More Previews of Fewer Free Views

Like it or not, pay-per-view TV is slowly but surely becoming more prominent in sports.

Among all the college basketball games on free television this weekend is tonight’s pay-per-view fight between Thomas Hearns and Iran Barkley in Las Vegas.

SportsChannel this week announced a five-year deal in which Clipper telecasts will become available on pay-per-view starting in April.

Even cricket has found its way onto pay-per-view. A few Southland cable companies, such as Cencom, Continental and the San Diego Cable Sports Network, are offering the World Cup from Australia-New Zealand. Semifinals are today and Sunday, tape-delayed at 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. The final will be shown live Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.

There was a time when there were many more pay-per-view failures than successes. That is not necessarily the case anymore.

“We’re making progress,” said Seth Abraham, president of TVKO, carrier of tonight’s Las Vegas bout. “I don’t want to overstate it and say we’re doing great, but after 10 months, we’re generally pleased.

“It hasn’t been easy. This (televising a monthly pay-per-view fight) was a new venture, never tried before. There was no encyclopedia to look up to see how to do this.”

One thing Abraham has learned is that promotion is everything.

He said the tab for promoting Hearns-Barkley is $2 million.

But all the promotion in the world doesn’t do much good if cable operators don’t cooperate.

“We need them to help promote,” Abraham said, “and also we need them to make it easy to order the fight.”

If it is a painless process, customers will come back. Nothing kills a sale quicker than a busy signal or a “Please hold.”

Promoter Bob Arum predicted that tonight’s fight will draw between 400,000 and 500,000 subscribers, which would more than double the audience that the TVKO fights of the month usually draw.

“I’m not that optimistic,” Abraham said. “We are hoping for at least a 0.7-to-0.9% buy rate, which would be pretty good in this economic climate.”

Arum is hoping for a 2% buy rate, which would be 440,000 subscribers, and a financial home run, particularly since most cable systems are charging $24.95.

Arum said the break-even point is 170,000 subscribers.

TVKO is affiliated with HBO. Its main competitor, SET, is the pay-per-view arm of Showtime.

Another outfit, formed by promoters Dan Goossen and Lou Falcigno in conjunction with the Reiss Media Entertainment Corp., also is getting into the boxing pay-per-view business.

The RMEC group is staging the Ray (Boom Boom) Mancini-Greg Haugen bout April 3 in Reno.

Mancini, 31, has fought only twice in the past seven years, but he’s still a big enough name to draw viewers, even at $19.95 a pop.

TVKO’s next fight will be on May 15, when Michael Moorer and Bert Cooper meet in Atlantic City, N.J. Then on June 19 in Las Vegas, TVKO will show one of its periodic megafights--Evander Holyfield vs. Larry Holmes, priced at $35.95.

SportsChannel’s first two Clipper telecasts will be on March 26, a home game against the Houston Rockets, and on March 31, a game against the Pistons in Detroit.

Then, after SportsChannel goes to its new three-tiered format on April 1, there will be home games against the Cleveland Cavaliers on April 2, the Denver Nuggets on April 11 and the Sacramento Kings on April 14.

The three tiers will be (1) a basic service available to all subscribers minus premium events, (2) everything for a monthly fee, the current format, and (3) pay-per-view options.

The plan is for the April 2 game to be shown on basic cable as a promotion, with the next two games only on the pay tiers.

Considering that the opponents are Denver and Sacramento, it would seem that these games might be candidates for basic cable, as well, saving pay-per-view for the playoffs. SportsChannel needs all the happy customers it can get.

On reflection, it doesn’t make sense to switch the Clippers to pay television while the Lakers remain on basic cable.

The Clippers are moving up on the popularity scale, but they have a way to go to catch the Lakers, let alone pass them, in viewer interest.

And Prime Ticket has no imminent plans to put the Lakers on pay-per-view.

“Possibly playoff games in three years or so, but not regular-season games,” said John Severino, Prime Ticket’s president. “Pay-per-view is a double-edged sword. You get the added revenue, but you erode your advertising base.”

Jim Nantz, who is CBS’ studio host through Sunday’s NCAA basketball tournament games, will work with commentator Billy Packer at game sites later on.

“This is the best situation anyone could ask for,” he said. “I get to watch 48 games in four days. Then I get to enjoy the excitement of being at games.”

Last weekend, even before Indiana lost to Purdue, Packer predicted that UCLA would be seeded No. 1 in the West. But Nantz thought that Ohio State should be No. 1 in the West, with UCLA a No. 2 somewhere else.

Even after UCLA ended up seeded No. 1 in the West, Nantz wasn’t sold on the Bruins. “Arizona has the best chance of anyone out of the Pacific 10,” he said.

What a great move by Channel 2, bringing back Jim Hill as sports director.

It signals a renewed emphasis on sports, which is not only good news to viewers but also to the station’s respected sports production crew, headed by Buddy Singer and Dan Noel.

Jim Lampley, who was offered the job, feared that without a prominent sports director, the department might be badly hurt. But Lampley’s fears appear to have been put to rest.

Incidentally, the tabloids have reported that Lampley and wife Bree Walker are separated, but he said: “There’s been a lot of misinformation coming from somewhere. Bree and I have never been separated.”

TV-Radio Notes

Tonight’s pay-per-view fight card begins at 6 p.m., with Kennedy McKinney facing Paul Banke, then Tommy Morrison squaring off against Jerry Halstead. The main event is scheduled for 8:30. . . . Prime Ticket will televise a half-hour tribute to Don Heinrich Sunday at 9:30 p.m. Heinrich, former University of Washington and New York Giant quarterback who was Prime Ticket’s commentator on “Pacific 10 Game of the Week,” died recently of cancer. Phil Stone, Heinrich’s broadcast partner, will be the host of the special program, which includes interviews with Hugh McElhenny, Frank Gifford, Pat Summerall and Charlie Conerly.

Ready or not, here comes the World League of American Football. It’s Birmingham at Sacramento on the USA network Saturday at 5 p.m., then New York-New Jersey at London on ABC Sunday at noon. . . . Turner Broadcasting has hired Gary Bender to be its play-by-play man on NFL games. He replaces Skip Caray, who had been doubling on the NFL and the Atlanta Braves.

Another in a series of Dodger preseason special shows, “Baseball’s First Family,” will be televised by Channel 11 Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Don Drysdale will be the host. . . . Oops Dept.: KMPC’s Scott St. James, after the Angels’ Matt Keough was hit by a foul ball and had to undergo surgery, said on the air: “The lesson here is, keep your eye on the ball.” St. James said he wasn’t aware of the seriousness of Keough’s injury at the time and, of course, wishes he hadn’t made such a flip remark.