July 19, 2012 TOUR DE FRANCE COVERAGE CULMINATES THIS WEEKEND LIVE ON NBC SPORTS NETWORK NBC Sports Group’s New Scheduling Format Boosts Viewership
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NEW YORK – July 19, 2012 – NBC Sports Group, the exclusive U.S. television home of the Tour de France, will present the final days of the world’s most prestigious and grueling cycling race live this weekend on NBC Sports Network. Saturday’s coverage, beginning at 8 a.m. ET, will feature the final time trial as riders try to catch the yellow jersey worn by current overall leader Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky. On Sunday, the 99th Tour de France culminates in Paris on the Champs-Elysees as they crown the 2012 race champion. Sunday’s final stage on NBC Sports Network begins at 8 a.m. ET with a recap of this year’s Tour de France on NBC the same day at 1 p.m. ET.

VIEWERSHIP: Based on the strength of the new format, with the first-ever live broadcast network coverage, this year’s Tour de France has produced viewership gains for the NBC Sports Group.

• Through Sunday, July 15, after 15 live telecasts (13 on NBCSN, 2 on NBC) the Tour de France has averaged 409,000 viewers, up 29 percent from last year’s coverage on NBCSN (317,000).
• The two live NBC broadcasts on July 7 and 8, the first time the race was ever live on a broadcast network, each drew over 1 million viewers.
• The total audience for all Tour de France telecasts this year, including encores, is 17.1 million viewers, up 69 percent from last year’s 10.1 million viewers at this point in the Tour.

DIGITAL: Milestones have also been made through the network’s digital efforts with Tour de France LIVE and through the Tour de France LIVE Mobile app, including the following:

• Combined Tour de France LIVE and Tour de France LIVE Mobile live streams, averaged 10,000 unique visitors and 31,000 live starts per day in the second week of the Tour, up 31% and 201%, respectively vs. 2011.
• The unique visitors to the Tour de France live stream (web and app) on Saturday, July 7^th, was the most ever for a live stream of the Tour.
• The 39,794 live streams recorded by the Tour de France (web and app) on Thursday, July 12th, was the most ever for the Tour.
• The 2012 Tour de France has recorded over 20,000 live streams each of the first fourteen days of the race (web and app). By comparison, the 2011 Tour de France live stream didn’t break 20,000 daily live starts once.

NBC Sports Group’s Weekend Schedule (all times Eastern and subject to change):

--NBC SPORTS GROUP--