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By TOM ZUCCO
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 27, 2000
Prime time TV ratings for the first week of the Sydney Olympics were on a pace to make it one of the least-watched Summer Games ever. Lower than the last Summer Games (Atlanta, 1996), lower even than the last Summer Games held this late in the year (Seoul, 1988).
The good news for NBC is that the ratings began to pick up this week -- Sunday's ratings were the second highest of the Olympics, trailing only the Sept. 15 opening ceremony. But with competition completed in swimming and gymnastics, two audience favorites, the ratings could drop again.
In the Tampa Bay area, the Olympics are drawing slightly better numbers. For the first nine days of the Sydney Games, WFLA-Ch. 8 averaged a 27 share during prime time, meaning that 27 percent of all televisions in use at the time were tuned to the Games.
By comparison, NBC's prime time Olympics coverage has averaged a 25 share.
Still, a 27 share is a sizeable audience, and the Sydney Games have handed Ch. 8 a more than double digit lead over its competitors during prime time. "And we're going up against Millionaire and Survivor reruns," said Brad Nimmons, director of market research at Ch. 8.
Why is the bay area ahead of the national average? A large population of transplanted Australians?
"Two words," Nimmons said with a chuckle. "Good taste."
"And it was the marketing effort, a strong signal, and we consistently beat the network in other programming."
The Olympics may be a strong draw, but it can't capture viewers like the Buccaneers. Sunday afternoon, the Olympics scored a 10 share, while the Bucs-Jets game on CBS did a staggering 57 share. The week before, the Olympics drew a 10 share, while the Bucs-Lions game on Fox drew a 50 share. Put another way, bay area viewers chose the Bucs 5 to 1 over the Olympics.
"The Bucs have been dominating viewership like nothing else," said Brian Fields, director of research at WTVT-Ch. 13. "This is a football town."
NBC's real problem is that Olympic viewership is less than what advertisers were promised, which has prompted NBC to run more commercials to make up the difference. Even with Sunday's ratings spike, the Sydney Games were 35 percent below where the 1996 Atlanta games were at this stage, and 17 percent below the 1988 Seoul Games.
Pick a cause, any cause: The 15-hour time difference. The lack of superstar personalities. The competition from the football and baseball seasons.
And the apathy hasn't gone unnoticed. After a brief Olympic update, the lead story every morning on ESPN's Sportscenter is usually about baseball's pennant races. Or something Keyshawn Johnson said.
The Tampa Bay area is no longer the 13th largest TV market in the country. But here's the surprise: we've dropped to 14th. Minneapolis/St. Paul now occupies the 13th position. Although the Tampa Bay area has grown, Minneapolis/St. Paul has about 6,000 more households. (Market size, which is used mostly for determining advertising revenue, is determined by the number of TV households, not population.)
New York City is still the market leader, followed by Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia.
WTOG-Ch. 44, the St. Petersburg-based UPN affiliate, is reportedly one of the stations CBS-Paramount will trade in order to comply with federal regulations to pare down the number of stations it owns.
"I've heard we are," WTOG general manager Mike Conway said Monday, "but I haven't seen anything yet."
Officials at CBS-Paramount declined comment, but a recent story in the Hollywood Reporter listed WTOG as one of 13 stations on the trading block.
Under Federal Communications Commission rules, media companies cannot own TV stations that cover more than 35 percent of the county. When CBS and Viacom merged last September, the result was a 40 percent coverage area. So stations had to be sold or traded.
If Viacom does trade WTOG, which does surprisingly well for a UPN affiliate, it could help put UPN's future in doubt. Of the 13 stations reportedly on the market, 11 are UPN affiliates.