Goodwill Games Won’t Be Seen in 9 Million Homes : 9 Million TBS Homes Won’t Receive the Goodwill Games

Cable mogul Ted Turner, whose TBS channel today begins 86 hours of coverage of the Goodwill Games, calls the 17-day sports extravaganza “cable television’s largest original programming event ever.” But about 17% of the 54 million cable households that receive TBS--roughly 9 million homes--won’t have the opportunity to watch it.

That’s because many cable operators declined to pay a surcharge of between 90 cents and $1.10 per customer assessed by Turner to carry the Goodwill Games. The Olympics-style event, taking place in Seattle and six other Washington state cities, features more than 2,500 of the world’s best athletes from more than 50 nations competing in 21 sports.

“I’m sorry that (these operators) did not cough up the dollars for their subscribers,” TBS chairman Turner told reporters recently.

TBS officials said that about 95% of their Southern California viewers will see the Goodwill Games. The only one they specified not paying the fee to carry the event was Buenavision, which serves 5,400 subscribers in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights. Buenavision officials could not be reached for comment.

The cable systems that did opt against the Goodwill Games will get alternate programming from TBS, consisting of old movies.

Turner is charging extra for the games in an effort to cut his losses. He said that cable companies will pay $38 million for the games and that this year’s losses will be at least $10 million on a $180-million budget.

“(The loss) will be far less than the $60 million that NBC lost in Seoul (for the 1988 Summer Olympics) and ABC supposedly lost in the (1988 Calgary) Winter Games,” Turner said. “When they lose that much, they don’t build up for next time. We’re building. I’m absolutely certain that we’re creating a franchise that will have value. I don’t consider it losing money as much as investment spending.”

Turner Broadcasting put the loss for the inaugural Goodwill Games, held in Moscow in 1986, at $24 million. Turner’s plans were far more ambitious then, with 129 hours of coverage, and rights were also sold to broadcast stations throughout the nation, overexposing a product that had a limited audience in the first place. Stations in Boston, Washington, Detroit and Chicago reported ratings of less than 1% for Sunday telecasts.

Turner conceived the Goodwill Games in 1984 as an effort to decrease tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. As an added benefit, the event also created original programming for an outlet best known for old movies, “Beverly Hillbillies” reruns and games of Turner’s long-suffering baseball team, the Atlanta Braves.

Despite past problems and this year’s expected losses, Turner remains optimistic. He expects to erase the deficit when the games are next staged in Moscow and Leningrad in 1994.

“The board (of directors of TBS) has not set a dollar limit (on losses),” Turner said. “We don’t know what it will be until after the games. It’s like I don’t know if the Braves will have a losing record. But I suppose we will.

“I’ve always felt that in the long haul, if you do what’s right you’ll make more money than if you’re out for the quick buck.”