Murdoch to Use Series to Wage Air War in Britain

“The Simpsons” is the most popular television show in Great Britain that no one can watch.

Although it hasn’t reached local airwaves yet, the animated series has been the subject of numerous magazine and newspaper articles in British publications over the last few weeks. Giddy teen mags marvel at the latest American craze while more erudite journals analyze the reasons for the show’s success. The phrase “Don’t have a cow, man” is always dutifully recorded.

Now, in addition to the news reports, the British are being bombarded by ads announcing the looming arrival of the hip cartoon family.

Rupert Murdoch, whose 20th Century Fox studio co-produces the show and whose Fox Broadcasting network airs it in the United States, has decided to keep the synergy rolling and give “The Simpsons” to his struggling Sky Television satellite network in Britain. The program will air on Sunday nights, starting Sept. 2, and will repeat on Thursdays.

“It will be the undisputed highlight of our lineup,” said a publicist at Sky One, the satellite service’s general entertainment channel, which will air the show.

“It’s a very smart move,” said Graham Wilde, who analyzes the telecommunications industry for CIT Research in London. “If there’s any criticism of Sky,” he said, “it’s that the programming is of poor quality.” Wilde believes that running the acclaimed “Simpsons” will help reverse that perception.

Can the animated series make Sky a more potent force in Britain as it did for Fox in the United States? For a self-proclaimed underachiever, Bart Simpson has been given an awesome task.

The decision to place “The Simpsons” on Sky, rather than selling it to one of the British broadcast networks, virtually ensures that the program will have a substantially smaller audience than it would have otherwise. Sky is seen in only 1.5 million of the 22.8 million television households in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Sky executives are banking that the addition of “The Simpsons” to the schedule will encourage people to buy or rent the satellite dish receiver needed to pick up the service’s four channels.

In operation since February, 1989, Sky has been losing money at a staggering rate, estimated at $4 million weekly. But company executives predict that they will hit the break-even mark by the end of 1991 or early 1992.

Murdoch is expected to use his massive print media presence in Britain--which includes five national newspapers--to push “The Simpsons.” On the cover of this month’s teen-oriented Sky Magazine is the headline “Why Bart Simpson is bigger than Madonna.” (Murdoch publications have been responsible for some--but definitely not all--of the “Simpson” articles that have reached British readers so far.)

Unfortunately for Sky Television, British viewers lost the only chance they had for a preview of “The Simpsons” on a broadcast network. The BBC airs “The Tracey Ullman Show,” the program that gave the animated series its start as a regular 30-second feature. But executives at the British network cut the cartoon family out of each episode.

“They thought some of the segments were not in the greatest of taste,” said Steve Cornish, an executive in the London office of 20th Century Fox.

To turn profitable, Sky must do more than persuade viewers to pay for satellite TV. It has to persuade viewers to watch its satellite TV.

A television programming service called British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) started beaming five channels to Britain in April in direct competition with Sky. Different dishes must be purchased to receive each satellite network, making it unlikely that many people would take both.

So far, BSB has fared poorly, largely because of manufacturing problems that resulted in a severe shortage of reception kits. Four months after the network’s launch, only 53,000 homes have its dishes.

But BSB, which is owned by a consortium of top British media groups, is spending a fortune on programs and promotion for the new fall season. The coming months will be crucial in the battle between BSB and Sky.

BSB markets itself as the British satellite service, full of smart, home-grown programming, while portraying rival Sky as a purveyor of lowbrow American and Australian goop. Sky officials say neither portrayal is accurate.

If BSB executives are concerned that “The Simpsons” will be a blockbuster for Sky, they’re not saying so out loud.

“I’m a little skeptical myself,” BSB deputy chief executive John Gau was quoted as saying. “Why don’t they make a British program and devote a little time and energy to it? American comedy is quite good, but does it sell dishes? We’ve got new British comedy. You can’t build an audience on imported programs.”

To which Bart Simpson would presumably reply, “Eat my shorts.”