Cycling fans in the UK are being given the option of a new ‘Saver Plan’ once TNT Sports’ racing coverage moves to Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max streaming platform later this month, reducing the monthly subscription from £30.99 to £25.99. However, this will only apply when committing to a minimum of 12 months and still leaves the annual cost at £311.
The announcement came this morning as Warner Bros. Discovery offered some more details of the imminent move of all TNT Sports content from discovery+ to HBO Max, the multinational mass media and entertainment giant streamlining its output and consolidating its TNT Sports coverage on its HBO Max streaming platform.
This has now been confirmed for Thursday 26 March, meaning all racing coverage previously available on discovery+ will switch over, starting with stage four of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and the women’s edition of Ronde van Brugge. The races will still be broadcast on TNT Sports’ TV channels, but all streaming via discovery+ will be on HBO Max.
Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed there will be a new ‘Saver Plan’ reducing the monthly cost of a TNT Sports subscription by 16 per cent, from £30.99 to £25.99. However, this will require a minimum 12-month term, so the total annual cost will still be £311.88 (it was £371.88 previously).
The cheapest saver plan including HBO Max and TNT Sports is £27.99-a-month and the monthly plan for just TNT Sports, which can be cancelled at any time, remains at £30.99.
It represents a very slight softening of Warner Bros. Discovery’s pricing strategy for sports fans, however the 16 per cent monthly reduction will not stop the annual cost of watching cycling via TNT Sports topping £300, multiple times more than what it previously cost before Warner Bros. Discovery closed Eurosport and moved its content to TNT Sports.
While the table above mentions different prices for packages with or without adverts, this does not apply to cycling and sport coverage on TNT Sports, which will continue to feature adverts.
Warner Bros. Discovery tells us: “HBO Max will be available on all major devices including select TVs, set-top boxes, streaming devices, mobiles, tablets, game consoles and platforms including Android, EE / BT TV, Fire TV, iOS, LG, PlayStation, Roku, Samsung, Virgin TV and Xbox.
“Subscribers will be able to create up to five personalised profiles, receive tailored recommendations and enjoy features like Continue Watching and, depending on your plan, offline downloads.”
The move to HBO Max has long been in the pipeline, Warner Bros. Discovery wanting to consolidate its content under one platform, hence cycling and other more niche sports moving from Eurosport to TNT Sports/discovery+ and now to HBO Max.
HBO Max features all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s entertainment content, including film and TV.
Fans who only wish to purchase TNT Sports, can choose a 12-month subscription via HBO Max, saving £5 per month or £60 a year, when compared to the monthly plan. However, as mentioned earlier, this still is significantly more expensive than previous subscription services to watch cycling, such as GCN+ and Eurosport, and still works out at more than £300 per year, without any option to pause a subscription, for example at the end of the road season.