• by Wayne Friedman , July 2, 2015

NBCSN says advertising pacing for its Tour de France three-week event is ahead of 2014's efforts.

Last year’s Tour de France advertisers -- including General Motors, McDonalds, Miller Beer and Geico -- are returning.

New advertisers for this year’s event include Emirates, United Arab Emirates’ airline; action-sports camera maker GoPro; tire manufacturer Michelin; DirecTV; and Volkswagen. Cycling specific sponsors include Giant Bikes, Road ID, Headsweats, Clean Bottle and Bell Sports.

An NBC spokesman says: “Ad sales are pacing considerably ahead of last year, with limited inventory remaining.”

A year ago, live daytime coverage of the 2014 Tour de France averaged 288,000 viewers on NBCSN, about the same as 2013’s 287,000 average. Last year’s results were down 1% from the 290,000 in 2012.

Overall for all 118 telecasts in 2014 -- live race coverage, Tour Primetime shows, and late night race coverage re-airs -- the 2014 Tour de France averaged 169,000 viewers, up 8% from 2013’s 156,000 viewers for 114 telecasts. 

Prime-time coverage -- NBCSN’s “Tour Primetime” show -- averaged 210,000 overall viewers, up 16% from 2013 and with adults 25-54 up 19% to 96,000 over 2013. This was the best results in the demo and viewership since 2011. One major result on broadcast network NBC -- stage 8 -- pulled in 959,000 viewers.

This year’s three-week bike race starts up July 4 and runs through July 26. Winners from the last two years will be in the race, with Vincenzo Nibali (2014) and Chris Froome (2013).

For the second quarter of this year, NBCSN posted overall Nielsen prime-time viewership ratings of 679,000 and 367,000 among 18-49 viewers. A year ago in the second quarter, NBCSN was at 725,000 in the second quarter and 356,000 18-49 viewers.

For the entire 2014 year, NBC was at 300,000 overall viewers and 142,000 18-49 viewers. NBCSN typically gets its best results during the second quarter, mostly due to strong end of season NHL programming results, as well as its U.K. Premier League football season.