Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1952)

5 Station Accoanis: TV time sales continue to boom in Denver (Vol. 8:48), with KBTV this week reporting plum account — Union Pacific Railroad for 2 weather shows weekly for 52 weeks. City got first outlet, KFEL-TV, last July 18 and KBTV began Oct. 2, yet Rocky Mountain Electrical League reports set sales totaling 99,899 up to Dec. 1 and 125,000 expected by Jan. 1 . . . KBTV’s new rate card, effective Jan. 15, raises base Class A hourly rate from $250 to $350, one-min. from $60 to $70 . . . Foreignlanguage telecasts haven’t taken hold to much extent on American TV, perhaps because there are as yet so few stations and most still have big demand on their time; in Honolulu, however, Philco distributor Peter Fukunaga sponsors first half hour, 10 Japanese firms cooperatively sponsor next hour of all-Japanese program on KGMB-TV, Sun. 4:30-6 p.m. . . . Paramount used saturation series of spot films on 6 Los Angeles stations for Christmas week premiere of Road to Bali, with film titled Great Moments in History with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope due to be spotted also in other cities where film is shown . . . Peters Shoe Co. (Weather Bird shoes) in tieup with Walt Disney’s Technicolor film Peter Pan for TV-radio campaign in March . . . Manischewitz Co. (canned goods & wines) to sponsor new half-hour TV film series Pm the Law, starring George Raft, in selected markets, tlmi Donahue & Co. . . . Mission Macaroni Co., Seattle, uses lasagne as subject of spots on KING-TV, Seattle, and KPTV, Portland, thru Taskett Adv., Seattle . . . Among other advertisers reported using or preparing to use TV: Utica Mutual Insurance Co., thru Devereaux Co., Rochester; Lanvin Parfums Inc. (My Sin products), thru Dorland Adv. Ltd., N. Y.; Walgreen Co. (drugs), thru Schwimmer & Scott, Chicago; 4711 Ltd. (cosmetics), thru Milton Weinberg Adv. Co., Los Angeles; Indiana Motor Truck Assn., Indianapolis, thru J. Walter Thompson, Chicago; Northern Paper Mills, thru Young & Rubicam, Chicago; Golden State Co. (Tekko dried milk), thru Guild, Bascom & Bonfigli, San Francisco; Glamorene Inc. (rug cleaner), thru Ruthrauff & Ryan, N.Y. Network Accounts: Medical TV programs, sponsored Dec. 2 & 4 by Smith, Kline & French Laboratories at American Medical Assn, convention in Denver (Vol. 8:47), drew overwhelmingly favorable response from doctors and patients. Surveys by AMA and SKF Laboratories of 5626 physicians showed 90% of those viewing the telecasts (one being birth of a child) thought them worthwhile, 88% felt they were valuable to public, 71% felt they were valuable to physicians. Of 680 comments by patients, 523 were favorable . . . NBC-TV’s Today changes sales format Feb. 1, offering only 5-min. segments to advertisers, 4 in each 25-min. portion of program, in lieu of previous system of selling 5, 71/2, 10 & 15-min. segments; rate for 5-min. segment will be one-fourth 30-min. rate or 15% Class C rate, increase of about $300 . . . Philco Corp. will sponsor Cotton Bowl football game (Texas vs. Tennessee) on NBC-TV, except for Texas stations, Jan. 1, 1:45 p.m. to closing, thru Hutchins Adv.; Humble Oil sponsors cn NBC-TV Texas outlets, thru Wilkinson, Schewitz & Tips . . . ABC-TV, piping Sugar Bowl game (Georgia Tech vs. Mississippi) over network for cooperative sponsorship, reports these sponsors signed to Dec. 23: Tootsie Roll, WJZTV; City National Bank & Trust Co., WENR-TV; Louis Rose (De Soto-Plymouth dealer), WXYZ-TV; Challenge Butter & Cream Assn., KECA-TV & KGO-TV . . . General Electric (lamp div.) buys Thursday telecasts of Jane F roman’ 8 U.S.A. Canteen, starting Jan. 8, on CBS-TV, Tue. & Thu. 7 :45-8 p.m., thru BBDO . . . Consolidated Cosmetics (Lanolin Plus) Jan. 6 starts alt. sponsorship with Snow Crop Marketers Inc. (frozen foods) of 10-10:15 a.m. segment of Arthur Godfrey Time on CBS-TV, Mon.Thu. 10-11 a.m. Network TV-Rsdio Billings November 1952 and January-November 1952 (For October report see Television Digest, Vol. 8:49) OVEMBER network TV billings fell nearly $400,000 from October to total of $16,877,711, bringing cumulative total for year’s 11 months to $160,317,763, according to Publishers Information Bureau monthly report. Month’s total compared with $13,900,029 in November 1951, cumulative compared with $113,742,652 for same 11 months last year. Looks now like the network total will exceed $175,000,000 for year, not counting income from coverage of the political conventions; that would mean good guess for whole industry’s 1952 income from time sales would be at least $350,000,000. Network radio billings held their own during November, being only slightly down, at $14,278,750, from same 1951 month. Radio’s 11-month cumulative, however, was $146,527,834, down from $160,099,546. The complete PIB tables: NETWORK TELEVISION f NBC .. CBS _ .. Nov. 1952 $ 7,957,417 6,525,176 Nov. 1951 $ 6,535,907 4,605,506 1,911,243 847,373 Jan. -Nov. 1952 $ 73,934,637 60,745,841 16,853,604 8,783,681 Jan. -Nov. 1951 $ 52,578,779 37,734,476 16,605,768 6,823,631 ABC DuMont ^ . 1,368,552 1,026,566 Total $16,877,711 $13,900,029 $160,317,763 $113,742,652 NETWORK RADIO f CBS $ 5,419,533 $ 5,257,454 $ 52,943,930 $ 63,506,265 NBC 4,073,971 4,315,646 42,748,228 49,980,710 ABC 2,612,761 3.220,760 31,823,887 30,408.627 MBS 2,172,485 1,583,291 19,011,789 16,203,944 Total $14,278,750 $14,377,151 $146,527,834 $160,099,546 NETWORK TELEVISION — January-November 1952 f 1952 ABC CBS DuMont NBC Total Jan. $ 2,020,461 $ 5,074,643 $ 717,148 $ 7,259,307 $15,071,559 Feb. 2,148,467 5,103,043 748,544 6,813,549 14,813,603 March _ 2,065,052 5,643,123 760,593 7,320,358 15,789,126 April _ 1,699,760 5,641,831 738,926 6,946,751 15,027,268 May _ 1.504,043 5,602,634 775,063 6,822,982 14,704,722 June 1,279,985 5,385,820 749,497 5,794,534 13,209,836 July 943,387 4,163,245 653,415 4,555,020 10,315,067 Aug. 1,166,169 5,105,929 845,780 5,618,643 12,736,521 Sept. 1,203,917 5,746,166 809,475 6,769,228* 14,523,786* Oct. 1,453,811 6,754,231 958,674* 8.076,848* 17,243,564* Nov. ...... 1,368,552 6,525,176 1,026,566 7,957,417 16,877,711 Total $16,853,604 $60,745,841 $ 8,733,681 $73,934,637 $160,317,763 NETWORK RADIO— January-November 1952 t 1952 ABC CBS MBS NBC Total Jan. $ 3,301,479 $ 5,161,397 $ 1,699,282 $ 4,357,353 $14,519,511 Feb. 3,177,970 4,783,507 1,300,399 3,994,018 13,560,894 March _ 3.355,715 5,154,077 1,826.527 4,184.074 14,520,393 April _ 3.244,146 4,943,400 1,681,924 4,078,593 13,948,063 May ___ 3,323,092 4,933,794 1,821,571 3,861,882 13,970,339 June 3,001,314 4,629,254 1,632,977 3,708,014 12,971,559 July 2,082,666 3,257,331 1,339,276 2,878,196 9,557,469 Aug. 2,281,852 3,994,905 1,325,059 3,338,843 10.940,659 Sept. 2,533,735 4,813,802 1,607,485* 3,901,715* 12,856,787* Oct. ..... 2,909,107* 5,817,930 2,304,804 4,371,569* 15,403,410* Nov. 2,612,761 5,419,533 2,172,485 4,073,971 14,278,750 TotaF$31,823,887 $52,943,930 $19,011,789 $42,748,228 $146,527,834 * Revised as of Dec. 24, 1952. t Cumulative totals for all TV and radio networks (except MBS) do not Include July national political convention programs sponsored by Admiral, Philco & Westlnghouse. Note: These figures do not represent actual revenues to the networks, which do not divulge their actual net dollar Incomes. They're complied by PIB on basis of one-time network rates, or before frequency or cash discounts. Therefore, In terms of dollars actually paid to networks they may be Inflated by as much as 40%. Figures are accepted by networks themselves, however, and by the industry generally, as satisfactory Index of comparisons & trends. Network TV sponsorship is slowing down — at least that’s what Magazine Advertising Bureau claims. It says number of network advertisers decreased from 183 in second half of 1951 to 171 in first half of 1952; that new advertisers are arriving at slower rate; that rate of dropouts is increasing. But MAB concedes that many sponsors have gone in for spot, so haven’t necessarily cut TV budgets. [Editor’s Note: See also PIB figures, above.]