After a scenic ride through the winding lanes between Marín and A Estrada, a 36-year journey reached its close. The last winner ever to grace British and Irish Eurosport was Magnus Cort, whose dominant second stage victory in O Gran Camiño was enough to leave fans wanting plenty more. “Another great moment,” acclaimed the commentary, but it would be the final one on a channel that had become cycling’s home.
Eurosport’s farewell at around 2am on Friday came with little fanfare. Cort’s victory blended into a recurring advert promoting the integration into TNT Sports and the Discovery+ streaming platform, where the pick of its offerings will now reside. “Eurosport channels in the UK and Ireland have now closed,” advised a voice above reels of skiers, cyclists, rugby players, footballers and motocross riders. “The sports you love have moved to TNT Sports”.
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On Friday morning, anyone reflexively looking for Sky channel 417 would be floundering at the remote control. Not even the ghost of Eurosport 1’s former residence was permitted to linger: the gap between 416 and 418 was conspicuous for anyone addicted to an eclectic blend of fare that skirted the mainstream, transporting viewers far beyond the modern force-feeding of Premier League and Champions League stodge.
What do viewers stand to gain? The first hurdle for TNT, in luring Eurosport’s hardy faithful, may be financial. A monthly £6.99 fee becomes £30.99, with slightly cheaper deals available through provider packages. The latter amount allows a delve into TNT’s panoramic offering of premium events but feels alienating to those who, paying the lower price, may simply have been seeking particular sports that rarely see light of day elsewhere.
The concern is that those sports will suffer if fans vote with their wallets. A smorgasbord of expanded European club competition football may be little draw to those whose passion lay in a few precious hours of skiing each week. There is a sense that sports lovers with scant interest in football are being asked to pay for the stratospheric costs of its broadcast rights. Not for the first time, those with more niche concerns stand to see their lives complicated.
An example often cited by those worried about the impact of dwindling eyeballs is that of MotoGP, which aired on BBC before 2013 but had a slump in engagement behind the paywalls of TNT and its predecessor BT Sport. A move this year to broadcast some MotoGP coverage on Quest, the free-to-air channel that shows elements of TNT’s package, may redress that balance. That may point a viable direction for other sports in the post-Eurosport era, although in cycling’s case the only guarantee is for highlights packages from major events and a weekly magazine show.
Earlier this year Scott Young, who leads the European operation at Eurosport and TNT’s parent company WBD, claimed combining their resources would give viewers what they are looking for: “A slightly simpler journey on where to find the sport they love.” That is not entirely untrue in a landscape where British football supporters, in particular, would nowadays require at least five different subscriptions to receive every piece of output from Europe’s top leagues.
But fans of cycling, winter sports and tennis, to name but three, always knew Eurosport had their back. Simplicity will come at a cost and, for some smaller sports, it remains to be seen how deep TNT elects to go. Will typical Eurosport 2 offerings speedway, biathlon and cyclo-cross find a foothold in their stable?
Elsewhere in Europe, the channel will soldier on. Its viewing share in the UK was always low compared with the Netherlands, France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries in particular. Skiing, handball, basketball and volleyball are among major sports that draw in the numbers away from these shores but have rarely caught on widely to a British audience whose interests tend to be more focused.
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It means there is a sense of genuine loss for anyone who basked in Eurosport’s softer edges and the thrill of accessing sports or competitions that once seemed beyond reach. As tastes homogenise and subscribers are implored to believe little matters more than big-ticket occasions and moments, its race as a stand-alone offering in the UK market had been run.
TNT is likely to judge the new packaging’s success in the number of sign-ups it receives for events such as the Tour de France, which will not be free to air on ITV from 2026, and next year’s Winter Olympics. Aficionados of those sports will pray that, for all their glossy new packaging, issues like cost and access do not nudge them out of view.
That is where Eurosport, now merely a synapse in the listings, now resides. It was a treat for anyone on a European holiday in the 1990s or 2000s, the joy of stumbling across a race or football match from the margins synonymous with the wonder of sampling new cultures. Now it returns to the role of continental curio; the hope must be that the sports TNT has assimilated do not suffer for being paraded into a brave new era.
