Swing (Jan-Dec 1953)

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THE CREAM OF CROSBY 27 simply can't remember to tune in alter' nate weeks. And since there are only so many hours of prime evening time available on what amounts in many cities to only two networks (NBC and CBS), this means that a very few entertainers and a very few programs are going to dominate a very large industry. Along with this shrinkage of talent, there is an equal shrinkage of the amount of money available for television. "Sponsor" magazine reports a rather alarming new trend in this regard. Clients, says "Sponsor," are getting more and more timid about launching anything new in format or personality. Instead, they are shopping around to buy into established shows which have a proven rating. A good many sponsors are discovering that their television shows — no matter how successful— are too expensive for their budgets. Consequently, when a client approaches them with a proposition to share the billing and the cost, they are receptive. This is done in two ways. Philco Playhouse, for example, is now sponsored by Philco one week and by Goodyear the next. Same show but two sponsors. Buick has moved in on the Milton Berle show every fourth week. Here there are two different shows but the time slot — 8 to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays — has been made so valuable by Berle that the Buick circus show is doing very well. And both Buick and Texaco, which sponsors Berle, are saving a wad of money. "This stratagem,'" the magazine declares, "has prcoked such comments from critical radio-TV executives as: " 'It's the finishirj touch to any incentive for creating new programs.' " 'If enough advertisers latch onto this sort of philosophy, the business will be in a position of actually consuming itself.' " 'In due time must network advertisers would become glorified hitchhikers — riding on the back of what would amount to thirty or forty network shows.' " 'It's bad enough that the area of experimentation has been constricted to almost nothing, but this chopping up into smaller sponsored pieces of what is already on the air can only lead to complete creative aridity'." This situation, I hasten to add, is not entirely the fault of timid clients. Television is getting to be a horribly expensive proposition and not all of this cost can be justified. Naturally, a client with $2,000,000 or $3,000,000 to spend on TV is going to look for what one ad agency executive called "a safe rut." With that kind of money, he can't afford to gamble. But costs never should have got so far out of hand in the first place. Union demands and union regulations in television are already fairly appalling. To get a piece of scenery from a warehouse into place on the set involves the high-priced services of four different union members. All sorts of featherbedding is beginning to crop up. Salaries of some writers and entertainers are swollen beyond belief. Television, in short, is pricing itself into a dangerous corner. For the advertiser will pay out only what he happens to have on him. If he can't get silk, he will buy shoddy. Or he'll hitchhike on some one else's show. A few people will do mighty well both ratingwise and financially, but the industry as a whole will be the loser. The real loser, as usual, will be you and me — the members of the audience. "Hello, Mr. Blake? . . . Mr. Blake this is 'PHONE QUIZ'. I want to ask you a question on behalf of my sponsor, The Bee Cee T. V. Co. — when are you going to make a payment on your television set?"