POP/ROCK - Aug. 31, 1989

The figures are slow coming in, but it appears that the pay-per-view telecast of the Who’s special “Tommy” performance at the Universal Amphitheatre last Thursday was not the record-breaker some had hoped for. Early reports from cable operators who carried the event indicate that between 1% and 1.5% of the 12.5 million households with access to the show paid the $19.95 fee to see it, for a take of between $2.5 million and $3.7 million. A pay telecast of the Moscow Music Peace Festival earlier this month had a buy rate of 1.5%-2%. (In comparison, a 7% buy rate was anticipated for last Monday’s “SuperSlam” wrestling event.) “It still is very successful for music on pay-per-view,” Bruce Karpas, president of “Tommy” distributor Reiss Media Productions, said Wednesday from New York. “It just didn’t do as spectacularly as we hoped. But between this and Moscow, August was a very productive month for music on pay-per-view.” The pay-per-view concert watch now moves to a still-in-negotiation Rolling Stones concert, probably in November, which is expected to break all concert records. Meanwhile, the “Tommy” telecast comes to commercial TV on Sept. 13, airing on Fox stations (including Channels 11 and 6) from 8-10 p.m.