Versus is an unmitigated disaster.
Formerly known as OLN, the Comcast-owned network lost its entire identity in an ill-fated attempt to compete with ESPN. There was once a period in 2005 when it looked like Versus would snag the NHL, the Sunday/Wednesday Major League Baseball package and the Thursday/Saturday NFL deal. The sky was the limit, and ESPN was in danger of losing its iron grip on cable sports.
Versus did get the NHL. But Major League Baseball signed a deal with ESPN to keep Sunday and Wednesday Night Baseball on the network, and signed a new deal with TBS for the other part of the cable package. After losing out on regular season games, Versus had an opportunity to grab part of the League Championship Series, but TBS was awarded that marquee event as well.
The biggest fish in sports, the NFL, opted to air games on its own network rather than sign a deal with Versus, meaning that out of three major sports, Versus got the rights to only one — the least watched, least popular one of them all.
The NHL has helped Versus significantly in television ratings. While no NHL game has drawn a 1.0 rating on Versus, even a .4 rating is decent on a niche network that usually goes virtually unwatched otherwise.
The good news for OLN is, the ratings are up 100 percent compared to the .1 average for OLN programming in the same time periods a year ago. “
How much of this is a reflection on the NHL? The Tour de France, won for seven straight years by the wildly popular Lance Armstrong, once drew a 2.1 rating on Versus with 1.7 million viewers. Cycling is far from popular in the U.S., and that rating is more indicative of Armstrong’s popularity than anything. Still, one would expect that if cycling could bring in a 2.1 rating, then a Stanley Cup Final game could at the very least draw 1% of the potential audience.
2007 might be a better year, at least on the NHL front. If the Stanley Cup Finals feature larger markets, then ratings are bound to increase. And even if 2007 is a bust, Versus has until 2011 to cultivate an NHL audience that has the potential to increase by the time the television contract is up again.
Still, no increase could possibly make Versus’ situation anything less than disappointing. A network that some thought could catch up with ESPN is now settling for low numbers and low interest. And, with Major League Baseball and the NFL sewn up for the rest of the decade, and the NBA likely to renew its current television deal, Versus is locked into its position as a little-watched niche network with a little-watched niche sport for at least the next six years.
