The Olympic motto of ‘faster, higher, stronger’ has not exactly inspired airtime commercial sales at the CBC, which, according to media buyers, has trimmed its ad rates to accommodate domestic advertisers who are increasingly squeamish about a Summer Games overshadowed by concerns regarding terrorism, incomplete facilities in Athens, and athlete doping scandals.

CBC, which is handling all Athens 2004 ad sales and sponsorship arrangements for itself and its broadcast partner The Sports Network, needs to sell commercial airtime at up to $50,000 for a package of three spots if it hopes to recoup its $33-million investment in the Canadian broadcasting rights, as well as its production costs.

‘It’s difficult for many categories to justify spending that amount of money over a period of two and a half weeks,’ says Theresa Treulter, senior VP media director at Doner Canada. Many clients prefer spreading their ad spend through the year.

‘The CBC will deny it, but in the categories where our agency and others are active, we are way down on what we’ve bought for Athens 2004,’ says one media buyer wishing to remain un-named.

Volkswagen is on board as the auto sponsor, and RBC Financial, Johnson and Johnson, Bell Canada and Visa are also blue-chip corporate backers, but CBC recruited no sponsor in the key brewer category for Athens.

‘The summer is a big selling period for brewers, but their research indicates Olympic ads do little to influence sales,’ says another buyer.

That’s in contrast to the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, when Labatt and Molson’s fought for attention around the hockey and curling rinks with blanket TV ads and corporate logos.

All of which raises the question: are the Olympics still a big-ticket item for broadcasters such as the CBC, or has the event lost some of its ability to bring viewers to the edge of their living room couches?

CBC and TSN coverage of the 28th Olympiad got underway Aug 13. Keeping taped-delay coverage to a minimum, prime time, late night and overnight live coverage of the 16-day event will fill 294.5 hours of programming on CBC Television, another 115 hours on CBC Newsworld and 150 hours on TSN.

Both casters will use pool footage from the host Olympics broadcaster, plus their own cameras, to isolate Canadian athletes – especially in track and field, diving, swimming and rowing, where the Canucks are expected to do well.

Their tag-team coverage will have TSN offering live prime time and live overnight coverage of sporting events, mostly in their entirety, before the CBC starts up at 7 a.m. daily and goes all-day into a prime time show anchored by Brian Williams.

‘We prefer live coverage,’ says Terry Ludwick, executive producer for CBC Sports’ Athens coverage. ‘Our athletes aren’t household names back home. But they have interesting stories and they’re quality people, so we want to integrate that into our coverage,’ Ludwick said.

If the ratings don’t pan out, Treutler predicts that the Ceeb may run bonus spots to avoid owing free commercial time to its Summer Games sponsors. That strategy would also help the CBC to use excess ad inventory that the network was unable to sell before the Olympics began, and to tout its fall 2004 schedule.

But Doug Brooks, general manager of media sales and marketing for CBC Television, insists sales for the Summer Games are on track. ‘We’ve exceeded our sponsorship objectives, and we’re pretty much where we hoped to be in terms of ad sales,’ he says, adding that Olympics coverage inevitably brings huge audience spikes that justify the premium sponsorship and ad rates.

‘This is the beauty of this type of programming – the Olympics are live and unpredictable,’ he says. ‘People are waiting for that special moment to happen, or that unexpected moment.’

Rick Chisholm, TSN’s executive producer for the Summer Games, agrees, insisting viewers may tune into sporting events airing in their entirety on his network to see the emotional climax.

‘In the Olympics, you have the best playing the best. And ultimately they’re playing for a gold medal. That emotion is transmitted to the audience,’ Chisholm said.

But Globe and Mail sports columnist William Houston argues some of the ‘malaise’ afflicting the Games stems from Canada being without star athletes.

‘Perdita Felicien is terrific, but has no real star power. In the past, Canadians got worked up about Atlanta and Soeul because of Donovan Bailey and Ben Johnson, respectively,’ Houston says.

He adds a sleaze-factor surrounding continuing International Olympic Committee scandals and Canada’s decline as a medals producer has also worn away the lustre of the Summer Olympics.

-www.cbc.ca