Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

6 commissioners.” Rep. Bentley (R-Mich.) asked (HR-2729) for an amendment to the Federal Trade Commission Act requiring equal pricing by manufacturers of products distributed to their own retail outlets and to independent merchants. Note: Rep. Griffiths (D-Mich.) is author of a proposal, introduced at every session in recent years, to open up House hearings to TV & radio coverage by live cameras & microphones. But even Mrs. Griffiths doesn’t think her measure (H. Res. 31) will get anywhere, “despite a surprising amount of support.” She said this week that speaker Rayburn (D-Tex.) is against it — and that’s that. Ratings Probe Resumes. Hearings on TV ratings and their effect on programming are due to resume in “the near future,” Chairman Magnuson (DWash.) of the Senate Commerce Committee has informed large ad agencies. His letter asks that they fill out a 3-page questionnaire. One group of questions seeks to determine whether ratings have been responsible for changes in time periods or removal of programs from networks or stations. Agencies are also asked whether they consider ratings “to be an accurate reflection of the popularity or acceptance by the viewing public of the program” and what effect they think ratings have on success of programs and on stations. Other questions are concerned with composition of rating samples, “loaded” programs during rating weeks, etc. Attack on concept of TV ratings, meanwhile, came from Pres. Richard A. Moore of Los Angeles' KTTV in address to Chicago Broadcast Advertising Club. Terming the true size of the audience “TV’s best-kept secret,” he suggested that the industry adopt a new method of audience measurement similar to Nielsen’s 4-week cumulative reports. He proposed that the 4-week measurement period be adopted as the uniform unit of audience measurement, and that the “reach” of a program be measured in terms of unduplicated audience for 4 consecutive weeks. As an example, he cited CBS’s Twentieth Century, which late in 1958 had a Nielsen rating of about 15, indicating a one-week audience of 5,800,000 homes. But the cumulative 4-week audience— those who watched show at least once in 4 successive weeks — totaled 17,600,000 homes. ■ Moving day at FCC: To make room on 6th floor for Post Office, with which it shares building, FCC in next week or 2 will move offices to following corridors, exact room numbers not yet available: Chairman Doerfer to 7100, Comr. Bartley to 7400, Comr. Hyde to 7300. Secretary’s office is tentatively set for 7500. Common Carrier Telephone div. goes to 2200 corridor. Also being readied is hearing room in 7420. Designs on the Spectrum: Though AT&T has the biggest gun aimed at uhf TV spectrum, as it seeks to cut a huge swath for car-phone use (see (p. 1), there’s demand from other potential users whose cumulative requests are considerable. And these are in addition to existing services (police, lire, taxi, trucking, etc.) whose expansion plans are unlimited. Curtis B. Plummer, chief of FCC’s Safety & Special Radio Services Bureau, an allocations expert familiar with TV’s needs since he once was chief engineer, then chief of Broadcast Bureau, gives these as typical requests: (1) Ramp control by airlines. About 1 me is desired, to control airfield service vehicles, cut planes’ time on ground — which costs $150 an hour for jets. (2) Highway electronics. This includes control of traffic lights, which should be varied to handle peaks & emergencies. GE is leading the experiments in this area. Highway engineers say that proper light control could eliminate or postpone need for construction of new highways (which cost up to $1,000,000 a mile) . Lights can be controlled by cable, but the cost of laying cable is $15-$20 per ft. of highway, compared with $1 per ft. for radio control. (3) Ambulance coordination. American Hospital Assn., spurred by a Los Angeles train wreck of 3 years ago, seeks a system to route ambulances. Many deaths were attributed to the fact that ambulance drivers and hospital management didn’t get together. (4) Bell System has some 50,000 service trucks it would like to reach by radio, but it prefers not to divert its sparse car-phone channels from regular customers. (5) Business protection services. American District Telegraph Co., which now uses wire to detect criminal break-ins, believes it can do the job much more cheaply with radio, and reach the more isolated places such as roadhouses. (6) American Medical Assn. Doctors now have rural dispatching service, want urban service, too. Probe of “runaway” film production in foreign countries by American producers was urged in a unanimous resolution by Hollywood AFL Film Council this week. The investigation was suggested by Rep. Thompson (D-N.J.) who last session introduced a House resolution calling for a similar inquiry. Film Council requested Rep. Thompson to broaden scope of the investigation to include producers of TV films who go abroad “for the specific purpose of avoiding American wage and living standards which make possible the purchase of products advertised by such TV pictures.” FCC’s 24th annual report, summarizing activities of fiscal 10.58, is now available from the Commission.