TNT Sports, the UK pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), has announced strong viewership numbers across the first nine days of Tour de France cycling action in the first year of its exclusive broadcast agreement.
TV audiences across the first week (stages 1 to 9) climbed 41% compared to the equivalent period of the 2025 race. Similarly, the average live audience on the primary TNT Sports 1 channel has also grown by 55%.
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Coverage on the HBO Max streaming service, which replaced Discovery+ as TNT Sports’ streaming home earlier this year, performed similarly well, accounting for a 22% increase in unique viewing subscribers year-on-year, a 26% increase in video views, and a 28% increase in viewing hours, reflecting a stronger adoption of the HBO Max service compared to its predecessor.
Before the Tour began, TNT Sports struck a sublicensing agreement with UK free-to-air commercial network Channel 5, which has broadcast a 1-hour highlights program at 7 pm each evening following the day’s action.
These broadcasts have been well received, averaging an audience of over 500,000 each day, and the first five days of coverage each proved the most watched program on Channel 5 that day.
Given the dominance of Wimbledon tennis and FIFA World Cup soccer on the rival free-to-air networks BBC and ITV, that is no mean feat, and possibly reflects a clamor for free-to-air Tour de France coverage after the end of ITV’s long-running broadcast deal for the Tour after the 2025 edition.
Across Europe, broadcasts across key markets on WBD’s Eurosport linear channel are up 21%, and HBO Max viewership is up 11%.
In many of these markets, HBO Max was unveiled before the 2025 tour, which is perhaps why UK HBO Max viewership increases far outpace those on the continent.
The first nine days of the tour boasted eight different stage winners, but they have ultimately, and perhaps predictably, been dominated by twice-defending champion Tadej Pogacar, who has held the general classification yellow jersey since the start of stage six.
Pogacar has also held the King of the Mountains classification jersey since stage six, while his teammate Isaac Del Toro has held the youth classification white jersey since that point also, reflecting the total dominance of their UAE Team Emirates – XRG organization.
While it has been theorized that team UAE’s continued dominance for the third year running may have an adverse impact on audience interest, that has yet to be reflected in WBD’s numbers.
