THE SIMPSON VERDICTS : Simpson Cable TV Deal Encounters Resistance : Media: Advisers say talks are under way for pay-per-view interview. But consumers and major operators say it wouldn’t be proper.

Although advisers to O.J. Simpson confirmed Wednesday that they are negotiating to sell his story to the public through pay-per-view television services, industry executives say resistance from cable operators and customers makes it doubtful they could find a wide enough audience to finance such a program.

But Hollywood agents and television executives say Simpson may be able to fetch $1 million or more for his story from syndicated tabloid television shows that have been known to pay for interviews. They also speculated that he could make even more, over time, by selling inspirational tapes discussing his epiphanies during his months behind bars. Or he could produce the video of his story for direct sale to the home market.

“O.J. probably won’t have much of a movie career after this,” one agency executive speculated. “But he could have a tremendous business on the seminar and lecture circuit talking about how to deal with anger and abuse in a marriage. His story could be one of redemption--a whole new O.J. He could launch his own cable channel and once he’s completely forgiven, he could sell a course of treatments.”

Simpson has been represented for more than 17 years by the International Creative Management talent agency. His agent, Jack Gilardi, did not return phone calls, and the agency declined to comment Thursday on whether it is in negotiations on Simpson’s behalf.

But Simpson’s friend and lawyer, Robert Kardashian, said Wednesday he was considering putting together a pay-per-view event for his client. And the nation’s two largest pay-per-view distributors said they had been approached about a Simpson interview by independent producers, although neither said they had heard from the Simpson camp directly. Both said they wouldn’t be interested in such a program.

“It is exploitative of a brutal double murder and inappropriate for pay-per-view,” said Hugh Panero, president of Request Television Inc. in Denver. “It would make it into entertainment. If O.J. wants to tell his story, there are lots of traditional journalistic venues.”

The other distributor, Viewer’s Choice, said a straw poll of its cable customers and cable operator affiliates suggested that such an event would not be proper.

“Without the two biggest distributors on board, it would be very difficult to have a profitable event,” said Michael H. Klein, vice president of programming at Viewer’s Choice, which is owned by a consortium of the leading cable operators, including Tele-Communications Inc., Time Warner Inc., Continental Cablevision and Comcast Corp.

Together, Viewer’s Choice and Request Television reach nearly all of the 25 million households in the nation equipped to receive pay-per-view events. While a promoter could sell an event independently to individual cable systems, such a practice is rare.

And cable operators seem to have little appetite for such a program. “It would offend our relationship with customers,” said Richard Aurelio, president of Time Warner’s New York City cable group, which serves 1 million subscribers, the largest cluster in the country.

Aurelio said the service already had received nearly 100 calls from angry customers, some of whom threatened to disconnect their service if a pay-per-view event featuring Simpson were offered.

One television producer, Eddie Kritzer, of Eddie Kritzer Productions in Los Angeles, said he is waiting to hear from Simpson attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. about his proposal for a pay-per-view production that would pay Simpson a $15-million advance and promise to make him as much as $30 million. He also has contacted at least one distributor.

Kritzer said he proposes to charge cable subscribers $15 apiece to tune into a production that would not be restricted to an interview. Typically, promoters split revenues with cable operators, so it would take at least 2 million subscribers to cover Simpson’s advance. Most pay television events reach far fewer subscribers.

Kritzer contended that the program could bring in as much as $50 million in revenues, but he declined to say how he would overcome the distribution problem. “People want to hear what O.J. has to say. How he felt about it, who he thinks the killer is,” Kritzer said. “I think he is innocent.”

Still, seasoned producers of pay-per-view events say the interview is not conducive to the medium. “The real pay-per-view event would have been the verdict,” said Matt Blank, president of Showtime, a premium cable service with an arm that produces pay-per-view events. “What’s he going to say that we don’t already know?”

Blank also said Simpson’s handlers may have marred his pay-per-view chances by having him call in to CNN’s “Larry King Live” talk show Wednesday night. In the first public interview since being found not guilty Tuesday, Simpson briefly explained a few of his actions on the night of the murders to King.

But a public relations executive said the Simpson call was cleverly orchestrated to whet the public’s appetite. Simpson closed the conversation by telling listeners that he would “hopefully answer everyone’s questions.”

Some television executives speculated that Simpson was even trying to curry favor with King, hoping that the talk show host would conduct the pay-per-view interview. But King said Thursday that he has no intention of doing such an interview. “I will not do a pay-per-view interview with O.J.,” he said. “It’s beneath everything I’ve built my career on. And I don’t think O.J. should do it.”

Nevertheless, King said he and his producers are trying to get Simpson for an unpaid interview on “Larry King Live.” “Obviously, I’d love to have him on. But I want to do a real, journalistic interview with him.”

Barbara Walters, who landed an interview Wednesday with Kardashian, was in Los Angeles Thursday, also trying to get Simpson for an interview on ABC.

“Simpson’s advisers are pursuing a two-track approach” between pay-per-view and a network news interview, said one network news producer. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they get some small pay-per-view outfit to do this. . . . And then they’ll follow that with a network news interview.”

NBC may have an edge in getting an interview. Donald Ohlmeyer, the president of NBC West Coast, has supported Simpson, including visiting him in jail.

One executive doubted that networks would pay anything for a Simpson interview. He said the networks will be scrutinized in the wake of criticism of Diane Sawyer’s ABC interview with Michael Jackson, where sources said “infomercials” were apparently part of the contract.