ARD agrees new Tour de France contract – reports

German public-service broadcaster ARD will resume live broadcasts of the Tour de France after agreeing a new rights deal with the cycling race’s organiser, Amaury Sport Organisation, according to news agency SID and magazine Der Spiegel.

The deal is set to be formally announced this week, but the two publications said that ARD had signed an initial two-year contract with ASO.

The agreement is set to commence from the 2015 Tour de France, which will run from July 4-26, with ARD set to offer live coverage of every stage from 4pm through to the conclusion of the day’s racing.

ARD last month delayed its decision over whether to return to live coverage of the Tour de France until the New Year. ARD and fellow public-service broadcaster ZDF stopped showing the race live in 2012 after temporarily halting coverage during the 2007 Tour due to doping scandals in the sport.

The impressive performances of German cyclists Marcel Kittel, Tony Martin (pictured) and André Greipel in the 2014 Tour, plus efforts to clean up cycling’s doping problems, appear to have forced a rethink. However, the new contract is said to include a doping clause granting ARD an exit path should further drug scandals arise.

ARD will reportedly pay about €2.5m ($3.1m) per year to ASO. The DWDL.de website said ARD and ZDF paid about €20m for the Tour rights between 2009 and 2011.

Pan-regional broadcaster Eurosport, which has provided live coverage of the Tour in Germany during ARD and ZDF’s refusal to do so, is set to continue showing coverage in the country.