MUMBAI: Ten Sports has acquired the broadcast rights for Tour de France till 2016 in the Indian subcontinent.

The channel has acquired the rights for all forms of free to air and pay television, DTH and IPTV transmission, pay per view and VOD from Amaury Sport Organisation.

Ten Sports will be the exclusive rights holder for the Indian subcontinent with the exception of rights being shared with the pan regional broadcaster Eurosport in Sri Lanka.

Ten Sports CEO Atul Pande said, ?We are proud to be associated with anevent as esteemed as Tour de France, especially at a time when it ishaving its 100th edition in 2013. This long term relationship withTour de France will bring in much delight to our viewers who crave high adrenaline bicycle racing.?

The 2013 Tour de France will be the 100th edition. It is scheduled to start on 29 June in Corsica, in the city of Porto-Vecchio.

The island will host the first three stages. Corsica is the only Metropolitan department which the Tour has never passed through and the organisers wanted to combine the 100th edition of the Tour with the Tour?s first ever visit to Corsica.

The 2013 Tour de France includes total of 21 stages in the race, covering a total of 3,360 kilometers (2,088 miles). The Tour will be the first to be completed only on French soil for decades. It will feature a final set of stages which have been described as "spectacular", including three Alpine stages in the last week along with a time trial. These include a double ascent of l?Alpe d?Huez. This is the first time the tour will feature a double climb of this scale. There will be seven flat stages, five hilly stages, six mountain stages (with four summit finishes), two individual time trial stages and one team time trial stage.

The race will finish at dusk in Paris.

MUMBAI: UK pay TV service provider BSkyB and News Corp are said to be looking at being involved in a new cycling series.

Teams that take part in the Tour de France would be involved in this new series.

BSkyB finances the cycling team, Team Sky. Media reports have speculated that BSkyB and News Corp might take a stake in the series.

The ?breakaway? series was first proposed over a year ago. UCI was firmly opposed to it as it feared that the appeal of some of the existing races would be affected. However subsequently Lance Armstrong admitted to doping which tarnished the image of the Tour de France and weakened UCI which has come under some fire.

Races will be held globally if the series takes flight. The aim would be to broaden the reach and appeal of the sport which is trying to recover from the Armstrong debacle.