Friday, November 30, 2007

The Davis Cup Is On Where?


Versus Forgets To Advertise Its Own Coverage


An ad in today's New York Times sports section for this weekend's Davis Cup final matches in Portland is all well and good. At the bottom it tells us when to tune in. Except there's scant mention of where.
Turns out it's on Versus, formerly known as OLN, which got a few more eyeballs every year for its Tour de France, I mean Lance coverage, but otherwise slumbered on digital sports tiers and the upper reaches of DirecTV.
Oh, yeah. Versus also broadcasts NHL games, though the ratings have shown few have noticed.
Anywhoo, Versus didn't do itself any favors solving its identity crisis with the ad, whose subhead is USA versus Russia, with versus in vertical small type.
Further down, in even-tinier type, we're told to go to versus.com for the local channel number. But prominently mentioned is the fact that you can watch encore broadcasts on the Tennis Channel (yes, there really is one).
Versus is a long way off from being able to assume most of its viewers have heard of the channel, let alone where to find it.
Let's hope Andy Roddick and James Blake do a lot better than the Versus marketing department.

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