Following the blockbuster combination of WarnerMedia with Discovery in 2021, the combined Warner Bros. Discovery has been notable for a lot of cost-cutting moves. Some of those have been billed as increasing their various synergies, while others have been described as more about slashing expenses and receiving tax write-offs. The latest notable move there on a sports front comes from the announced shutdown of their Global Cycling Network cycling streaming service, GCN+, to take effect on December 19 as part of a “refocusing” of GCN parent Play Sports Network:
Woah, GCN+ is ending?!? Literally the one trustworthy and reasonably priced thing in professional cycling…gone. pic.twitter.com/lc8Cts7ZPu
— Ray Maker (@dcrainmakerblog) November 15, 2023
Here’s a video of GCN presenter Dan Lloyd and GCN head of road cycling Simon Richardson announcing the move:
In the official announcement on the GCN website, this was described as a move to bolster streaming synergy with other WBD properties. That announcement included “This decision comes from our parent company Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and is driven by its global strategy to consolidate its streaming services, and to offer content in fewer places, making it easier for customers to access and discover more content.” That announcement also includes the following from the GCN team:
We also want to add, for the sake of all the people who have worked so hard on GCN+ and the GCN App, that the reason for its closure is not because the two platforms didn’t work or were underperforming. The reality is that the media industry landscape has changed, and this is why WBD’s streaming services are being consolidated to offer content in one place.
But this leaves European cycling fans with only ad-included options (Discovery+, Eurosport or Eurosport Extra) for live races (GCN+ was ad-free). And, as Adam Becket writes at Cycling Weekly, this leaves cycling fans elsewhere who had relied on GCN+ completely unable to legally access some of these races, at least for the moment.
A spokesman for WBD added: “In markets outside of Europe, WBD will keep customers fully informed about any future availability of the live content.”
“This decision also means that we are refocusing Play Sports Network and its long-standing core brands, centred around the global cycling community and millions of fans served every day across GCN and its website, and leverage Warner Bros. Discovery’s scaled streaming products or partnerships for live content,” the email from GCN said.
As Becket notes, GCN started in 2017 as a Play Sports Group YouTube outlet. Discovery took a stake in it in Play Sports Group in 2019, then took 100 percent of it in 2021, valuing that stake at 70 million pounds ($87 million U.S.). But a 2022 accounts statement from DNi Europe Holdings (the WBD division including Play Sports Group) released last month included a writedown of that stake by 66 million pounds, and there were reports this September that GCN was for sale. That didn’t happen, though. And the scrapping of GCN+ will remove their more than 200 documentary films as well as the live racing content, at least for the time being.
There have been many general consolidations from WBD since that 2021 merger. Those included this April’s combination of HBO Max and Discovery+ into the new Max, which recently added TNT and TBS sports rights in addition to the previous Max–exclusive and shared–with–HBO sports content. There have also been a lot of cuts, including layoffs of nearly 10 percent of the HBO Sports staff last December and the ending Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel this year. And there have been lots of outright removals of content, whether already-existing or to be released, with the recent cancellation of Coyote Vs. Acme drawing particular fire.
The GCN+ shutdown may not receive as much widespread attention as some of those other moves. But it has aspects similar to all of them. And it’s a huge blow for many cycling fans, especially those outside of Europe. That’s at least the case until there’s news on “future availability of the live content.” And any future availability may wind up being a worse deal for consumers.
Update: WBD announced later that some of this content will be coming to Max’s add-on B/R sports tier. But not all of it.
