CBS’ $2.64-Billion Bid for Prime-Time Supremacy : Television: With a weak lineup of entertainment shows, the No. 3 network gambles on sports programming for a bit of ratings glory.

At the same time CBS is spending staggering amounts of money on TV sports rights--most recently with its $1-billion deal for college basketball--it is maintaining broadcast TV’s highest profile of news programming and the lowest prime-time ratings among the networks.

Does this mix portend a shift away from traditional entertainment programming for CBS?

Network officials say no--at least for now.

“Anything is possible,” says David Poltrack, CBS’ senior vice president of planning and research. But he says there are no plans to reduce the network’s budget for entertainment programming and cites myriad reasons why converting CBS to a sort of “sports and news” network could create drastic problems.

CBS’ recent expenditure of $2.64 billion to buy four years of Major League Baseball, seven years of the NCAA basketball tournament and the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics will certainly mean an expanded sports presence in prime time. In addition, CBS is expected to take an aggressive role when negotiations for college and NFL football begin in the next few weeks. The last-place network could continue its shopping spree and wrestle “Monday Night Football” away from ABC.

Although sports events such as the World Series, the college basketball finals and the Olympics will cause the preemption of prime-time entertainment series, the number of disruptions over the course of the season will be no greater than usual, Poltrack says. And instead of preempting regular series with repeats or specials that may lack ratings muscle, he adds, CBS’ open time slots will be filled with big sporting events.

“If you figure you have a 30-week season and you order 22 original episodes (of a series), then you’re going to have four to eight weeks of preemptions anyway,” he says. By using the preemption time for sports, “it takes some of the pressure off (the entertainment division).”

The strategy, according to CBS, is to use the sports programming to help polish the network’s tarnished image and create new ways to promote its prime-time entertainment programming.

There has been much speculation outside CBS that the sports-buying binge may result in heavy financial losses for the network. But those losses could be offset by the promotional value, observers say.

“They don’t like being third,” says advertising executive Paul Schulman, of the Paul Schulman Co. “If it gets them from third to second, or third to first, no one’s going to say, ‘Well, you lost $30 million here.’ ”

There will be some problems juggling the entertainment shows, however. Launching the fall season will prove tricky for CBS during the next four years, for instance, when it will air both the major league baseball playoffs and the World Series. The post-season games will start about two weeks after the TV season debuts and could cause preemptions for three weeks.

CBS executives have no set plan yet for handling that dilemma, Poltrack says, but will likely debut some comedies before the playoffs begin while holding off premiering action dramas until after the World Series. That way, the network can promote its male-oriented dramas to the heavily male audience watching baseball.

As far as building the network’s roster of prime-time news shows, CBS is unlikely to introduce anything else until its existing shows are performing satisfactorily. While CBS is overjoyed with “60 Minutes” and pleased with “48 Hours,” networks executives are hoping for better ratings from “Saturday Night with Connie Chung.”