ITV Lands New Tour de France Agreement

LONDON: ITV has extended its agreement to air the Tour de France cycling showpiece event until 2019.

ITV4 has been home to the event for U.K. viewers since 2002. Under the new agreement, the channel's coverage will continue until the end of the decade. The pact also includes the rights to show four other events from 2016 to 2019: Criterium Dauphine, Criterium International, Liege Bastogne Liege and Paris Roubaix.

Niall Sloane, ITV's director of Sport, said: “We are clearly in the midst of a golden era in cycling in Britain and more than ever before, the Tour de France is a landmark event in the sporting calendar. ITV has a long-standing commitment to showing key cycling events and it has been wonderful to witness the growth of the sport’s popularity in recent years. With this new agreement, we aim to bring our viewers even more of the best action across a range of important races and continue giving the Tour de France the first rate coverage it deserves.”