Goodbye TdF on OLN

Quoted message said:

No more Lance so lots of Americans aren't watching any more:

"Through the first four stages, viewership of OLN's live Tour coverage
has tumbled 49 percent to 207,544 people. Combined viewership of the
live show and its daily repeats has plunged by 47 percent to 749,472."

I suspect you'll see viewership trending upward from the first time-trial
(tomorrow morning, 7/8)-on. Let's face it, aside from the last 30 seconds,
things haven't been terribly exciting. Let's see now, is the small breakaway
going to be caught with 6km to go, or just 4? It's a foregone conclusion
that they'll be caught, it's a foregone conclusion that nobody's going to
get away for a dramatic stage win during the first week this year.

Once things break up a bit (post time-trial), it will be a far more exciting
race.

For what it's worth, my customers are having a difficult time understanding
why a breakaway has so much less chance of success now than it will after
tomorrow. The explanation is that, while the race is very tight virtually
from first to last place right now, anybody off in a break that succeeds is
likely to snag the yellow jersey... and thus they won't be allowed to. After
Saturday, it will be possible, even likely, that a dramatic stage victory
won't result in a massive reodering of the general classification (or the
awarding of the yellow jersey).

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA

"wimpyVO2" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

No more Lance so lots of Americans aren't watching any more:

"Through the first four stages, viewership of OLN's live Tour coverage
has tumbled 49 percent to 207,544 people. Combined viewership of the
live show and its daily repeats has plunged by 47 percent to 749,472."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/sports/othersports/07sandomir.html?

NY Times, registration required.

That's a steep drop in ratings. Steep enough that OLN will probably
drop cycling and focus on bulls and fish fulltime.

Quoted message said:

Mike Jacoubowsky:

For what it's worth, my customers are having a difficult time understanding
why a breakaway has so much less chance of success now than it will after
tomorrow. The explanation is that, while the race is very tight virtually
from first to last place right now, anybody off in a break that succeeds is
likely to snag the yellow jersey... and thus they won't be allowed to. After
Saturday, it will be possible, even likely, that a dramatic stage victory
won't result in a massive reodering of the general classification (or the
awarding of the yellow jersey).

I don't think that even after the time trial, there will be much chance
for an escape to succeed. Not until the mountains. After a mountain
stage or two, some riders lose serious time, like an hour or two. Then
some of those laggers can escape in a following (flat) stage and get
away by up to a half hour because the peloton doesn't care. The only
ones who hate that happening are the sprinters, and only if it's still
a close battle. If an escape gets away by half an hour, obviously it
will succeed. If the peloton cares enough about an escape, it will
never let the escape get away by THAT much though.

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I see the time trial as only
opening up separation of 5 minutes or less for most of the riders. If
so, I don't see any escape succeeding before the mountains. Robby
McEwen is having too much fun winning these sprint finishes, and he
won't willingly give up the chance to take a stage win.

On 7 Jul 2006 22:43:26 -0700, "wimpyVO2" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

No more Lance so lots of Americans aren't watching any more:

They manage to name drop him every 2 minutes or so though.

Quoted message said:

"Through the first four stages, viewership of OLN's live Tour coverage
has tumbled 49 percent to 207,544 people. Combined viewership of the
live show and its daily repeats has plunged by 47 percent to 749,472."

Maybe time to start cutting overhead Trautwig, Andreu , Hummer, Roll
and put Ligget and Sherwin in maybe a small windowless van with a
small TV which of course they can sleep in instead of those fancy
hotels.

Note that these ratings are higher than hockey. Suppose that says more
about hockey than cycling.

"wimpyVO2" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

No more Lance so lots of Americans aren't watching any more:

"Through the first four stages, viewership of OLN's live Tour coverage
has tumbled 49 percent to 207,544 people. Combined viewership of the
live show and its daily repeats has plunged by 47 percent to 749,472."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/sports/othersports/07sandomir.html?

NY Times, registration required.

That's a steep drop in ratings. Steep enough that OLN will probably
drop cycling and focus on bulls and fish fulltime.

Quoted message said:

Note that these ratings are higher than hockey. Suppose that says more
about hockey than cycling.

"wimpyVO2" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

No more Lance so lots of Americans aren't watching any more:

"Through the first four stages, viewership of OLN's live Tour coverage
has tumbled 49 percent to 207,544 people. Combined viewership of the
live show and its daily repeats has plunged by 47 percent to 749,472."

Does anyone realize that we're talking about rating for a live
TV show that is occuring during the working hours of most Americans?
Or does anyone also realize that many people don't get OLN because it
is a Comcast channel?

--
---
William O'Hara
www.N1ey.com - Amateur Radio and Railfan Blog
www.yahoogroups.com/group/illinoiscentral - premier discussion list re:
ICRR

William O'Hara said:

Quoted message said:

Note that these ratings are higher than hockey. Suppose that says more
about hockey than cycling.

"wimpyVO2" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

No more Lance so lots of Americans aren't watching any more:

"Through the first four stages, viewership of OLN's live Tour coverage
has tumbled 49 percent to 207,544 people. Combined viewership of the
live show and its daily repeats has plunged by 47 percent to 749,472."

Does anyone realize that we're talking about rating for a live
TV show that is occuring during the working hours of most Americans?
Or does anyone also realize that many people don't get OLN because it
is a Comcast channel?

It is comparing YOY numbers and the same coonditions existed last year
and the repeats plunged as well.

wimpyVO2 said:

No more Lance so lots of Americans aren't watching any more:

"Through the first four stages, viewership of OLN's live Tour coverage
has tumbled 49 percent to 207,544 people. Combined viewership of the
live show and its daily repeats has plunged by 47 percent to 749,472."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/sports/othersports/07sandomir.html?

NY Times, registration required.

That's a steep drop in ratings. Steep enough that OLN will probably
drop cycling and focus on bulls and fish fulltime.

I was so [censored] by the scandals that I made a point of not watching
even a little bit; but my wife was, and when I came back in the evening
she wanted to watch the repeat, so while I was on my pc I was catching
a bit here and there- I found the coverage to be better than previous
years when there was too much fox style/nascar swooping logos and
special effects which really irritate me for some reason. so, now,
while I still feel a bit burnt by the peleton cheats I am beginning to
take an interest in the race again.

Quoted message said:

I found the coverage to be better than previous
years when there was too much fox style/nascar swooping logos and
special effects which really irritate me for some reason.

In a similar vein, no more goofy Cutters, no more trick riding Hans Rey,
no more Kirsten Gum with her varying hair color and cleavage (OK, she
wasn't too irritating :-), no more mind numbing Sam Posey, no more
Carmichael Training Systems infomercials that I recall seeing.

They still have Al Trautwig though--lots of dead air filled with
helicopter noise when he and Bob Roll are doing the commentary on the
"expanded coverage" repeats.

Quoted message said:

so, now,
while I still feel a bit burnt by the peleton cheats I am beginning to
take an interest in the race again.

The final sprints have been great fun to watch, certainly more
interesting than watching Petacchi's train as others have already noted.
I particularly liked McEwen's celebration in Stage 6.

--
I do not accept unsolicited commercial e-mail. Remove NO_UCE for
legitimate replies.

Don't forget NHL hockey and pool. I think they've forgotten what the "O"
stands for in "OLN"... since when were pool and NHL hockey outdoor sports? I
guess that explains their upcoming name change to "VS." Are they friggin'
serious about that???

Regarding the ratings slump, Dish Network dropped OLN over the winter, so
that fact alone could account for a lot of lost ratings... it caused me to
switch from Dish to Comcast, but I'm sure there were many thousands who
didn't.

"wimpyVO2" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

That's a steep drop in ratings. Steep enough that OLN will probably
drop cycling and focus on bulls and fish fulltime.

Quoted message said:

Regarding the ratings slump, Dish Network dropped OLN over the winter,
so that fact alone could account for a lot of lost ratings... it
caused me to switch from Dish to Comcast, but I'm sure there were many
thousands who didn't.

This is my exact point as made earlier. Adelphia and RCN
do not like to even carry OLN; they have been only offering
OLN in very expensive packages since the get-go. So how can
someone say that conditions haven't changed? They certainly
are stacked against OLN even more than last year?

--
---
William O'Hara
www.N1ey.com - Amateur Radio and Railfan Blog
www.yahoogroups.com/group/illinoiscentral - premier discussion list re:
ICRR

"Brian Phillips" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Don't forget NHL hockey and pool. I think they've forgotten what the
"O" stands for in "OLN"... since when were pool and NHL hockey outdoor
sports? I guess that explains their upcoming name change to "VS."
Are they friggin' serious about that???

I'm just waiting for Anthony to make commentary on Cycling.tV.
I enjoy their setup much much more!

--
---
William O'Hara
www.N1ey.com - Amateur Radio and Railfan Blog
www.yahoogroups.com/group/illinoiscentral - premier discussion list re:
ICRR

William O'Hara said:

Quoted message said:

Regarding the ratings slump, Dish Network dropped OLN over the winter,
so that fact alone could account for a lot of lost ratings... it
caused me to switch from Dish to Comcast, but I'm sure there were many
thousands who didn't.

This is my exact point as made earlier. Adelphia and RCN
do not like to even carry OLN; they have been only offering
OLN in very expensive packages since the get-go. So how can
someone say that conditions haven't changed? They certainly
are stacked against OLN even more than last year?

--
---
William O'Hara
www.N1ey.com - Amateur Radio and Railfan Blog
www.yahoogroups.com/group/illinoiscentral - premier discussion list re:
ICRR

I really think OLN blew it last year, their last chance to grab and
hold a causual audience. Coverage in Canada seens less than half of the
stuff in the states; I'd like to see the classics, even world class
sailing here (we get dogs pooping in some guys back yard); but OLN and
Speed seem destined to be run into the ground by their current owners,
presumably to make way for something cheaper to produce, re-runable,
and more profitable.

Brian Phillips said:

Regarding the ratings slump, Dish Network dropped OLN over the winter, so
that fact alone could account for a lot of lost ratings... it caused me to
switch from Dish to Comcast, but I'm sure there were many thousands who
didn't.

Dish Network still carries OLN. Although I think they shifted it to
their more expensive package.

Gabe Brovedani

Nope. It used to be in their most expensive package, but they dropped it
over the winter, like I said. Here's their current top tier lineup:
http://www.dishtv.com/pub/htsp.com/dish2programming/dtv180.html
When I called to cancel with Dish, I told them that dropping OLN was one of
the reasons... in an effort to keep me as a subscriber, their pitch was "Oh,
we're in negotiations with them to get them back." I guess they're still in
negotiations.

"Gabe Brovedani" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Dish Network still carries OLN. Although I think they shifted it to
their more expensive package.

Gabe Brovedani

Nope. I'm watching it right now on Dish Network, OLN reappeared on Dish
a few months ago.

Brian Phillips said:

Nope. It used to be in their most expensive package, but they dropped it
over the winter, like I said. Here's their current top tier lineup:
http://www.dishtv.com/pub/htsp.com/dish2programming/dtv180.html
When I called to cancel with Dish, I told them that dropping OLN was one of
the reasons... in an effort to keep me as a subscriber, their pitch was "Oh,
we're in negotiations with them to get them back." I guess they're still in
negotiations.

"Gabe Brovedani" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Dish Network still carries OLN. Although I think they shifted it to
their more expensive package.

Gabe Brovedani

That combined 950K viewers, however, is probably 10-20 times their
usual viewership. If the math works out, they'll keep going. If
another American wins the Tour, then they'll be back in biz.

wimpyVO2 said:

No more Lance so lots of Americans aren't watching any more:

"Through the first four stages, viewership of OLN's live Tour coverage
has tumbled 49 percent to 207,544 people. Combined viewership of the
live show and its daily repeats has plunged by 47 percent to 749,472."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/sports/othersports/07sandomir.html?

NY Times, registration required.

That's a steep drop in ratings. Steep enough that OLN will probably
drop cycling and focus on bulls and fish fulltime.

On 7/8/06 7:26 PM, in article [email hidden],

Brian Phillips said:

Nope. It used to be in their most expensive package, but they dropped it
over the winter, like I said. Here's their current top tier lineup:
http://www.dishtv.com/pub/htsp.com/dish2programming/dtv180.html

That's not their most expensive package. This is:

http://www.dishtv.com/pub/htsp.com/dish2programming/dtvat180everything.html

"The most variety in TV entertainment! America's Top 180 has something for
everyone: 9 commercial-free movie channels, sports, Biography,

*** OUTDOOR LIFE NETWORK ***,

Great American Country, 4 channels from Discovery and more! Plus, you get
the entire America's Top 120 Entertainment Package."

Quoted message said:

When I called to cancel with Dish, I told them that dropping OLN was one of
the reasons... in an effort to keep me as a subscriber, their pitch was "Oh,
we're in negotiations with them to get them back." I guess they're still in
negotiations.

"Gabe Brovedani" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Dish Network still carries OLN. Although I think they shifted it to
their more expensive package.

Gabe Brovedani

Victor Kan said:

Quoted message said:

I found the coverage to be better than previous
years when there was too much fox style/nascar swooping logos and
special effects which really irritate me for some reason.

In a similar vein, no more goofy Cutters, no more trick riding Hans Rey,
no more Kirsten Gum with her varying hair color and cleavage (OK, she
wasn't too irritating :-), no more mind numbing Sam Posey, no more
Carmichael Training Systems infomercials that I recall seeing.

They still have Al Trautwig though--lots of dead air filled with
helicopter noise when he and Bob Roll are doing the commentary on the
"expanded coverage" repeats.

Just in case anybody missed your point, it's pure Phil & Paul in the
live morning show, after a brief pre-show with Phil, Paul, Bob, and Al.

Sometimes I catch a bit of the "expanded coverage" in the evening, and
sad to say, Bob and Al can't hold a candle to Phil and Paul. Al & Bob
do creditably on the pre-show, though.

Mark

For some reason, I have been getting OLN for the past 2 years on my
Basic, $11.00 a month cable.