Note to reader: I wrote this on a whim after reading a post on The Big Lead bemoaning Olympic coverage, tape delay and scores on the crawl in real time for events shown later on taped delay, which are not unreasonable gripes, I guess. Well, NBC came up with the answer sixteen years ago. Well, kinda…enjoy:

Edsel and New Coke are the products most associated with failure. When it comes to the Olympics, Dan O’Brian and Dave Johnson, whom Reebok invested millions to be the face of the “Dan and Dave” Marketing campaign are popular Olympics busts. There has been a greater failure. Proof that Americans only feign interest in the summer games: The 1992 Olympic Pay-per-view Triple Cast.

Today the smog filled Olympics in China are in full swing. Every four years Americans who are not fans of the big four of NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL feign interest in the most boring, outdated, irrelevant sporting events outside of the Tour de France. Personally, I like the idea of the Olympics. I say, “Go USA!” as long as I don’t have to watch.

Today we take a look back at that most disastrous of all attempts to profit and bring the Olympics to a large scale audience of uninterested Americans.

For the sake of fairness, networks generally take a loss on the Olympics, making bids expecting to lose money. The games have become a large part of the network identify; it has become more about prestige than making sound business decisions. In 1992 NBC took that practice to a new level with their ill-fated pay-per-view venture.

Perhaps hoping to ride the wave on re-energized patriotism after the Gulf War in 1991 or possibly lacking any business sense whatsoever, TripleCast was NBC’s delusional belief that Americans would shell out anywhere from $95 (Bronze Package), $125 (Silver Package) and $170 (Gold Package) for commercial-free, live coverage from 5 am to 5 pm EST and replays from 5pm to 5am of the Olympics in Spain. Perhaps you remember the obnoxious, over glorified commercials’ pathetic attempts to exploit your patriotism. The package offered three channels no one would ever want to watch for an hour much less 12 hours a day for two weeks straight:

Red Channel: Team sports including basketball, baseball, volleyball, water polo and team handball.

White Channel: gymnastics, boxing, rowing, equestrian and several other non-sports

Blue Channel: Swimming the first week and track and field events during the second week.

What would you see if instead of the normal, taped coverage you sat through 12 hours of live, unedited Olympic coverage no one wanted to watch for the first place you ask? From the Seattle times:

Other things you would have seen on the TripleCast but not in Monday’s NBC coverage:
– U.S. swimmers on the way to the medal stand tossing small plastic footballs into the crowd.
– A Hungarian swimmer named Attila.
– Basketball commentator Chick Hearn’s unbelievable observation during the U.S.-Croatia game that “there are no egos on this floor,” and his attempt to inject a little drama into the game’s final minute, when the U.S. led 99 to 60-something: “Will America reach a hundred?”
– His partner Steve Jones’ apology, after stumbling over another Croatian name: “There’s a lot of vitches here.”
– The encyclopedic observations of “Olympics historian” David Wallechinsky, who put the whole subject of dramatic comebacks into perspective by recalling the story of the marksman who blew off his shooting hand with a grenade, then learned to fire a pistol with his left hand and returned to the Olympics to win a gold medal. “Things you can only learn on the TripleCast,” marveled one of the Triplecast’s studio hosts, Dan Hicks.

Truly fascinating and captivating stuff. At $170 bucks you couldn’t afford to miss that! For those of you masquerading as Olympics fans griping about this year’s coverage, that’s what you’re missing.

Some cable companies also offered a remote control with red, blue and white buttons for use only with the TripleCast.

NBC promos offered, “a whole new way to watch the Games” Predictably only 60,000 viewers signed up for the TripleCast (only 2.4 percent of subscribers needed) while NBC needed $150 million to turn a profit. NBC paid $401 million for the TV rights, 100 million for the cost associated with the TripleCast and an additional $100 million for promotion and production costs. NBC expected subscribers from 2 million to 5 million. Keep in mind this coverage was edited for content but free on broadcast NBC.

When no one predictably wanted to shell out $95-$170 dollars, NBC offered a $29.95 for a single day’s coverage in a feeble attempt to offset the cost of this colossal mistake. NBC began simulcasting TripleCast on CNBC with a three way split screen. NBC has never disclosed its loss in dollar amount.

In the end, NBC and Americans learned a valuable lesson: much like manual labor, the metric system, the World Cup, socialized medicine, Peter Scolari and fanny packs, the Olympics designed and best suited for foreigners.

1992 Olympic TripleCast: worse than failure

Posted under Non-Baseball