Warner Bros. Discovery tries to tempt disgruntled cycling fans back with half price for seven months offer sent to viewers who cancelled subscriptions

Disgruntled British cycling fans, who cancelled their Eurosport subscription following last week's announcement of a major price hike as part of racing coverage moving to TNT Sports, have reported being offered a half price £15.49-a-month deal for seven months.

The offer was first put before viewers last week, when road.cc readers reported being offered seven months of discovery+ Premium for £15.49-a-month, half of the £30.99 that cycling fans will soon pay monthly to watch the sport once Warner Bros. Discovery closes Eurosport in the UK and Ireland at the end of February and moves all its content over to TNT Sports.

> How to watch cycling for less now it's moving to £30.99-a-month TNT Sports

Now a week on, cycling fans who cancelled their subscription and ignored the attempt to get them to keep the package have reported being emailed the same offer again.

 In the email, the news of Eurosport's impending closure is again communicated and a voucher code for seven months of discovery+ Premium at £15.49-a-month offered, the price rising to £30.99-a-month afterwards. "Here's your chance to get involved and grab a great deal on a subscription!" it states.

road.cc contacted Warner Bros. Discovery to ask how many cancellations there had been in the past week and whether the number is greater than expected at this stage. While there was no information offered on that front, Warner Bros. Discovery was keen to stress the £15.49 offer is not a reaction to cycling fans unsubscribing and has, as is fairly standard with other subscription services with many other companies, regularly been offered to customers who wished to cancel their plan, even from before last week's announcement.

The half price for seven months offer was seen, in a cycling context, last week as it was offered to disgruntled viewers cancelling their subscription following the price hike from £6.99-a-month to £30.99-a-month.

One road.cc reader who was offered the deal told us: "How nice of Warner Bros. ONLY £15.49-a-month."

Another reader who received the same offer added: "I cancelled mine last night. I was offered an 'exclusive' offer of seven months at £15.49, then whacked up to £30.99. I replied that I would happily pay £15 a month just for cycling but it fell on deaf ears. They will be surprised at the amount of people they assumed would subscribe who don't."

Warner Bros. Discovery's decision to close Eurosport and move cycling coverage to TNT Sports has been met with widespread criticism from fans and other figures within the sport.

> "Absolutely disgusting": Fans slam "facepalm moment" £370-a-year TNT Sports subscription to watch cycling as "exploitation"

Former UCI President Brian Cookson asked, "Can you imagine any retailer of any other product getting away with that?" He also asked if the broadcaster was "trying to kill cycling for your British customers?"

Using a baked bean analogy, Cookson said: "Here's an alternative way to look at this. I like a particular brand of baked beans, which I can buy at a number of different supermarkets at a reasonable price. I don't like any other beans or any other sort of canned vegetables.

"Now I find that in future I am only going to be able to buy these beans from one particular supermarket, and I will have to buy several other brands of beans and canned vegetables that I don't like and don't ever eat."

The former British Cycling president continued: "Can you imagine any retailer of any other product getting away with that? Can you imagine that company and people in that industry telling the people who objected that they just didn't understand that industry?"

Cookson's comments came in response to our story that fans were threatening to report Warner Bros. Discovery to the UK market regulator for "abuse of monopoly" and "price gouging".

British professional rider Tao Geoghegan Hart also commented on the situation, calling the move to TNT Sports and the consequent price hike a "huge problem".

He said: "For amateur riders, cycling has become a very expensive sport or passion. Now as a GB fan, following the upper echelons of the sport has also suddenly and massively increased in cost. I think it is now very relevant to realise where this money is going and where it is not. And perhaps to question the monopoly held over the sport's UK coverage."