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Hello, welcome to The Business of Sport with Sean Farrington. This time round, it's cycling and how it fits into the worlds of elite sports competing for funding, for TV eyeballs, for participants, for spend in the shops as well.

This weekend we'll mark the last Tour de France, which you'll be able to watch on telly for

free the way you have been for so many years.

We're going to have a look at how a change to broadcasting rights might impact gateways into

the sport, and we'll hear from those who've been at the top of British cycling about how it's

changed, how it's changing, get a glimpse of where things might go next.

BBC 5 Live. Wake up to Money, Business of Sports on BBC 5 Live.

So when the last rider rolls across the Tour de France finish line in Paris, it'll mark

more than the end of

Elite Cycling's biggest race for this year. It could well be the last time TV viewers will hear this.

So for any fans of long-distance road cycling, this music will be instantly recognisable.

It is, of course, ITV's Tour de France broadcast theme.

And when that comes to an end, it looks at to bringing an end to the four decades that we've had of terrestrial free-to-air Tour de France coverage on one of the core channels

for British TV viewers. So Warner Brothers Discovery will have the exclusive rights to show

the race going forward. Continuing, it's paid for streaming platform as it has done. Many

subscribers may be familiar already with the Discovery Plus app in the UK.

TNT Sports, the channels on there. As it stands, viewers could now have to pay potentially up to

£30.99 a month subscription if they're watching through that app. So big changes for viewers

on the way potentially. It's a good time to assess, therefore, how the cycling world is

doing. We've talked about it in years gone by, haven't we? Once been billed as replacing golf as

the new spending splurge for middle-aged men, amongst others. Has it been able to build on that

...