FUCHS SEES ‘BIG EVENTS’ IN PAY TV

By the time pay-TV czar Michael Fuchs had finished his luncheon speech Tuesday, it seemed that the otherwise unidentifiable fowl on his luncheon plate might have been a healthy portion of crow.

“We’ve been fooling the public and maybe ourselves,” Fuchs told the more than 125 persons attending the monthly meeting of the Southern California Cable Assn., a trade group that represents cable-TV systems from Santa Barbara to San Diego, at the Marina del Rey Marriott.

In his 45-minute address, the chairman of Home Box Office Inc. listed a catalogue of mistakes and misjudgments that, Fuchs said, have contributed to his firm’s and his industry’s lackluster performance in the past year.

Beset by internal problems as well as the unexpected onslaught of the videocassette business, pay TV and cable have lost much of the sheen that glistened so brightly throughout the entertainment business only a few brief years ago.

HBO, Fuchs said, is in for some drastic changes as it attempts to recapture its lost luster. “Change, for the sake of change, is good for our business,” he said.

Among the changes that Fuchs suggested may be in the offing at HBO is a new emphasis on what he called “big event” programming--such as this month’s much ballyhooed “We Are the World” special--and less reliance on frequently repeated motion pictures.

“In the wake of the VCR, total dependence on movies must change,” Fuchs said. “We probably invested too much money in movies.” Fuchs said that he expected more movie titles on HBO’s upcoming schedules but fewer repeats.

He also said that HBO may experiment with running some movies before they are released on cassettes. He refused to identify what movie studio was willing to go along with that plan but said that HBO “may experiment with” one or two of its own theatrical releases.

Also high on his agenda appears to be a rethinking of the pay-TV network’s much-publicized efforts to develop continuing series programming. “I’m not sure we should be in the series business,” he said. “I think it’s a mistake to try to do what network television does best.”

CABLE BRIEFLY: First ESPN, the sports network, added business news to its daily schedule and now Financial News Network is adding sports to its evening program lineup. “SCORE: Sports Watch,” an every-15-minute wrap-up of scores, sporting news and game highlights, has debuted as part of an overall revamping of the Financial News schedule. The network also will be adding syndicated sports programming from independent producers. . . . On another HBO note, the pay-TV service has hired some hot movie-writing talent for its “The Hitchhiker” mystery-suspense series. Set to write new episodes are, among others, William Kelley (“Witness”), Leora Barrish (“Desperately Seeking Susan”) and Robert Averech (“Body Double”). . . . Showtime’s popular “Faerie Tale Theatre” won a prestigious George Foster Peabody award. The series, produced by actress Shelley Duvall, was cited for “bringing unusual inventiveness, enthusiasm and wit to the barren landscape of family television programming.”