SOME CABLE OPERATORS STILL HOLDING OUT ON OLYMPICS COVERAGE

          A "handful" of cable operators "refusing to pay" for
     NBC's supplemental cable coverage of the 2000 Olympics "are
     now in the odd position of carrying ads urging viewers to
     ask for it," according to Deborah McAdams of BROADCASTING &
     CABLE.  The ads are coming from NBC local broadcast affils
     in markets served by MSOs that "haven't done the deal."  One
     of the "holdouts" include Comcast, and McAdams writes that
     the deal Comcast and others "are resisting" is the $1-per-
     subscriber-per-year surcharge for additional Olympics
     coverage on MSNBC and CNBC for the five sets of Games
     through 2008.  NBC "has succeeded" in selling the
     supplemental cable coverage to about 90% of the market. 
     CableOne Chair Tom Might, whose cost would be about $740,000
     per year for the Olympic surcharge, said, "It's just too
     much money for two weeks of programming out of the year." 
     Officials said that there is "no specific deadline" for
     operators to sign a deal (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 7/24 issue).