There may not be an athlete who has had more of an impact on a television network than Lance Armstrong has had on Outdoor Life Network.
His inspirational story and run of victories in the Tour de France helped make the cycling event the top-rated programming on OLN and played a role in expanding the network's distribution to 54 million homes.
Armstrong has been rewarded by OLN and its parent company, Comcast Corp., with a contract as a corporate spokesman that began this year.
He appears in promotional spots for OLN and does two personal appearances a year to greet advertisers and affiliates. For the last two years he's also hosted a Tour de France marathon on OLN each June, providing his own narration to replays of all the stages from the previous year's race. This year he'll do a two-hour interview with OLN on Thursday, four days after the race ends.
"Our storyline is pretty simple," said Peter Englehart, OLN's senior vice president of programming. "Lance. Lance. Lance."
Two years ago, OLN began showing Tour de France coverage live in the daytime and on tape-delay in prime time. Ratings have grown each year, peaking this year in a race that was far more competitive than in previous years, when Armstrong distanced himself early on.
Through last Wednesday, the network was averaging a 0.43 for live race coverage, up 79 percent over a year ago. The prime-time replay averaged a 0.67, up 136 percent.
Englehart compared Armstrong to athletes like Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan, but admitted Armstrong is still not as recognized in the United States.
"He can't go out to dinner in Europe," he said.
