CBC is going for gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. A us$20.75 million offer by cbc for the Canadian broadcast rights to the Games gave it a first-place finish over the ctv and tva networks.

ctv paid $16 million-plus for the broadcast rights to this year’s Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

cbc/Radio-Canada promise 240 hours of English coverage and 187 hours of French coverage, ‘more than any over-the-air broadcast of the Olympics,’ according to Alan Clark, head of cbc tv sports. Juggling time zones is not an issue this time around, and cbc is looking at a total of 152 hours – both English and French – of primetime coverage.

cbc sees the Olympics broadcast as a revenue-generating incentive and ‘expects the numbers to be record highs,’ according to cbc spokesperson Tom Curzon.

Responding to concerns that the Games were acquired at the expense of other programming such as drama and children’s tv, Clark says: ‘This did not siphon a cent away from regular programming. If anything, it will enhance our position in the marketplace. It just says that we’re the big player out there.’

He also says CBC Newsworld will be playing a significant role in the broadcast. ‘For the viewer who is interested in the Olympics but doesn’t have the time, Newsworld will be doing extensive news coverage (of the Games).’

He says Newsworld’s participation was not part of the bid. Once cable rights were secured, the cbc ‘started to develop the Newsworld scenario.’

Ian Morrison of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting congratulates the cbc on the incentive. ‘The Olympics is a major Canadian cultural event and our position is that the cbc is spending the investment as a sort of business plan. Federal public policy has put the cbc further into commercial constraints and people have to recognize that it is not a public broadcaster, it’s a hybrid of private and public.’

However, Michael McCabe, president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, is ‘concerned’ cbc paid too much. ‘We’ve been talking to ctv and tva, and the numbers they gave us are shocking. The actual cash that ctv and tva bid was about $10 million, and they say that they expected to make a very small profit. Then in walks the cbc with a us$20 million bid. There is no way that this is a money-making proposition.’ McCabe also believes using government funds to bid against a private broadcaster ‘is not right.’

ctv sports director Gary Mavaara says of the cbc’s bid: ‘They’ve correctly assumed that nobody cares how much money they spend.’

cbc’s most recent Olympics broadcast was the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France. The last Summer Games broadcast by the cbc were held in Seoul, Korea in 1988. PC