FOR FOX, IT'S HYPE-HYPE HURRAY : DAYLONG BLITZ PROMISES, BUT CAN IT REALLY DELIVER?

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

One of the ways to define the word ``hype'' - and not even in relation to the Super Bowl - is that it's the pursuit of profit over performance and anticipation over delivery.

We dredge up the annual media question concerning hype for the greatest show on earth presented by the greatest TV sport in America because, it seems, we have a new answer.

A seven-hour-plus pregame show, thanks to those party animals at Fox.

Fox has 11 shows and 16 hours of Super Bowl programming - including the Super Bowl itself - in the 35 hours between 11 a.m. Saturday and 8 p.m. Sunday. However, that doesn't count the Super Bowl-themed episode of ``The Simpsons'' where News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and Fox broadcasters Pat Summerall and John Madden are among the special guest voices.

The title of that episode, by the way, is ``Sunday, Cruddy Sunday.''

Estimates are that Fox will take in as much as $180 million in Super Bowl ad revenue from all day Sunday, which justifies all the programming from a business standpoint.

But from a content consideration. . .

``Without going into an exercise in semantics, I'm not sure what hype stands for. . . is it hyperbole?'' asked Fox network president David Hill, not trying to sound hypersensitive when asked this week if the endless amount of puffery justifies the means.

And, yes, the term is short for hyperbole.

``Well, there's nothing hyperbolic about this,'' Hill continued.

``It's the single-most-popular event in the world. People are more concerned about its outcome than anything else. All we're doing is what newspapers have been doing and that's mirroring the public's interest. And in the final analysis, that's part of our job.''

Adds Ed Goren, Fox Sports' executive producer: ``The audience tells you what is hype and what isn't. If they're buying the papers and advertisers are buying ads in the supplements, it's not hype, it's good business. And it's entertainment.''

With that said, maybe it's once in a blue moon over Miami - and check the calendar, 'cause that's what we're dealing with - that a Super Bowl pregame hypefest three hours longer than the previous longest pregame hypefest can be justified.

Especially by those who put it on.

Scott Ackerson, Fox's pregame show producer, said he actually had enough material to run another half-hour. There was discussion about starting the whole carnivorous TV carnival an hour earlier with an exercise show and a food show, but even Fox couldn't stomach that.

Yet.

``You've got to keep in mind we don't expect a huge part of the audience to watch all seven hours,'' said Ackerson. ``Anyone who does - my mom and dad could be the only persons - might find they have wasted their time. But if they do, they'll enjoy the broadcast and get something out of it.''

Fox analyst Madden, who helps fill in the pregame with his 90-minute ``All-Millennium Team'' that'll pull some Forrest Gump movie magic and have him interview Vince Lombardi and includes musical interludes with Ice Cube and Mack 10, admits that the hype might be useful for this game since it'll help viewers learn about the Atlanta Falcons players.

Concludes Madden: ``With all the parties going on, what the heck would you rather be doing leading up to the Super Bowl than watching stuff about it? It's not as if you'd say, `Doggone, it's Super Bowl Sunday, I'd like to watch some bowling.' ''

Or, in this case, Super Bowling.

More hype: Fox Sports Net - especially Keith Olbermann - should benefit most from the overexposure at Super Bowl week events.

In Miami to anchor the Super Bowl news while others stayed back in Los Angeles, Olbermann also has a part in the pregame festivities. He's hosting an ``All-Access'' (not ``All Excess'') show Sunday at 9 a.m. that goes behind the scenes of Fox's broadcast and intends to answer the question: How does a network cover a game like this? Self-serving, maybe, but informational nonetheless.

Olbermann also has a live Internet-only show at halftime on Fox Sports' website (http://www.foxsports.com).

But the Fox marketeers have more. More than 50,000 temporary Olbermann tattoos have been distributed around the South Beach area of Miami. Also, Good Humor trucks and pushcarts wrapped in the Fox Sports News logo with Olbermann's face will give out more than 50,000 free ice cream treats this weekend.

Which should provide a delirious irritant to more than just skin-rashed, lactose-intolerant beach-goers.

Even more hyperventilation: Hill was asked in a media conference call if he was sensitive to a tune-out factor for folks who happen to see Fox stars sitting in nice seats at the Super Bowl - stars who are there for overpromotion of entertainment programming. And, basically, would we see fewer of those camera shots Sunday?

``Not really,'' Hill said. ``A personality is a personality is a personality. If you see Jack Nicholson at a Lakers game, you've got to show him, right?''

Except the difference is Jim Lampley's golf partner actually bought his courtside seats and wasn't planted there by a network pushing the next episode of ``Beverly Hills 90210,'' which, incidentally, has Jason Priestly hosting another one of the pregame shows.

``I can't tell you we haven't got Fox stars coming in on the TV and movie side and we'll be taking shots of them,'' said Hill.

Just as we'll be taking shots at them.

SOUND BYTES By Tom Hoffarth

WHAT SMOKES

Remembering the ``other'' O.J.: In ESPN's SportsCentury project, in which a panel of journalists picked the 100 greatest athletes of the 20th century, O.J. Simpson has come in at No. 49. A half-hour profile of the former USC and NFL star is featured today at 6 p.m. in the weekly countdown to the top two, which will be shown on ABC in late December. ESPN has taken some flak for it and will address Simpson's off-field life in the show, but it's his athletic achievements here that are being, uh, celebrated. Says former Rams star Deacon Jones in the show: ``You gonna take all your cheers back? Nothing he did outside the game has anything to do with his contributions to the sport. Not one iota. Now, if you hate him over here for what he was accused of, you understand, then hate him over there, but over here you have to give him his dues.''

WHAT CHOKES

A $14.95-per-game charge - as an alternative to the $39-per-package price that DirecTV is charging for its supplemental coverage of CBS' first three rounds of the '99 NCAA Tournament. Viewers who ordinarily wouldn't get the game they wanted now have the option of watching it on the small satellite dish service. Buy the entire package and the customer gets 34 games for $39, which is by far the greater savings over the one-time buy games that loyal fans would be more inclined to take. The other interesting aspect: DirecTV's recent merger with PrimeStar does not affect this package, but both services are going to be offering ``NBA League Pass'' for $69 through Feb. 11. There's also a free preview week starting Feb. 5 that gives subscribers up to 40 NBA games.

A new stack of ballots in the Daily News ``Q-T'' sportscaster poll has resulted in the postponement of releasing the results. We apologize.

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BOX: SOUND BYTES By Tom Hoffarth (see text)