20.8 million viewers watch first ten days of the Tour on Versus network

After 10 days of VERSUS’ 2008 Tour de France coverage, more than 20.8 million viewers have tuned in to some portion of the race already making it the most-watched Tour in network history. VERSUS, the network that celebrates real competition and the exclusive cable television home of the Tour de France in the U.S., has also seen huge gains in viewership for Men 18-34 and a spike in total viewership for the late night race encores. The national household ratings (Live+Same day) for the live morning telecasts for the first 10 days of the Tour are flat year-to-year (.3).

VERSUS.com, the official Tour de France website in the U.S., has seen remarkable growth in online Tour information consumption after the first 10 days of the race. The site has serviced more than 3.4 million videos, already surpassing the total in 2007 over the Tour’s 23-day span. The network is averaging 341,000 videos per day in 2008 compared to the 170,000 average in 2007. Total page views on VERSUS.com are also showing a slight increase over 2007 with 9.2 million after the first 10 days.

Through the first 10 days of the Tour de France, as compared to the same time period last year, VERSUS is seeing solid growth in viewership among Men 18-34. For this key male demographic, the live morning telecasts are showing a dramatic 91 percent increase in viewership (Live+Same day) and there are sizable gains for the 2 p.m. afternoon encore (up 108%), 5 p.m. fringe encore (up 56%), 8 p.m. primetime encore (up 22%) and the 12 a.m. late night encore (up 99%). Total viewership (Live+Same day) for the late night telecasts has jumped 45 percent year-to-year.

“More viewers are tuning in to check out our coverage than ever before, video usage on VERSUS.com is skyrocketing and viewership for young men is up significantly; all proof that the greatest sporting event on earth is alive and thriving,” said Gavin Harvey, President of VERSUS. “We’ve had all of these tremendous successes at such an early stage this year and with the Alps still to come, the positive growth momentum is sure to continue as these stages traditionally generate the most interest of the entire event.”

VERSUS celebrates real competition across all platforms (VERSUS.com, VERSUS on Demand and VERSUS HD). Now in more than 73 million homes, the network is the national cable home of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Stanley Cup Playoffs as well as best-in-class events such as The Tour de France, Davis Cup Tennis, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and Professional Boxing. The network also offers collegiate sports featuring nationally-ranked teams from top conferences such as the Pac-10, Big 12 and Mountain West. VERSUS features the best field sports programming on television and is a destination for sports fans, athletes and sportsmen to find exclusive, competitive events that audiences can’t find elsewhere. VERSUS, a wholly owned company of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators throughout the United States.

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