Networks Won’t Miss a Minute of It

For the first time, all 64 World Cup matches will be televised live in the United States, with ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC sharing in the coverage.

You might want to stock up on the croissants and cafe au lait, since live means early morning games in the West. Because of a nine-hour time difference between here and France, some games will start at 5:30 a.m.

Coverage the first two days of the Cup will begin with a half-hour pregame show at 8 a.m. on ESPN, followed by Brazil-Scotland today and Italy-Chile on Thursday. Coverage begins at 5 a.m. on ESPN2 on Friday, with Paraguay and Bulgaria meeting in the first game that day.

The half-hour pregame shows that will precede each game, plus postgame shows as well, are something new this year. The schedule was set up to provide enough time for them.

There also will be “World Cup 2Tonight” each day on ESPN2 at 4:30 p.m. The shows will include a half-hour highlight show followed by a replay of the match of the day.

Besides all 64 matches on three English-speaking outlets, there are also 56 live games and eight tape-delayed telecasts on Spanish-language Univision, with Andres Cantor’s distinctive “GOOOAAAL” calls.

Univision can’t do every game live because there is some overlap. ESPN doesn’t have that problem because it has two channels.

ABC will televise the United States’ first-round games against Germany, Iran and Yugoslavia. The Germany game is Monday, the Iran game Sunday, June 21, and Yugoslavia on Thursday, June 25. All three games are noon telecasts, meaning ABC will have to preempt weekday daytime programming on Monday and June 25.

Game coverage will be provided by the French hosts, who will use 17 cameras at each game. The American networks will supplement that coverage with three cameras of their own at games involving the U.S. team.

Don’t expect any blue streaks following the ball or miniature cameras placed anywhere on the players’ uniforms.

“This is an event where less is more, simple is better,” said Geoff Mason, who will serve as executive producer and oversee the coverage for ABC and ESPN. “The event speaks for itself. It is the world’s largest stage. We will tell stories of players competing in the ultimate tournament.”

The studio shows before and after the games will feature the only high-tech toy the networks plan to use--a computer-generated system that can show a play from any angle. The technology has been used in Europe but never before in the United States.

“The perfect example of when to use it would be on a controversial goal, where we can put the camera on the goal line and freeze the video or line it up with the last defender on an offside call,” said ESPN coordinating producer Bill Graff. “This allows us to manipulate video in new and interesting ways.”

ABC and ESPN are not expecting the same kind of rating success it had in 1994, when ABC averaged a 5.3 rating for its 11 telecasts, ESPN got a 2.2 and ESPN2 a 0.8.

“The difference when you have the games in your neighborhood as we did in 1994 is it becomes infectious,” analyst Seamus Malin said. “There will simply be less hype about this World Cup because it’s not in the U.S. You can’t expect the same amount of energy when the games are overseas.”

But, as Mason says, “American viewers care about big events. And this is the biggest event on the planet.”