COMMENTARY : NBC Is Counting the Days, Planning the Ways

The people at NBC are in their final countdown for the Summer Olympics, with three months to go before the opening ceremonies in Barcelona. There are 161 hours of coverage planned, much of it in prime time. So this week, some of the network’s top sports executives and on-air talent gathered in a New York studio to begin the drum roll in earnest.

Actually, the best news did have a musical beat to it: NBC, which paid $401 million for the rights fees, is going to make extensive use of a newly orchestrated version of “The Bugler’s Dream.” Olympic aficionados know that composition as the theme music ABC used to introduce its Olympic programming for years until it decided to get out of this expensive business.

ABC had no copyright for the music, and CBS could have used it for the Winter Olympics. Quickly now, can anyone hum the Albertville anthem for the Winter Games? Of course not. But aaah, “The Bugler’s Dream,” now that’s entertainment.

The good news about the Olympics on NBC is that two of the main men responsible for the look, the feel and the sound began their careers at ABC. NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol, co-executive producer for the Barcelona Olympics, started in television as a researcher for Jim McKay in Mexico City in 1968. Four years later, the same job was filled by Terry O’Neil, the other co-executive producer of the ’92 Games.

Both men know they are not exactly reinventing the wheel here, though there will be lots of new folks involved in the massive production to make the coverage distinctive enough.

They also will take a different approach than CBS did in Albertville, if only because they’ll have many more sports to package in their prime-time segments--usually from 7:30 p.m. to midnight every night--and a major talent in the studio to help coordinate the action.

That would be prime-time host Bob Costas, who will be working alone in Barcelona, and probably without much help from a television prompter, the blasted machine that led directly to the stiff and stilted work of Winter Games hosts Tim McCarver and Paula Zahn. Costas, on the other hand, is a natural conversationalist, the best studio host in sports television. They’re going to let him be him.

The way O’Neil sees it, Costas also will be a storyteller, the narrator who ties the whole package together. Though the prime-time show will come to America on tape because of a six-hour time difference, O’Neil wants to tell the story of these Olympics as they unfold chronologically before the eyes of the cameras and announcers in Barcelona.

When there’s a 100-meter freestyle swimming final, Costas’s pre-and post-race comments actually will occur before and after the race as if the event were live. CBS, on the other hand, often had McCarver and Zahn reacting to tape of events held hours before they even arrived in the studio. It showed.

“What you’ll see is the event as it transpires without internal editing,” said O’Neil. “Bob will be in place to set up and lead with the swimming people two minutes before the race begins. He might exchange comments with them while the race is on and again when it’s over. It’ll be recorded live to tape, as it’s happening.”

Citing audience research supporting its presentation, NBC also has decided to adapt a no-results policy during the prime-time broadcast. Even though events will have ended long before prime time in the East, there will be no message from announcers to turn around while they flash the results of the long jump, no warning to turn down the sound if you don’t want to know the U.S. basketball team just hammered the poor souls from West Bora Bora by 87 points.

O’Neil said information will be available from so many other sources--CNN, ESPN, home computers, phone services--anyone who wants to know the final outcome of any given event can find out easily.

O’Neil also promises less fluff and more substance, no long lead-ins to events, particularly at the beginning of the telecast. “Michael Jordan will be dunking on somebody four to five minutes after we get on the air,” O’Neil said. “There will be a sense of urgency at 7:30 in prime time.”

There still will be extensive profiles of athletes, including segments looking back at Olympians from previous years. Some profiles--in much shorter form--actually will be used in the next three months to promote NBC’s coverage and give the public a running start on identifying the Games’ more compelling stories.

Ebersol said CBS’ high ratings, which exceeded all expectations, were a direct result of extensive pre-Games promotions, and NBC will do the same. The network has promised advertisers a 16.9 rating in prime time, and Ebersol said he is confident those numbers can be achieved.

O’Neil also pledges that announcers have been warned repeatedly to avoid the sort of American jingoism heard so often in international competitions. “There is no place for it,” said O’Neil. “You won’t hear it, I can guarantee it.”

Aaah, even more sweet music to our Olympic ears.