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July 18, 2023

Editor's Note: Jake Kline penned the column below.

NBC Moved Most of the Tour de France to Peacock, Here's Why it Made Sense 

The 110th edition of the Tour de France has reached the home stretch. The riders took yesterday off to rest before beginning Stage 16 earlier this morning.

Fans in the U.S. are consuming the ’23 race differently than the first 109. They have no other choice, at least if they wish to watch the event live.

"After also presenting the opening week on USA Network, Peacock [has been the] exclusive live home of the event," Jon Miller (president of acquisitions & partnerships, NBC Sports) said.

15 stages were/are exclusive on the platform. That is a notable departure from last year when just one was solely on the streaming service.

But a closer examination of the sports property, its fan base, and viewing trends suggests the decision to move the race's broadcast home was both logical and opportunistic.

Jake Kline’s Analysis:

The Tour de France has aired on several broadcast networks in the U.S. since the turn of the century.

In 1999, Outdoor Life Network (OLN) acquired the event’s rights. Its timing could not have been better. The cable network would go on to chronicle Lance Armstrong's seven Tour victories.

The sport remained on the channel, which underwent a pair of rebrands (first to Versus, then to NBC Sports Network), for the next two decades. When NBC chose to shutter NBCSN in ’21, its programming moved over to sister stations. USA Network carried the bulk of last year's Tour.

Back in February, NBC extended its rights to televise the event through 2029. That deal came with one notable wrinkle: the Tour would largely be moving from USA Network and NBC to the company's streaming platform. The shift was made to bolster Peacock’s slate of live sports programming.

The decision made sense from a bandwidth standpoint.

“Streaming services don’t have linear TV channel time window constraints," T.K. Gore (head of sports business development, Kiswe) said, "and the Tour is a high-volume, live content event with 21 stages of racing over three weeks, and each stage [averages] between five to six hours.”

The sport’s fan demographics and viewership patterns justified the move over-the-top too.

Professional cycling supporters are loyal and have greater disposable incomes than the average sports fan. They also maintain a propensity to be

early adopters

of emerging technologies and products.

"Peacock is well-known to cycling fans as the exclusive home to top events throughout the year," Miller said.

It’s also a relatively small following. USA Network touted

554,000 viewers

for a stage last year, the most-watched weekday stage since 2009.

The shift to streaming has likely resulted in fewer viewers this time around, but it's not as if they're losing of millions of fans.

“[For them], it’s not about garnering the largest number of eyeballs; rather it’s about convincing a core group there’s a product out there they cannot live without,” media consultant Patrick Crakes said. “It’s not a reach strategy, but rather a fee-based lean into ultra fans paying up for access.”

The model has worked in international soccer.

Hockey fans have also become familiar with it. Disney chose to employ a similar practice when ESPN reacquired NHL rights prior to the start of the 2021-22 season. 'NHL Power Play', which provides fans with access to over 1,050 games per season, requires an ESPN+ subscription.

Like cycling fans, the average NHL viewer has a greater household income than supporters of other leagues.

The Tour is not the first sports property to land exclusively on Peacock.

"Peacock is home to the most live sports of any U.S. streaming service," Miller said. "Our MLB Sunday Leadoff package is in the midst of its second season. The next Premier League season on Peacock, featuring exclusive live matches, match encores and more, kicks off next month. We have a new long-term agreement with the Big Ten, which includes nine Peacock exclusive football games this fall (the first is Sept. 2 at Michigan) and 40+ men’s and women’s basketball games. We’ll have an exclusive Notre Dame Football game this fall…and [we had a] INDYCAR race exclusive to Peacock."

Most recently, the NFL made headlines when it announced that Peacock would become the home to an exclusive NFL regular season game (Buffalo at LA Chargers on 12/23/23) and to the first-ever exclusively live streamed NFL Playoff game on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024.

The platform is almost assured to set a record for new subscribers come Wildcard Weekend.

Look for the migration of marquee sporting events to streaming platforms to continue in the month/years ahead as broadcasters look to grow digital sub counts. The hope is they are laying the foundation for a day when streaming becomes the primary medium for television viewing.

“One of the keys for driving the growth of media technologies from broadcast television to pay TV to streaming has been the migration of popular sports and entertainment content to drive adoption, viewership and retention,” Lee Berke (president and CEO, LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media, Inc.) said.

But do not expect NBC or any other network to start placing all their mainstay sports programming behind a streaming paywall; basic economics, and the need to grow fan bases, ensure that won't happen anytime soon.

About the Author: Jake Kline is an attorney specializing in sports/media/entertainment, finance and digital technology. You can follow him on Twitter 

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