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| Name | Versus |
|---|---|
| Logofile | Versus logo.svg |
| Logosize | 150px |
| Headquarters | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Launch | July 1, 1995 |
| Owner | NBCUniversal |
| Web | nbcsports.msnbc.com/(versus.com redirects to nbcsports.com) |
| Sister names | Golf ChannelNBC Sports |
| Former names | Outdoor Life Network (1995-2006) |
| Terr avail | Not Available |
| Sat serv 1 | Dish Network |
| Sat chan 1 | 151 (SD/HD) |
| Sat serv 2 | DirecTV |
| Sat chan 2 | 603 main (SD/HD) 604 overflow (NHL) SD 604-1 overflow (NHL) HD |
| Adsl serv 1 | AT&T; U-verse |
| Adsl chan 1 | 640(SD)1640(HD) |
| Cable serv 1 | Available on most cable systems |
| Cable chan 1 | Check local listings |
Versus is a sports-oriented cable television channel in the United States. It is owned by NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It was previously known as Outdoor Life Network (OLN); the name was licensed from Outdoor Life magazine. The name was changed on September 25, 2006. The channel was launched in July 1995 and at the time focused almost exclusively on fishing, hunting, and other related outdoor sports. The OLN brand was retained in Canada, and that channel continues to air some Versus programming but has kept its focus on outdoor sports and lifestyle programs to meet their CRTC licensing requirements, which do not allow it to air major sporting events, such as National Hockey League. In April 2011, it was announced Versus would be changing its name within 90 days to a name including "NBC" to reflect the NBC/Comcast merger; the first step included closing the Versus website, redirecting it to NBC Sports on MSNBC.
In July 2005, OLN revamped its image, focusing on more extreme outdoor sporting events. In conjunction with the revamp, OLN's logo and American website were completely redesigned as well. As part of the revamp, OLN acquired the rights from NBC Universal of the X Games-type Gravity Games as well as the rebroadcast rights to the CBS reality series Survivor, and began airing the series from the beginning of season one on July 24, 2005.
In August 2005, OLN acquired the cable television rights to air the National Hockey League. The NHL's deal with OLN parent Comcast also gave company part ownership of a U.S. version of NHL Network, and distribution on all of its cable systems.
Early in 2006, OLN broadcast some games during the Arena Football League's 20th Anniversary season. OLN televised a weekly regular-season game for 11 weeks as well as a wild card playoff game. However, the agreement was not renewed, instead moving to ESPN.
Versus also added a variety of sports events as part of the rebranding, including men's and women's college basketball, high school basketball, a weekly "game of the week" for the National Lacrosse League, darts competitions, the Major Indoor Soccer League, and the USA Sevens, one of the eight tournaments that make up the IRB Sevens World Series, the top annual circuit in the sevens version of rugby union. Versus is also home to many Professional Bull Riders (PBR) and bull riding events.
In addition to the above, Versus acquired college football rights to games from the Mountain West Conference, Pac-10 and Big 12 conferences. totaling 19 scheduled college football games on Versus during 2007.
Versus secured coverage for the 2007 America's Cup, which was also a staple on ESPN and ESPN2 for years. OLN began to show qualifying regattas in late 2005. Versus aired the Louis Vuitton Cup for challengers in 2007, and the America's Cup match between the Louis Vuitton winner and current champions, won by Alinghi of Switzerland in Valencia, Spain. In 2006, it picked up American broadcast rights (in conjunction with The Tennis Channel) of Davis Cup events.
Versus, with NBC Sports and the World Championship Sports Network (now Universal Sports), broadcast coverage of the 2007 World Championships in Athletics from Osaka, Japan, as well as the 2009 World Championships in Athletics from Berlin, Germany.
On January 28, 2008, Versus and the NHL extended the deal through the 2010-11 season.
On August 7, 2008, Versus announced a 10-year deal with the Indy Racing League to broadcast at least 13 IndyCar Series events a year in HD, beginning in 2009. Bob Jenkins, Jon Beekhuis, and Robbie Buhl are on the broadcast team along with Jack Arute, Robbie Floyd, and Lindy Thackston in the pits. Terry Linger is the producer. The channel would also broadcast various motorsports series on its Lucas Oil Motorsports Hour program such as USAC and Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.
The channel aired the 96th Grey Cup, the championship game of the Canadian Football League in 2008.
2009 also saw Versus begin airing games from the United Football League. The first season Championship aired on November 27, 2009. The UFL would return to Versus for a second season in 2010.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship would air two live events on the channel due to the new contract agreement with UFC sister promotion World Extreme Cagefighting. The first edition of UFC on Versus aired on March 21, 2010 headlined by Brandon Vera vs. Jon Jones in the Light Heavyweight division. The second event aired on August 1 with Jon Jones facing Vladimir Matyushenko. Also as part of the agreement with the UFC, several UFC Countdown shows would air on Versus. There was a countdown show the week of a PPV, usually lasting for one hour, and covering 2-3 of the biggest fights on the card.
Versus also airs many Mountain West, Pac-10, Big-12 and Sun Belt baseball games. Versus also broadcasts the Sun Belt, Big-12, and Pac-10 championship games.
Versus had also struck a deal with the NBA to air 10 regular season NBA Development League games as well as 6 playoff games a year. Games will air Saturday nights. In total, Versus would air 16 NBA Development League games in addition to 25 hours of NBA programming specials. Versus also aired five NBA games, men's and women's Mountain West and Sun Belt games.
On August 3, 2010, Versus began airing Greatest MLB Rivalries, a one hour series that focused on some of the biggest rivalries in baseball. Five episodes were filmed with a new show every Tuesday. The American League vs. National League, Dodgers vs. Giants, Yankees vs. Red Sox, Mets vs. Phillies and Cubs vs. Cardinals were the rivalries featured.
Starting in August 2010, Versus aired nine races of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour, Wednesdays at 7 p.m. The races originated from a variety of locations, including Stafford Motor Speedway, Tri-County Speedway, and Thompson Motor Speedway.
With World Extreme Cagefighting's merger into the Ultimate Fighting Championship, there will be no further WEC events aired on Versus, although Versus will air four additional UFC events in 2011.
The network also announced that they would be airing National Lacrosse League games, starting with the 2011 All-Star Game and culminating with the Champion's Cup final. The network will air nine games total in the 2011 season.
Versus is also airing re-broadcasts of Notre Dame football games from previous years, as well as the annual spring football "Blue-Gold" intramural game, effectively taking over from the HD-exclusive Universal HD (which formerly held cable rerun rights) as the cable home of Notre Dame football events.
In April 2011, NBC Sports and Versus announced they had reached a ten year extension to the television contract with the National Hockey League worth nearly 2 billion dollars over the life of the contract. As previously mentioned, as part of the announcement, the chairman of NBC Sports, Dick Ebersol announced that the Versus channel would be renamed "within 90 days", in order to reflect the synergy of the two networks after the Universal-Comcast merger.
On June 6, 2011, it was revealed that the newly merged NBCUniversal would be extending their rights to the Olympic Games through 2020, outbidding competing bids by Fox Sports and ESPN in a $4.38 billion dollar contract.
While Cablevision eventually came to an agreement making OLN/Versus available to any customer with digital cable, EchoStar retaliated by pulling OLN from its service; it was Dish Network's stance that few of its customers would be willing to have the channel if it meant raising rates. On April 24, 2006, the same date that OLN announced the late-September name change to Versus, Dish Network and OLN reached a long term agreement to restore the channel.
DirecTV dropped the channel at midnight on September 1, replacing it with the message "Versus is no longer available on this channel. Comcast, which owns Versus, has forced us to take down the channel because we will not submit to their unfair and outrageous demands. For more information go to directv.com/versus."
"We are pleased that both sides were able to work out a satisfactory deal to bring this programming back to our customers," said Derek Chang, executive vice president, Content Strategy and Development, DirecTV.
Versus, continuing a tradition started when the channel was still known as the Outdoor Life Network, devotes most of its daytime and weekend programming to programs of interest to outdoorsmen, with most of its shows pertaining to hunting and fishing; Bill Dance, Mike Iaconelli, Babe Winkelman, and Tred Barta are among the numerous hosts seen during Versus's outdoor programming.
Category:Comcast Corporation Category:NBC Universal Category:English-language television stations in the United States Category:Indy Racing League media Category:Sports television networks in the United States Category:Television channels and stations established in 1995
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