Originally Posted by
ZHVelo
Interesting that the rights are so different, maybe it costs too much to show in the US.
Also, GCN has just launched their subscription product, and the US tv rights for the better - recognized races are already contracted to other broadcasters.
NBC shows the races operated by ASO (not sure they show all ASO races, but enough of them). FloBikes has rights to the Giro and some of the Classics.
GCN will have to wait for those deals to expire, then bid for those rights if they want to distribute those races to American tv audiences.
Meanwhile, what remains for GCN to show American viewers are some of the smaller races, those less popular with the US audience.
In Europe, GCN probably enjoys a better scenario for what they can show . . . because GCN and Eurosport have the same parent company, and Eurosport has some heavy rights to show races around most of Europe.
GCN probably has access to whatever races Eurosport already broadcasts to most of Europe. I'm not certain, but I think Eurosport shows the ASO races around most of Europe (probably not in France, but most other countries).
So GCN can offer its subscribers in Europe a much better slate of races / programming than it can offer its subscribers in the US . . . for now, anyway . . . maybe that will change when the US rights come due for new deals.