ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 13, 1996 TAG: 9607150026
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: ON THE AIR
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The Atlanta Games don't begin until Friday, but long ago there was something to cheer about these Summer Olympics.
There will be no ``TripleCast.''
Unlike the much-criticized and confusing coverage of the Barcelona Games four years ago and other recent Olympics, there will be no cable outlet for the Atlanta Games. NBC will air 1711/2 hours in 17 days, including 78 prime-time hours beginning with Friday night's Opening Ceremonies (WSLS, Channel 10).
That said, it is likely this 26th Summer Olympiad will be the last that can be viewed without a cable subscription. NBC has the rights to six of the next seven Olympics - the exception is CBS on the 1998 Winter Games from Nagano, Japan - with the rights fee escalating from Atlanta's $456 million to $894 million for the 2008 Summer Games, wherever they may be.
The peacock network signs on with Microsoft on the hyped MSNBC cable network Monday. It's a lucrative future venue for the Olympics. There's also the network's other cable venture, CNBC, where sports programming showed up with success in NBA Finals postgame shows in June.
Fortunately for viewers, the new network of the Olympics will cover the Games pretty much like the old one did. Starting in 1964, ABC aired 10 of 13 Summer or Winter Olympics under the guidance of Roone Arledge, with Jim McKay as the host. What worked for ABC has and will continue to work for NBC.
``Most sports are event-driven, but the Olympics is different,'' said NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol in a recent interview. ``The audience wants to follow the struggle, and that makes storytelling all important.''
What that also means, of course, is that viewers should not expect prime-time host Bob Costas or daytime studio anchor Greg Gumbel to give the score or medal results of a just-completed event when they sign on from Atlanta.
Although 65 to 70 percent of the Games' telecasts will feature live event coverage, the late-night shows won't, and some intriguing competition will be held weekdays from 1-7:30 p.m., when the network will stick with soap operas, news and affiliate programming.
Ebersol said NBC's policy is that no results will be revealed on an NBC show until the event has been played out on the telecast. ``That will allow viewers to enjoy the event as if it were live and allow the drama to logically unfold,'' said Tom Roy, NBC's Olympic co-executive producer with Ebersol.
NBC's 1711/2 hours of Olympic coverage doesn't include two hours each weekday morning on ``Today,'' which will air from Atlanta, or the ``NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw,'' which also will call the Olympic city home during the Games.
NBC's basic schedule calls for blanket Olympic coverage on weekends, with 10 hours each weekday, from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., 7:30 p.m.-midnight, and 12:40-2:10 a.m., after affiliate stations' local newscast. Two of the three Saturdays, Olympic programming begins at noon. The Sunday schedules begin at 7 a.m., with both Olympic Sundays including 151/2 hours of coverage from Atlanta.
For this, NBC paid $456 million, with production costs estimated at an additional $100 million. When the network made its successful bid for U.S. telecast rights three years ago, Ebersol expected a break-even proposition. However, network gross advertising sales alone are approaching $700 million. More than $600 million already had been sold a year ago.
After losing $100 million on the Barcelona telecast and ``TripleCast'' disaster, NBC is thrilled with the response, which likely can attributed to these Games having U.S. roots. For Barcelona's rights, NBC paid $401 million.
NBC affiliates contributed regular air time worth about $30 million for the network to sell. NBC's sales have been so successful, the network hasn't discounted a single 30-second ad, for which the average price is $500,000. Coca-Cola has purchased $62 million of NBC advertising time for the soft drink's ``hometown'' Games. Anheuser-Busch and General Motors have bought $50 million each.
So, viewers will see commercials constantly, right? Well, using NBC Olympic comparisons, not really. The network is planning more than nine commercial minutes per hour, down slightly from the 10 minutes per hour four years ago from Spain. The Seoul Games telecasts in 1988 included a hefty 15 minutes of ad time per hour.
NBC's Olympic hours will be fronted by familiar faces. Costas is the prime-time host and also will anchor the ``Prelude to the Games'' two-hour special Wednesday night from Sports Illustrated and NBC (9 p.m., WSLS). Gumbel will serve as host for the morning shows, with Ahmad Rashad handling studio chores for the weekend afternoon shows.
The late-night duo returns from Barcelona, with Jim Lampley and Hannah Storm sharing what will be primarily a highlights and interview show. Dick Enberg, who with Costas is NBC's other signature telecaster, has his own Olympic niche in reprising his Barcelona role with ``Dick Enberg's Moments.'' Enberg, a superb storyteller as well as play-by-play man, will have a special feature piece nightly.
However, some faces and voices will show up on sports they don't often call, like football's Bob Trumpy and Phil Simms on weightlifting, basketball's Bill Walton on volleyball, Don Criqui on water polo and synchronized swimming and Charlie Jones on rowing.
What most viewers want to know is what they will see. Most glamour events will be in prime time. For example, several of the U.S. ``Dream Team'' men's basketball games will start at 10 p.m. The prime-time shows will look like they have in most recent Olympics - lots of gymnastics, swimming and diving.
NBC did have some say in competition dates, which is why there will be nine days of gymnastics (spread over 11 days) in Atlanta, including two weekends, and why swimming has been stretched from six to seven days. Diving will air on gymnastics' two off days.
``The Olympics,'' Ebersol said, ''are driven by female-interest sports.''
Let the storytelling begin.
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by AP: Olympic tv rights. color.by CNB