Without Lance, OLN Sees Steep Drop In Tour De France Ratings

OLN Sees Steep Decline In Tour De France Ratings Without Lance Armstrong

With Lance Armstrong not participating in this year’s Tour de France, OLN’s live coverage of the event through the first four stages has dropped 49% from ’05 to 207,544 viewers, according to Richard Sandomir of the N.Y. TIMES. Combined viewership of the live coverage and daily re-airs has dropped 47% to 749,472 viewers. OLN President Gavin Harvey said the decline in viewers “is within the range of where we thought it would be.” Harvey: “We’ve talked about this for two years, both the Lance effect and the post-Lance era.” Sandomir notes past trends show live viewership “for the first four days swelled by 135[%], from 171,975 in 2002 to 403,802 last year.” Also, OLN “appears to have improved and balanced its coverage” without Armstrong, as the net has “moved beyond its yellow jersey fixation” and has improved its on-screen graphics (N.Y. TIMES, 7/7). CABLEFAX DAILY reports live coverage of the first four days of the Tour averaged a 0.24 cable Nielsen rating, while total coverage averaged a 0.84, down from a 1.68 last year. However, page views at OLN’s Web site are up 21% (CABLEFAX DAILY, 7/7).