New Tour de France Femmes to go Europe-wide with Discovery Sports in 2022
The new Tour de France Femmes has stuck an agreement with Discovery Sports and Eurovision Sport to take the women’s cycling event to the widest audience possible across Europe from 2022. The deal further strengthens Discovery Sports’ growing reputation as the home of cycling, after showing every race on the UCI Women’s World Tour in 2021.
The inaugural edition of the Tour de France Femmes will begin with exclusive coverage offered for viewers in more than 50 markets across Europe (excluding France) via Discovery Sports’ portfolio of channels and platforms including Eurosport’s linear channels, as well as streaming via the Eurosport App, GCN+ and discovery+.
The world’s best women’s riders will come together to battle for the yellow jersey with viewers able to enjoy live, uninterrupted and ad-free coverage of every stage on Discovery Sports’ subscription platforms including local post-race highlights and analysis shows with insights from the best experts in the sport.
The long-term agreement to 2025 means Discovery Sports will continue to bring the UCI Women’s World Tour to millions of viewers across Europe, building on its comprehensive cycling offer from 2021 where it delivered every of Women’s World Tour race to fans. This forms part of its mission to bring parity to coverage of elite men’s and women’s events, and to inspire passion in fans for the widest range of sports and athletes.
Also included in the deal with Eurovision Sport are the exclusive rights across more than 50 markets in Europe to show the one-day Paris-Roubaix Femmes until 2025 after Discovery Sports broadcast the first ever edition this month.
The eight-stage Tour de France Femmes takes place between 24 to 31 July and begins in conjunction with the conclusion of the men’s Tour de France in Paris. The eagerly anticipated route for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2022 has now been officially unveiled by race organiser Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO).
Guy Voisin, director of cycling at Discovery Sports, said: “The first ever women’s edition of the Tour de France has been a long time in the making so we’re absolutely thrilled to have reached an agreement with the EBU that guarantees every stage will be able to watch live and on-demand across our channels and platforms.
“We have made it our mission to invest in more world-class women’s races because it is just a great sport, to help grow cycling further and to meet the expectations of our viewers everywhere. We will now harness our deep cycling expertise and unrivalled scale to bring coverage to the widest possible audience in Europe, truly unlocking the power of the sport.”
In addition to offering fans live coverage of every race on the UCI Women’s World Tour, Discovery Sports’ cycling portfolio also includes coverage of every Grand Tour and Classic road race as well as every major cyclo-cross, mountain bike, BMX and urban cycling World Championship and European Championship, and the UCI Track Champions League with Discovery Sports Events.