Veteran Tour commentator Ned says farewell to free-to-air coverage of the race in the UK
‘The truth is, not enough of us cared’ | In this exclusive column, Ned Boulting reacts to the end of ITV’s coverage of the Tour de France
Ned Boulting has become a mainstay of ITV’s Tour de France coverage since first reporting on the race in 2003. ITV’s Tour coverage began two years earlier, having taken on the free-to-air rights from Channel 4, which in turn had broadcast cycling’s biggest race into UK homes since the 1980s. The 2025 Tour de France will be ITV’s last after Warner Bros. Discovery signed an exclusive deal with ASO, the Tour organiser, from 2026. In his column, Ned, a regular contributor to BikeRadar’s sister title, Cycling Plus, reacts to the loss of free-to-air coverage of the Tour de France in the UK.
There are far, far more important things going on in the world than what I am about to outline. People I know are facing real hardship, dealing with the toughest of circumstances that bear down directly on their lives. I want to set this all in its proper context: cycling on the telly is simply a form of entertainment, that’s all. So, please, let’s remember that.
On Friday morning, the news that I had been anticipating, even if hoping I wouldn’t read, was confirmed. After very nearly a quarter of a century, ITV’s association with the Tour de France will come to an end once the show goes off air after stage 21 of the 2025 race.
There will be no further live broadcasts, no more highlights shows.
Of course, you never know for sure, but I would imagine that is the last we’ll see of the Tour de France on free-to-air TV in the UK. Once sports migrate in that direction, it tends to be a one-way process.
In the 23 years of my participation, first as a reporter, and over the last nine years as the commentator, I have watched the audience grow and then shrink back.
The peak of the viewership, it goes without saying, was in 2012. But since then, it has been slowly declining most years; retreating to a sizeable number (certainly bigger than when I began in 2003), but no longer big enough to merit its profitable inclusion in the schedules.
ITV, obviously enough, needs to generate enough advertising revenue to fund the programme production, as well as paying for the broadcast rights, which have been pushed ever higher by increasing pressure from subscription services. It was only a matter of time before the tipping point would be reached.
There is no blame attached to any of the parties in this negotiation. ASO has a right to sell to the highest bidder and ITV is not a charity – nor is it in receipt of the licence fee, which can sometimes justify a wider public responsibility to the viewer. The bottom line is not enough people watched. It’s as simple as that.
The free-to-air market is considerably bigger than any audience subscription services can command. The difference between accessing the race on an open-source TV channel like ITV4 and adding another subscription to our already subscription-heavy lives is significant.
The argument has been made that Eurosport’s subscriber base has been, at least to some extent, built by the platforms (the BBC included) that have promoted the sport to a far wider audience in the first place.
There is no way of knowing this, and it remains only a suggestion; albeit a logical enough theory. It is hard to know how many disenfranchised ITV viewers will now take up subscriptions to follow the Tour going forward. I suspect there will be many, but I have no idea how many.
Either way, I understand how unsatisfactory it must have been for Eurosport, that does such an outstanding job showing the vast amount of racing all-year long, to have to share the rights to the Tour de France. The Tour eclipses absolutely everything else. It towers over the calendar, and for the vast majority of the cycling public, it is literally the only race of the year they will watch.
The new landscape may well lead to a better outcome for the new exclusive rightsholders (for whom many of my closest friends in TV work, and for whom I have a great deal of respect). But it is hard to spin it in any other way than as a loss for the broader picture of cycling in the UK, which, having scrabbled around to gain a fingerhold in the public imagination, is now being slowly erased.
The visibility the ‘free-to-air’ coverage gave to the sport was an incalculable benefit. It will henceforth inhabit the same space as winter sports: there for those who seek it out, for those who already care. Gone for the rest.
Many of those who will no longer be exposed to its wonder are the future riders of tomorrow: champions like Tom Pidcock, who has often told me that he grew up with the routine of the 7pm highlights show every summer evening. He is far from being alone in that regard.
I have been in TV sport for long enough to know that these things happen, and that 25 years is a heck of a long time for any sport to stay on any channel. It was a good, long run. I was incredibly honoured to have been a part of it, and of course I will miss covering the race for ITV with all my heart.
But, in the end, the bitter truth at the core of this sad turn of events is this: not enough of us cared. Not really.