IOC ESTIMATED NAGANO'S WORLDWIDE AUDIENCE AT 9.2 BILLION

          The IOC released statistics showing that while the
     cumulative audience in major markets for the Nagano Games
     was estimated at 9.2 billion, up 13% from '94, the U.S.
     audience showed "a massive drop" of 24%, according to James
     Christie of the Toronto GLOBE & MAIL.  The IOC said that CBS
     "bungled badly by building" its TV strategy around the
     "weather-plagued" alpine ski events, while other events were
     shown on tape-delay.  IOC VP Richard Pound: "In Nagano, they
     (CBS) did not have the first team in there.  The production
     quality was lower that it usually is."  He also noted that
     the fair performance of the U.S. team did not help the
     network.  The U.S. audience dropped 24% to 1.262 billion
     viewers (James Christie, Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 6/17).