Game Ratings Sink Turner Into Red Ink

Media billionaire Ted Turner’s company said it lost $44 million from the just-ended 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle but sees no more losses from the event, whose future remains highly in doubt.

Turner Broadcasting System Inc. said it took a new $31-million charge against earnings related to losses from the televised international athletic series on top of the $13 million previously recorded.

The hefty charge caused the company to post an $8.3-million loss in the second quarter ending June 30, compared to a $5.5-million profit a year ago, despite a 22% gain in revenues to $322.8 million.

The latest loss brought to $70 million the company’s cumulative losses from the Goodwill Games, a Turner brainchild launched in Moscow in 1986 to promote international sporting competition after the Olympic Games of 1980 and 1984 were marred by East-West Cold War rivalries.

The new losses from the Seattle games, telecast July 20 to Aug. 5, stemmed in part from viewer ratings that fell far short of levels promised to advertisers, the company acknowledged.

Turner Broadcasting said in a statement that it “does not anticipate further losses when the revenues and expenses” from the Goodwill Games are factored into corporate financial results for the July-September quarter.

But the future of the games--currently scheduled for Moscow and Leningrad in 1994--rests with the Turner Broadcasting board, which is dominated by major cable system operators and has shown itself less willing to take major financial risks than Turner himself.