Setting LESS_TERMCAP_* variables with $(tput ...) in ~/.profile not working

This is my ~/.bashrc:

# ...unnecessary lines skipped...
# man colors
LESS_TERMCAP_mb=$(tput blink) # start bold
LESS_TERMCAP_md=$(tput setaf 2 ; tput bold) # start bold
LESS_TERMCAP_me=$(tput sgr0)  # turn off bold, blink and underline
LESS_TERMCAP_so=$(tput smso)  # start standout (reverse video)
LESS_TERMCAP_se=$(tput rmso)  # stop standout
LESS_TERMCAP_us=$(tput smul)  # start underline
LESS_TERMCAP_ue=$(tput rmul)  # stop underline
export LESS_TERMCAP_mb
export LESS_TERMCAP_md
export LESS_TERMCAP_me
export LESS_TERMCAP_so
export LESS_TERMCAP_se
export LESS_TERMCAP_us
export LESS_TERMCAP_ue

This works, I can see colors in man pages. But when I move that lines from ~/.bashrc to ~/.profile (and re-login), the colors in man pages disappears. I really want to use tput because it is more clear than a heap of control symbols. Why do tput not working from .profile?