Hey folks - it’s come up in a few comments on stories, so I wanted to address it here: yes, I am working on Escape’s annual How to Watch guide for 2026.
Some how-the-sausage-is-made background for you: This is always an absolute goat rodeo of a story to wrangle. Unlike in most sports, companies that hold international broadcast/streaming rights in pro cycling for our target markets don’t announce their plans before the season begins. This year, the ambiguity is even greater because all the international RCS rights (Giro d’Italia, Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, etc.) are up for bid and have not (to my knowledge) been assigned yet. (Yes, I’m asking around.)
There are some broad rules-of-thumb that carry over. For the UK, substantially everything will be on TNT Sports, so far as we know (I expect them to win RCS rights, if only because there’s no/little competition for them). In the US, Peacock is home to all ASO events (Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix, Vuelta a España, etc.) through 2029. For Australia, SBS On Demand will be home to most events, although the season kickoff TDU will be on 7+. (Other TDU markets: UK is TNT Sports; Peacock in the US and FloBikes in Canada.)
But past that, the streaming landscape for 2026 remains very much in flux, for the US and Canada in particular but also for Australia for some races. My advice right now for the US/Canada:
Do not autorenew any annual paid streaming subs other than Peacock for the US. Instead, wait until we have more clarity on rights; FloBikes and HBO Max are expensive subs and a monthly binge-and-cancel strategy may be the better approach.
I’ll keep reporting on this with a goal to have the full guide ready for you as soon as possible. If you have questions or tips, please leave them here. Thanks!
Timely reminder….my Flo sub was set to renew at the end of the month.
That said, I’ll likely stick with it again because 1) Flanders Classics are still on FLO (I think) and 2) I can VPN in to Canada and avoid having to listen to the Peacock drivel in July.
Flanders is likely on Flo but TBD. Their calendar is completely pear-shaped right now as it lists women’s Omloop Nieuwsblad and Dwars door Vlaanderen but no other Flanders Classics events. I have a note in to both Flo and Flanders Classics to clarify who has the North American rights for 2026.
Just an example of why this is so frustrating for fans. The WT season starts literally this week for the women and next for the men, which means fans have to start making subscription choices, but there’s no schedule visibility past January for any of the major streamers.
Do these bidding situations come up every year or are they multi year agreements? It speaks volumes for the state of the sport’s marketability when TV rights aren’t even sorted out when the season is about to start.
I really appreciate the update as I was going nuts trying to figure out where cycling was going to be streaming in Canada this year. As you said FloBikes’ schedule is a mess to try and figure out. The gaps are not consistent in a way I would expect which made it harder to figure out. It makes the sport feel very amateur to not even know if races airing this weekend will be available to watch in my country. Looking forward to this being settled and reading your final product!
Typically they are multi-year deals. Peacock’s ASO rights, for example, were renewed in 2024, I think, on a five-year term (2025-2029 inclusive). So I would expect however RCS settles those will be the rights for at least a while. But to your point, that it’s barely seven weeks to Strade Bianche and the rights are still up in the air is madness and probably says something about how much most WorldTour races are actually worth to the platforms.
I got my renewal notice as well and it’s $156 plus tax, so I’m guessing Blair is quoting a price in CAD. Flo should have Canadian rights to ASO events for 2026 at least. They currently list ASO events in their schedule for Canada.
Noticing more events on the schedule on Flobikes here in Canada. Not a complete list yet but the Women’s Tour Down Under is showing up and a few other events later in the year as well. Perhaps a proper announcement of rights is imminent?
I’ve had good success in Australia with Staylive: Home Road Cycling
There seems to be subscription options for many countries in different tiers which I suspect is based on the rights deals each broadcaster has in that country: Subscribe
My understanding is its the Eurosport feed, in Aus we dont get the Grand Tours or the Monuments on Staylive because they’re on SBS. So for $6 per month on top of what I get on free to air via SBS, that gets me done. Plus over our Summer (now) I get cyclocross (except UCI world cup races) on demand (I dont watch it live anyway because it’s the middle of the night here).
