With about half of the race completed, Versus’ coverage of the Tour de France has seen its ratings soar — all linked to the return of seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.
After the first 10 stages of the race, the network’s key live morning telecasts have rocketed 77% to an average 479,800 viewers — from 270,400 over the same period a year ago.
All key male demographics have significant improvement, with men 18-34, gaining 85%; men 18-49, a 132% hike; and men 25-54, a 98% climb.
Versus has also improved on ratings against the previous time Armstrong made an appearance in the race in 2005 — the last of his seven victories. Average viewership for live morning telecasts is up 15% to 479,809 against 418,866. Plus, viewership among all key male viewing groups has climbed — men 18-34, gaining 6%; men 18-49, 15% higher; and men 25-54, improving 8%.
One caveat that contributes to some of the rise: Versus is now in 75 million homes, as compared to the 60 million subscribers of a few years ago.
via MediaDailyNews.
In other words, nobody was watching last year and nobody is watching this year. I would hardly call going from 270,400 viewers to 479,000 a soaring achievement. Given that the channel has been added to some 15 million homes, I bet a lot of those new viewers just accidentally left Versus on.
Nonsense! When you guys get all excited about the miniscule ratings that MSNBC and FoxNews get don’t complain about 1/2 million people getting up at ridiculously early hours to watch.
Tour coverage is outstanding. I’m getting up early everyday to watch it (5:30 AM). Armstrong obviously is the big draw, but compared to the boring NFL & major league baseball, watching the Tour on television is a great experience. This is a class production with excellent comentators who know what they are talking about. The actual photography is outstanding, for once, HD pays off.
I have nothing against Versus or the Tour de France (I actually watched some with my grandfather earlier this week). But come on! This isn’t growth, it’s a statistical error.
I’m back to watching the Tour – which looks nice on the HD. Almost want to start pricing real estate in the French countryside. It also helps that this year’s race hasn’t yet broken down into “Who Has the Cleanest Urine” de France.
It’s an error?
I highly doubt that.
NHL ratings as low as they are have been going up on versus now for 4 years in a row.
the proof is in the SCF getting 8 million viewers for game 7.
I highly doubt its a statistical error.
People love Lance
Doghouse, In case the “error” comment wasn’t tongue in cheek, the reality is that lots of cable networks exist with average viewerships far lower than 477,000. For the week of July 6-12, we have data on 78 cable networks and 49 of them averaged viewer than 477k viewers on a total day basis. (for primetime only, 41 averaged fewer than 477k).
AZTop, miniscule ratings that cable news channels get? In that same week, Fox News averaged 2.1 million viewers in primetime, CNN 1.25 million, and MSNBC 798,000.
Bill, it was indeed firmly tongue in cheek. I do find myself wondering how such a low viewership can sustain cable channels — even niche ones — but obviously it works somehow.
My point was to compare morning ratings not prime time, although I would be interested in the prime time Tour de France show’s numbers. The live show on Versus started at 5:30 AM west coast (I live in AZ same time zone) 8:30 AM east coast. I think the 477,000 at that time is pretty decent for a specialty sports channel. How well does ESPN do in the early morning for live coverage? Also I’m guessing Versus is rather pleased with the demographics.
AZTop, good question. Hard to compare early morning live ESPN coverage since there wasn’t any last week, but last week the 8-9am Eastern SportsCenter averaged 538,000 viewers.
Tour coverage has been excellent this year, HD is great, Phil and Paul have talked a lot less tosh over the race than the last few years, Craig Hummer keeps getting better – and Lance vs Alberto vs the rest, + Cavendish vs Farrar vs Hushovd are classic sporting rivalries – every day for 3 weeks!
I Tivo the early show but watch in the evenings every day. Between that and torrenting the Ashes cricket coverage most days, this is an excellent sporting summer amongst the wasteland of parochial US “sports”
Also – I am impressed with the quality and breadth of other Versus sports – the promos for Athletics World Championships, Indycars, etc. are all intriguing. I’ll ignore the camp-ness that is MMA.
as their next “hard-hitting” sport? There is a lot of it going on… Europe, Aus/NZ, South Africa, etc. What about Aussie Rules Football (like Rugby but for psychos…)?
I hope they are carving out a niche for themselves as a place for interesting non-mainstream sports in the US. May I suggest Rugby (like NFL but for men
Been a great telecast so far. The last couple of years have been a bit boring. Having Armstrong back has refreshed the tour for sure (love him or hate him).
Great rivalry with Cavendish/Hushovd/Farrar. The Astana soap opera is going to heat up this week!!
No need for anyone to bash cycling.
I have watched every minute of Versus Tour de France coverage since 2001 (when it was OLN.
If Versus advertised it LIVE and expanded coverage on other networks prior to the start, I believe they would have even more viewers.
Also, 2008 was one of the highest rated Tours in years which shows Armstrong is not needed for string viewership. I am glad Versus realized this and signed on for another 5 years!
Now – bring back LIVE daily coverage of the Vuelta and Giro (Bobke would LOVE to commentate on the Giro) we’ll be back in business.
(And thank you for the LOVE Tour of California coverage. Can we get LIVE US Championship coverage, too)?
The Versus coverage of The Tour de France is some of the best sports coverage on TV. The commentary on the riders and team tactics from Phil, Paul, Bob, and Craig, along with beautiful shots of the French countryside are second to none. I also have watched every minute of the Tour de France on Versus(previously OLN) since 2002. Fans of the Tour are very loyal to the Tour and it’s sponsors. Believe me, now that Lance has announced that he and the Livestrong Foundation will be partnering with Radio Shack to have a 2010 cycling team, I will be frequenting my local Radio Shack. Vive la Tour!
Decent cable ratings for cycling. That said, a truly magnificent world sports event with phenomenal dedicated athletes and 1st class TV coverage is lost on mainstream xenophobic USA sports fans (and media)who are loathe to apreciate anything out of the humdrum maintstream. Without Armstrong, the Tour is to my mind an equally great event.
Sadly US fan are conditoned to eqaute the physical size/bulk of an athtlete equated to ability. Except during the Olympics, no Contador nor Federer nor Rinaldo will ever displace a legion of >6′3 220 lb. team sport stars here!
I applaud the effort and money that VS puts out each year to cover the TdF, though it seems to struggle to find a message or cover other cycling when LA isn’t on board. Thankfully, there are numerous other live sites(cycling.tv, steephill.tv, cyclingfans.com) to watch the rest of the cycling season. Regrettably, the VS coverage seems like a sales pitch of anything USA, no matter how poor the performance. Farrar finished near the bottom of the GC, but he is portrayed like a winner daily. Phil and Paul have way over blown their Lance love affair. I can’t tell if they really believe what they are saying or looking to boost ratings to garner more ad revenue, or just smoking crack. I’m amazed at how different Eurosport or cycling.tv covers cycling compared to VS. On VS, if Lance simply shows up to a race we hear the constant rant about how wonderful of a person he really is, a true champion,all done to over-the-top gladiator style music.