Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

6 JANUARY 25, 1960 Net TV Ahead in Nov. The national ad volume gained 8% in Nov. over Nov. 1958, reflecting sizable business increases tallied by magazines (up 18%), network TV (14%) and business papers (10%), the latest Pnnters’ Ink index shows. Suffering from a cutback in automotive linage, newspapers sagged 7%, also dropped 22% from the Oct. volume. Only 2 of the major media had better Nov. than Oct. business: network TV (2%), business papers (1%). Magazines were down 6%. Network radio continued as the poorest performer — down 22% from Nov. 1958, down 12% from Oct., down 14% year to date. The general index gain for Jan.-Nov. was 9%, and all major media had cumulative increases excepting network radio & outdoor. The latter is estimated do-wn 2%, based on incomplete data. Best performances among major media: network TV for Nov.from-Oct. (up 2%), total magazines for Nov.-over-Nov. (18%) and year-to-date (12%). Index % Change from % Cumu Medium Nov. Nov 1 month 1 year lative 1959 1958 ago ago change General Index 224 208 — 7 + 8 -(-9 Total Magazines 184 156 — 6 +18 +12 Weekly 197 170 —15 +16 +12 Women’s 143 117 +14 +22 +10 General Monthly 234 200 0 +17 —18 Farm 122 101 +16 +21 + 5 Newspapers 167 179 — 22 — 7 +6 Network Television .... 492 433 + 2 +14 +11 Network Radio 21 27 —12 —22 —14 Business Papers 244 221 + 1 +10 + 6 Outdoor 158 166 —16 + 1 ~ 2 ^ All indexes have bron seasonally adjusted. The index shown for each medium is based on estimated total advertising investments in _ the medium, including talent, production and media costs. For each medium, the base (100) is an average of total investments in tbe years 1947-49 except for the TV base which covers the years 1950-52. "Cumulative change” in the last column refers to the change from the same period last year of the index average from Jan. through Nov. 1959. NETWORK SALES ACTIVITY ABC-TV American Bandstand, Mon.-Fri., 4-5:30 p.m., participations. Borden Foods & Best Foods (both D-F-S) Daytime programming, participations, 13 wk. orders, two 15-min. segs. per wk. Beach-Nut Lifesavers (Charles W. Hoyt) & Best Foods (D-F-S) Paul Winchell Show, Sun. 4-4:30 p.m., 7 alt. 30-min. sponsorships over 14 wks. General Mills (D-F-S) CBS-TV Garry Moore Show, Tues., 10-11 p.m., alt. wk. 30-min. segs. over 10 wks. Scott Paper Co. (J. Walter Thompson) N.Y. Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts, 4 Sun. afternoon 60-min. taped programs, 1-2 p.m. ?)hell Oil Co. (Kenyon & Eckhardt) 1960 Olympic Winter Games, one-fourth sponsorship of the 11-day live & tape coverage, Feb. 18-28. Renault Inc. (Kudner) NBC-TV Loretta Young Show, Sun., 10-10:30 p.m., alt. wks. Warner Lambert (Lambert & Feasley) Man from Interpol. Sat., 10:30-11 p.m., full sponsorship eff. Jan. 30. Participations in Law of the Plainsman, Thurs., 7:30-8 p.m., Riverboat, Mon., 7:30-8:30 p.m.. Play Your Hunch, Mon.-Fri., 10:30-11 a.m.; Young Dr. Malone, Mon.-Fri., 3-3 :30 p.m. Glenbrook Labs div. of Sterling Dinig Inc. ( Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample ) Overland Trail, Sun. 7-8 p.m., eff. Feb. 7, alt.-wk. %s P. Lorillard (Lennen & Newell), Standard Brands (Ted Bates) Radio Nets Optimistic: Although Printers’ Ink’s latest index shows Jan.-Nov. 1959 network radio business down 14% from Jan.-Nov. 1958 (adjoining column), the 4 networks closed out 1959 on a more optimistic note — all reporting business “generally very good” and ahead of 1958 performance. Actually, only CBS had black-ink operations. CBS “got into the black” in the 4th quarter, has “$2 million net business lined up for 1960.” NBC Radio was still in the red at 1959’s end, but noted that losses have “been decreased by two-thirds since the end of 1956.” ABC also wound up with a non-profit year, but said it was “much further ahead than at the end of 1958.” MBS, plagued by financial & organizational difficulties, managed to finish 1959 near the “break-even” point. Despite the preponderance of red ink, ABC said national & local sales of its o&o’s were 22% ahead in 1959 over 1958. NBC has recorded more than $6 million advance net sales for its new more-news-less-entertainment program plan. Only CBS continued heavy programming of daily entertainment in 1959, in face of trend by other networks to expand news & information services. Successful transmission of live TV pictures by hollow metal waveguide for more than a half mile has been accomplished in England by Standard Telecommunication Labs (ITT). ITT said the pictures were of “acceptable” quality. This is believed to be the longest transmission of TV ever accomplished by waveguide — ^basically a hollow pipe. In the tests, the TV pictures were sent by pulse code modulation — also believed to be a “first” for TV. The signals were sent over a hairpin-shaped path, 3,600 ft. long. Principal advantage of waveguide is its large carrying capacity — as many as 400 TV channels or several hundred thousand telephone conversations simultaneously. Previous drawbacks have been the difficulty in making signals follow the curvature of the earth and a great loss of signal strength. ITT says it has succeeded in bending the signal by constructing the pipe of specially treated aluminum wire, formed like a tightly coiled spring. It hopes to combat signal loss by using amplifiers along the guide. Over-horizon telephone relay between U.S. and the Bahama Islands was opened last week by AT&T and the Telecommunications Dept, of the Bahamas govt. Terminals of the system are at Florida City, Fla. and Delaporte Point, New Providence Island, a distance of 186 miles. The link currently can carry 24 telephone conversations — expandable to 72 circuits. This is the 2nd 2-way over-horizon communication route placed in commercial service between the U.S. and overseas points — the first being between Florida & Cuba, equipped for TV as well as telephone communications. AT&T long lines dept, says the new Bahamas relay is not currently capable of passing TV bandwidths and there are no current plans to equip it for TV. Libel suit against Fulton Lewis Jr., MBS commentator, by Seattle educator Mrs. Pearl Wanamaker, which brought a set-aside jury verdict of $145,000 for her (Vol. 15:45 p8), has been dropped in Washington’s U.S. District Court. Lewis’ counsel Roger Robb refused to confirm or deny reports that an out-of-court settlement had been reached in the suit, in which Mrs. Wanamaker accused the newscaster of falsely linking her with Communists. A new trial had been ordered after Judge George L. Hart ruled that the $145,000 award — biggest libel damages ever fixed by a jury in the Washington court — was “excessive.” He recommended that Mrs. Wanamaker accept $30,000 instead, she said in an affidavit filed with the court.