Tour de France takes a hard spill on TV

By Doreen Carvajal International Herald Tribune

Published: July 21, 2006

PARIS With suspense rising about the outcome Sunday of the Tour de France sans the perennial victor Lance Armstrong, another result is clear: Television ratings for the 103-year-old cycling showcase are sagging sharply in its most important markets.

During the first 16 days of the 23-day tour sweeping through windswept lavender fields and winding mountain roads, average live television viewing for each stage of the event was down in the United States, Germany and the host nation itself.

The steepest decline was in the United States, with average viewing down by 52 percent in the home country of the retired Armstrong, a Texan who triumphed in the race seven straight times, but also achieved mythic status with his victory over cancer.

In Germany, which lost its hometown star Jan Ullrich at the outset of the race because of a doping scandal in Spain, viewing plunged by 43 percent, with about 1.5 million people watching each stage compared with 2.7 million last year, according to Initiative Futures Worldwide, a London-based media buying agency that tracks sports ratings in 50 countries and advises firms about advertising and sponsorships. Ullrich was fired Thursday by his team, T-Mobile.

"For the Tour de France, almost 65 percent of its viewers are concentrated in three countries," said Kevin Alavy, a senior analyst for Initiative Futures Worldwide. "In all sports we have the local hero syndrome, which influences what fans choose to watch. That means that it's very important that cyclists are doing well" in important markets.

But with the dramatic recovery of the American Floyd Landis in the final mountain stage and the possibility of a cliffhanger in the "tour fou, fou, fou" - as the French have dubbed the crazy, unpredictable nature of the race this year - tour organizers, television executives and sponsors are not panicking about ratings.

The tour, as they point out, also confronted overpowering competition from World Cup soccer matches at the start of the cycling race, along with a backlash over the doping scandal.

"We are about where we anticipated as far as tour ratings without Lance Armstrong," said Amy Phillips, a spokeswoman for OLN, a U.S. cable network, which is broadcasting 13 hours daily of live tour coverage and built so much programming around Armstrong in the past that some nicknamed it the "Only Lance Network."

"Any sport that loses an icon faces this situation. When Tiger Woods isn't in a golf match, there's a similar effect on the ratings," Phillips said, noting, however, that the network's Web site with video footage had experienced a 25 percent increase in page views. Meanwhile, reporters with the race say the roadside crowds are as big as ever.

The Amaury Sport Organization, organizer of the Tour de France, benefited from record ratings in the previous two years, according to Gaël Colloch, who leads the organization's department of television and new media.

Last year, interest was particularly high, as Armstrong set a seemingly unbreakable record with his seventh victory - two more than any other rider in the history of the Tour.

"Sure, the market is stronger when you have heroes," Colloch said, adding that the ratings drop has not affected long-term contracts. "Most of our sponsors are French sponsors, and the ratings are good in the French markets. I know that if you still keep going down year by year it hurts, but we're catching up. It's the Tour de France that makes heroes and not the riders that make the Tour de France."

In France, the race was watched by an average audience of 37.7 percent in the first 15 days of the tour, compared with 44.7 percent a year earlier, according to Médiamétrie, which measures international television audiences.

The average number of French viewers watching each stage in the first 16 days fell 23 percent to 2.9 million from 3.8 million a year ago, according to figures from Stéphane Carillo, a television researcher with Initiative in France.

But resolute sponsors say they are unfazed by those declines because they are still achieving their objectives. Skoda Auto, a Czech Republic carmaker, is in the top tier of Tour de France sponsors that some sports media advisers estimate pay up to