From The TV IV

Verus (formerly known as the Outdoor Life Network until July 2005 and OLN until September 25, 2006) is a cable television channel owned by Comcast. Its programming is an unusual mix of extreme sports, more sedate fare like hunting, and, most notably, coverage of professional cycling and ice hockey. Versus currently owns the American rights to show live coverage of the Tour de France—rights which are particularly valuable right now due to the popularity of Lance Armstrong, and also recently acquired the cable rights for National Hockey League games.

[edit] History

In July 2005, OLN revamped its image, focusing on more extreme outdoor sporting events. As noted by an OLN press release, its programming is "designed to be real, bold and awe-inspiring and supports our mission to bring to life the thrills, challenges and competition in the outdoors that our audience craves." In conjunction with the revamp, OLN's logo and website (in the USA) were completely redesigned as well. As part of the revamp, OLN acquired the rights from NBC Universal of the X Games-type Gravity Games as well as the rebroadcast rights to the CBS reality series Survivor, and began airing the series from the beginning of Season One on 24 July.

In 2004, OLN capitalized on this popularity during the Tour, showing virtually nothing but Tour-related coverage for over three weeks, including their live coverage, hosted by Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen, Al Trautwig, and Bob Roll, as well as reality programming such as The Lance Chronicles, a show focusing on Armstrong's training for the Tour, and The Roadside Tour, following the Cutters, a particularly devoted group of Armstrong fans. This coverage was grouped under the title "The Cyclism," which was meant to refer to Armstrong's effort to win a record sixth Tour de France. OLN marketed this with the line, "Someday, someone may ask you, 'Where were you during the Cyclism?'" A year later, Le Tour on the network was promoted as "Cyclism II" as Armstrong went for his seventh consecutive — and final — maillot jaune, which he won.

Although Armstrong's riding makes the Tour de France uniquely valuable programming, Versus does not restrict its cycling coverage to that event. They also provide American coverage of the Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a España, and other popular road cycling races in the United States and Europe.

On August 17, 2005, ESPN rejected to match Versus's three-year, $200 million offer for the NHL's U.S. cable TV rights. [1] There is also an 8-game, Thursday-Saturday package for the National Football League still on the table, Versus may bid for those rights, too; bidding on that begins next month. In addition, there were also reports that they could take the Wednesday night and Sunday night cable telecast rights to Major League Baseball games away from ESPN, but ESPN managed to work out a new deal.

[edit] Network

Versus has also secured coverage for the 2007 America's Cup, which was also a staple on ESPN and ESPN2 for years. It will begin to show qualifying regattas in late 2005, the Louis Vuitton Cup for challengers in 2007, and the America's Cup match between the Louis Vuitton winner and current champions, Alinghi of Switzerland in Valencia, Spain.

Outdoor Life Network Canada (which retains the full name), owned by Rogers Communications, remains an outdoors-focused specialty service as per its CRTC licence. Among its differences with the American service: