A TIME AND A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING.

Byline: Tom Hoffarth Media

Take that midnight-to-7 a.m. block of Olympic coverage each day on MSNBC.

Please.

It's the black hole of NBC's ``complete coverage'' from Sydney, when a replay of the already taped events that you saw during the day is repeated again. In other words, events shown this morning first took place in the U.S. on Wednesday and were shown on tape Thursday afternoon.

By then, it's practically compost.

A better use of that time - even if not as profitable under the network's definition of income - would obviously be live coverage. Especially in the Pacific time zone, since that's when most of the prime-time events are happening in Australia.

NBC's two cable outlets at MSNBC (in 650,000 homes) and CNBC (in 760,000 homes) have essentially reestablished the framework for a pay service.

Yes, just like the TripleCast's Red, White and Blue channels that were available to viewers for about $150 during the entire 1992 Olympics from Barcelona, Spain.

As the Olympic lords continue to look for new sources of TV revenue, this has to be an option. The technology that may not have been in place for it to be fiscally successful eight years ago must be considered today.

``I think if Dick Ebersol thought it could work, he'd have done it,'' said Pat O'Brien, the CNBC Olympic host.

Instead, Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Sports, continues to sour on the concept since it did not attract more than a few thousand buys back then. Meaning, if he thought it could make money this time, he'd have done it.

Consider it a public service, for cryin' out loud. This is the public airwaves. It's not our fault that NBC overpaid for the rights and then had to find a way to manipulate the system to get it back.

The '92 TripleCast continues to be referred to as a financial fiasco, a noble effort but something technology couldn't quite handle with delivery to home cable systems.

Would it be a financial disaster again today? With today's technology - and that dead overnight time to fill - you can't afford not to have it.

--Ratings take: NBC's daily press releases from Sydney focus not on the ratings slide but on how many are watching - 140 million unique viewers by last count through six days of competition.

Also, the 16.4 rating and 27 share for Wednesday's coverage was double what any other network had in prime time.

So the bad news is the six-day average of 14.6/25 is off the norm, some 36 percent behind Atlanta (22.8/42). But at least it beats out ``Norm'' in the weekly ratings.

``All the ratings are magnified but it's like saying the World Series is down after one game,'' said O'Brien, a veteran host of the CBS Winter Olympics. ``I know it's the fun thing for newspapers to write about, to be cynical about. I'm a reporter, so I know that.''

--Glad you aren't in Sydney: Aussie reaction to the country's Seven network coverage seems to be what Americans went through with the Games from Atlanta four years ago.

According to wire services, critics of the local coverage complain about not knowing if the event is live or taped, too much coverage of the Australian athletes and too many commercial breaks - especially one that interrupted the start of the 200-meter freestyle race in which Australia's Susie O'Neill eventually won gold Tuesday night.

Viewers came back from a Quantas airline commercial to see O'Neill 15 meters into her first lap. Making it worse, it was taped, which the network failed to mention.

--Closing arguments: Bonnie Blair, the U.S. gold-medal speed skater, told the Associated Press she's been having trouble keeping up with the action from Sydney from her home in Wisconsin.

``It's hard for us back here,'' Blair said. ``After the opening ceremony I expected to see the Olympics from start to finish.

``I don't care if it's live or taped. I would like to see it all day long. I don't care to see college football on Saturday when the Olympic Games are going on. It's just been very frustrating as an Olympian to watch these Olympics.''

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES--In this particular order: Bob Costas, NBC's very own king-sized shrimp on the barbee; Al Trautwig (he's John Tesh with humor), Chris Marlowe, Paul Sunderland, Rowdy Gaines, Ted Robinson, Lewis Johnson, Marv Albert, Ashleigh Banfield, Mike Dodd and Jim Watson.

--The superimposed flags in the pool during swimming races.

--Tiger Woods' laugh at the end of the Buick commercial (OK, so he crossed SAG's picket line to make it, but it is a great cackle).

WHAT CHOKES--In no particular order: Fred Roggin, Len Berman, Ernie Johnson, Gary Thorne, Tim Daggett, Bill Walton, Andres Cantor, Tim Ryan, Michelle Tafoya and Teddy Atlas.

--Is there no network that Mary Carillo doesn't work for these days?

--Pop-up video promos for the NBCOlympics.com Web site.

--We'd pay to see some U.S. swimming relay team, when approached by dweebster Jim Gray for a postrace interview, wait until after he asks his first benign question and respond: ``We don't like what you did to Pete, so we voted not to talk to you. Hi mom!''

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Box: SOUND BYTES (See text)