OPINION: TSN drops the ball on Tour coverage

I remember being thrilled when TSN sent out a press release earlier this year announcing that it had picked up the Canadian broadcast rights for the Tour de France. I thought this would finally mean the biggest cycling event in the world would get daily coverage on the country’s biggest sports network. Outdoor Life Network had been carrying the Versus broadcast out of the U.S. for Canadian viewers in the past, but I figured the move to TSN would mean big things for cycling in this country.

Wow. Was I ever mistaken.

What we have now come to find out is that only TSN2 is carrying the Tour daily (good luck finding that on your TV) with the main TSN network picking up only a handful of days live and occasional nightime repeats. I was hoping that they would also offer some sort of online package that I’d be more than happy to pay for, but again, TSN has dropped the ball here with no online viewing.

No problem, I thought. Last year I paid for the Versus online package ($20 for full live and on-demand coverage) and was all set to do that again. Unfortunately NBC has picked up this package this year.  They bumped the price up to $30 and – despite allowing Canadians to sign up for the package initially – aren’t offering the video to anyone outside of the U.S.

So what does this leave us with? I recommend CyclingFans.com – they have links to a number of live feeds of the race, but unfortunately they may not be entirely legal and there’s no full on-demand options, which means you have to be in front of the computer while the race is actually going on.

I realize TSN is likely too big and has too large of an audience to give us daily coverage live, so I say – give us back OLN. Yes their commercials for lame shows were annoying, but at least they were giving Canadian cycling fans what they wanted.