Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

VOL. 16: No. 4 15 Tra.de Report . . . JANUARY 25, 1960 JAPANESE TV EXPORTS IN VIEW: Nippon is set to cut a wedge of the U.S. TV pie — via "true portable" transistorized battery-operated sets. Although production hasn't begun yet in Japan, perhaps a dozen Japanese TV makers are hoping to aim 8-in. battery sets at American markets, and their agents & distributors here are anxiously awaiting first sets — even to the point of advertising them in the trade press. Japanese may not beat U.S. manufacturers even in timing. Several American TV makers are now tooling up for direct-view battery-TV sets for spring & summer markets. Sony's widely-publicized receiver is slated to reach U.S. dealers by April, offering such attractive features as direct viewing, 13-lb. weight, compact (6V4x8x8%-in.) dimensions, with initial price tag of around $250. Also in Japan's transistor-TV swim are majors Toshiba, Nippon Victor, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Matsushita, Nippon Columbia — all of which have announced sets, some having shown samples to their U.S. agents. Attitude of U.S. makers can be summed up as "Let 'em come." There's feeling too that industry, still bleeding over damage inflicted by Nippon transistor radios, welcomes TV invasion — welcomes it with the warm feeling of being on right side of an ambush. Some are convinced that Japanese TV portables will fall flat on their 8-in. faces. Others believe Nippon's venture will provide American producers with cheap & painless answers to plaguing questions about the nature & scope of a portable-TV market. Above all, Japanese competition will arrive in an area dominated by American know-how. When it comes to TV, large or small, U.S. makers have big technical & commercial lead. But U.S. is not playing waiting game. Japanese TV imports will run smack into solid Yankee transistor-TV competition. Emerson will put direct-view TV portable into production within 60 days. Pres. Benjamin Abrams told us. Price & size are still under wraps. Best guess: a 14-in. set selling for less than $250. Some other U.S. makers ore known to be hard at work in pre-production labs, while still others snort at the very idea of a mass market for battery TV. Japanese impact on U.S. TV market should be slight, leaders tell us. There are just too many roadblocks. Some of the major ones: (1) Existence of battery-TV market still has to be proved. Some leaders, like Zenith Sales Corp. Pres. Leonard C. Truesdell, doubt there's market big enough to warrant effort & excitement at this stage of transistor-TV development. Another large manufacturer recently shelved transistor-TV plans after an adverse report from its market research dept. Philco's Safari personal portable TV, with 2-in. tube and mirror-reflex screen which gives illusion of a larger picture, has proved only that a few people will buy tiny portables at $250 plus battery. Industry has watched Safari set sales closely as clue to possible transistor-TV market. Some manufacturers have concluded they showed there isn't big enough market for battery sets; others saw indication that mass market awaits big-screen direct-view set. One former TV manufacturer, now very big in the phono business — CBS-Electronics — says it has no plans "at this moment" to go back into TV via Japanese portables, although it has seen 8-in. samples produced by its affiliate Nippon Columbia. "To find sales success here," Columbia phono dept, national sales mgr. Milton Selkowitz told us, "an 8-in. portable must get down into a reasonable price range — xmder $200, even under $150. Even then, we can't be sure a market exists. It's too rich for the teen-age market; we think the screen's too small to become a factor in the 2nd-set market." (2) Tiny screen size is completely contrary to history of consumer preferences here. Even though it's bigger than Philco's picture, 8-in. is going to look mighty small to customers who are used to watching 21-in. sets and to whom "portable" means 17-in. History of conventional line-cord portables shows that 14-in. set died out when 17-in. units came in. Several manufacturers tried 8-in. portables, without much success. It's believed that most U.S.-made direct-view battery-TV sets will be 14 or 17-in., particularly since purchase of such a set must be justified on basis that it's also a 2nd set for the home (both the Japanese and