Tour de France broadcaster NBC Sports to close by year-end

The NBC Sports television network is set to shut down before the end of 2021, leaving a question mark over how fans will watch the network’s main cycling property, the Tour de France, as well as a collection of other major races.

The news first broke in SportsBusiness Daily early Friday, and was later confirmed by an internal memo from Pete Bevacqua, chairman of NBC Sports Group.

NBC Sports currently owns the broadcast rights to the Tour de France in the United States, as well as other races in the portfolio of Tour de France organizer ASO, including the Vuelta a Espana, Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Nice, Liège. -Bastogne- Liège, and more. He holds these rights until 2023.

NBC Sports has also entered into an agreement with the UCI to broadcast the World Road Championships.

How will Americans look at the Tour next year?

According to the internal memo, which makes no specific mention of the tour, “key pieces of NBCSN’s programming” will move to the US-owned network, NBC, or the company’s streaming service, Peacock, by 2022. These key elements include major sports like the NHL, NASCAR and the Premier League. Smaller events in NBC’s portfolio, which includes events like the National Dog Show, will have their rights sold or could lose coverage altogether. It is not known in which category cycling falls.

At the moment, even those who work at NBC Sports do not know what fate awaits TV coverage of the Tour de France in the United States. A source said most scenes would likely end on Peacock, possibly even on the paid Peacock Premium service, while key stages could end on a mainstream TV show via NBC or US networks.

NBC Sports also owns the US rights to sports like the English Premier League, which offers a view of how cycling will work in 2022. Premier League matches are available on a mix of NBC TV shows or streamed via Peacock and Peacock Premium, depending on the popularity of the match in question. Liverpool games tend to be free; my beloved and besieged Wolverhampton Wanderers are usually behind the pay wall. A similar system, which sees the main stages of the tour in clear and free streaming and almost everything else hidden with Peacock Premium is a likely scenario.

Much of NBC’s existing cycling portfolio, especially small races, was found on the company’s NBC Sports Gold paid app. This app gets the ax in favor of Peacock and Peacock Premium.

There is, of course, always the chance that NBC will attempt to resell the cycling rights it currently holds before the contract ends in 2023. How, where and even if American fans are watching the Tour de France could very easily change overnight.