Olympic Preview: The Living Room Games, Up Close and Personal

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Out of sight will be the largest control room (1,000 sq. ft., 100 TV monitors) ever put together in North America, and that facility is matched by a second fully manned control room on backup in case of failures. Virtually every phone line and broadcast system also has a backup duplicate. Though there are few new gewgaws, ABC is celebrating the Olympic debut of its tiny point-of-view camera, a 2-in., 2 3/4-oz. black box that can be attached to the front of a bobsled, a skier's boot, even (via a special wheeled apparatus) a hockey puck. No P.O.V. camera will be used during actual competition, but ABC plans to strap one, for example, to the helmet of the "forerunner" who skis the course just before the start of the downhill races. "We're putting cameras where they have never been before," says Pierre De Lespinois, a consultant for special effects. "We are taking the viewer off the 50-yd.-line and putting him in the game." Microphones have also been carefully spaced along ski routes for a more even and realistic whoosh.

ABC could do without one of its firsts, however. Not since TV and the Olympics were introduced to each other has the network covering the Games lost money. Though ABC projects a healthy 21.5 average rating in prime time and commercial time is virtually sold out (up to $300,000 for a 30-second spot), network executives admit that advertising income will not cover the costs. They are spending a reported $100 million on the production, in addition to the whopping $309 million paid for the broadcast rights, more than three times the cost in 1984. The problem developed because the rights were auctioned off before the '84 Winter Games had taken place and before the network business soured. "With our original projections, we were bidding with the expectation of making a profit," says Arledge. "But then the economy changed, and the television advertising situation changed."

Still, executives claim that there will be no skimping on coverage. "We've got to maintain the image of ABC Sports here," says Dennis Lewin, senior vice president of production. "Plus there's our own pride at stake." Other things are at stake as well. The Games come in the midst of the important February "sweeps" period and will give the No. 3 network a big, if temporary, ratings boost. The competition, however, will not be playing dead. NBC, for example, has scheduled its biggest mini-series of the season, eight hours of James Clavell's Hong Kong epic Noble House, smack in the middle of the Games. ABC may find Calgary more congenial than Sarajevo, but it still has to persuade viewers not to skip off prematurely to the Orient.