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Television's influence over the rules of the sport goes as far back as the late 1960s. At that time compulsory figures were worth 60 percent of the overall result in ISU competitions, but figures were almost never shown on television. Instead, TV audiences were frustrated when the skaters who turned in the best free-skating performances, the only part of the competition they did see, were often locked out of the medals because of poor placements in figures. The ISU responded by adding the short program competition, and progressively reducing the importance of figures before finally eliminating them altogether in 1990.

The ISU's experiment with allowing professional skaters to reinstate as eligible competitors between 1993 and 1995 was also a move driven largely by television -- in particular, it was thought that the presence of well-known professional skaters such as Brian Boitano and the team of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean at the 1994 Olympic games would increase television ratings. This gamble didn't turn out the way anyone expected: The professional skaters, as a group, had less than stellar results at the Olympics, and the story of their presence was almost entirely overshadowed by the Tonya/Nancy hysteria.

More recently, the rules change approved at the June 1998 ISU Congress to factor the results of the qualifying rounds at the World Championships into the final standings was also explicitly motivated, in part, by television concerns. Under the old rules, the 30 who advanced from qualifying skated their short programs in an order determined by a random draw; while under the new rules, the skaters are seeded into groups by order of finish in qualifying, so that all of the top contenders skate their short programs last. This makes live television coverage of the short program much more viable. North American TV, in particular, has been unwilling to devote a three- or four-hour block of programming to showing a complete short-program competition.

Similarly, the ISU's adoption of a new scoring system at the 1998 Congress was also motivated by a desire to make competitions more television-friendly. French television was covering the 1997 European Championships live but went off the air before the event was complete, thinking that the placement of the final skater couldn't possibly alter the medal standings. Well, guess what happened? French TV was particularly unhappy because the ensuing shuffle in the results put a Frenchman, Philippe Candeloro, on the podium with a silver medal, and they'd missed the story entirely.

This season, there have been two more changes driven directly by the ISU's attempts to cater to television and the revenue it brings in.

The first has to do with the new format for this season's Grand Prix Final, which will be held in January. This is actually a made-for-TV competition, but in past years it has always been conducted under the standard ISU rules and has had some claim to being a serious, "real" competition.

This year, as well as skating a standard short and long program, the top four entries in each discipline will advance to a "Super Final" round where they will have to skate a completely different long program than the one they used in the first round. In addition, instead of being a free-for-all, the "Super Final" is divided into two head-to-head matchups: the top two after the first two rounds skate for the championship, while the third- and fourth-place skaters face off in a "consolation round" to determine the bronze medalist.

According to Morry Stillwell, chairman of the ISU's Grand Prix Management Commission, "The [ISU] Council did not think the old format was unsatisfactory. However, one year ago the Management Commission was told to experiment and come up with trial formats."

Thanks to television, Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean temporarily regained their Olympic eligibility. They won bronze in 1994.(Allsport)

Stillwell also said: "This format was not created in a vacuum. We had a lot of help and suggestions from many before it was presented to the Council for approval."

So if there was nothing wrong with the old format for this event, why try to "improve" it?

Apparently, the answer is television: concern over falling ratings for skating broadcasts, and a sense that viewers might be getting bored with seeing the same small group of skaters performing the same programs at one event after another. Television and the ISU seem to be taking the approach that the way to combat viewer boredom is to provide variety in the competition rules while milking more performances out of the same small group of elite skaters, such as Michelle Kwan, instead of simply showing a larger set of skaters.

The idea of requiring skaters to compete with two different long programs, for instance, first surfaced in the form of a proposal from the ISU Council at the last ISU Congress. The proposal was ultimately rejected, but its explicitly stated rationale was that "the importance of figure skating on TV and the longer sport season require the presentation of a wider range of programs."

The problem with these attempts to "improve" the Grand Prix Final is that they could just as easily backfire.

The scheduling of the event leaves a lot to be desired, for one thing. Skaters have to compete the short program and "Super Final" rounds virtually back to back. The men, for example, are scheduled to perform their short programs at 8:15 p.m. and the "Super Final" at 10 p.m. the same evening. Combined with the requirement that skaters present a second long program, which they don't need to practice for any other event this season, we could be in for a lot of messy performances by tired skaters doing programs they haven't trained properly.

Moreover, the ISU is obviously hoping to set up a head-to-head confrontation between Michelle Kwan and Maria Butyrskaya in the championship round, but what if one of them skates a subpar short program and is knocked out of contention by the elimination format? The whole concept could fizzle, and the ISU could wind up looking foolish if the best skaters are locked out of the title in the final round.

In fact, this is just what happened when a similar elimination/head-to-head format was tried at a previous ISU event, the Ultimate Four pro-am competition held in Boston in December 1995. It was such a dismal failure that the event was widely mocked as the "Ultimate Farce."

At this event, Paul Wylie skated by far the best long program in the men's division, and received what would have been unanimous first-place marks. But because he had been third in the short program, he was stuck in the "consolation round" and finished third in the overall standings, behind Kurt Browning, who turned in an embarrassingly subpar performance in the final round, and Philippe Candeloro, who skated an even worse long program with four falls. In a post-competition interview, Wylie described the format of the event as "mind-bogglingly stupid."

Even crazier, in the ladies' competition, Kristi Yamaguchi was left with no one to compete against in her consolation round after Yuka Sato pulled out because of illness. Like Wylie, she received the highest marks of the night for her long program and yet could not move up in the standings.

Asked about why the ISU is resurrecting such a flawed concept for the Grand Prix Final, Stillwell said, "It is possible the previous experiments were not as successful as wished because of the skaters available at that time. Most skaters from the Ultimate Four were quite happy with the format."

"Everyone thought it was really dumb," Wylie told the Boston Globe in 1995.

In another television-related matter, the ISU's decision to move the 2000 World Championships from Brisbane, Australia, to Nice, France, was the result of a dispute over TV contracts. The ISU claims Australian TV was unable to meet the technical requirements to provide a TV signal for worldwide broadcast. According to Ice Skating Australia's side of the story, the real problem was that the ISU demanded an additional payment for the host-country broadcast rights, which, under the ISU regulations, they have no right to do.

The Australian federation's appeal is slowly making its way through the Court of Arbitration for Sport's hearing process, and the World Championships might yet be returned to Australia. In the meantime, the ISU is moving ahead with plans to stage the World Championships in a less-than-ideal competition venue in an exhibition hall in Nice, on a temporary ice surface with temporary seating installed for spectators. But you can bet there will be plenty of TV cameras.