Posted: February 2, 2005

Athletics: Boston Marathon To Be Carried On OLN

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

The organizers of the BAA Boston Marathon announced yesterday that Outdoor Life Network, best known as the U.S. broadcaster of the Tour de France, will carry the historic foot race from Hopkingon to Boston, live, on Monday, April 18. This makes the Boston Marathon the only U.S. road race to have a live, national television broadcast.

"OLN's commitment to providing the best coverage of action sports now brings the Boston Marathon to enthusiastic viewers who will appreciate the traditions and history on which the race has been built," said B.A.A. Executive Director Guy Morse in a prepared statement. "Runners and our audience will be pleased with OLN's production of the race and its in-depth coverage."

Because Outdoor Life Network is owned and operated by Comcast, a major cable system operator, it is not available on all cable and satellite systems. It is not uncommon for one home in any U.S. state to have OLN on its local cable system, while a home just a few miles away does not. ESPN, the all-sports cable network which carried the race previously, reaches far more homes than OLN and is available on virtually every cable and satellite system.

Nonetheless, OLN has earned critical praise for its Tour de France coverage, especially for showing segments of the race without commercial interruption. In addition, the OLN website streamed live audio of the television coverage allowing those who could not receive OLN to follow the race via the web. There was no word today on whether there would be commercial-free segments of the Boston race or streaming web audio.