TV rights for sport soaring

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33453, 7 February 1974, Page 4

TV rights for sport soaring

(By ]. B. PHILLIPS) LONDON. Switch on your television set and it is so ; often a sports fan’s ! delight such as niotorIracing, World Cup soccer or Commonwealth and Olympics Games that beams into your living room. But television coverage of events like these may not last much longer. The secret war that goes on behind your television screen to secure broadcasting rights for major sports events is on the brink of being beaten — by costs. Recently the British Broadcasting Corporation’s direct-or-general, (Sir Charles Curran) warned the world that televising the next Olympic Games in Montreal, in 1976, could be too expensive for all but the major American television networks. Sir Charles was in New [York, as president of the ’European Broadcasting Union, which negotiates en bloc for European television rights for major sports [events. Some officials were horrified to hear figures /‘dropped into the conversation” suggesting that Montreal may ask twenty times .the money paid to televise 'the 1972 Munich Games, [which cost the Germans [£27om. Some senior television of[ficials Jn Europe think this

may mean European audi-i ences will be excluded from seeing the Games. The man behind the; scenes who is causing such consternation is an Ameri-I can lawyer, Marvin Josephson. who has been retained [to negotiate TV rights for ’the next Olympics. He has ; pulled off a deal that is comparable in show business terms to getting Frank Sinatra to give a free concert in a public park. Josephson sold American ’TV rights to the A.B.C. network for ,s2sm — double [what the company paid for' the Munich rights. EXPLOSION OF COSTS “European broadcasters I only paid about sl.sm for; similar broadcasting op-[ tions.” a 8.8. C. official told; me in London recently. “The reason for the huge sums recently negotiated.” he’ added, “lies in the enormous! explosion of costs for the great international spectacu-l lars, like Olympics.” As 8.8. C. and Independent T.V. companies know, the Munich Games could be shown live, but much of the ' Montreal Games will take place at awkward hours for other viewing nations. Mind you, Britain knows' what, the voracious T.V. ma-i chine could do to sponsored; ; sport. Many senior Rugby ■ league officials are bitter about the comparatively ' small sums negotiated for live coverage of games, at a ; time when they had hoped ■there would be a resurgence in spectators actually going [to the matches.

CHTV3 2.00 p.m.: News, weather (C). 2.05: Medical Centre. New drama senes (Q. 2.56: The Harry Secombe Show. Repeat. 3.43: German Scene (C). 3.54: Nanny and the Professor. Repeat (C). 4.20: Max the 2000-year-old Mouse (C). 4.28: Hammy Hamster’s Adventures on the Riverbank (C). 4.41: Lassie (C). 5.05: Mad Movies. 5.31: News (C). 5.35: The Brady Bunch. Comedy (C). 6.02: Wild Australia. Wildlife series (C). 6.33: The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Comedy (C). 7.00: Network News. 7.22: Regional weather, news. The South Tonight. 7.45: Coronation Street. 8.14: Cade’s County. Adventure. 9.06: Newsbrief (C). 9.08: Portrait. Sir Kenneth Gresson. 9.40: Buggins Ermine. Drama. 10.35: Tales From the Lazy Acre. Comedy (C). 11.08: Late news, weather.