Like many other pro cycling fans, I faced a 343% price increase to watch the sport following the closure of the Eurosport Player.
The backlash to this announcement was widespread. Even Huntingdon MP Ben Obese-Jecty raised the issue in a Westminster Hall debate.
Upping the monthly subscription from £6.99 to £30.99 per month was too much for me, and I looked for another way to fulfil my addiction to watching bike races.
My solution was to take out an EE broadband and monthly SIM package, which includes TNT Sports as a free add-on.
Everyone will be different, but I love watching bike racing, I needed a new broadband deal and I watch plenty of other sports.
So after a little deliberation, I decided to accept the additional costs. No matter how I look at the numbers, more money is leaving my account each month.
Now that I’m paying significantly more to watch bike racing, I can no longer ignore the shoddiness of Discovery+ event coverage.
It’s terrible on TV
While the Discovery+ app – which serves all TNT Sports channels – works perfectly well in desktop and mobile forms, it is slow and stuttering on my TV.
This makes navigating past shows I’ve never shown interest in to find the ad-free stream of a race a chore.
The app is incredibly slow to load each sport category and gets bogged down terribly when navigating past the schedule tab.
There is also no way to customise the TV app to my preferences. This would, at least, avoid the need for all the scrolling.
On the desktop and mobile apps, I can quickly click or tap on the cycling tab. So why is the TV app so badly designed?
Netflix gets its TV app spot-on – its intuitive user interface and seamless navigation get me to the latest episode of Gossip Girl without delay.
Warner Bros. Discovery – of which TNT is a subsidiary – is a giant in the entertainment industry, valued at around $25bn. Surely there’s cash available to develop a TV app that works?
Some may point to the often underpowered hardware of smart TVs. That's perhaps fair, but the ability of Netflix and other apps to run smoothly suggests this isn’t to blame.
Discovery+ simply needs a TV app that's optimised to work well when navigated by a TV remote. Until then, the user experience is unacceptably poor.
Audio woes
Discovery+ must also address serious technical issues with its commentary.
During the closing kilometers of stage 3 of Tirreno-Adriatico, commentator Robbie McEwen’s audio feed came and went, stuttered and then died. It’s not the first time this has happened.
He is an incredibly experienced voice, having been a top sprinter for many years. I want to be able to hear his insight.
Given the pricing increase, this is an inexcusable technical error, which would not happen on TNT’s coverage of football or rugby.
There is, of course, a slight logistical difference in running cycling commentary when compared to sports such as football.
Unlike stadium-based sports, cycling is often covered from remote locations, with one or more voices beaming in from across the world.
This is because the sport is, by its nature, one that moves through a country – there is no way for a commentary team to follow a race via anything other than a TV feed.
Instead, commentary teams are stationary, mostly in a studio or a TV production truck at the finish of a race.
For smaller races, commentators such as McEwen are generally remote.
These remote connections have been unreliable, causing the coverage of a race to fall well short of the price being paid by customers.
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have a solution up my sleeve to fix these audio issues. Nor do I know the first thing about TV apps – but I’d hope the $25bn might of Discovery+ has a plan to address both.
And until it does, I will continue to feel short-changed by Discovery+.
