NBC Sports Chair Dick Ebersol conducted a conference
call with the media yesterday to promote NBC's Olympic
coverage and the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's Michele Greppi writes
that Ebersol "was sounding a little testy" because he was
"being asked yet again why he's not following his Canadian
counterparts and offering the competitions live to U.S.
audiences." Ebersol: "[Maybe the CBC] can afford to put the
Olympics on live in the middle of the night when no one is
watching. If we got 500,000 people at 12 at night, we'd all
be fired" (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 9/14). Ebersol: "The minute
you put something on the air, the clock starts ticking on
one's exclusivity and our ability to control it and keep it
from airing by the end of the day somewhere else is severely
diminished. So we sit on it to protect it for the largest
possible audience" (NEWSDAY, 9/14). But in Canada, Rick
Chislom, who "heads up" TSN's coverage of the Games said,
"We've got an opportunity to show the games live. ... I
don't understand why NBC doesn't do that, too. They have
the opportunity and believe me, they've got enough staff"
(OTTAWA SUN, 9/14). Meanwhile, Ebersol said the impact of
the Internet "will not be that large" on NBC's viewership:
"People getting those results are the purists. They're
going to be small in number. ... [They are] crazed, and they
will still want to come (to the broadcasts) because they
want to see the pictures" (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 9/14).
THE NUMBERS GAMES: Ebersol: "We project we will average
somewhere around a 17.5 rating. That's a big deal, when you
consider we've added a half hour of prime-time coverage
starting at 7 p.m. and there's now multiple channels and
regional sports channels that didn't exist a few years ago."
USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke writes that NBC's projection means
it "has a safety net of a 16.1 average primetime rating
before" make goods are offered (USA TODAY, 9/14)....In
Detroit, Steve Crowe writes a "serious effort is apparently
being made [by NBC] to cut back on the heavy pro-U.S. slant
of past Games coverage." NBC estimates that 48% of its
features "will be on foreign athletes" (DETROIT FREE PRESS,
9/14). In Milwaukee, Bob Wolfley writes NBC is "aiming to
eliminate excesses and hew to more consistently authentic,
genuine and honest profiles" (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 9/14).
BUT IS THE COVERAGE TOO MUCH? In Seattle, John
Levesque, on NBC's 441.5 hours of Olympic coverage: "What in
the name of Roone Arledge is going on here? Do we need --
or want -- 18.4 days of Olympic coverage? Especially when
the Olympiad lasts only 16 days?" Levesque calls NBC's
$715M rights fees "a tad criminal," as the network is paying
about $1.6M "per hour" for the rights (SEATTLE P-I, 9/14).
POSSIBLE STORY LINE: NBC's Bob Costas, on the integrity
of the Games: "If the doping problem exploded into a larger
issue, that is a greater challenge for the Olympics (than
the bidding scandal). Most people see that as serious,
regrettable, but it's about people in suits, not about the
athletes themselves. If the integrity of the competition is
called into question, if you can't believe in what you are
seeing as athletic competition, in the basic fairness of it,
you've got nothing to sell" (NEWSDAY, 9/14).
A GOOD BUY: GOP Presidential candidate George W. Bush
and Democratic Presidential candidate Al Gore bought ads to
run during NBC's coverage. Buyers said that the 25-50%
premium for Olympics ads "is worth it" (USA TODAY, 9/14).