Patrick & Benji React to Surprise GCN+ Shut Down | Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast 

Don't think it can be downplayed how big of a role GCN+ has played over the last few years in the increase of broadcasting of women's racing (obviously still has a long way to go). If they aren't determined to be turning a profit, all of that progress could be undone.

Guys. Time to launch your own cycling broadcast 🙆‍♂️

The removal of adverts on live coverage was worth the subscription alone let alone all the extra documentaries and films.

I feel flat today waking up to this news in Australia. I remember the day GCN+ was launched and new something special had arrived to transform my passion for cycling. Alongside the LR cycling channel, GCN+ opened my eyes to the pure passion of cycling in Europe. I trust Patrick will be a voice for those down under and keep us informed of where we can continue to watch the best races live

GCN+ helped get me into cycling by making it possible to watch the full spectrum of cycling races. Are we heading back to the world pre GCN+ where media rights is massively fragmented and it's hard to impossible to legally follow cycling from outside Europe? GCN+ has been so excellent! I'm so confused.

Patrick was spot on. GCN+ was cheap at twice the price. I would have paid 3 times the $60 annual fee. Especially here in the States where Sepp Kuss has almost singlehandedly just made cycling a top ranked TV sport. Oh we’ll get the Tours but all the Cyclocross and smaller regional races will go away. This is a disaster in the US, Australia, New Zealand etc. What an astonishing blunder after building a great brand with on-air commentators we’ve loved and loved to hate. It was working and now they’ve broken it. TV revenue disappearing will force the cancellation of many races and whole series. I watched the world feed on Le Tour as Peacock was clogged with commercials. Very depressing😢!

This was the year we saw a team win the Giro, the Tour, and the Vuelta, and then struggle to find a sponsor; and the one global broadcast fully devoted to cycling be axed unceremoniously. This must be discussed, this must be a time for reckoning for all of us who love this sport and for those who run it.

Its a shame. Because even here in Belgium, for the races that Sporza covers, and covers very well, you cannot watch them on demand afterwards. Unless you taped it, it is gone. Which is why GCN was the place for me to catch up on a lot of races I missed. Also they did very good 30 min. long form summaries of races, which is perfect if you want to see all the action unfold. Those 5 mins recaps on RU-vid just don't do it for me.

It’s not just the racing, it’s the documentaries that I enjoyed as well. Feel very bad for all those who worked on those and are affected along with the staff who worked on the app in the background. I guess that’s business.

For me im retired and watch nearly every race on GCN plus. I cannot imagine that we will be offered as many races and hours of racing, without having to be brain washed by advertising. Its a sad day for cycling fans. The biggest day of the year for any true cycling fan is watching every second of the 6 hours of RVV 🤣

As a US cycling fan I am gutted. GCN+ was a huge reason I got into cycling and now fans in the US are left scrambling and wondering if we will be able to watch the races we love next season. This just sucks.

Thank you for talking about the end of GCN+, and especially for mentioning the fact that this is going to be especially problematic for us cycling fans that do not live in Europe. I’m completely frustrated that because of corporate greed, we can’t have nice things. GCN+ has been outstanding, and now greedy executives have decided without any remorse to simply pull the plug. I agree with Patrick that the GCN+ subscription was underpriced. It was indeed an outstanding bargain. This is going to hurt the sport of cycling, and it’s future. This is a very very sad day. 😢

I can’t get over this dark cloud feeling . What a lousy day

I am from the US. I cannot express how disappointed and upset I am right now. I got into bicycle racing in the 80s when we got absolutely no coverage at all even of the TDF. The best we could do was by Le Mirror magazine and try to use our pitiful high school French to try to decipher the captions to the five pictures we could get each week. These past two years have been fantastic - and I have lamented even single days when there were no races to watch. This sucks donkeyshit and I really don't know what I am going to dol. BTW, I feel no obligation to find legal ways to watch the races here. If a bunch of rich motherfuckers want to find a way to make even more money - that's on them. I have no duty to help them do so.

I just got into cycling in April and when I found out gcn+ existed it was like the greatest thing I could ever hope for. I watch the E3 saxo at least once a week on it. Gives me a ton of motivation for running. Very sad to hear.

Thank you for the honest discussion. Much more insight than the marketing-blurb on the GCN page.

GCN+ was a dream come true in the USA. I'm really bummed. I hope there is a quick solution.

I would have paid much more to NOT have to wade through the rest of the crap I’m never going to watch on Discovery+

lets put our dough together and make it lanterne rouge+ !

For context, this decision by Warner Bros Discovery can (probably) be traced to its merger last April. It issued around US$30 billion of bonds to finance that acquisition (borrowing US$30bn from investors), so it had to pay down that debt aggressively over time. If revenues weren't looking that great, the only way to pay off that debt was through cost-cutting. The GCN shutdown is probably just one part of that retrenchment.

This is going to have a huge impact on US viewership of races, kinda tragic given how well the US riders have been doing recently

So it's back to 320p rebroadcasted live streams? and maybe 640p streams where the stream intentionally disconnects when an attack starts ?

Welcome to the Latern Rouge Series Podcast. Westworld is very meh past first season, Game of Thrones is obviously good the first 4/5 seasons, House of the Dragons was surprisingly very enjoyable.

A real shame. GCN a huge boost here in New Zealand for those of us keen to watch anything outside the Tour. Makes the LR recaps all the more important next year I guess 😅

Warner Media, Time Warner, all of its previous iterations- utterly soulless corporation

This is definitely a dark day in the world of cycling. A large portion of the knowledge I've gained since starting cycling 3 years ago came through GCN. Perhaps in the future there will be a way to see such great videos from these guys, just maybe in a different form.

Not sure what we'll do here in Canada. I don't think Sportsnet or TSN show any cycling anymore, and their TdF coverage always sucked anyways. GCN+ with a VPN was a godsend.

Did not see my email about this until I saw your title today. What a bummer. I just discovered cycling year round, this was my first year with GCN+ and I was just getting into the groove. Understanding all the different kinds of cycling and watching the lesser known races. I am totally bummed if I will not be able to get these races next year in the US.

You two should be crowdfund the rights to produce showing these races, it sure would be messy at first by subcontracting camera crews, but with your sense of humor you would make it work.

You mention doing this offseason, but for me Cyclocross is my primary interest, so this is mid-season. I'm trying to figure out what I'll need to do to watch all the CX events. Currently its been in the USA using GCN+/Racepass with a VPN connection though the UK. This is still too fresh and confusing at the moment.

I'm devastated. As an American It's like being thrown back into the dark ages. And Cyclocross - Warner Bros/Discovery is cutting us off right before the next round of WVA vs MVDP, ffs! 😭

I have been born and raised as a cycling fan on GCN Race Pass and +. I live on the GCN app to watch docs and racing. Genuinely a bad day.

Going to be very difficult to watch cx season and the ground tours and classics next year here in the US without the service. Very sad to see this one stop shop for cycling broadcasting go away!

Losing controlling share was the last nail in the head for GCN 😂

The GCN+ app wasn't shut down by GCN but rather the money grubbing folks at Warner Brothers/Disney. If they aren't making money, it's going to be gone.

Bad news. I watched so many races on GCN+ this year. I especially enjoyed watching the smaller races that weren't shown elsewhere. I would've paid more per month even though here in the US the TdF and a few of the tours and classics had territory restrictions. Now I'll have to rely on Peacock and Flobikes.

Appreciate the thorough deliberation. Really helping the coping here in Canada.

The big tech media are pushing us back to the limewire/ utorrent days. We tried to go legit, but they have shown they are too greedy and dumb. No way on earth the whole women's season will be available on 1 network now. Meaning I will have to pay different subs. absolute pricks.

I just want the racing, not the other crap Discovery will force me to pay for...

Make a Lanterne Rouge streaming service and by up all the rights!

All the adverts alone is enough to avoid Discovery.

Lanterne Rouge Cycling Channel when? Patrick and Benji in the booth would be crazy

Getting my news from LR & Benji now 😀 I just checked my emails and there it was: in my spam folder. GCN+ was the only subscription I have so this is unfamiliar territory for me. I am not interested in rubbish drama shows or "reality" telly. Does this mean I now have to subscribe to some channel that shows footie? Urgh!

In Portugal Discovery Plus still not exists, is possible to Subscribe to Eurosport but its 6.99 a month (with less content). GCN+ Was a great service with a very competitive price. Great Content but the big plus was all the cycling coverage (ROAD, MTB, CICLOCROSS, ETC) with no cuts, no pub, etc. What a shame for all of this to disappear without any alternative (at least in many many countries)

Back to the dark ages for Aussie cycling fans

For people not in Europe bad News

Good analysis guys. I hope you still get some way to view and review these races. I mostly listen to your review to keep up with what’s happening.

I too would have paid more for this service after my first few months of watching, because here in the U.S., Flobikes charges much more for less coverage and none of the documentaries of GCN+ quality. I am really bummed out over this.

Its going to be a game changer for every one. Cycling will take a huge hit.

I’ve already got discovery+ but I liked using gcn for the cycling. This is a real shame

11:00 it's definitely just geoblocking. Here in the US, there was already a lot of shadiness with Flobikes, which bought the rights to geoblock GCN+ while rebroadcasting the GCN+ coverage on their network.

Patrick must be drafting an agreement for a VPN sponsorship at the moment

As an American who just got into cycling seriously two years ago. This is my main source of racing viewing. I also subscribe to FloBikes & Peacock, but it’s such a small pie of races. I’m panicking. Not gonna lie. I got a VPN to watch the gravel worlds. I definitely will be looking into this as an option. The cyclocross clash of WVA & MVDP schedule was just released & it directly affects this.

feel like am losing a friend. one of the only subscriptions that i really enjoyed. short sighted on wb

Great chat guys a lot of valid points made 👏🏻👏🏻 I’m absolutely gutted with the news!!! I found the app very handy for watching cycling when your away from your tv like at a hotel or at a family member’s house that don’t have Eurosport 😒🙄 also the app was a fantastic for Documentaries! Visiting x pros was especially good!! Anyway I think Discovery wanted them to build up the app for transferring over to their own app….. that time has come??

I guess all us non-euro folks will flood back to Tiz-Cycling…

Though I’ve been a hungry cycling fan since the mid-70s, GCN+ gave me access to Cyclocross and a lot of other ‘smaller’ races I’ve never been able to watch before. GCN+ will be sorely missed by U.S. cycling fans.

Discovery + is 6.99 per month for UK subscribers. The worst thing about this is the fact that coverage will not be Add-free and when watching GCN+ you notice straightaway how much TV viewers miss. Ahhh man the rest of the output from Discovery+ is mostly reality bollocks.

I was always shocked it worked out as £6 a month for all the content it has. Would have happily paid double, even triple and would still call it reasonable for the wealth of races/docs.

Like you (and we) discussed, the platform was simply never going to be sustainable. Maybe take a page out of the NFL's playbook and partner with RU-vid Live, that way you have an accessible platform with wider reach, without all that extra admin of developing and maintaining a proprietary app.

I think you have nailed it. I was happy to go Discovery but they severely limit coverage in the US. GCN was a great option. Quirky but what isn’t about cycling! 😂 The background was highly informative and the lack of a transition plan that covers some major potential markets.

Nailed it. They should have had the "next step" ready to go with today's announcement. They should have had another paragraph telling you how to continue the coverage you want.

If you want more content on this topic there's a whole other side to this on how it impacts the MTB disciplines(XCC, XCO, DHI, EDR) that would be interesting to explore. Long story short, '23 was the first season with GCN+ as a new broadcaster, with a new event organizer being under the same WB umbrella. With the broadcaster gone, where is the incentive to organize races. The '24 calendar was recently revealed, and looks like a step backwards.

In Sweden the the discovery plus cost about 3-4 times the price of GCN+. Around 17 euro/month since it's bundled with a lot of other non-sport content. Their app sucks big time, buggy and and Chromecast support is so bad that's unusable. Not going to happen, so please keep the content youtube/podcast coming 😎

WTH!!!! They had it all and it was affordable

Let's also keep in mind, that Eurosport Player/Discovery+ at least in Germany is "ad supported", i.e. you have to watch all those annoying ads all the time. Let's see how this is panning out, but I am inclined to become a pirate...

I just finished setting up a pc in my basement so I could subscribe - was planning to do it next week and was really looking forward to the upcoming cyclocross that I can't get in the US. I am very sad to hear this, but glad it happened before I sent them money. I have to figure out what I am going to do now...

Keep doing what your doing

My wife is soooo pleased. I am soooo pissed. We get to spend more time together......I'll get more done around the place....I'll even get to ride my own bike more. Maybe with the wife...😂 I already rejected Dis+. Anything with ads has lost me. I'll wait until 2027 when GCN will be resurrected.

If you want all the grand tours it’s 39.99 a month !!! GCN was £40 a year

For all US viewers (me included) since WB's intend is to consolidate streaming options, I'd hope Discovery+ will be our future option to watch the races we have been watching on GCN+ probably with the exception of TdF and Vuelta which are broadcast on Peacock

I'm so disappointed. GCN+ is still required if you wanted to watch anything that isn't a grand tour or classic in Australia. This shits me: "An announcement by Warner Bros Discovery for where those outside of Europe can enjoy live racing will come soon." ☹️

Looks like I'll be holding onto my EuroSport account for a while. I went that direction about 10+ yrs. ago when I dropped cable/satellite service. I had to spend a boat load of money on the basic service, then add on an extra cost (all) sports package in order to pick up the one channel that carried cycling. When I went to EuroSport, I could subscribe to that only and for less than I paid for the sports package.

Damnit. How do I watch the cyclocross from Canada after December 19!?!?

I watched everything on GCN. I feel bad for those affected. I hope they still have work. This podcast and GCN is where I go when depression hits and I need to refocus. I was working my way through the documentaries and films. You guys will definitely need to do historical pods now. In a panic over how to watch CX now, but will try to hold it together until more info surfaces.🙅‍♀️ I'll pretty much pay a great deal to see the races. Thanks, guys! On top of things, as always!

I agree that the co-existance of GCN+ and Eurosportplayer never made sense. It was literallly the same stream with the same commentators in two different apps. But if Discovery is really folding everying into Discovery+ and dropping the coverage of the small races, there is a business opportunity to serve the cycling fans, with basically the same that GCN(+) was doing. And as you mentioned, even for a potentially higher price. I hope someone will take that opportunity. How about LanternRouge+ with Patrick and Benji as live commentators? 😛

time for amazon to step up and bring cycling to prime!

Warners are cutting all sorts of stuff since Zaslav took charge, delisting things from streaming services because they don't want to pay royalties, gutting TCM, the list goes on.

Happy to live in Denmark. Discovery+ cost around 20 dollars or month, and you are able to see all top races. From the Tour de France to Gran Camino, Algarve to Arctic race of Norway.

The breadth of the coverage was impressive - I just hope the coverage is as extensive on discovery plus . It looks like it’s 6.99 /month (much more than gcn +)

Since the Eurosport player shut down I've been using discovery plus this year and I have to admit I can't say anything bad about it. Way better tech than ES player ever had, still all the stream-only /every race / multi language content, perfect availability alive, staggered and on demand, 40€/year and all the additional Eurosport content and all the discovery content (although i don't use that). Tbh I never quite understood why anyone would use GCN plus in Europe. The German coverage /commentators are also just top notch

Huge GCN fan, daily viewer. Never downloaded the app, nor did I subscribe to +.

All GCN+ content is already on Discovery+ when viewed in my country. Not saying that closing it won't have an effect, just that the amount of people that have used GCN+ likely varies from country to country.

Thanks guys, you are the best. . As a GCN+ subscriber I am so disappointed. Hopefully, Discovery will come up with something for the USA/Canada etc. Consolidation is a b****.

Now the only platform for racing in the USA is on Peacock which depending on the event the announcers are not great . They only have the majors such as grand tours with TDF being anchored race.

I'll miss Carlton Kirby ,Robbie Mcewen, Dan Lloyd, Jens Voigt...all the other GCN presenters ...? this sucks.

Thanks for the info guys. I sit in South Africa, so i have only 2 options watch via Live stream or a tv channel which does not show all the cycling I want to watch. So, until we know whats going on, its back to the dark ages!

Taking a giant step back in race coverage availability. If they think we're going to jump on Warner's sub they're going to be mistaken.

I get the consolidation in principle. However, it doesn't make sense to change the price, add in geo-restrictions. It all seems like a major step backwards. Maybe I want to to watch Cycling - but none of the other stuff - why do I want to suddenly pay for all the other unwanted sports/content

Well damn.....I guess over here in the states, we'll be going back to watching on questionable websites. We don't get Eurosports o Discovery sports offerings. Coverage here sucks,

I think the most disappointing aspect is that it seems like Discovery+ will flush the whole project down the drain

Basically the company was losing a bunch of money so they will just sell it off and stream the events in Discovery+. I think a lot of the documentary content etc they made for the platform and RU-vid was good but not great and let’s face if you can’t monetise then it will fail. There is SO much streaming content available that it is hard to find an audience. Playsports Newtork had 200 UK staff, with revenues of £17.2 million but still made a loss of £10 million! 😢

GCN+ was great, im not gonna say I used it all the time, I have the GT included on my cable, but it was a great way to see the classics and monuments, I only pay for the month I need it that way, no more tricky links or bad streamings. Plus no adds!!

3 cheers for corporate greed. Bundeling is not the answer most people want their sport and no other shit. How you would like when you go to shop for 1l of milk and there is only bundles with 2kg of meat and 8 eggs no other choice.

Benji got one bit wrong. The Eurosport player is still going in the UK, I have it. The just nerfed the phone app which you now watch in browser which is not much different. The Smart TV app is still going

Hopefully this means all of cycling is consolidated again in Canada. I hate FloBikes and preferred GCN+, but having 90% of the cycling on Flo and the Italian races on GCN+ just meant we needed to double pay for the last couple of years.

Cycling fan watching from Japan here, does anyone know what my options are now?

Talking about betrayal. In Australia we are lost now. SBS has become a cartoon character of cycling coverage/commentary in Australia. So disappointed

Well. LR just increased quite significantly in value

There is also content distribution network costs CDN’s to consider to move big streaming services across contrys.