How to watch the Giro d’Italia 2018: TV channel, live stream

For the second year, American viewers who want to watch the Giro d’Italia will have to turn toward a proprietary channel from FuboTV.

A decade ago, cycling fans in the United States could tune in on cable or satellite television and find cycling action for most of the calendar. Lance Armstrong helped to bolster the market for cycling in the United States. But it was an unprecedented run of dominance that proved to be enhanced to the hilt.

So too was the trend line for televised cycling in the United States. The sport’s popularity has never been consistent in the American market. When the country has produced contenders for major titles, interest piques among the broader American public. Armstrong and Greg LeMond before him made cycling interesting for American audiences.

But the sport in general has long struggled from an issue of how it is funded. Teams take the name of sponsorships that often change from year to year. A select cabal of sport organizations has carved up the grand tours. They also split most of the monument classics and the rest of the race calendar. But there is a lack of coordination between the controlling ownership groups.

How to watch the Giro d’Italia in the U.S.

FuboTV has made its own inroads on cornering the broadcast market for cycling in the United States. This year alone they have landed exclusive rights to more than two dozen races on the elite cycling calendar.

You can subscribe to FuboTV just as you would Netflix or any of the rest of a range of content providers that offer streaming content. The company offers a seven-day trial, and it is $8.99 per month to subscribe to the cycling service for the Giro.

Dates: May 4-27, 2018

Start Time: Varies (Morning in the United States)

TV Info: N/A

Live Stream: FuboTV | Sign up for a free seven-day trial

Ownership groups are shrinking in number

In 2014, Amaury Sport Organization acquired a 100 percent stake of the Vuelta a España. The Vuelta and the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España are still broadcast on the NBC family of networks. So too are the series of races like Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya and the one-day classic Paris-Roubaix.

But the Giro d’Italia is owned by RCS, the other major player in cycling race management. In 2013, they landed with beIN Sports in the U.S. market. It looked at the time like beIN had pulled off a fast one on NBC and its attempts to grow its Universal Sports platform.

After just four years though, beIN Sports gave up on trying to make monetary sense of broadcasting the Giro. Now, the task has fallen to the three-year-old over-the-top streaming service FuboTV.

The sport that helped turn Outdoor Life Network into NBC Sports Network, however, could also give life to the concept of over-the-top live sports streaming. The upstart acquired the rights in 2017 to RCS events in the United States when beIN opted not to bid on the RCS races. That includes exclusive rights to the Giro d’Italia, which is the cornerstone of the Fubo Cycling platform.

What is over-the-top streaming?

To put it in the simplest terms, FuboTV effectively offers a live sports version of Netflix or Hulu to consumers to stream over the internet. These services bypass traditional means of delivering televised content via cable or satellite in favor of a streaming-only model over the internet.

These services allow consumers to pick and choose which services they wish to consume. (There is still some inevitable bundling at this time as the service tries to grow its product.)

Cycling fans in the United States wishing to watch a full race calendar must rely on such services to deliver content. Without a marketable star, networks lack the interest to target the sport to Americans. Over-the-top streaming services are not yet perfect. But they solve a major issue of access for fans of sports with smaller followings in the United States.

The Tour de France is the only race that can command any semblance of a broadcast fee in the United States. The high broadcast fees and lack of crew and equipment coordination between races limits the earning power of all races, including the Tour.

Sports fans in general are going to become more familiar with over-the-top providers as more viewers opt to cut away from cable and satellite. Cycling is providing a testing ground for the viability of such services. If any transmission service can successfully broadcast a stage race, it can deal with anything on a logistical basis.

Next: Everything you need to know about the 2018 Giro route

Stay tuned for more cycling coverage this spring as we keep you updated with all the latest from the Giro d’Italia here at FanSided.