NBC SIGNS PACT FOR SEOUL GAMES

NBC, which canceled its planned coverage of the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow because of the United States boycott of the Games, signed a contract Wednesday to pay at least $300 million for exclusive U.S. TV rights to the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

An NBC spokesman in New York said that the $300 million is a base fee, and could be increased to as much as $500 million, depending on how much advertising revenue is earned by the network’s coverage of the Games.

If the final price exceeds $309 million, the amount paid by ABC-TV for the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, Canada, it will represent the highest amount ever paid by an American television network for rights to televise the Olympics.

NBC officials signed the contract for the 1988 Summer Games--which despite its name will start on Sept. 17--with the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland. NBC negotiated the deal in October, after ABC and CBS dropped out of the bidding.

The Seoul committee originally hoped to get about $600 million for its U.S. television rights. But the American networks made lower bids, apparently because of expectations that advertising revenue from the Games would not justify higher prices.

NBC’s contract-signing, scheduled for December, was delayed by uncertainty over insurance covering a boycott by any major Olympics competitor. An NBC spokesman said the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee has agreed to provide the insurance.

In 1980, NBC agreed to pay $87 million for U.S. rights to the Summer Games in Moscow. But it called off its planned telecasts, at a loss of $33.7 million, when the United States said it would boycott those Games because of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

Four years later, athletes from the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc boycotted the Summer Games in Los Angeles. But ABC, which paid $225 million for U.S. rights to those Games, didn’t suffer in the ratings.

When ABC starts its coverage from Calgary, it will be televising its 11th Games in the last 14 Olympics. It missed only the 1980 Summer Games, the 1972 Winter Games, and the 1964 Summer Games.