Winter of Their Content : CBS Ups Ratings by Giving Olympics a Series Sheen

TV critics have drubbed CBS’ Winter Olympics coverage as lifeless, knocking both the “stilted” pairing of co-anchors Paula Zahn and Tim McCarver and a style of presenting the events on videotape that has made what should be an action-packed, drama-filled event seem strangely removed from reality. Many sports fans, polled by newspapers, also have expressed frustration with the way the prime-time coverage jumps around among events.

But in terms of ratings, CBS clearly has been doing something right.

Through Thursday night it had won 12 of the past 13 nights with its Olympics programming, exceeding the expectations of both advertisers and TV analysts. Heading into the final weekend of the 1992 Winter Olympics from Albertville, France, CBS’ prime-time Olympics rating stood at 18.9.

That was slightly below the 19.2 that ABC averaged during the same period of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, but it was considered an achievement nonetheless because of two factors: Average network ratings have fallen consistently since 1988--CBS had predicted to Olympics advertisers that they would get a 17 rating--and the value of a rating point is higher today (921,000 homes vs. 886,000 in 1988).

CBS has gotten the strong ratings for its Winter Olympics coverage by creating a very carefully packaged TV show that could be called “demographically correct.”

“CBS learned from Calgary the events most viewed by the American audience,” observed Bill Croasdale, president of the national broadcast group of Western International Media, a media-buying service. “I hope I don’t sound sexist when I say this, but women control the TV set at night, and they’re more interested in figure skating, skiing and other artistic-type events than watching a lot of hours of the luge. CBS took a premiere live event and did a masterful job of programming it as an entertainment vehicle.”

Network executives pored over the ratings for the 1988 Winter Games, noting, for example, that ABC was hurt when it went with several hours of prime-time hockey, an event not popular with female viewers, and when it decided to go live with the popular opening ceremonies during the day. Then they took what was initially perceived as a disadvantage--the fact that prime-time coverage would have to be played on videotape, not live, because of the time difference from France--and turned it into an advantage.

“We very much looked at this as an entertainment show,” Rick Gentile, vice president in charge of programming for CBS’ Olympics coverage, acknowledged in an interview. “ABC relied too heavily on covering hockey live in 1988. We had an opportunity to create a little movie every night, and we were very conscious of making it an entertaining show for prime time.

“Part of our strategy was to stretch the figure-skating competition as much as we could,” Gentile continued. “By working closely with the sports federation overseeing figure skating, we were able to have them schedule figure skating over 10 nights instead of six days, as originally planned. During the evening, we’d play figure skating in two or three parts, showing two or three skaters early on and then finishing with the best skaters later.”

Another CBS tactic has been to skip around among events. The results sometimes jarred even non-sports junkies who may not have gotten to see as much of a particular competition as they would have liked, but the network believes the technique was much more positive than negative.

“We tried to look for a balanced prime-time show,” said Neal Pilson, president of CBS Sports. “I don’t think we’d have been as successful if we showed all of the skiing, then all of some other event.”

Despite the criticisms of Zahn, a journalist who is a newcomer to sports (she normally co-hosts “CBS This Morning”), and McCarver, a respected baseball analyst but an Olympics newcomer, CBS executives maintain that the pair have been doing what they were asked to do in their on-air roles.

“We said that the hosts were not the story here--the athletes were--and Paula and Tim have not gotten in the way of the coverage,” said Mike Pearl, coordinating producer of the Olympics coverage.

Although many critics have said that CBS’ profiles on athletes have not been as compelling as ABC’s renowned “up close and personal” spots of the past, CBS seems to have succeeded in promoting a number of athletes from countries other than the United States. CBS executives admit that this was not so much borne out of an internationalist sentiment as from the fact that not many American athletes were expected to bring home medals this year.

“Since the U.S. was not expected to win a lot of gold medals in Albertville, we made sure in our pre-promotions to start building the background story on international athletes like Alberto Tomba,” said David Poltrack, vice president in charge of research at CBS. As it turned out, CBS’ ratings no doubt benefited from the win of speed-skater Bonnie Blair and surprising medals in men’s figure skating and women’s downhill. But by the time Tomba raced, he was known even to non-skiing American viewers because of CBS’ advance spots.

“CBS did a terrific job of promoting the Olympics in their on-air spots,” said Fred Dubin, senior vice president at the N.W. Ayer advertising agency. “I think they worked so hard at packaging the events during prime time that they didn’t do as well as ABC at communicating the excitement of the Olympics. But from a ratings standpoint, they’ve had a remarkable success, especially in the more competitive TV landscape.”

Executives at NBC, which will be broadcasting the Summer Olympics from Barcelona, Spain, this year, declined to comment on CBS’ coverage. But, said one industry executive, “They’re bound to be taking notes.”

Still, even with CBS’ success in using videotape to its advantage, several sports executives expressed a preference for live coverage.

“We’ve done Olympics both live and on videotape, and, clearly, we’d rather do it live,” said Dennis Lewin, senior vice president in charge of production for ABC Sports. “There’s an intangible for the viewer, an immediacy that comes from watching something that’s happening now, with the outcome unknown.”