World Cup to Be on TV Without Commercials
Ready for commercial-free World Cup soccer telecasts?
Three major sponsors--Coca-Cola, MasterCard and Snickers Brand--have agreed to forgo in-game commercials during the 1994 World Cup, paving the way for a television deal announced Wednesday.
Under the agreement with the international soccer federation (FIFA), ABC and ESPN will televise all 52 games of the 24-nation tournament.
ABC will televise 11 matches, including the championship game on July 17, 1994. ESPN will televise the remaining 41, although eight of those might be pay-per-view. ESPN is 80% owned by Capital Cities/ABC Inc., the parent company of ABC.
The month-long World Cup, which begins June 17, 1994, will be played for the first time in the United States. The Rose Bowl is one of nine sites.
ABC’s telecasts will be on weekends and Monday, July 4.
On all telecasts, commercials will be aired during pregame, halftime and postgame segments and each primary sponsor will receive additional exposure when its logos are superimposed on the screen during the games.
Dennis Swanson, ABC Sports president, called the agreement a “risk-free business deal.”
David Downs, ABC Sports vice president of programming, said that ABC hopes to land two more major sponsors and six secondary sponsors. If those deals come about, he said that there will be additional rights money for FIFA.
Reportedly, FIFA will make a minimum of $11 million from the U.S. television deal.
Alan Rothenberg, chairman of World Cup USA, said: “This is an historic development for soccer in the United States. Never before in soccer history has an entire World Cup been available in English in the United States.”
Associated Press, quoting an unidentified World Cup official, reported that ABC is projecting an average rating of between 3 and 4. A rating point represents 921,000 of the 92.1 million television homes in the United States.
Turner Broadcasting paid $7.5 million for exclusive U.S. rights to the 1990 World Cup in Italy. TNT carried 24 telecasts, which averaged a 1.2 cable rating, translating to about 571,000 homes.
Worldwide, more than 26 billion people tuned in from 167 countries, 1.5 billion watching the final.
Also on Wednesday, Rothenberg told the Washington Post that he is not optimistic that Redskin owner Jack Kent Cooke will be able to complete a proposed new stadium in time to play host to the World Cup’s semifinals or final.
If FIFA shares his pessimism, the Rose Bowl is favored to win the bid later this month to stage the championship game.
“I’m sure Jack still thinks he can do it, but we have to submit our schedule and our sites to FIFA (by June 29), and there’s not a lot of time left,” Rothenberg said. “Realistically, it’s very questionable.”
