6 ms·

How the Tour de France became a $100M business

69 points by yarapavan 3y ago

InCityDreams 3y ago
Headlie: How the most... Artickle: ...one of the world’s most challenging.... It's almost as if the headline needs clarification. *Aside: just wondering how Orica Greenedge(!) enjoyed the Yates's 1, 2.
buro9 3y ago
And yet the TV rights are a joke as it's really difficult to watch in a lot of countries and the rave would be worth more to France if the audience was expanded greatly.
- matsemann 3y ago
  I think for most countries you can watch it in the GCN app with a subscription.
  - chr-s 3y ago
    There’s all kinds of funky geo restrictions for the tdf and a bunch of other races. The rights are a mess. In the US you need to use a vpn to watch the tdf on GCN+.
    - barney54 3y ago
      You can subscribe to Peacock for something like $7 a month and watch the TdF.
      - chr-s 3y ago
        Yea but they only have the TdF and a smattering of the French races (Paris-Roubaix, etc.), if you want to watch cycling year round it's not sufficient. As an American, I think the only way to watch everything is with a VPN and GCN+ or maybe Eurosport.
- haunter 3y ago
  If you are in Europe then the Eurosport sub is only €25 for a year. No ads and you also get Wimbledon (and the other majors), Women's Football World Cup, Olympics (not this year of course) etc.
  - zgluck 3y ago
    Wasn't Eurosport free to view across Europe via satellite on Astra 19.2° East via Luxembourg in the 80s/90s? I guess the sports organizers started charging serious money.
  - mrweasel 3y ago
    It's currently a little less than €18 per month, if you get the online service. I think they're running a discount at something like €130 - 140 per year right now, still not unreasonable if you're into various types of sports. I can see myself having a subscription just to have Tour de France running in the background while I'm working, had I thought about it and if I had an extra monitor or TV in the office.
    - haunter 3y ago
      Really? It's 25€ a year for me, maybe depends on the location (I'm in Hungary) https://files.catbox.moe/dhq7ne.png https://files.catbox.moe/dhq7ne.png
      - mrweasel 3y ago
        Oh wow, it's 999DKK per year in Denmark, and that's a special offer, or or 129DKK per month. So €135 for a year or €17-18 per month. I think it has to do with the cost of the various right for different events in each country, and purchasing power. It's really an area where the EU has absolutely failed, licensing of content should be union wide, but in reality it's still country by country. That might be a good thing, because €135 is a hell of a lot more in Hungary, compared to Denmark. Don't get me wrong, 999DKK is actually a pretty good deal. I'm not into sports in general, I only watch Tour de France, rowing and a few winter sports, but 999DKK is actually within what I'd pay for that.
- heywhatupboys 3y ago
  > it's really difficult to watch in a lot of countries please name some?
- jacurtis 3y ago
  That was true up until the last couple seasons (around 2020). As of today, it is finally easily available cheaply via streaming. - Peacock TV streaming service which is $5 a month (I got a $20 annual plan deal a few weeks before TdF) - GCN+ Streaming service which is $8 a month (or $50 a year) The GCN stream is available globally. I think it is also available on France24 and Sky Sports' streaming app. If this feels like bad distribution to those reading this, you have no idea how far we have come. TdF used to be on very obscure cable channels only, like Outdoor Network that required very premium satellite plans as it was only included as a specialty channel and not available via many cable or satellite providers, making it entirely inaccessible to most people. NBC eventually moved it to NBC Sports, which made it better. It was available through almost all providers now and available on more basic packages. We finally got our first streaming options (meaning you didn't need to have a cable/sattelite subscription) about 6 or so years ago, but it was on a terrible app that had terrible infrastructure and it cost $80-120 per TdF season! So with mainstream streaming, it is finally pretty accessible, just not discoverable. If you are looking to watch it, you can get it. It's also finally cheap enough for more people to justify it without needing to be a mega-fan. Again, on peacock it is only $5 a month. If you sign up and cancel immediately starting and following the TdF you can watch it all in one billing cycle. So that's pretty fair. Also, to NBC's credit, they are trying to make it more accessible. The first stage was actually on the main NBC channel, which I think is a first. Stages 2-7 have been on USA Network, which is on all basic cable packages. Stages 8+ now require Peacock. It's obviously not perfect, but progress deserves to be recognized!
  - Photogrammaton 3y ago
    Right you are. In the 90s, ESPN covered each stage with a nicely edited but short recap, about 30 minutes each as I recall. Not much, but better than nothing. The race has since moved around, and coverage of each stage has expanded--which, incidentally, coincides with the gradual expansion of cable channels and streaming.
  - meetingthrower 3y ago
    We've been watching TDF 20-30 min highlights on Peacock. It's great to get them but unfortunately they haven't bothered to edit them in a dramatic way. It is literally just splicing together the 5 hour feed, so it makes for some choppy viewing. You don't really get the "gist" of the stage unless you pay really close attention.
AlbertCory 3y ago
Sponsored by a crypto exchange? Cancelling my (free) subscription.
speed_spread 3y ago
My first thought was, wait, only $100M? If this was an American event it would be pumped up to a $2B affair with a theme song, videogame and plastic figurines.
- ulfw 3y ago
  Tour de France instead is full of EPO pumped cyclists. (see Armstrong, see Ullrich etc)
  - tokai 3y ago
    Get with the times old man.
  - parthdesai 3y ago
    If you think pro athletes in other sports are clean, I have news for you. If anything cycling is one of the few sports that takes anti-doping measures seriously
  - kashunstva 3y ago
    > full of EPO pumped cyclists It’s an unfortunate truth about professional road cycling. But with the generation of cyclists you mention, there was an unintended consequence on U.S. culture at least. There were a lot of people who, inspired by the narrative and excitement, got off the sofa and onto the roads. I rode avidly with a number of people who began serious cycling in those days. The whole sordid Epo affair is unfortunate; but through a combination of a winning (albeit false) story and the all-too-human tendency to suspend disbelief, a lot of common joes benefited in this way.
  - InCityDreams 3y ago
    >Tour de France instead is full of EPO pumped cyclists Instead of what? All elite athletes are on the juice.
    - baanlox 3y ago
      [dead]
light_hue_1 3y ago
It's also important to highlight that the Tour de France is one of the most sexist sporting events still around. Cycling in general. The cycling establishment refuses to allow equality for women. The women's Tour didn't even exist before 2022. The current women's tour is a pale shadow of the men's. The women are not allowed to ride the same tour, they can only do 8 stages and almost none of the 8 correspond to the men's race (they're 50-100km shorter). The 2023 women's edition got one time trial and one mountain stage. It's pathetic. The entire UCI behaves like it's the year 1800. There's a written rule that women are not allowed to race the same distances and times as men. It doesn't matter that they can. It doesn't matter that they want to. It doesn't matter if they raise the money to. The rule is, women must be inferior to men in cycling. It's just like with marathon running, you literally have older men in power holding women back for no reason at all. Women just want to cycle. They aren't demanding the same rewards or the same prize money. They just want to ride the same race! Why wouldn't we allow that? There's pretty good evidence that women are actually better endurance athletes than men. I wonder if one day we'll see the Women's Tour actually beat out the men's. PS: Someone in a reply said that clearly women can't do this. We know women can. And they can even beat men at it! Take the RAAM (Race Across America, a gruelling almost 3000 mile race, nearly 5000km). Women are allowed to join in. This is even longer than the Tour. Not only have many women finished RAAM, in Leah Goldstein actually won. Not the women's category. The race outright. Period. Or the Transcontinental Race (TRC, similar to RAAM but across Europe and without a support team, between 3000-4000km depending on the year). Not only have many women participated and completed it, in 2019 a Fiona Kolbinger won. And again, not the women's category. She won the 10 day race beating out the best man by 10 hours!
- heywhatupboys 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - cyrillite 3y ago
    Women can complete a Tour de France. A man will likely be the best athlete in every conceivable category. But, I can’t think of a single sport neither sex could meaningfully compete in if normalised against their own sex.
boringg 3y ago
That was a very macro version of the TDF finances. And the title didn't really describe how it got to 100M more the make up of their revenue streams. Also if it's 100M rev its 1B company right?
- NhanH 3y ago
  Sport doesn’t really get 10x multiplier I think. Top tier football club is ~4-5 billions valuation on ~700millions revenue.
jnsaff2 3y ago
Recommended watching https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_Pharmacy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_Pharmacy
- zgluck 3y ago
  > a 2017 made-for-television mockumentary sports film [...] starring Andy Samberg, Orlando Bloom, Freddie Highmore, Daveed Diggs, and John Cena Sold. Edited now that I started watching it: Narrated by Jon Hamm. about 40 minutes long. Half-way in: I'm suddenly realizing this is made for americans with the express purpose to excuse Lance Armstrong ("because everyone else is also doing drugs"). It's still funny though.
- metadat 3y ago
  Note: Available on Amazon Prime Video if you have it. Lance Armstrong: "It was like a pistachio nut in a dirty bird's nest." Buahaha. A truly great obscene movie.
  - samcrawford 3y ago
    Not included with Prime in the UK
Photogrammaton 3y ago
I wonder whether Netflix will boost American interest in the Tour de France. Something of the kind happened with Formula 1. Interest in it here (I’m in NYC) was generally so-so, whether or not one of the races occurred here. But the 2019 launch of the Netflix documentary series Formula 1: Drive to Survive roughly coincided with the expansion of American F1 races, of which I think there are three this season, and there are now American F1 fangirls. Re the TdF, America hasn’t paid much attention in the past except when a major contender was an American, as with Greg LeMond, Lance Armstrong, and a few others. Now, however, Netflix is running a documentary series about this race, called Tour de France: Unchained. That may do the trick. On the other hand, a TdF race will never occur here, so it remains to be seen whether interest will rise regardless of that. Fangirls ref: https://airmail.news/issues/2023-5-27/girls-just-want-to-f1 https://airmail.news/issues/2023-5-27/girls-just-want-to-f1 [subscriber only]
- awad 3y ago
  I'm not so sure. To paint with a broad brush, Americans love fast cars and don't care too much for cycling. There's always been a large motorsport culture in the US. DTS was a big part of the F1 rise in the states, but it is but one part of the story. Things really started to change when Liberty Media acquired F1 and brought in new management. F1 needed to make the sport more accessible by opening up on social media, giving away broadcast rights to ESPN, adding more race weekends both in the States and abroad, and of course (re)introducing the sport to many via Netflix. Which is all to say that there was a full on effort and strategy by the sport to change with the times.
  - paganel 3y ago
    I’m optimistic about the big tours’ “image” presence in the US because I think that the future of pro cycling is represented by Anglo countries, plus a few Colombians and some European sporting “freaks” like Pogacar. Ah, and some Benelux guys. Italy is as good as dead when it comes to pro-Cycling, the same goes for Spain, and France... France is always on the edge of the precipice and of “we’ll never ever going to win La Grande Boucle again! Long live Hinault and Virenque!”, so I’m not so sure about them. Long story short, the big cycling money is in the Anglo countries, I’m sure California-based clients alone purchase more professional bikes in a year compared to the whole of Europe. And that’s good for Californians.
ldehaan 3y ago
[dead]
xcombelle 3y ago
tour de france organisation has a long tradition to do more than closing eyes and even encourage doping/cheating practice (for exemple making the race harder and harder) it is a fair part of how it became a $100M business. source: i’m french
rungood 3y ago
For related interest, I'd highly recommend Icarus (2017) on Netflix: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6333060 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6333060
hilbert42 3y ago
As someone who used to be involved in outside television broadcasts I have to give full marks for the fabulous TV production. Not only is this a huge technical undertaking but also it's consistently almost flawless—it's outside broadcasting par excellence. (Unless, one's been involved outside TV production, it's difficult to realize how complex and involved such productions are especially if they're to go without a hitch—and this one is about as complex as it gets.) Naturally, modern tech—smaller cameras, better microwave links and television drones etc. have helped enormously but even so it's a huge credit to all those involved.
- honzabe 3y ago
  I absolutely agree with you, I just want to point out something that affected my viewing habits: that modern tech you mention also enabled "amateurs". I have been watching Grand Tours since I was a kid; watching together with my dad was our family ritual and I am emotionally attached to it. However, this year I was a bit busy and I did not watch Giro d'Italia. But I found time to watch content made by NorCal Cycling and The Vegan Cyclist. I know live-streaming a huge event like Tour de France is not comparable to making videos about a personal experience and publishing them after the race. But GoPros and drones made possible videos like [1] - as a cycling fan, I find that really exciting. A talented filmmaker and storyteller (like The Vegan Cyclist, in my opinion) can make a lot of bang for the buck with them. And what is especially enticing about this kind of content is the experience of "being inside" - personal attachment to the protagonist and a lot of footage from within the peloton. And pro cycling is not very good at it yet. Maybe that was the hole the Netflix documentary was trying to patch? I have not seen it yet. I have seen the first two seasons of "The Least Expected Day: Inside the Movistar Team" and I think that was a good idea, although they should hire someone like The Vegan Cyclist to make it interesting (BTW, I have no affiliation to the guy). It might seem crazy that I see events like Tour de France competing with "amateurs" but those amateurs might be able to attract a lot of attention for a dollar and I already see some money going in - like The Vegan Cyclist being sponsored by Canyon and a bunch of other companies. [1] https://youtu.be/lRwGtPek1FQ https://youtu.be/lRwGtPek1FQ
  - hilbert42 3y ago

69 points by yarapavan 3y ago

Headlie: How the most... Artickle: ...one of the world’s most challenging.... It's almost as if the headline needs clarification. *Aside: just wondering how Orica Greenedge(!) enjoyed the Yates's 1, 2.

buro9 3y ago

And yet the TV rights are a joke as it's really difficult to watch in a lot of countries and the rave would be worth more to France if the audience was expanded greatly.

matsemann 3y ago
I think for most countries you can watch it in the GCN app with a subscription.
- chr-s 3y ago
  There’s all kinds of funky geo restrictions for the tdf and a bunch of other races. The rights are a mess. In the US you need to use a vpn to watch the tdf on GCN+.
  - barney54 3y ago
    You can subscribe to Peacock for something like $7 a month and watch the TdF.
    - chr-s 3y ago
      Yea but they only have the TdF and a smattering of the French races (Paris-Roubaix, etc.), if you want to watch cycling year round it's not sufficient. As an American, I think the only way to watch everything is with a VPN and GCN+ or maybe Eurosport.
haunter 3y ago
If you are in Europe then the Eurosport sub is only €25 for a year. No ads and you also get Wimbledon (and the other majors), Women's Football World Cup, Olympics (not this year of course) etc.
- zgluck 3y ago
  Wasn't Eurosport free to view across Europe via satellite on Astra 19.2° East via Luxembourg in the 80s/90s? I guess the sports organizers started charging serious money.
- mrweasel 3y ago
  It's currently a little less than €18 per month, if you get the online service. I think they're running a discount at something like €130 - 140 per year right now, still not unreasonable if you're into various types of sports. I can see myself having a subscription just to have Tour de France running in the background while I'm working, had I thought about it and if I had an extra monitor or TV in the office.
  - haunter 3y ago
    Really? It's 25€ a year for me, maybe depends on the location (I'm in Hungary) https://files.catbox.moe/dhq7ne.png https://files.catbox.moe/dhq7ne.png
    - mrweasel 3y ago
      Oh wow, it's 999DKK per year in Denmark, and that's a special offer, or or 129DKK per month. So €135 for a year or €17-18 per month. I think it has to do with the cost of the various right for different events in each country, and purchasing power. It's really an area where the EU has absolutely failed, licensing of content should be union wide, but in reality it's still country by country. That might be a good thing, because €135 is a hell of a lot more in Hungary, compared to Denmark. Don't get me wrong, 999DKK is actually a pretty good deal. I'm not into sports in general, I only watch Tour de France, rowing and a few winter sports, but 999DKK is actually within what I'd pay for that.
heywhatupboys 3y ago
> it's really difficult to watch in a lot of countries please name some?
jacurtis 3y ago
That was true up until the last couple seasons (around 2020). As of today, it is finally easily available cheaply via streaming. - Peacock TV streaming service which is $5 a month (I got a $20 annual plan deal a few weeks before TdF) - GCN+ Streaming service which is $8 a month (or $50 a year) The GCN stream is available globally. I think it is also available on France24 and Sky Sports' streaming app. If this feels like bad distribution to those reading this, you have no idea how far we have come. TdF used to be on very obscure cable channels only, like Outdoor Network that required very premium satellite plans as it was only included as a specialty channel and not available via many cable or satellite providers, making it entirely inaccessible to most people. NBC eventually moved it to NBC Sports, which made it better. It was available through almost all providers now and available on more basic packages. We finally got our first streaming options (meaning you didn't need to have a cable/sattelite subscription) about 6 or so years ago, but it was on a terrible app that had terrible infrastructure and it cost $80-120 per TdF season! So with mainstream streaming, it is finally pretty accessible, just not discoverable. If you are looking to watch it, you can get it. It's also finally cheap enough for more people to justify it without needing to be a mega-fan. Again, on peacock it is only $5 a month. If you sign up and cancel immediately starting and following the TdF you can watch it all in one billing cycle. So that's pretty fair. Also, to NBC's credit, they are trying to make it more accessible. The first stage was actually on the main NBC channel, which I think is a first. Stages 2-7 have been on USA Network, which is on all basic cable packages. Stages 8+ now require Peacock. It's obviously not perfect, but progress deserves to be recognized!
- Photogrammaton 3y ago
  Right you are. In the 90s, ESPN covered each stage with a nicely edited but short recap, about 30 minutes each as I recall. Not much, but better than nothing. The race has since moved around, and coverage of each stage has expanded--which, incidentally, coincides with the gradual expansion of cable channels and streaming.
- meetingthrower 3y ago
  We've been watching TDF 20-30 min highlights on Peacock. It's great to get them but unfortunately they haven't bothered to edit them in a dramatic way. It is literally just splicing together the 5 hour feed, so it makes for some choppy viewing. You don't really get the "gist" of the stage unless you pay really close attention.

AlbertCory 3y ago

Sponsored by a crypto exchange? Cancelling my (free) subscription.

speed_spread 3y ago

My first thought was, wait, only $100M? If this was an American event it would be pumped up to a $2B affair with a theme song, videogame and plastic figurines.

ulfw 3y ago
Tour de France instead is full of EPO pumped cyclists. (see Armstrong, see Ullrich etc)
- tokai 3y ago
  Get with the times old man.
- parthdesai 3y ago
  If you think pro athletes in other sports are clean, I have news for you. If anything cycling is one of the few sports that takes anti-doping measures seriously
- kashunstva 3y ago
  > full of EPO pumped cyclists It’s an unfortunate truth about professional road cycling. But with the generation of cyclists you mention, there was an unintended consequence on U.S. culture at least. There were a lot of people who, inspired by the narrative and excitement, got off the sofa and onto the roads. I rode avidly with a number of people who began serious cycling in those days. The whole sordid Epo affair is unfortunate; but through a combination of a winning (albeit false) story and the all-too-human tendency to suspend disbelief, a lot of common joes benefited in this way.
- InCityDreams 3y ago
  >Tour de France instead is full of EPO pumped cyclists Instead of what? All elite athletes are on the juice.
  - baanlox 3y ago
    [dead]

light_hue_1 3y ago

It's also important to highlight that the Tour de France is one of the most sexist sporting events still around. Cycling in general. The cycling establishment refuses to allow equality for women. The women's Tour didn't even exist before 2022. The current women's tour is a pale shadow of the men's. The women are not allowed to ride the same tour, they can only do 8 stages and almost none of the 8 correspond to the men's race (they're 50-100km shorter). The 2023 women's edition got one time trial and one mountain stage. It's pathetic. The entire UCI behaves like it's the year 1800. There's a written rule that women are not allowed to race the same distances and times as men. It doesn't matter that they can. It doesn't matter that they want to. It doesn't matter if they raise the money to. The rule is, women must be inferior to men in cycling. It's just like with marathon running, you literally have older men in power holding women back for no reason at all. Women just want to cycle. They aren't demanding the same rewards or the same prize money. They just want to ride the same race! Why wouldn't we allow that? There's pretty good evidence that women are actually better endurance athletes than men. I wonder if one day we'll see the Women's Tour actually beat out the men's. PS: Someone in a reply said that clearly women can't do this. We know women can. And they can even beat men at it! Take the RAAM (Race Across America, a gruelling almost 3000 mile race, nearly 5000km). Women are allowed to join in. This is even longer than the Tour. Not only have many women finished RAAM, in Leah Goldstein actually won. Not the women's category. The race outright. Period. Or the Transcontinental Race (TRC, similar to RAAM but across Europe and without a support team, between 3000-4000km depending on the year). Not only have many women participated and completed it, in 2019 a Fiona Kolbinger won. And again, not the women's category. She won the 10 day race beating out the best man by 10 hours!

heywhatupboys 3y ago
[flagged]
- cyrillite 3y ago
  Women can complete a Tour de France. A man will likely be the best athlete in every conceivable category. But, I can’t think of a single sport neither sex could meaningfully compete in if normalised against their own sex.

boringg 3y ago

That was a very macro version of the TDF finances. And the title didn't really describe how it got to 100M more the make up of their revenue streams. Also if it's 100M rev its 1B company right?

NhanH 3y ago
Sport doesn’t really get 10x multiplier I think. Top tier football club is ~4-5 billions valuation on ~700millions revenue.

jnsaff2 3y ago

Recommended watching https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_Pharmacy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_Pharmacy

zgluck 3y ago
> a 2017 made-for-television mockumentary sports film [...] starring Andy Samberg, Orlando Bloom, Freddie Highmore, Daveed Diggs, and John Cena Sold. Edited now that I started watching it: Narrated by Jon Hamm. about 40 minutes long. Half-way in: I'm suddenly realizing this is made for americans with the express purpose to excuse Lance Armstrong ("because everyone else is also doing drugs"). It's still funny though.
metadat 3y ago
Note: Available on Amazon Prime Video if you have it. Lance Armstrong: "It was like a pistachio nut in a dirty bird's nest." Buahaha. A truly great obscene movie.
- samcrawford 3y ago
  Not included with Prime in the UK

Photogrammaton 3y ago

I wonder whether Netflix will boost American interest in the Tour de France. Something of the kind happened with Formula 1. Interest in it here (I’m in NYC) was generally so-so, whether or not one of the races occurred here. But the 2019 launch of the Netflix documentary series Formula 1: Drive to Survive roughly coincided with the expansion of American F1 races, of which I think there are three this season, and there are now American F1 fangirls. Re the TdF, America hasn’t paid much attention in the past except when a major contender was an American, as with Greg LeMond, Lance Armstrong, and a few others. Now, however, Netflix is running a documentary series about this race, called Tour de France: Unchained. That may do the trick. On the other hand, a TdF race will never occur here, so it remains to be seen whether interest will rise regardless of that. Fangirls ref: https://airmail.news/issues/2023-5-27/girls-just-want-to-f1 https://airmail.news/issues/2023-5-27/girls-just-want-to-f1 [subscriber only]

awad 3y ago
I'm not so sure. To paint with a broad brush, Americans love fast cars and don't care too much for cycling. There's always been a large motorsport culture in the US. DTS was a big part of the F1 rise in the states, but it is but one part of the story. Things really started to change when Liberty Media acquired F1 and brought in new management. F1 needed to make the sport more accessible by opening up on social media, giving away broadcast rights to ESPN, adding more race weekends both in the States and abroad, and of course (re)introducing the sport to many via Netflix. Which is all to say that there was a full on effort and strategy by the sport to change with the times.
- paganel 3y ago
  I’m optimistic about the big tours’ “image” presence in the US because I think that the future of pro cycling is represented by Anglo countries, plus a few Colombians and some European sporting “freaks” like Pogacar. Ah, and some Benelux guys. Italy is as good as dead when it comes to pro-Cycling, the same goes for Spain, and France... France is always on the edge of the precipice and of “we’ll never ever going to win La Grande Boucle again! Long live Hinault and Virenque!”, so I’m not so sure about them. Long story short, the big cycling money is in the Anglo countries, I’m sure California-based clients alone purchase more professional bikes in a year compared to the whole of Europe. And that’s good for Californians.

ldehaan 3y ago

[dead]

xcombelle 3y ago

tour de france organisation has a long tradition to do more than closing eyes and even encourage doping/cheating practice (for exemple making the race harder and harder) it is a fair part of how it became a $100M business. source: i’m french

rungood 3y ago

For related interest, I'd highly recommend Icarus (2017) on Netflix: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6333060 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6333060

hilbert42 3y ago

As someone who used to be involved in outside television broadcasts I have to give full marks for the fabulous TV production. Not only is this a huge technical undertaking but also it's consistently almost flawless—it's outside broadcasting par excellence. (Unless, one's been involved outside TV production, it's difficult to realize how complex and involved such productions are especially if they're to go without a hitch—and this one is about as complex as it gets.) Naturally, modern tech—smaller cameras, better microwave links and television drones etc. have helped enormously but even so it's a huge credit to all those involved.

honzabe 3y ago
I absolutely agree with you, I just want to point out something that affected my viewing habits: that modern tech you mention also enabled "amateurs". I have been watching Grand Tours since I was a kid; watching together with my dad was our family ritual and I am emotionally attached to it. However, this year I was a bit busy and I did not watch Giro d'Italia. But I found time to watch content made by NorCal Cycling and The Vegan Cyclist. I know live-streaming a huge event like Tour de France is not comparable to making videos about a personal experience and publishing them after the race. But GoPros and drones made possible videos like [1] - as a cycling fan, I find that really exciting. A talented filmmaker and storyteller (like The Vegan Cyclist, in my opinion) can make a lot of bang for the buck with them. And what is especially enticing about this kind of content is the experience of "being inside" - personal attachment to the protagonist and a lot of footage from within the peloton. And pro cycling is not very good at it yet. Maybe that was the hole the Netflix documentary was trying to patch? I have not seen it yet. I have seen the first two seasons of "The Least Expected Day: Inside the Movistar Team" and I think that was a good idea, although they should hire someone like The Vegan Cyclist to make it interesting (BTW, I have no affiliation to the guy). It might seem crazy that I see events like Tour de France competing with "amateurs" but those amateurs might be able to attract a lot of attention for a dollar and I already see some money going in - like The Vegan Cyclist being sponsored by Canyon and a bunch of other companies. [1] https://youtu.be/lRwGtPek1FQ https://youtu.be/lRwGtPek1FQ
- hilbert42 3y ago