3 Big Networks May Not Carry ’94 World Cup Soccer Tourney

Soccer’s World Cup draws television viewers globally better than any other sporting event. Estimates have put the audience at 1 billion. Even the shooting in war-torn Beirut stops, so all sides can watch the games.

But it doesn’t do well in the United States. Univision’s Spanish-language broadcast of the championship Sunday received a 4.6 rating on KMEX Channel 34--meaning it was seen in about 227,000 homes.

By contrast, the California Angels baseball game on KTLA Channel 5 Sunday--which they lost to Milwaukee, 20-7--was viewed in about 128,000 homes.

National ratings for the soccer championship on Turner Network Television were not available Monday, but it had been attracting an average of only 1.2% of its cable subscribers for the 22 games before last weekend (about 546,000 homes).

As a result, when the tournament comes to the United States for the first time in 1994, it may not be carried by any of the three major networks.

“Given the ratings, I don’t think anyone will go for it,” said NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol. He flatly declares that NBC will not be bidding for World Cup rights.

ABC and CBS aren’t ruling it out, but they are far from enthusiastic.

“Cable had the entire deal this World Cup and that very well might happen again,” said ABC Sports President Dennis Swanson, whose network carried the 1982 World Cup final.

“CBS is interested in learning more about the World Cup and investigating several scenarios, as we would about any sports franchise property that becomes available,” CBS Sports spokeswoman Susan Kerr said. “We expect to continue conversations with FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Assn., soccer’s worldwide governing body). Beyond that, it would be premature to make any comments.”