ABC Seeks Ratings Boost From Games

No one wants the U.S. athletes to bring home the gold from the Olympic Winter Games in Calgary more than the U.S. athletes. Except, perhaps, the folks at ABC.

To the athletes it would mean the fulfillment of a lifelong dream; to ABC it could lead not only to the network’s first sweeps win since July, 1984, but also to its escape from the prime-time ratings cellar for the first time in four years. That in turn would translate into additional millions of dollars in advertising revenue.

ABC’s extensive coverage of the XV Winter Olympiad gets under way today with live coverage of the opening ceremonies at 11:30 a.m. (Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42). Then at 8 p.m. comes three hours of taped coverage of the first events, including a hockey game between the United States and Austria.

ABC has sent a crew of 800 to join Canadian TV personnel in handling cameras and coordinating broadcast activities. Their base will be a 65,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art production facility that houses 100 monitors, 35 videotape machines plus graphics and special-effects devices.

By the time the Games close on Feb. 28, ABC will have broadcast 94 1/2 hours of action--53 of them during prime time.

The network paid $309 million for these broadcast rights and says it will lose money on them, even with 30-second prime-time commercials selling for $285,000. But ABC has a chance to recoup those losses many times over if viewership is high. Ratings for the season as a whole would benefit, and ABC’s promotional spots for new series and entertainment specials would get valuable exposure.

“If we get around an 18 average in prime time, we figure we can win the sweeps,” said Paul Sonkin, ABC’s vice president of network audience research. “With all the promos and all the press coverage afforded the Olympics, we figured we would do pretty good ratings anyway. If we get that rating, it could push us into second place for the season.”

On the strength of the ratings for its two-part movie “Elvis and Me” Sunday and Monday and a victory by “Moonlighting” Tuesday, ABC has moved into a virtual tie with CBS in the season-to-date ratings for prime time. NBC enjoys what appears to be an insurmountable lead.

“I think the tremendous plus (that) a good (Olympics) rating would provide as a promotional vehicle for the rest of the season is the most important thing,” Sonkin said. “The season ends about a month and a half after sweeps and, with the schedule changes we intend to make (in March), that is very important. Those six weeks until the end of the season are going to be a deciding point (in the race for second).”

Sonkin recalled the 1976 Games in Innsbruck, which registered a 21.7 prime-time average. “We moved into first after those Winter Olympics,” he said--and stayed there for several years.

ABC has no illusions about moving into first place this season, even if it does win the February sweeps. But after three years of running third, finishing in the runner-up spot would be triumph enough.

Advertisers would realize that ABC’s showing came as a result of “event” programming rather than regular series programming, Sonkin acknowledged, and would take that into consideration when buying commercial time.

“But a win remains important because it is a big psychological plus for us,” Sonkin added, “and proof (of improvement) when we begin to sell programming going on in the fall.”

ABC averaged an 18.5 rating for prime-time coverage of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, despite two nights essentially preempted by a blizzard. This time, ABC executives feel ratings will benefit from the large dose of live programming that most of the country will be seeing as a result of the Canadian locale, and they hope the weather gods will be friendly.

The other networks are hoping ABC is wrong on both counts.

CBS’ Peter Tortorici, vice president of planning and scheduling, insists that the Calgary coverage involves so many new variables “that even good students of sports history can’t apply what they know to these Games.”

TV viewership levels will “depend on who wins and who loses in (the Olympics) competition,” said the former CBS Sports executive, adding that American athletes are not going in as favorites.

But, he conceded, “because the Games are what they are, we have to assume they will be formidable opposition.”

NBC agrees. “We don’t anticipate a lot of American stars, and a lot of it depends on weather conditions,” said NBC research vice president Bill Reubens. “It will be a day-to-day thing but, in general, it should be an attractive event.”