WHO'S ON FIRST AT THE OLYMPICS?

Byline: Tom Hoffarth Media

So here's the situation: You went out for dinner and a movie Saturday night, came home late and didn't tape NBC's already taped coverage of the Olympic Games from Sydney, Australia.

How do you find out what happened, going through the newspaper and listening to radio or TV, or searching the Internet, without spoiling the surprise of finding out what's going to happen on TV the next day?

Let's do the time warp again.

NBC's rocky Olympic picture show, while managing to fulfill a promise to advertisers and bring a somewhat captive family audience in prime time during the first weekend of coverage, continues to frustrate viewers who aren't down with the network's presentation from Down Under.

Just check out the chat rooms at NBC's Olympic Web site, which has been a global place to rant.

What NBC has been advertising as the ``Complete Olympics'' has been completely confusing, nonsensical and unacceptable.

Nothing horribly wrong technically with three channels airing events as much as 24 hours after they began in Australia. The pictures have been brilliant, the graphics extraordinary (although who can be sure what the gymnastics scores are with this new system?). Even the athlete bio clips are interesting and all-encompassing.

It's just morally wrong to exclude an option of live coverage for anyone existing in this Information Age.

Who twisted NBC's arm to pay such an outrageous rights fee that in the end would leave viewers twisting in the wind? Isn't there some FCC violation here somewhere?

At least if ratings are any sort of gauge - and that's what network suits seem only to focus on - the public isn't buying into it as much as NBC would have hoped so far.

Having promised a rating of 17.5 to 18.5 to advertisers who kicked in $900 million to help cover the network's $705 million rights fees and $100 million more in production costs, NBC's first full evening of competition Saturday from 7:30 p.m. to midnight registered a 13.1 mark. Only one out of every four households with a TV set on Saturday was tuned into the Games.

Day 2 of the 1988 Seoul Olympics drew a rating that was 19 percent higher (15.6), and the 1996 Atlanta Games' second day was 31 percent better (17.2). The 1992 Barcelona Games opened on a Saturday, drawing a 13.8.

NBC's two-day average rating for prime-time telecasts from Australia is a 14.5. That's 6 percent lower than Seoul's 15.4, and a drop of 30 percent from Atlanta's 20.5.

Prime-time host Bob Costas has been conscious to remind viewers each night about the taped situation, but announcers at the venues who cover the games as they happen aren't changing their approach.

After the United States defeated Japan in its first baseball game with a two-run home run in the 13th inning colorman Joe Magrane exclaimed on Sunday afternoon's MSNBC telecast: ``How could you have predicted that?''

Easily. The results were in Sunday morning's newspaper, broadcast the night before on Fox Sports, ESPN and CNN and all over the Internet.

In essence, how could you have not predicted the outcome?

One benefit for NBC putting everything in the can is that it can insert commercials at any time without interrupting the action.

It especially has been noticeable in soccer coverage, where TV has had an eternal struggle to insert ads during a no-time-out presentation. Now, if NBC wants to run a few spots, it just stops the tape, puts 'em in, and picks up the game in a few minutes.

The most obscene example might have come, again, during the U.S. baseball telecast Sunday. As American batter Mike Neill stood in with a 1-2 count in the 13th inning, he fouled off a pitch that hurt the Japanese catcher.

All of a sudden, MSNBC went to anchor Lester Holt in the MSNBC news room for a news update on Hurricane Gordon, followed by three commercials. When the action resumed - and only NBC would know this - Neill was back up to bat and, two pitches later, ended the game with the homer.

The underlying reason for NBC presenting everything on tape is to avoid confusion with viewers as to what is live and what isn't and also to protect its rights to exclusive video.

If NBC were to use its cable channels MSNBC or CNBC to do live coverage, as has been suggested, that would allow any competitor to air the highlights on its own update newscasts, thus scooping NBC when it decided to air an event later that night in prime time.

WHAT'S ON TV TODAY

MSNBC:

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: The U.S. women's games vs. Cuba in basketball and softball are featured.

NBC:

10 a.m. to noon: Swimming and water polo.

7 p.m.-to-midnight: Studio City swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg competes in the 100-meter backstroke, which America's world record holder hopes will be the first of three gold medals. Australia's 17-year-old wunderkind Ian Thorpe is favored to add the 200-meter freestyle to his gold-medal collection. Men's gymnastics returns with the finals.

CNBC:

5 to 9 p.m.: Boxing

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Box: WHAT'S ON TV TODAY (See text)