Newshounds Pay, Pray for Line of Sight on Holy See

No one has been trampled by horses yet, but try to stay clear of the legions of journalists storming the Eternal City: a horde of frantic, overworked, sleep-deprived "pilgrims" immersed in a feeding frenzy of historic proportions.

It has been years in the making. When the health of Pope John Paul II declined in the mid-1990s, major television networks began angling for roofs and terraces with commanding views of the Vatican. They paid astronomical sums for their beachheads to cover the pope's death and the selection of his successor.

John Paul's stamina made them wait quite a bit longer than they expected. But today, a temporary tele-village has superimposed itself on the sumptuous skyline. Sprouting among Renaissance cupolas and stone angels, the satellite dishes, multicolored tents and steel-framed camera platforms are testaments to the kind of savage capitalism against which the pope often preached.

"It's a gold rush," chuckled John Arden, a veteran Australian journalist and the owner of Tiger Red Ltd. The company provides satellite equipment and space to broadcasters and occupies a choice camera position atop a genteel, five-story building near St. Peter's Square.

Showing keen foresight, Arden moved his offices into the building because of its location five years ago. On Monday, as a camera crew from Sky Television prepared for a live report on the sun-splashed roof, Arden surveyed the panorama of high-priced outposts before him.

Half a block to his right was the encampment of NBC and other heavyweights on a hill offering a prize vantage point that takes in the basilica, the square, the papal apartments and the chimney above the Sistine Chapel that will puff white smoke when a new pope is elected.

The networks avoid talking about the money they have paid to preserve their spots, which only stokes speculation about prices in the freewheeling Italian media and among landlords intoxicated by images of desperate, deep-pocketed foreigners. Newspapers have suggested that the going rate to hold a position on an upscale roof in recent years was $40,000 a month.

That's too high, knowledgeable broadcasters say. But they throw around hefty numbers nonetheless.