The International Skating Union is close to signing a TV contract that will take international figure skating off over-the-air TV in the U.S. and force the ISU to make significant cuts in prize money for speed and figure skating events and funding to national skating federations.
The Tribune has learned the multiyear contract would be with cable network ESPN for approximately $5 million annually. That is less than 25 percent of the $22 million the ISU currently receives from ABC for U.S. rights to all international figure and speedskating events.
The ABC contract with the ISU expires after this season. ABC has a separate $10 million-per-year contract with the U.S. Figure Skating Association through 2007.
Reached by telephone Thursday in Budapest, where the European Figure Skating Championships begin next week, ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta said negotiations are ongoing and would not specify the network involved or the fee.
“We hope to finalize something soon,” Cinquanta said, facing an end-of-February deadline from ESPN, whose offer is the best the ISU has.
The ISU annually awards $3.1 million in prize money for all its championships, one-third for the World Figure Skating Championships, plus $1.9 million for the Grand Prix figure skating series. The ISU already plans to phase in the cuts to minimize the loss of revenue.
Declining TV ratings for figure skating explain the rights fee drop. The U.S. Championships experienced a 20 percent ratings drop from 2003 for its live Saturday night telecast, although that owed mainly to a conflict with an NFL playoff telecast for the second time in three years.
USFSA President Chuck Foster said this week he already is at work on avoiding such conflicts in the future, but it cannot be done by 2005.
Also in the works: Giving ABC a long program final with the last six skaters competing in reverse order of their short program finish. The current random draw means the two best skaters can perform first, likely rendering the rest of the telecast meaningless.
DUI charge: Olympic champion figure skater Victor Petrenko was charged with drunken driving after he crashed his car Wednesday night into a utility pole and fence in Simsbury, Conn. The 34-year-old Ukrainian complained of a minor injury but declined treatment, police said, and is due in court Feb. 9.
Slick maneuver: Cinquanta has a plan to help him get approval of figure skating’s new Code of Points scoring system in championships and the Olympics. Although judging issues normally are considered by only figure skating delegates, Cinquanta will argue that so much of the ISU’s revenue comes from figure skating the entire organization should have a say in a reform designed to restore confidence in figure skating results.
Doping fallout: The U.S. Olympic Committee has given USA Track & Field until Feb. 24 to provide the International Olympic Committee information on the 1999 Jerome Young doping case. Failure to comply means the USOC would withhold $2.8 million in administrative funding to USATF and begin a process that could lead to USATF’s losing its status as national governing body for the sport.
