Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 7, 1990 TAG: 9007070026
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Cable's TNT finishes its '90 World Cup coverage Sunday at 1:55 p.m., with the final matching Argentina and West Germany. The ratings for the month-long tournament have been about what Turner Broadcasting expected. Through last weekend, the Nielsen average rating for TNT's coverage was a 1.1, which translates to 529,000 homes.
TNT's top-rated game was Sunday's England-Cameroon quarterfinal, which had a 1.9. But that's still fewer than 900,000 homes.
The average will rise because of the championship telecast, and TNT's shows have been welcomed by soccer aficionados in this country. But one of the three U.S. over-the-air networks - NBC - already has said it isn't interested in 1994 telecasts. CBS and ABC aren't commenting, but it would be difficult for the networks to commit the air time needed with such low viewership.
Turner paid $7.75 million for the rights to 24 of the 52 games in this year's World Cup, including the first three appearances by the U.S. team in four decades. The network will lose about $1 million on its effort, but it figures to bid aggressively for the '94 Cup.
Who knows what will happen when the bidding gets serious? NBC Sports had an $11 million deal with the U.S. Soccer Federation for the 1994 Cup rights on the network and its cable entity, SportsChannel America. Then FIFA, the world's governing body in soccer, nixed the deal because it thought the bid was low and wanted competing bids from other broadcasters.
Now, NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol says that after seeing the low ratings for this year's Cup, the network won't submit another bid. A Capital Cities combined bid for ABC Sports and ESPN is likely. Whether CBS, which owns the TV rights to just about every other major sports event, will become involved is uncertain.
One problem for U.S. broadcasters could be a situation that TNT has struggled with in the last month - starting times. With a six-hour difference between Italy and the eastern United States, TNT has been stuck with mid-afternoon starting times.
While U.S. soccer officials want prime-time starts in 1994 to raise viewing levels (and advertising rates) and rights fees, European interests are pressuring FIFA to have the games start in the afternoon in the United States, so the telecasts in Europe, where the sport is most popular, won't be in the middle of the night.
That's a minor mess for the World Cup compared to hooliganism, but soccer's shining month in the United States could be far from a big show on the tube.
\ NBC Sports tennis coverage ends with "Breakfast at Wimbledon" shows today and Sunday (9 a.m. WSLS Channel 10). After pushing aside longtime analyst Bud Collins, NBC is batting .500 with its new commentators. Jimmy Connors has been strong on the men's side; Chris Evert plays the game as she always has, from the baseline.
Evert, who was superb as a guest analyst in the past, has lacked aggressiveness in her new TV role. There are moments in matches when shot-caller Dick Enberg leaves a lob for Evert, and she sits there, saying little, if anything. Evert needs to work on her backhand. Not every shot (or shotmaker) is as good as Evert portrays it to be.
Collins, a Boston newspaperman, has managed to bring color and candor to his newly defined role, and Bob Costas has been welcome as a host, leaving the smooth Enberg free to call matches. Collins and Connors have been a strong pairing. They are opinionated, and Connors isn't afraid to tell viewers what players might be thinking.
\ It's long past time for ABC to remove Peter Alliss from its golf coverage. His remark Sunday on the U.S. Senior Open show was the latest - and worst - in a series that have shown bad form.
For years the native of Britain has rooted openly for European golfers on ABC's coverage of three of the four major events. During Sunday's show, Alliss, in reference to a loud spectator, said the man "should have been smothered at birth."
ABC's golf coverage is a disaster because of Alliss and others. There are so many commentators on the majors that viewers often don't know who's talking.
Roger Twibell was trumpeted as the new golf host, but Jim McKay still appears on the big events, too. Jack Whitaker is there to do essays, and Dave Marr's analysis is tired - matching that of Ken Venturi on CBS.
Getting rid of Alliss would be a good first step for ABC's golf team.
\ On the air:
WTOY's Larry Parker is to be commended for his "Sports Talk" weekly radio hour. It's been a personal struggle for Parker to get and keep the show on the air. On Monday, he had live phone interviews with basketball coaches John Chaney of Temple and John Thompson of Georgetown. It only goes to show local radio executives how a talk show, with the right push and promotion, could prosper. Potential guests are there. . . . ESPN begins 30 hours of coverage of the U.S. Olympic Festival today at 4 p.m. Most of the coverage of the Festival, which runs through July 15 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, will be live, highlighted by boxing, basketball, swimming and track and field.
NBC didn't wait until September to put "NFL Live" analyst Will McDonough, formerly of CBS, to work. McDonough and Costas had an insightful dialogue on NFL expansion and division realignment June 30 on "NBC Sports Update." Among the McDonough remarks: Dallas and Phoenix likely will move to the NFC West; Buffalo and Philadelphia could switch conferences, further balancing the TV markets between the NFC and AFC, and expansion should occur by 1993 or '94. McDonough said he expects Baltimore to get a new team to replace the Colts, who moved to Indianapolis in 1984.
ESPN has its annual "Baseball All-Star Preview" night Monday, starting at 8 with the 90-minute All-Star Gala from Chicago. A one-hour tape of the Old Timers Game from earlier that day follows at 9:30. Then it's "Major League Baseball Magazine," and, at 11 p.m. a 30-minute "Baseball Tonight" roundtable discussion involving analysts Peter Gammons, Joe Morgan and Ray Knight. . . . CBS Radio is bringing back Vin Scully to call the World Series. Scully, who did the Series on radio from 1977-82 before moving to NBC's telecasts, is replacing Jack Buck on CBS Radio. Buck has moved to the CBS TV booth.
by CNB