds Beckett

A small preview of the top games have been done on this website:

BUCS 2025/26 Fixtures announced: Which stand out to us?

The fixtures for the BUCS 2025/26 season are live. Here is our breakdown of the first few key matchups.

www.insidebritball.co.uk

With teams across all three tiers gearing up for what promises to be a fiercely contested campaign, fans and players alike now have their eyes set on the opening weekend, which kicks off on October 19th.


The first week of fixtures sees the newly promoted Brunel Burners take to the Premier South stage for the first time, when they host the Portsmouth Destroyers in the capital. Meanwhile, in the north, we will see a battle of the new Head Coaches as the Newcastle Raiders travel down the M1 to take on the Leeds Gryphons.


The Premier National kicks off in Week Two when Leeds Beckett make the long trip down to Hillside Gardens to take on the reigning National champs in the UWE Bullets, who are on a quest to make it 5 National Championships in a row. The runners-up from last season, Nottingham Gold, face Loughborough the day after as they kick off their bid to become the National Champions. Last year’s finalists come face to face, for the first time, on the 9th of November when the David Ross Sports Centre plays host, before the return fixture on Valentine's Day, serving up a great date idea for you and your loved one.


Interestingly, Durham will be late to the party this year as they do not start their campaign until November, when they host Leeds Beckett.

 

[JD2168]

This week in London at the Royal Albert Hall is a Sumo Tournament featuring 40 wrestlers in a 5 day tournament.

It is the first time Sumo has been held outside Japan since 1991 which was also held at the Royal Albert Hall.

 

[D1511]

This week in London at the Royal Albert Hall is a Sumo Tournament featuring 40 wrestlers in a 5 day tournament.

It is the first time Sumo has been held outside Japan since 1991 which was also held at the Royal Albert Hall.

I heard on the radio today that the 40 contestants will get through 75kg of rice per day .....

 

[BAFRA77]

This week in London at the Royal Albert Hall is a Sumo Tournament featuring 40 wrestlers in a 5 day tournament.

It is the first time Sumo has been held outside Japan since 1991 which was also held at the Royal Albert Hall.

And the bloke who won the tournament in 1991 is now head of the Sumo Association

 

[Willie Bee]

I watched this on Friday evening, then again on catch-up over the weekend.

Something different and well worth the watch.

With an average bout length of, say 20 seconds .. the 20 bouts per day probably lasted under 8 minutes in total, but it was still enjoyable to watch.

I wonder what the spectators were paying per session, but everybody there looked to be having a great time

 

[DarloRich]

Joshua v Paul: fairground boxing booth on a international stage

 

[D1511]

I don't know if anyone else heard about this young Egyptian tennis player, Haja Abdelkadar, who was granted a wildcard for a ATP/ITF sanctioned tennis tournament in Kenya.

In some video footage which has now gone viral, she is seen to be utterly hopeless, and clearly can't play tennis for toffee.

During the match, she served 20 double faults in her 6-0, 6-0 defeat, and won a total of 3 points, which were two double faults and an unforced error by her bemused opponent. Most rallies amounted to one or two shots.

She also appeared to be required to be advised where to stand to serve and receive by the umpire during the match.

From the BBC Sports website:

The Egyptian Tennis Federation confirmed to the BBC Abdelkader has never been registered as an Egyptian player and had not been entered into the tournament on Egypt's behalf.

Egyptian Tennis Federation technical director Dia Nabil Loutfy said: "We would like to clarify that she is not registered with the Egyptian Tennis Federation, nor is she included in any of our official player lists.

Both players are now receiving support from the ITF because of the attention this has got worldwide.

I wonder what on earth the spectators made of it all!