Discovery Sports' Guy Voisin on Data, Emergence of Women's Cycling, The Cube By Will Strauss, Contributing Editor
Wednesday, March 30, 2022 - 12:00 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Discovery Sports will bring more women's cycling to TV viewers than any other broadcaster in the world this year having added new rights in territories outside its Europe-wide offering, including the inaugural and much anticipated Tour de France Femmes.
And this increased focus on women's cycling is no accident. It's been several years in the making, as Discovery Sports director of cycling Guy Voisin told SVG Europe.
SVG Europe: Where are we with women's cycling, in general, but also on TV? With the Tour de France Femmes starting this year, have we reached a tipping point?
Guy Voisin: I think it's over the edge. When I came in 2019, to take over the pillar of cycling at Discovery, the first thing I did was look at the calendar while looking at my budgets, and ask: Where are all the women's races? Then, I had long conversations with my rights guys. We actively went out to buy them.
Did you get strong support for this initiative from within Discovery?
Voisin: We don't ever think we're broadcasting the women or we're broadcasting the men. That's a 1990s way of thinking.
We've taken a real step forward here and the company has shown a real commitment to women's cycling. Both through the breadth of coverage and stories we share across our platforms, as well as the new live rights we have secured - the Tour de France Femmes and Paris-Roubaix Femmes to name only two.
Beyond the rights themselves, it's important to us that we give equal treatment to the presentation of all our events. This is why it's particularly exciting to be showcasing the Tour de France Femmes from the award-winning Cube studio, just like we plan for the Tour de France.
Whether through investing in rights or delivering compelling coverage through our platforms, we've seen a major opportunity to tell the story of the riders and help grow the audience for women's cycling over the coming years.
What have you been doing with women's cycling up to now?
In our weekly show, we actively went out and covered the women's cycling, and the women's cycling stories, which are so freaking interesting because you've got doctors, and nurses, and concert pianists. There were women who were leaving the racing during COVID to go into the COVID wards to help. They just had these great stories. It was really easy to get all the producers and all the crew aligned [after that]. Now it's just become like business as usual. It's great racing and they're incredible cyclists and incredible stars of the sport.
Does the way you cover the races change if it's a women's competition?
We do cover them differently, but not technically. Production-wise, we cover them the same, but we cover them differently in the storytelling because there are a lot of stories that haven't been told on the women's side, that have been told a million times on the men's side. With the Tour de France Femmes, which is a new one, we have the responsibility of creating what the men's tour had for a hundred years already. They've got that history, the women's tour, doesn't. The women's tour had a failed tour in the 80s, which was a great tour, publicly, super well-liked. Then, it was let go by the producers. This tour, we have the responsibility of creating that history so that it makes it impossible for the production of it to let it go.
Does Discovery Sport have a part to play in its potential success, particularly with the scheduling?
We're by far the biggest cycling broadcaster in the world. We have to play our role in making sure that we make it a huge space for the women's tour and for all women's racing. We learnt something during production with the Flanders Classics: the Ronde van Vlaanderen, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Gent-Wevelge.
After chatting with them, and experimenting with them, we discovered that if we start the women's race in between [the men's race] and finish it an hour later, I can cut straight from the men's live race to the women's live race. We don't do any podiums or anything, direct hit: the viewership goes crazy! The viewership stays there. If I hit that peak, when the guys cross over at 1.8 million or 2 million, and it goes to the women's, I will retain those viewers on the women's race. This is super important to give that visibility to that race. If you can get that peak and hook them in, they stay longer. And that last hour of the women's race actually gets better viewership sometimes than the last hour of the men's race.
There is a common misconception amongst the public that men watch men's sports and women watch women's sport. Which is generally not the case. The demographics are often the same, just the audience size differs. Is that the same with cycling?
We don't ever think we're broadcasting the women or we're broadcasting the men. That's a 1990s way of thinking. But there are people who actually do that. I guess some people do it in other [genres] but in sport, you're broadcasting to sports fans and cycling sports fans are super knowledgeable. They really know their sport, they love their sport. They spend hours talking about their sport on [social media]. I don't see a difference, honestly, in our viewership. It's heavily viewed by men still as a sport, but they watch both men's and women's racing.
How about the pundits? Are they happy to analyze both?
Not always. The professional women who retire and want to participate or work with us, such as Iris Slappendel, she's very honest. Iris is s
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
26/11/2025
LONDON Factual content producer ITN Productions has launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins....
26/11/2025
MIAMI TelevisaUnivision said it struck a new multiyear distribution agreement with YouTube TV that includes distribution of TelevisaUnivision's U.S. network...
26/11/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leader in software-defined data storage and data services, today announced the launch of the Atlas Corporate Creative Solution. This new Atl...
26/11/2025
Disguise, the industry-leading company powering the world's biggest live performances, is partnering with pioneering LED wall manufacturer DVS to give atten...
26/11/2025
HighField AI, the pioneer in agentic and multimodal automation for broadcast and media production, today announced the expansion of its global channel partner n...
26/11/2025
As high-stakes Premier League fixtures approach and additional premium content launches, with MONO positioning themselves to dominate Thailand's sports stre...
26/11/2025
Hosting a wide variety of events from high-intensity NHL games to complex live music concerts and major entertainment productions, Montreal's 21,000 capacit...
26/11/2025
Vizrt, the leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, releases AI-driven advances focusing on speed, intelligence, a...
26/11/2025
ITN Productions, an award-winning factual content producer, today launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins. Responsible for delivering a leading...
26/11/2025
Ikegami reports ongoing advances throughout 2025 in developing and delivering coordinated television production solutions that maximize quality, versatility and...
26/11/2025
Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal....
26/11/2025
LONDON As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpa...
26/11/2025
LOS ANGELES Vubiquity said it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Competency as part of the AWS Partner Network (APN). This designa...
26/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company t...
26/11/2025
Berklee Named to the Hollywood Reporters Top Music Schools List The publication highlights the college's screen scoring program, industry partnerships, and ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Animated Series Love Through a Prism' Casts New Light on ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
NALIP Unveils Fifth Cohort of Director Incubator
Social Impact
26 November 2025
United States
Link copied to clipboard
The National Assoc...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
Discovery Sports' Guy Voisin on Data, Emergence of Women's Cycling, The Cube By Will Strauss, Contributing Editor 
