Sponsor (Nov 1946-Oct 1947)

Television will be commercially competitive with other advertising media within 17 months. That conclusion must be reached on the basis of David Sarnoff's speech before the NBC Convention in Atlantic City (September 13) and later addresses by Frank Mullen, NBC vp. Sarnoff stressed the fast-growing size of the medium and warned broadcasters not to join the talking machine companies and silent motion picture producers in the business discard. His figures of 150,000 to 175,000 television receivers in use by the end of 1947 mean a potential audience by that time of over 1,000,000. His figure of 750,000 sets by the end of 1948 should mean an available audience of 5,000,000 by that time. This potential makes TV an advertising medium now and one of the biggest by the end of next year. His talk, being addressed to station men and not advertisers, did not touch upon the cost of producing commercial television programs, but he did stress to station men that local station operation need not be expensive and that there were hundreds of local television programs waiting to be scanned by independent station operators without fantastic costs. Practical Frank Mullen brought into the light the fact that NBC was preparing to syndicate television programs on film and stated that they would be, in part, photographed direct from the face of the kinescope (the receiving tube). Both the press and station men present to hear Mullen's talk saw demonstrations of the off-the-kinescope recording and had it explained by Nick Kersta, NBC's television manager While problems of unions have not yet been settled they can be and no doubt will be licked shortly and thus enable a sponsor to create a show in New York or Hollywood and ship it to stations all over the country for re-telecast. Already NBC is shipping film (not photographed from the face of the tube but regular NBC feature and newsreel film) to a limited number of stations and the syndicated formula is rapidly being developed. Through syndication, network coverage is being approximated, with the idea that when coaxial cable and relay stations are in operation the shift from film networking to live networking can be accomplished with a minimum of trouble and dislocation of station operations. Coverage is still a vital "if" in commercial television. Here it was FCC chairman, Charles Denny, who brought a touch of new thinking to the field. Denny in his talk before the NAB Convention itself (September 17) projected a brand-new idea, a TV operation that would require only a transmitter and an antenna and would be served by radio relay from a central studio. In other words he indicated for the first time that the FCC might liberalize its policy on stations originating a minimum number of programs and that the idea of satellite stations was no longer abhorrent to the Commission. He called upon broadcasters to let the FCC know what they thought about the idea. Through this formula it would be possible, Denny pointed out, for a broadcaster to get into television without mortgaging his business, to develop television with his AM (standard broadcasting) earnings. One of the needs for this is the tremendously increased cost of getting into TV under present conditions. To the sponsor this means that it's possible that national TV coverage is not a thing of the far-away future. Denny underlined what Mullen had hinted at, that shortly it would not require millions to be a telecaster. The result was that about 15 broadcasters a day talked to NBC and about 30 to FCC men about entering the field. When WWJ-TV telecast the Silver Cup Regatta under the sponsorship of the Detroit Edison Company it used landmarks of Detroit for its commercial story. A camera was located on the top of the 15-story Whittier Hotel at the river's edge and when it came time for a commercial the camera focused on different plants of the Detroit Edison and told the story of what the plants meant to the Motor City . . . the cost just the writing of the continuity by the Campbell-Ewald advertising agency. * * * At WFIL-TV's opening last month (September) it had 10 sponsors. They were Judson C. Burns, Marcus Printing Company, U. S. Rubber, Bartel's, the Drake and Brighton Hotels, Del-Mont Motors, Dewees, Mort Farr, and Ballantine's Beer . . . and WFIL stated that many more were ready to be signed when programs were ready. Jerry Fairbanks, first Hollywood film organization to produce films especially for TV, announced during September his interim (small number of viewers available) price schedule for the first television motion picture mystery series, Public Prosecutor. Rights for New York will cost $1,500, for Chicago and Los Angeles the fee is $750 each, and for Philadelphia and Detroit the fee is $500 each. Washington will cost $400, St. Louis $400, and Schenectady $300. Rights include two repeat showings of the film in the same market. There are disr counts for a sponsor buying a multiple market * * * First test of WBKB's selling power brought in direct sales of an item retailing at $2.19 from one out of every 38 set owners viewing the telecast. The figures were computed by Morton K. Tuller, market researcher for the station, on the basis of the average number of viewers on Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. when the program was presented. * * * Pabst's presentation of the professional football games over WNBT in New York is said to have produced the greatest sale of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer in the history of the distribution of that product in metropolitan New York. Officially, as of September 17 there were 978 FM stations authorized by the FCC, of which 278 were operating. The Commission is just as pro-FM as it was a year ago when the chairman reported that there were only 66 stations transmitting. It is still their feeling that FM must eventually replace AM as the standard broadcast service. * * * The Petrillo (AFM) situation is still no better on FM as sponsor goes to press. Live music over the Continental Network, the FM web that operates for the most part without network lines, has been stopped for the time being but there is some expecta tion that the music problem involved will be overcome. Back of the ban is Petrillo's feeling that the stations serviced must have live orchestras. Petrillo is committed to a future of music in radio in which no station that doesn't employ musicians will have network service. In the case of FM and TV he believes that there is no legal piecedent, that he is, as far as these two arts go, back in the pre-radio and pre-sound picture days. OCTOBER 1947 61