Universal Sports Announces Multi-year Deal to Broadcast Giro

Universal Sports announced a multi-year deal on May 8th to broadcast the Giro d’Italia as the race celebrates its 100th anniversary. Lance Armstrong made his debut in this race as he returns from his retirement. Coverage of the race began with a team time trial on Saturday, May 9, from Lido di Venezia on the Universal Sports Network and live online, all broadcast times available at UniversalSports.com.

Universal Sports continues to solidify its commitment to broadcast top cycling events with the multi-year broadcast agreement. As part of the deal, Universal Sports will provide television and online coverage, including archived video and television re-airs, for the 2009–2012 Giro d’Italia races. Previous to this agreement, the race was available on a limited basis on the Versus network, and through pay-per-view on Cycling.TV. In addition to the Giro, Universal Sports has had a long-term agreement with the International Cycling Union (UCI) to broadcast world cups and world championships in Road, Track, Cyclo-cross, Mountain and BMX, as well as the Tour of Basque Country, Tour of Missouri, Tour of Georgia and the Deutschland Tour.

COVERAGE ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS:  Universal Sports, available in 45 million homes, will present same-day coverage of the 2009 Giro d’Italia, with nightly re-airs at 9 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. ET. The Universal Sports broadcast team consists of Steve Schlanger and former professional cyclist Todd Gogulski, with Scott Ogle on the ground in Italy.

COVERAGE ON UNIVERSALSPORTS.COM:  UniversalSports.com will provide exclusive, live coverage of the entire Giro d’Italia, starting with the Stage 1 team time trial at 8:30 a.m. ET. Each race will be streamed live at 8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. ET. Complete schedule, as well as full-length videos, highlights, stage maps, photos and breaking news available at UniversalSports.com/cycling.

ABOUT THE RACE: The Giro d’Italia is one of the three major, multi-week European professional cycling stage races, along with the Tour de France and Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain). The Giro consists of 21 stages, including six stages held in the mountains. The Giro will conclude at the Colosseum in Rome on May 31.

Alberto Contador was the winner of the Giro in 2008 and only the fifth rider to win all three grand tours of cycling, but will not defend his title this year. Italian Ivan Basso won the 2006 race and is returning after a two-year doping ban.

ABOUT UNIVERSAL SPORTS: Universal Sports, a partnership between NBC Sports and InterMedia Partners, serves as the preeminent multiplatform destination for Olympic-related and lifestyle sports programming available on television and online. Universal Sports is a 24-hour television channel available in 45 million television households in markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Reno and Omaha. Major world championship and Olympic qualifying events found on Universal Sports range from track and field, skiing, swimming, gymnastics, marathons and cycling, to volleyball, rowing, triathlon, fencing, speed skating and martial arts. UniversalSports.com delivers an immersive experience via live and on-demand competition coverage, interaction with top athletes through blogs and in-depth access to Olympic sports news and information year round. For more information on the availability of the Universal Sports 24-hour television channel, please visit UniversalSports.com

A special THANK YOU to Heather Brown of Universal Sports for contacting and informing me about this wonderful service for the sport of cycling and its fans.

Tagged as: Alberto Contador, Astana, Giro D'Italia, Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Trek, Universal Sports