Sports: Tour aids network demand

Tour aids network demand

By SHARON GINN

Unless you have a satellite dish or downloaded video from the Web, you probably missed most of the TV coverage of Lance Armstrong's quest for his third Tour de France victory.

And when he tries to make it four in a row next year, you may not have much better luck.

That's because the U.S. TV rights for the Tour de France belong to the tiny Outdoor Life Network, which snapped them up in 1999, before Armstrong won his first Tour and became an inspiration to cancer victims everywhere. The four-year, reported $3-million deal took effect this year -- bad news for many casual viewers and great news for cycling enthusiasts.

Rabid fans were thrilled because Outdoor Life offered an unprecedented two hours of daily live coverage plus as many as six hours a day of replays or highlights. And if fans weren't in one of the 36-million homes that received the network, many were happy to listen to live audio or video highlights and interviews on Outdoor Life's Web site (www.olntv.com).

But Outdoor Life's "universe" of homes is less than half of ESPN's, and is so small it does not qualify for Nielsen ratings. (It is not available on Time Warner cable systems in the Tampa Bay area, and spokeswoman Linda Chambers said there are no plans to add it.) Outdoor Life managed to outbid ESPN/ABC for rights to the Tour de France by promising live coverage, but also by promising to expand its reach.

For this year's Tour, Outdoor Life did that by buying time on Fox Sports Net for half-hour weekday updates and on CBS for one-hour shows on three Sundays, including the final stage. But Peter Englehart, Outdoor Life's senior vice president for programming and production, said the real plan is to get the network itself into more households.

And while many used to seeing the Tour on ESPN complained about Outdoor Life's lack of availability, Englehart didn't mind the criticism. "It was the kind of reaction we anticipated, and hoped for," he said. "It accomplished two things: It satisfied our mission to provide cycling enthusiasts with live programming, and it created vocal demand for our network."

SPEEDY LIKE A FOX: Fox is scheduled to take over full control of Outdoor Life's sister station, Speedvision, on Sept. 1. As of last week, Fox and Comcast own both after buying out AT&T and Cox Communications. Next month, the two will split the networks, with OLN going to Comcast.

Fox spokesman Lou D'Ermilio said that while chairman David Hill has not made any programming decisions, Speedvision certainly will become more NASCAR-oriented over the next several months. One of the ideas being considered is running second airings of Fox's NASCAR shows (such as Totally NASCAR) on Speedvision. But D'Ermilio said the network itself won't be totally NASCAR -- it should remain a "healthy mix" of racing coverage. In the Tampa Bay area, Speedvision is available on Time Warner's digital cable.

BIG SNORES AT BIGHORN: Though ratings for ABC's Monday night golf special Battle at Bighorn were lower than expected, they didn't drop appreciably as the clock ticked well past the 11 p.m. projected ending time. Ratings started low (5.4 from 8 to 8:30) and climbed to 6.6 by about 10, falling to a 6.2 in the final 22 minutes. (Perhaps the majority of viewers fell asleep with the TV on.)

Still no network should expect viewers to stick with live exhibition golf past 11 p.m. It's a fun summer diversion, not a kickoff to the Monday Night Football season. Last year's event, featuring Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia, ran about 31/2 hours. Turning it into a foursome not only extended play, it made it seem less like a grudge match and more like what it really is: lame golf for an easy paycheck.

FINE TUNING: As of last week, all Time Warner cable customers with ESPN and ESPN2 also receive ESPN Classic. It can be found on cable box Channel 78.