DISNEY'S SMALL WORLD (CUP).

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH MEDIA

The beauty of this thing they call ``The Beautiful Game,'' and this every-fourth-year super-sized tournament better known as the World Cup, is that television provides plenty of outlets for the viewer.

Particularly the soccer snob.

With a well-aligned satellite dish, an international broadcaster like Setanta Sports reaches more than 100 million homes worldwide, plenty of them in the U.S. Univision has the Spanish- language version and is the go-to outlet for the Latino community.

Turn down the sound, turn up the living room, or barroom, noise.

Somewhere down the food chain, for those of us who need the Americanized, somewhat dumbed-down but hardly half-hearted version, the Disney family of networks will be there to remind us that it's a small world after all.

ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will provide all 64 matches, in high def, for what's called the most-watched sporting event on the planet -- estimates are as many as 19 billion will combine to witness the month-long flag-waving festivities that begin next Friday. And unlike the NBC Olympics, it'll all be live here.

None of it will land in prime time, though, but at least the time-zone difference between here and Germany means there's no need to wake up any earlier than the usual breakfast call to catch anything of importance. The three U.S. Group E games start at 9 a.m. (June 12 vs. the Czech Republic), noon (June 17 vs. Italy) and 10 a.m. (June 22 vs. Ghana). Four years ago when the tournament was in Korea, 4a.m. kickoffs were more the norm.

And to red, white and blue things even more, ESPN is using baseball- and basketball-friendly Dave O'Brien as its play-by-play caller. O'Brien, a World Cup rookie and far from a foreign-based broadcaster who might be more fluent but less recognizable, will at least be at the actual event -- about 20games will be called from the Bristol, Conn., studios off a TV monitor.

Tim Scanlan, the ABC/ESPN senior coordinator for the World Cup coverage, estimates that about five percent of the U.S. TV audience will be so-called experts of the event -- those who haven't crossed over to the overseas coverage. It means the studio shows with Eric Wynalda, Alexi Lalas and the irrepressible Tommy Smyth will have to fill in some of the gaps.

``The appeal will come more from just how the U.S. team is doing,'' Scanlan said. ``The success it had in 2002 might drag some non-avid fans to it, but I think the world stories out there -- Iraq qualifying, England with David Beckham -- are a draw.''

Jed Drake, the senior VP for remote production for ESPN and ABC, isn't frustrated there aren't any games past noon starts, because fans of the event know that through today's technology, they'll get the information fast and furious.

``Who knows if the World Cup will get anyone to change their viewing habits,'' said Drake, who has been on this event since 1994 when it was played in the U.S. ``It won't get the ratings of the NFL, but people will be absorbed by this event and watch it whenever it's played because they know it's live.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1) ABC's ``Good Morning America'' weather man Mike Barz (third from left) poses with U.S. soccer team members Marcus Hahnemann, Landon Donovan, Jimmy Conrad, Clint Dempsey, Brian Ching, Oguchi Onyewu and Chris Albright on Thursday's show.

Dima Gavrush/Associated Press

(2) no caption (Bob Costas)

Box:

(1) WHAT SMOKES

(2) WHAT CHOKES