Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 31, 1993                   TAG: 9307310285
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: S-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARC GUNTHER KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

CABLE TV MAY BE GETTING TOO BIG FOR ITS OWN GOOD

As more networks are planned, talent is being spread thin. So are the viewers, to the point where new cable networks reach fewer people than a small-town TV station.

Still, cable networks continue to procreate like rabbits. This fall, ESPN will spin off ESPN 2. Ted Turner will introduce Turner Classic Movies in 1994. On Valentine's Day, American Movie Classics will offer the Romance Channel. And A&E plans to create History Television, or H-TV.

Cable executives continue to take this approach even though so much of what is now shown on cable amounts to so little.

Consider the following:

The Sci-Fi Channel boasts "an impressive debut" in the Nielsens with a puny 0.6 rating in prime time, which translates into an average of only 65,000 homes across America. Other new networks, such as Ted Turner's Cartoon Network and the much-hyped Court TV, are doing only slightly better.

Together, the top 20 basic cable networks achieve only about an 11 rating, the equivalent of CBS's "Street Stories" - the No. 46 show on TV last season, which was taken off the air for retooling.

Many cable programs reflect a dearth of money and imagination. TNT, which was once envisioned as a high-profile network, is repackaging dogs from Turner's film libraries for "Bad Movies We Love." The Family Channel has literally gone to the dogs with "That's My Dog," a game show featuring canine contestants.

Except for an occasional movie on HBO or the USA Network, the top-rated programs on cable are mostly sports or reruns: baseball on ESPN and TBS, auto racing on TNN, reruns of "Murder She Wrote" on USA and that old cable standby, professional wresting.

So much for letting a thousand video flowers bloom.

This isn't to say that cable doesn't deliver programs of value. Basic cable networks such as CNN, ESPN, Discovery, MTV, Arts and Entertainment and C-SPAN have created strong identities, and together they provide enough of an alternative to the four broadcast networks that 57.5 million American homes - nearly 62 percent of all homes - pay an average of just under $19 a month for a package of basic channels.

It's also inarguable that some cable programs have impact. CNN's crisis coverage and C-SPAN's Washington presence have altered news viewing habits and affected policy-makers. HBO, a pay service, has discovered new comedians and made waves with its movies and such series as "The Larry Sanders Show." MTV has transformed the music industry, while setting trends in fashion, graphics and styles of filmmaking.

But the cable industry's best-kept secret is that the vast majority of what cable generates is unwatched by most of America.

"MTV is a societal phenomenon, but it is statistically insignificant as far as the audience is concerned," says Peter Tortorici, a CBS programmer.

The fact is that cable networks don't depend on ratings or advertising revenue to stay in business - a fact that has proved to be blessing and curse to cable viewers.

On the positive side, a small audience of movie buffs or nature-lovers can sustain entire networks, such as American Movie Classics or Discovery.

On the negative side, since basic cable networks are sold as a package to viewers, there's scant incentive for a network to spend the money needed to develop hit shows. The result is canine game shows or black-and-white movies that fill hour after hour. CNBC, the NBC-owned consumer and business channel, spends just $9 million a year on its entire prime-time talk show schedule - less than what NBC paid Ted Danson for the last season of "Cheers."

The financial lifeline of cable networks is the subscriber fees that local cable operators collect from viewers. That's why ESPN, Discovery and CNN, with audiences of a few million homes each night, made more money last year than the NBC network, which reached vastly more people.

"These guys are making $100 million a year and doing 1 ratings," says Michael Fuchs, the chairman of HBO, which as a pay-service channel must prove its value to subscribers each month. Not coincidentally, HBO has the best programming record on cable.

The money to be made from subscriber fees also explains why the watchword of cable these days is quantity, not quality. More networks mean more fees, and cable programmers are scrambling to get shelf space in the 500-channel universe that they see over the horizon.

Turner's cable empire provides the model. From modest beginnings at TBS, the Atlanta-based superstation that he put up on a satellite in the late '70s, Turner has created CNN, TNT, CNN Headline News and the Cartoon Network. The numerous cable spin-offs could leave viewers' heads spinning, but relief may be on the way. Eventually, networks will be sold "a la carte," permitting viewers to select only those stations they want from a menu of options, meaning they won't have to buy the entire basic-cable package. That would force each individual network to sell itself to subscribers, just as the pay networks like HBO and Disney have done.