Tour of Flanders 2024: How to Watch a UCI World Tour Cycling Livestream for Free so weird for this to show up on CNET
Nice!
Iām just back to Tiz Cycling. Rather than deal with the steaming issues that they had in the past I just download the file after the fact. I never watched most races live anyway. The quality is pretty good.
If the industry canāt provide a service like GCN in the US, Iām just going to pirate the races. It was bad enough I had to use a VPN to watch GCN.
Finally with the Giro about to start, Iāve set up UK Discovery+.
- 6.99 GBP/Mnth seems to be the option for cycling. I wasnāt offered a discount for annual. I guess Iāll do May-Sept, and then cancel over the off season.
- If I install Nord VPN on an old amazon firestick HC (with a USA amazon account), and set to UK, can I get the UK Discovery+ app to install and work?
I know I can watch on the laptop, but I do like the appeal of a standalone firestick that pretends to be in the UK and just works.
Thanks,
Iām currently in Spain and Discovery+ is geo restricted (UK account)
However using proton VPN set to United Kingdom allows me to view the UK content.
I donāt know if a US account with VPN set to UK will work, you will just have to try it.
When I tried viewing with no VPN the app changed to Spanish and logged me out of my UK account.
Let us know how you get on.
As an aside although Discovery + is more expensive than GCN ive been happy with the content and have even watched some of the non-cycling content.
Thanks. Iām having no issues with using VPN on the Mac, and the Discovery+ site.
Itās my understanding that I canāt run the apple app, because my iTunes account is US.
I donāt know how strict amazon are with downloading the UK appās when you have a US amazon account.
Just being able to watch on the tv with the Fire stick would be nicer than the laptop.
I think the only way to find out what will work for you is to try it, if you come up against some barriers try to find away to work around them.
Just watched Stage 1 Giro on SBSOnDemand. Free to Air in Australia and worked with a VPN from New Zealand. Only 720p, but good enough as nowhere else to watch it here.
How have you guys navigated payment? It seemed that you have to have a UK credit card or a UK paypal account to be able to open the Discovery+ account. And you also had to have a UK mobile in order to open the paypal account.
I live in the UK, I was just explaining that using a VPN currently works to get around geo-restrictions, which in my case is because Iām currently in Spain and when I try to view content whilst it Spain the app automatically changes to Spanish and logs me out of my UK account. Using a VPN it reverts back to the UK and I can log in and watch content fine.
I donāt have experience of setting up a UK account whilst not being a UK resident Iām afraid.
They did mention on the Giro coverage that US viewers could watch in the US but I forgot who the provider was.
Edit: i think it was Max TV
I set up a UK PayPal account, and used a free UK SMS service. But, the final step wonāt work to verify my ID. So I have sent 45 quid to that account, but it wouldnāt actually work on Discovery+ as a payment method.
I do have an old UK debit card, from UK bank, but with US mailing address. I tried that and it worked on D+.
So now Iāll likely close the uk PayPal account if I canāt sort the ID aspect.
Has anyone confirmed if a UK visa gift card works?
I spent time trying my Amazon fire stick, and as my Amazon account is US, I couldnāt get the D+ app to download, even when running NordVPN on the fire stick.
So stuck with laptop for now. I might try setting up a UK Amazon account, but will order a UK SIM card first, as I need a UK roaming sim for an upcoming trip anyway.
You are correct. In my case, I send money to a friend who lives in the UK and she makes the payment.
Well Iām glad to be wrong with that prediction. The Giro coverage now plays a 30 second ad when you first open it but after that itās commercial free. Maybe theyāre going to be doing that going forward instead of making it a paid add-on?
I tried to log in to the Discovery+ website through my tablet and VPN today to watch the Giro only to find out that mobile streaming is now only through their app. The app canāt be downloaded without changing the location of my Google Play account to the UK. It all worked yesterday, so something has changed today. This seems to close the door for those of us trying to view this content in the US.
Anyone else having the same problem?
Yes, same problem for me this morning. I thought it was a fluke on my setup. Sad to see that itās not the case.
Thankfully, Iām able to watch on Max.
@AJS914 did this work for you? iām thinking of testing this out to see if itāll work.
i have peacock through comcast internet, and these past few days the TDF coverage has been disappointing especially in the sprint stages where the commentators seem to be reading a book out loud vs what I was used to with GCN+ (with the constant shouting and fast talking).
I have great respect for the Phil/Bob, but i guess i just prefer a ālivelierā style of commentating towards the end of the sprint stages.
I gave up and went back to Tiz Cycling. Just too many hoops for me to jump through.
It seems that some people got it to work but they had access to a UK credit card. I think someone above had their āfakeā UK paypal account blocked.
Slightly tangential to the ongoing discussion, but for those who enjoyed the GCN+ documentaries, they are now available on GCNās YouTube channelā¦
ā¦for paid members at the Casquette level and above. Thatās a minimum of 15ā¬/month, so muuuch more than what anyone paid for GCN+ and you only have access to the same docs that were already available then.
I have no idea whoās buying this but Iām sure someone will.
See my story on this thread
It takes a lot of dedication to get it to work and I would not be able to make it work without my friend in the UK paying for my subscription.
For a laugh, I just had a look at those GCN+ subscriptions. It seems completely ludicrous:
- pay Ā£3/month for essentially nothing
- pay Ā£12/month to watch a few documentaries
- pay Ā£23/month to get the same as 2. plus a water bottle and a book.
How totally absurd - what fool would pay those prices for any of that lot?
I was a GCN+ subscriber and used to watch the documentaries while on the turbo to wile away the time, in between Safa Brian vids 
. Theyāre OK but I wouldnāt pay a penny for them on a monthly subscription basis; Ā£12-23/month is simply ludicrous.