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Friday's VeloBriefs: Another win ... for Postal? Discovery acquires OLN
Armstrong delivers another win for Postal
Lance Armstrong may be riding for the Discovery Channel now, but the six-time Tour de France winner recently delivered another win for the U.S. Postal Service – with a little assist from the rising price of gasoline.
Faced with spiraling costs due to rising energy prices, USPS has been experimenting with mail delivery via bicycle in a few select cities – San Francisco, Denver and Boston – and the savings have been such that the agency is considering expanding the pilot program to other communities.
Armstrong’s bike sponsor, Trek, has supplied participating mail carriers with its X500 trekking bikes, while teammate George Hincapie’s clothing company, Hincapie Sports, is contributing custom USPS cycling clothing.
And the agency says its savings are not limited to prices at the pump. According to USPS spokesman Abril Zonzo, as mail carriers swap their motor vehicles for human-powered models, the agency’s health insurance rates are coming down.
“It’s a win-win situation,” said Baughman. “Our long association with Lance just keeps on paying dividends.”
Discovery acquires OLN, plans Giro, Vuelta coverage
Fans of televised cycling should be ecstatic at the acquisition of the Outdoor Life Network by Discovery Communications Inc., whose eponymous Discovery Channel is the title sponsor of six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong’s cycling team.
Discovery has ambitious plans for OLN, foremost of which is expanding its cycling coverage to include live broadcasts of selected races in which Armstrong’s team will compete, including the Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España and ProTour events.
OLN had previously announced that it would limit its 2005 cycling coverage to live, daily broadcasts of the Tour and brief recaps of other events during its 90-minute “Cyclysm Sundays” show.
“Naturally, we couldn’t be happier,” said Discovery Channel team spokesman Jogi Muller told the Spanish newspaper Periódico Cómico. “OLN’s Tour coverage has been first-rate, but we need to look to the future, and in-depth coverage of other events will give us a chance to showcase up-and-coming talents like Yaroslav Popovych, Tom Danielson and Roger Hammond.”
There will be other changes, too. OLN’s offices will be relocated from Stamford, Connecticut, to Discovery headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. And Gavin Harvey, president and CEO of OLN, will be stepping down to spend more time with his family. Replacing him will be Dan Osipow, who will leave Tailwind Sports Corporation – which, with Capital Sports and Entertainment, owns Armstrong’s cycling team - to take the top spot at OLN.
The news would seem to support speculation that Discovery may be going public. Given the possibility that it may be able to raise capital more quickly as a publicly traded entity, analysts have suggested that Discovery may be positioning itself to begin an ambitious round of acquisitions.
With $2 billion in annual revenue, profits of $168 million in 2004, and 1 billion-plus subscribers worldwide, Discovery is a dominant force in "non-fiction" cable programming with channels like Animal Planet, FitTV and BBC America.
