Versus tries punching up its programming

Bloody noses.

Smashed mouths.

Comcast Corp.'s Versus has gone mano a mano in its entertainment to boost ratings on the national sports network.

On Dec. 3, the 24-hour channel will present a new episode of The Contender, a reality boxing show previously on NBC and ESPN. The Contender will join mixed-martial-arts cage fighting and NHL games in prime time.

"We are trying to find the programming that hits our audience, no pun intended," said Marc Fein, executive vice president for programming, production and business operations at Versus.

There are also bull riding and Indy racing and the Tour de France. On Friday nights and weekend mornings, Versus Country shows hunting and fishing for a legacy hard-core audience from its days as the Outdoor Life Network.

This year, Comcast moved the channel's top executives and managers to Philadelphia from Connecticut and hired a new president, Jamie Davis. Versus' live studios remain in Stamford, Conn., and public relations in New York. The operation employs 115.

Davis, a former Fox Sports executive who joined in September, said he wouldn't be creating a "me-too ESPN" or ESPN3.

"Stats and data are a commodity. That's not what we want," Davis said. "We don't want to be in every sport."

Versus needs an attitude or a "glue that holds the sports together," said Jeff Shell, president of the Comcast programming group in Philadelphia, adding that he was thrilled with the channel's progress since its new direction two years ago. Average viewership has doubled to about 250,000 homes a night, he said.

Versus won't likely catch the category killer, ESPN, but executives say it can be a respectable general-sports brand in the loudmouth field of Fox Sports, TNT, NBC Sports and niche channels, such as the NFL Network.

The NFL Network, which will show the Eagles-Cardinals game tonight, has criticized Comcast for placing Versus on its general-interest cable package while placing the NFL Network on an extra-charge sports package. The NFL Network is as popular with pay-TV viewers, it says, as Versus. The sports package limits NFL Network's distribution and, ultimately, advertising reach. Versus is available in 74 million homes and the NFL Network in 42 million homes.

The 8 p.m. game, played in Philadelphia, will be broadcast on free TV on 6ABC.

The NFL Network has asked the Federal Communications Commission to order Comcast to carry the network on a general-interest package. An FCC administrative judge has said he will hold a trial to hear both sides.

Comcast isn't commenting on the FCC case, but says that if its customers want to watch the NFL Network they can, on the Comcast sports package. The package costs an additional $7 a month.

Two years ago, Comcast realized it had a big problem with the Outdoor Life Network. The typical viewer was older than 50, and hunting and fishing had a narrow advertiser base.

Comcast bought rights to NHL games and began televising them in 2005. It renamed the channel Versus in 2006. Versus programming executives say they "supersize" the sports coverage with features and talk to please a fragmenting sports market.

Versus claims successes this year. The average age of a Versus male has fallen to 43, from 47 in January. And based on Nielsen ratings, Versus ranks sixth in viewership growth among advertising-supported cable channels for men ages 18 to 34, Versus says. Cable channels ahead of it are CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, WE and Lifetime.

Fein said that was pretty good considering "there are so many networks these days competing for the young male demo." About the only channels he doesn't consider competition are women-oriented Oxygen, Lifetime and Hallmark.

Davis, the new Versus head, has ideas gleaned from years at Fox Sports, where, he said, he was the fifth employee hired in 1994. He rose to managing director of ESPN Star Sports, a joint venture in Asia between News Corp. and the Walt Disney Co.

"It's not an overnight play," Davis said of Versus. "We are on a 10-year mission right now to build it from a strictly outdoor channel to a mainstream all-sports channel."