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For more than 100 years, the Tour de France has been arguably the most gruelling test of athletic endurance in the sporting world. More than that, it has become an annual celebration of cycling and an event that units the French public, eagerly following the world’s best riders as they travel around the famed ‘l’Hexagone’ shape of the country.
Originally devised by L’Auto newspaper (a predecessor to the modern day L’Equipe) as a means to sell more copies, The Tour is more than just a race. It has helped many French citizens learn more about their country and showcases the French landscape, cities and culture to international audiences.
In 2024, the race was watched by an estimated 150 million people in Europe, a figure which includes more than 40 million French viewers.
Under the leadership of Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the race’s ‘Grand Depart’ has since ventured to other European countries and cities, which seek the prestige and the economic benefits of hosting one of the continent’s most storied sporting events. While this year’s edition will begin in Lille in the north of France, the Tour has previously taken the prologue and early stages of the race to the likes of Italy, Denmark and the UK.
Next year’s Grand Depart host Barcelona will pay between €7 million (US$8.21 million) and €8 million (US$9.39 million) for the hosting rights.
Such demand is indicative of the commercial juggernaut that the modern Tour has become. The ASO made up as much as 53 per cent of the €588 million (US$690 million) of the wider Amaury Group’s total revenues in 2023. Now, the ASO wants to have the same sporting and commercial impact on women’s cycling through the Tour de France Femmes.
The Tour de France isn’t just a test for the athletes, it’s a major challenge for the media. The scale of the race, the constantly-moving peloton, and the need to serve multiple stakeholders along a route spanning 3,500km necessitates a broadcast and technology operation that needs to highly capable, agile, and capable of adapting to changing conditions.
The Tour provides a major challenge for broadcasters and technology partners to capture every moment (Image credit: Getty Images)
The Tech Stack
The Tour de France’s technology operation is among the most unique in sport. Whereas soccer and tennis are played in a single arena, and while golf and Formula One take place over a vast but fixed area, the Tour de France is held across a whole country. It passes through cities, the countryside and mountain passes, is held at varying altitudes and temperatures, and must contend with natural elements.
This is a hugely challenging environment in which to deliver quality, reliable broadcasts and deliver mission critical applications. A technical zone at the end of each race comprises dozens of trucks, each hosting international broadcasters, media representatives, race officials, and technical partners.
In some cases, the technical zone will be some distance away from the finish line due to logistical reasons. It’s impossible, for example, to get every single truck at the top of a mountain finish. The operation starts at about 4am and the final truck leaves as late as 11pm, when it will travel overnight to the next stage.
The Tour de France’s former official technology partner NTT Data played a huge role in making all this happen. Between 2015 to last year, NTT Data helped develop the Tour’s digital strategy and overhauled its data-gathering capabilities, creating entirely new fan engagement propositions and simplifying many of the ASO’s organisational functions.
Previously, the Tour and NTT Data had established the concept of the ‘world’s largest connected stadium’, powered by cloud technologies, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). Data, including latitude, longitude and speed, was constantly captured from the course and from each rider, informing organisers’ decision-making and powering fan engagement activities, such as the official smartphone application, social media channels, and broadcast graphics. The Tour also uses AI to analyse historical and real-time data to predict race outcomes and provide insights that drive engagement.
The relationship with NTT Data came to an end in 2024. French firm Capgemini, which is already a partner of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup and golf’s Ryder Cup, will step in as official technology partner for the next five years.
The scale of the race makes it hard for fans to follow in person, while road closures present problems for residents. To solve these twin challenges, the Tour de France has appointed Waze as official traffic manager, helping fans to plan journeys around the race through the power of crowd-sourced data.
Tissot serves as the official timekeeper, powering timing and scoring, while Strava’s connected fitness platform builds on first-party engagement by allowing amateur riders to see official routes and training data from professional cyclists.
Social media has become an increasingly integral part of the Tour de France’s output in recent years as the ASO, like other properties, seeks to engage more diverse audiences through digital innovation and new forms of content.
A partnership with social video platform TikTok has allowed the Tour to reach a younger fanbase by embracing user generated content, while fans have been given a glimpse behind the scenes with the launch of the ‘Unchained’ docuseries on Netflix.
The Tour also has an official video game simulation produced by French company Cyanide Studio, and also features in Cyanide’s Pro Cycling Manager. An official daily fantasy game and an official mobile game are also produced for fans to play alongside the event.
The Tour de France’s tech zone is built as close as possible at the end of each stage finish (Image credit: SportsPro)
Broadcast overview
Broadcasting has been crucial to the growth of the Tour de France. Live radio coverage started in the 1920s, followed by television and cinema newsreel highlights prior to the First World War, before live television coverage for selected stages started in 1948. Now, every single second of the race is transmitted around the globe.
Footage is captured by vans, motorbikes, drones and even helicopters in order to deliver the best shots possible, especially given that scenery and aerial images of iconic chateaux are just as important to the race as close ups of the peloton. This might seem trivial, but the Tour de France is an opportunity for the host region to showcase its natural and architectural beauty to the world.
Wide availability on free-to-air (FTA) television in France reflects the event’s national importance and helps maintain domestic prestige. Public service broadcaster France Télévisions’ media rights deal for the race has been extended until 2030, with the organisation also serving as host broadcaster, delivering live feeds to the Tour’s global media partners.
It’s a hugely important role. Indeed, Eric LeLay, the director of sport at France Télévisions, previously told SportsPro that the Tour de France is an event that “comes to the community” and is the “image of France.” Since 2022, France Télévisions has performed the same role for the Tour de France Femmes, playing a vital role in growing the race’s profile.
Internationally, the Tour de France is shown by a combination of FTA broadcasters, such as ITV in the UK and RTVE in Spain, as well as pay-TV channels that appeal to more engaged audiences.
The race is one of the flagship properties for Warner Bros Discovery’s (WBD) Eurosport, which has the rights to the race across Europe, broadcasting every minute of every stage. In the US, NBC has been the Tour’s broadcast partner since 2001, while in Australia the rights are held by SBS.
What to expect in 2025?
As the Tour’s new official technology partner, Capgemini will use its AI and digital capabilities to enhance the event. Few concrete details have been revealed for the first year of the partnership but it’s reasonable to anticipate the partnership will become more realised in future years.
WBD will continue to provide pan-European coverage on Eurosport, Discovery+ and HBO Max. For the first time, WBD will deploy a ‘quad screen’ feature which combines feeds from helicopters and motorbikes to give viewers a more complete view of the race. This will also help the teams who will receive real time updates to improve in-race tactics and safety measures.
WBD’s mixed reality ‘Curve’ studio technology will also be deployed, with various technologies used to help viewers understand what they’re seeing on screen. These include a ‘wind tunnel’ tool to explain the impact of aerodynamics on the riders, an inclinometer that explains gradients, and VeloViewer data which provides deeper route analysis.
Production specialist EMG / Gravity Media will also trial a private 5G network on the finish line so it can capture new angles at the end of every stage.
This will be the first tour to be broadcast on TNT Sports in the UK after it absorbed Eurosport’s content earlier in the year and the last to be shown by ITV. TNT Sports and Discovery+ will become the exclusive broadcaster from next year.
The third season of the Unchained docuseries will be released on 2nd July, three days ahead of the 2025 Tour’s Grand Depart. It will also be the final season, with Netflix axing the show due to low viewership.
The Tour continues to target younger audiences by partnering with social platforms. This year, it has welcomed Kahoot! as an official supplier, with the learning platform to produce interactive content for audiences of all ages to become experts on the competition.
Elsewhere, the Tour de France is launching its first ever official esports competition, with the eTour de France held during the week before the race. The three-stage event began on 27th June, with PC and console players of the newly released Tour de France 2025 invited to compete and qualify for the final, which will be held in person in Montpellier during the tour’s second rest day. A €3,000 (US$3,520) cash prize is on offer for the winner.
