TripleCast Is a Double-Tough Sell

Picture two hot dog stands, side by side. At one, they are selling foot-long hot dogs with all the trimmings--mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, relish, onions, chili, sauerkraut, cheese--for $2. At the other, they are giving away regular hot dogs with mustard and ketchup only.

The $2 stand, no doubt, would have trouble drumming up much business.

NBC and Cablevision, partners in the Olympic TripleCast pay-per-view venture, are facing a similar problem.

With NBC offering 161 hours of free Olympic coverage, getting people to fork over $125 for 540 hours--or even $29.95 for 12 hours--is no easy feat.

Cable systems have been reporting single- and double-digit sales so far, and total sales reportedly are fewer than 10,000. That’s a far cry from the more than 2 million the TripleCast people were hoping for.

Doomsday predictions have the TripleCast project losing between $50 million and $150 million.

Of the $401 million NBC paid for the rights to the Barcelona Olympics, $100 million, the network figures, was for the pay-per-view portion. Another $100 million was budgeted for production, marketing and administrative costs. So a gross of $200 million is necessary to break even.

To buy or not to buy? The first question a consumer must ask is, “Do I have the time to watch 12 hours of nonstop coverage?”

The live TripleCast coverage runs from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day for 15 days on three channels. Each 12-hour block is then repeated, 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.

TripleCast advertising on what is live and what is tape-delayed has been unclear, and Thursday the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs charged NBC and Cablevision with deceptive advertising.

NBC responded by saying it has never implied that there would be live coverage in prime time.

Once clear on the time frame, the next question a consumer must ask is, “Will the TripleCast coverage give me what I want?”

Not necessarily. There are about 2,200 hours of Olympic competition. Counting 12 hours a day on three channels, the TripleCast total adds up to 540 hours.

The TripleCast will cover the 15 major sports live. The 14 other medal sports, such as archery, fencing and field hockey, will not get any live coverage. And don’t expect to see much taekwondo and roller hockey, the two demonstration sports, on the TripleCast.

The TripleCast’s biggest draw is the U.S. basketball team. All eight games will be televised live. NBC will show three of them, tape-delayed.

The TripleCast also will televise 260 boxing matches, including all involving U.S. boxers.

The TripleCast will have its own announcers, such as Chick Hearn on basketball, Randy Rosenbloom on volleyball and John Tesh on synchronized swimming--more than 35 in all--and the studio hosts are Don Criqui, Kathleen Sullivan, Ahmad Rashad and Gayle Gardner.

The pictures will be provided by Barcelona’s world feed.

There will be no commercials, the primary appeal, nor will there be athlete profiles, features or other intrusions, says Marty Rafferty, TripleCast vice president.

“Coverage, coverage, coverage,” he says. “That’s our selling point.”

No gloss also means lower production costs.

Originally, the TripleCast was being sold only in packages, labeled gold, silver and bronze, with prices of $170, $125 and $95, respectively.

The gold package includes all 15 days, plus about $75 worth of memorabilia such as a pin set and a highlight video. The silver package, the one being most heavily promoted now, includes only the 15 days of coverage. The $125 price tag averages $9 per day. The bronze package includes either the first seven days or weekend coverage.

On May 31, NBC announced a one-day, $29.95 option, something cable distributors were pushing for.

The TripleCast people are now counting on the one-day buys to spur package sales.

Tom Rogers, the president of NBC Cable, said Thursday that he expects a big surge a few days into the Olympics.

“Viewers are accustomed to flipping around, but with the Olympics they’ve always been stuck with one channel,” Rogers said. “Once their frustration level with the network grows, the frustration of commercials and other interruptions, they’ll be ready to try a one-day buy.

“Then, once they’ve experienced being able to control what they watch, they’ll miss it when they no longer have it.”

Dave Ogrean, the director of broadcasting for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said of the TripleCast venture: “It’s valuable to certain people.”

That probably sums it up best. The Olympic TripleCast isn’t for everyone, but having it as an option isn’t such a bad thing.

Pay-per-view also is coming to college football.

ABC announced this week that it will open Sept. 5 with a doubleheader. At 12:30 p.m., USC will play San Diego State in a regional telecast, then at 5 p.m. it will be Miami at Iowa, a national telecast.

Pay-per-view options at 12:30 will be Notre Dame at Northwestern, Texas A&M; at Louisiana State, or both. For $8.95, you get one of those games, for $9.95 you get both.

That’s a better deal than the $24.95 being asked for the Jimmy Connors-Martina Navratilova exhibition at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas Sept. 25.

TV-Radio Notes

CBS’ telecast of the All-Star game Tuesday night got a 14.9 rating, the worst prime-time rating ever and lowest overall in 27 years. Not since 1965, when an afternoon telecast of the game got a 12.9 rating, has an All-Star game done worse. But CBS still beat ABC (11.2) and NBC (5.4) coverage of the Democratic Convention, and the baseball rating jumped from a 15.5 to a 16.2 during the first half-hour of convention coverage. The baseball rating bottomed out at 12.4 during the final half-hour of the 13-6 blowout. . . . The highest prime-time rating for an All-Star game was 28.5 in 1970. Last year, CBS drew a 17.4.

Preliminary Arbitron radio ratings indicate sports-talk stations KMPC and XTRA didn’t fare well during the spring rating period, April 2 to June 24. KMPC averaged a 1.3 overall rating, a drop of 1.1 from the winter book, while XTRA maintained its dismal 0.4 in Los Angeles. . . . KMPC executives expected a drop because the station’s format change was made in the middle of the last rating book. . . . KABC got an impressive 4.4, up from a 3.4. More details will be available next week, after Arbitron researchers break down the ratings into various time blocks and demographic categories.

Jim Lampley will be doing double duty in Barcelona. Lampley will serve as studio host of NBC’s late-night Olympic coverage with Hannah Storm, and when he’s finished he will do his “Let’s Get Serious” show for KMPC via satellite. KMPC program director Len Weiner said Lampley will be on KMPC at 1:30 p.m., his usual starting time, and will stay on for at least an hour, “or until he drops.” . . . For the record: Mike Lamb has been added to KFI’s lineup for pre- and postgame Raider coverage, but he does not replace Jim Plunkett. Plunkett will be back. Lamb replaces Chris Roberts, who is now at KMPC.

ESPN should win another award for its “Outside the Lines” series with “The Sports of Money” segment that was televised Wednesday night. No surprise that 81% of the people surveyed said player salaries are too high, but it was revealing that 54% said they can no longer afford to take their children to games. King owner Bruce McNall, appearing on the show, should get some kind of honesty award. Responding to a fan who said the average Joe can no longer buy a ticket, McNall didn’t sugarcoat his answer. “Basically, he’s right,” McNall said. “It is a business, and people who can’t afford it aren’t going to go to games. Unfortunately, that’s the nature of the business.” McNall added that he thought people would rather have a tough time getting a ticket to watch a winning team than have access to tickets to watch a loser.

Olympic specials: Coach Chuck Daly and host Bill Macatee examine the U.S. basketball team in an Intersport television special that will be on Channel 4 Saturday at 3 p.m. . . . Olympic diving bronze medalist Wendy Williams and Paul Maguire are the co-hosts of “Olympic Send-Off ‘92” on Channel 4 Sunday at 7 p.m. . . . All three hours of Bud Greenspan’s award-winning “16 Days of Glory: Seoul ‘88” will be shown on Channel 28 Sunday at 4 p.m. . . . Ed Arnold and Jann Carl serve as co-hosts of a Channel 5 special, “Barcelona Bound: Southern California’s Olympic Hopefuls,” Sunday at 8 p.m.

Boxing beat: Riddick Bowe meets Pierre Coetzer in an HBO fight at the Mirage in Las Vegas Saturday night at 7, with the winner expected to meet Evander Holyfield Nov. 13. The main event on Saturday night’s card is Pernell Whitaker against Rafael Pineda in a welterweight title fight. . . . Tim Witherspoon and Everett Martin fight on the USA network next Tuesday night at 9.