Make the Tour de France a Category A event so it is free-to-air

Make the Tour de France a Category A event to ensure it remains free-to-air in the UK.

The Tour de France is the one of the world’s most-watched annual sporting event, inspiring some to take up cycling. We are concerned British cycling is already in decline, with the UK’s last UCI Continental team, Saint Piran, recently closing. We believe losing free coverage of this huge sporting event will worsen this, reducing visibility and participation in the UK. Cycling boosts health and sustainability—without free access, we think the next generation of British riders may never get inspired.

The Government recognises concerns raised about losing free-to-air coverage of the Tour de France. Ensuring live cycling can be enjoyed by a wide reaching audience is important to growing the sport and inspiring the next generation of cyclists. Professional cycling, in particular the Tour de France, captivates fans with its exciting races and inspires people across the country to get on their bikes every weekend.

That said, broadcasting rights also provide essential income for sporting National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and event organisers, including British Cycling, which enables them to invest in better facilities for participants and spectators, improve elite performance, hire the best coaches, and keep up with mounting competition. NGBs, including British Cycling, need to consider the trade-offs between visibility, access to live cycling events and maximising broadcasting revenue. It is important to get the balance right, and that balance is for each sport’s NGB to determine.

The Government will continue to encourage and support the growth of cycling and the rest of the sector into the future. As part of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic cycle, UK Sport have committed long term investment of over £38 million of Exchequer and National Lottery Funding for British Cycling. This is an uplift of under £1 million from the previous cycle. This will go towards supporting all aspects of the Great Britain Cycling Team, including equipment development and competition costs across road, track, mountain bike and BMX. Sport England provides up to £26.6 million for five years to invest in community cycling initiatives. This funding allows British Cycling to invest in the next generation of talented riders and volunteers and extend their work in England’s diverse communities to get people active.

On 12 February, the Government announced the details of almost £300 million of funding for local authorities for active travel in 2024/5 and 2025/6, to provide high-quality and easily accessible active travel schemes across England. This will enable an additional 30 million journeys on foot and by bike every year, including more than 20 million new walk-to-school journeys by children and their parents. Investment in active travel helps to revitalise high streets, improve air quality and support people to live longer, healthier lives.

The Government is also committed to the positive impacts of hosting major cycling events. In March, the UK was announced as hosts for the Grand Depart stages for both the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes in 2027. This is the first time, apart from in France, that the Grand Depart for both races will be hosted in the same country. The Tour will travel throughout England, Scotland and Wales, inspiring girls and boys as their sporting heroes cycle directly through their communities, with the races free to view in person.

All UK broadcasters are operationally and editorially independent of the Government. Therefore decisions relating to coverage of particular sporting events - including the Tour de France - are ultimately a commercial decision for the relevant broadcaster and/or the rights holder of the specific sporting event.

The current listed events regime is designed to ensure that sporting events of national significance are available to as wide an audience as possible, by prohibiting exclusive broadcasting of the event without prior consent from Ofcom. The Broadcasting Act 1996 gives the Secretary of State for DCMS the power to draw up a list of sporting events of “national interest”: ● Group A events: full live coverage must be offered to free-to-air terrestrial broadcasters on fair and reasonable terms. ● Group B events: these can have live coverage on subscription television, provided that secondary coverage is offered to the free-to-air broadcasters.

It is important to point out that listing the Tour de France as a ‘group A’ event would not guarantee that it will be broadcast live, or on a free-to-air channel. Rightsholders are not required to sell live rights for listed events and free-to-air broadcasters are not obliged to purchase them.

The Government believes that the current list of events works well and that it strikes an appropriate balance between encouraging access to a number of sporting events and allowing sports to maximise broadcasting revenue. The Government has no plans to review the list at this time. However, developments continue to be monitored.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport