Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 9, 1990 TAG: 9006090045
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
No, the NFL hasn't stretched its season. TNT is airing what we call soccer, a game the rest of the world knows as football. The World Cup has started a month-long run on cable's TNT, which paid $7.25 million for the U.S. English-language rights.
TNT will televise 24 of the 52 World Cup games from Italy through the championship July 8. The United States is making its first Cup appearance since 1950, and TNT will have the Americans' opener against Czechoslovakia on Sunday at 10:55 a.m. The other U.S. games in the preliminary round are Thursday (Italy) and June 19 (Austria), both on TNT.
TNT's effort is the most extensive World Cup coverage in American TV history. The cable network undoubtedly is pointing its coverage toward 1994, when the World Cup will be played in the United States for the first time. Not only does the World Cup give Turner Sports a major event, but the commitment also establishes TNT's desire to be the host broadcaster in '94.
In 1982, ABC Sports spent $400,000 for the rights to the World Cup final in Spain. In '86, NBC Sports paid $5.5 million for the U.S. telecast rights to the event in Mexico, and sold part of the deal to cable's ESPN. NBC aired seven games, half as many as ESPN, and NBC's loss on Cup coverage was about $1 million. TNT, although it has sold out its advertising inventory for the 24 games, expects a similar loss.
It was estimated that one-tenth of the world's population watched a portion of the '86 World Cup on TV.
The U.S. viewership didn't contribute much to that number. The average rating on NBC was a paltry 2.4 (percentage of U.S. homes with TV), and ESPN's was 0.4 (percentage of homes with ESPN). Don McGuire, Turner Sports executive producer, said TNT is hoping for an average rating between 1.0 and 1.5 for the 46 million homes that receive the network.
There is a notion that U.S. viewership will rise modestly because an American team is participating in the Cup for the first time in four decades. But when the U.S. team clinched its berth Nov. 19, 1989, with a 1-0 victory at Trinidad and Tobago, ESPN received a 0.8 rating for the game. That translates to about 432,000 televisions for the most significant U.S. soccer event in 40 years.
That game was sandwiched between a NASCAR race and a Jets-Colts NFL game. ESPN got a 2.7 rating for the race, and a 7.3 for the NFL game. Of course, the soccer aired opposite NFL games on NBC and CBS.
As a televised sport, soccer does worse than hockey, which has struggled on the air in this country. A decade ago, ABC tried a North American Soccer League package. The games were given superb production, and Jim McKay lent his name and enthusiasm to ABC's expert analysis. But the NASL was a dismal network failure.
There is a notion that soccer doesn't do well on American television because of the lack of scoring. But baseball is America's pastime and passion for many, and it certainly doesn't create an uptempo TV show. Soccer was supposed to be the sport of the 1980s in America, and if you consider the burgeoning youth programs, it was.
But soccer remains a foreign sport - like hockey - to most American TV viewers. Perhaps, when those kicking kids become adults, the sport's influence will grow in this country. Perhaps, when soccer adds to its American profile with the month-long Cup at 12 U.S. stadiums four years from now, it will be a bigger show.
Soccer has presented another problem for commercial television - a place to put commercials. Because soccer is a game of continuous play, with breaks only for halftime and injuries, no TV timeouts are allowed. In 1986, NBC used framed-screen and split-screen formats to display advertising while play continued. That ruffled purists, as did NBC's decision to go to commercials during play, while keeping their fingers crossed in the production truck that no one scored while the sales pitches were airing.
TNT is cutting away from live play for ads, too.
Wisely, TNT is concentrating its coverage on weekends. The exceptions are the England-Ireland game Monday afternoon, and the second and third U.S. team appearances. Of the 24 competing teams, 16 advance to the second round, which TNT will cover June 23-24 with a pair of doubleheaders.
The quarterfinals are scheduled the following weekend, then TNT will have the semifinals July 3-4, the third-place game July 7 and the final from Rome on Sunday, July 8. Those final four games will all air at 1:55 p.m.
If the U.S. squad advances to the second round, TNT has a chance to exceed its ratings goal. But Turner Sports' primary objective in Italy is getting a foot in the door for '94.
by CNB