ITV4 will show Tour de France for next three years

LONDON, UK - ITV has secured the UK broadcast rights for the Tour de France for the next three years. The highlights and some live coverage of the race will be shown on ITV4 until 2015, following the signing of a deal with ASO.

The Tour de France has been a huge ratings success for ITV with peak viewing figures of the live coverage hitting 878,000 and the evening highlights show hitting 502,000, highly respectable figures for a minority sport. ITV said that viewing figures went up 33 per cent from 2010 to 2011, reflecting the increasing interest in all things cycling in Britain.

The Tour will be broadcast live every afternoon on ITV for a period of two hours and certain key stages will be available from start to finish.

Niall Sloane, ITV’s Controller of Sport said: “ITV’s coverage of the Tour de France has a terrific reputation with viewers and sports fans and I’m delighted that, in one of the most exciting periods for British cycling, we have secured coverage on ITV4 until 2015.”