News just in folks that GCN+ will close its doors on December 19th with reports coming in of over one hundred redundancies.
Warner Bros. Discovery have announced the closure of GCN+ and the GCN app on December 19th with a view to them ‘offering content in fewer places’. Coverage in Europe will be on Discovery and Eurosport, with other regions currently up in the air.
The closure is set to put over 100 people out of a job, as well as freelancers losing out on work. Globalcyclingnetwork.com and the GCN YouTube channel will continue to operate.
The 2022 merger with Discovery left Warner Brothers with a not inconsequential debt total of $55B (more than the GDP of Sudan), with the SAG-AFTRA strike making things more complicated. Discovery’s CFO is renowned for squeezing outgoings and producing profit. The GCN+ cut is likely part of that. WBD’s shares dropped 19% earlier in the month when it was deemed that they would not meet their debt payment projections.
You can read the full press release below.
In 2021, we launched GCN+. It was a brand-new service that would showcase our own next-level cycling films, a weekly show, and all of the live racing that we had been broadcasting since 2020 on RacePass. But it is with great sadness that we today announce the closure of GCN+ and the GCN App as of December 19, 2023.
This decision comes from our parent company Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and is driven by its global strategy to consolidate its streaming services, and to offer content in fewer places, making it easier for customers to access and discover more content. In Europe, GCN+ subscribers will now have the option to subscribe to access Discovery+, Eurosport or Eurosport Extra, where you can continue to watch live cycling. In markets outside of Europe, WBD is reviewing how content is delivered to its fans.
Pro-rata refunds will be given to subscribers from December 19 onwards.
Given the news, we really want to express our thanks, to you, and the hundreds of thousands of cycling fans who have supported us and subscribed to GCN+.
We also want to say thank you to the talented and hard-working people at GCN+ and on the GCN App who have poured their hearts and souls into creating such amazing content. Just like you, we’re also disappointed that we will no longer be able to bring you these services.
We’re really proud of everything we have achieved with GCN+ and the GCN App over the last four years, from all of the live race coverage to the 200+ films that we made.
We also want to add, for the sake of all the people who have worked so hard on GCN+ and the GCN App, that the reason for its closure is not because the two platforms didn’t work or were underperforming. The reality is that the media industry landscape has changed, and this is why WBD’s streaming services are being consolidated to offer content in one place.
No doubt there are lots of you out there who have questions that we haven’t answered in this news story. We have tried to answer as many as we can here.
What next for GCN?
The show goes on. All of GCN, except GCN+ and the GCN App, are absolutely continuing.
We still love bikes, bike racing, riding bikes, making content about bikes, helping people to ride and understand bikes, and generally just sharing our passion for the sport. So GCN as you know it will only get better.
We will continue to make the best cycling content we can for the GCN community which has supported us so much over the last decade. We will also continue with the growth of the GCN website, which is going from strength to strength.
We want to finish with another heartfelt thank you. To all the contributors who featured in the documentaries, to the fantastic team behind the scenes who have created and broadcast the content, and to every single GCN+ subscriber, past and present.
