Tour de France TV Audiences Rise in Europe Even After Scandals

July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Tour de France television audiences are rising in Europe as one of the most open contests in years overshadows drug scandals that have tarnished three former cycling champions.

``The Tour de France has been around for so long that it's bigger than any scandal,'' Richard Dorfman, who negotiated the sale of TV rights for sports events including soccer's World Cup and the A1 motor racing series, said in a phone interview. ``I don't want to say there's an acceptance of doping but it's not a big surprise to anyone.''

As the race enters its final week with a Dane holding the lead, the number of viewers has climbed as much as 40 percent in Denmark compared with last year's edition, according to channel TV2. Two months ago, its 1996 Tour de France champion Bjarne Riis confessed to doping. Audiences in Spain rose 11 percent in the first half of the race, Television Espanola said, while they climbed 6 percent in France in the first week, France 2 said.

The ratings for the July 7-29 Tour de France may help persuade companies like Johannesburg-based forklift dealer Barloworld Ltd. and Spanish phone company Euskaltel SA -- who help bankroll the race's 21 teams with a combined $100 million of sponsorships -- to remain in the sport as cycling seeks to regain credibility.

In the past year, companies including Switzerland's Phonak Holding AG and German truckmaker MAN AG have quit the sport.

Landis, Ullrich

Floyd Landis, the 2006 champion, became the first rider to test positive in a doping control on the way to winning the 104- year-old Tour de France. He denies wrongdoing and his case is being examined by an arbitration panel. Germany's Jan Ullrich, the 1997 champion, quit cycling in February, saying allegations linking him to a blood-doping ring were false. In May, Riis became the first Tour de France winner to confess to doping.

They're not the Tour de France's first involvement with scandal. In 1998, the Festina team was kicked off the race after drugs were found in a team car.

Denmark's ratings rose to an average 356,000 per day for the first 10 stages after Michael Rasmussen, a 33-year-old Dane, took the overall lead on July 16, TV2 spokesman Michael Hansen said.

The audience ``is good, very good,'' he said. It soared to 800,000, or 80 percent of viewer share, when Rasmussen took the leader's yellow jersey.

Rasmussen has also been mired in controversy, having been dropped from Denmark's cycling team on July 19 after failing to inform anti-doping officials of his whereabouts twice this year. He blamed an administrative error on his part and was cleared to continue at the Tour.

German Pullout

Italy's RAI television didn't provide data on percentage changes in its audience figures compared with last year, although it said an average of more than 1.2 million people saw last week's ninth stage in the Alps when there were no Italian riders among the top 50 in the overall standings.

In Germany, ratings for ARD and ZDF were steady compared with last year at a daily average of 1.4 million before the channels suspended coverage of the race July 19 as another doping case involving a rider became public.

Patrik Sinkewitz, a 26-year-old German cyclist for the T- Mobile team, tested positive for an abnormal level of testosterone a month before the Tour began. Sinkewitz, who abandoned the race because of a July 15 accident, denies wrongdoing.

According to France's Les Echos newspaper today, German companies including Adidas AG and Audi AG are considering ending their sponsorships should Sinkewitz's second sample prove positive.

A day after the boycott, satellite station SAT1 said it would take up the Tour de France coverage in Germany.

ARD and ZDF ``made a mistake,'' SAT1 spokeswoman Kristina Fassler said in a phone interview. ``People are tuning in because the sport is exciting. Viewers have a healthy distance from these scandals -- they make up their own minds.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Duff in Madrid at at aduff4@bloomberg.net; Nicholas Comfort in Frankfurt at ncomfort@bloomberg.net

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