Universal Sports Network Goes Off the Air
Cycling fans will have one fewer source of live video coverage of the coolest bike races next year: Universal Sport Network, long a mainstay of cycling media, announced on Wednesday that it will stop broadcasting November 16.
Akin to the fictional magazine Obscure Sports Quarterly of the movie Dodgeball, USN championed sports not part of the traditional Big Four: football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. Instead, it focused on cycling, swimming, rugby, and other athletics with less financial backing.
Thanks to USN, cycling fans have been treated to some of our favorite races as they happened since 2009. We got to see the signature break develop; the lead teams initiate the chase; and the nail-biting climax as the hunters and the hunted bore down on the finish line.
When it would have been easy for USN to do a post-event, one-hour wrap-up show, it chose to go live whenever possible. Fans watched full stages of the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana, in addition to one-day classics and the World Championships.
There were so many cycling events on USN each September that the month became known as Bikenado. After watching an exciting stage finish of the Vuelta, you could view the latest mountain bike World Cup, see the latest gadgets from Interbike, and then watch Sir Bradley Wiggins—sideburns and all—in his home race, the Tour of Britain. Frankly, it's amazing spectators like myself found any time to ride bikes, too.
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In 2015, USN broadcast over 100 days of bike racing coverage and 180 days of general cycling coverage. It's programming was available in over 65 million households, including mine. Do I really want back the part of my life spent on couch cushions instead of my saddle? No way! I am an acknowledged cycling junkie who is already going through the early stages of withdrawal.
The company has not publicly said why it’s shutting down, but cyclists should still be able to get their fix. NBC Sports, which covers the Tour de France and other marquee races, is still skipping along and there is no shortage of Internet feeds to explore.
Still, for the die-hards among us who can’t watch enough, this one stings. Here’s a brief timeline of the mighty mini-network, from inception to the shuttering of its cable signal.
2006: Claude Ruibal, Carlos Silva, and Tom Hipkins launch World Championship Sports Network (WCSN).
2008: NBC Universal, the parent company of NBC, buys a minority interest; the network is rebranded as Universal Sports Network (USN). USN starts to be carried on many of NBC's over-the-air digital subscription channels.
2009: First same-day cycling broadcast in April, of the Tour of the Basque Country. Steve Schlanger and Todd Gogulski debut as the commentators. In May, the first-ever same-day coverage of the Giro d'Italia in America begins.
2010: Live coverage begins in earnest. Live, daily coverage of both the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana begin.
2012: USN goes off the air and becomes cable-only. DirecTV becomes the first cable provider to sign on. Dish Network signs on as well.
2013: Rights to Giro d'Italia and all other RCS Sport races go to BEIN Sport. To fill the void, USN picks up the rights to many other one-day and multi-day races in France and Belgium, including the Tour of Belgium. The World Championships broadcast live.
2015: USN has 1,200 hours of premier sports events covering 30 sports. In October, it announces that it will cease broadcasting on November 16.
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