Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

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VOL. 16: No. 52 5 Programming Advertising 73% of Top Agency Spending Goes to B’casting: The top 10 air-media ad agencies in 1960 increased their spending for TV & radio to $1.07 billion — 73% of their entire expenditure of 1.46-billion ad dollars. In an end-of-year analysis, Dec. 19 Sponsor also found that the “average” agency among the top 50 air buyers invested 53% of its total billings in broadcast media. These 1960-over-1959 increases were posted by the big 10: 1% for network TV, 13% for spot TV, 21% network radio, 6% spot radio. The top air-media agency: J. Walter Thompson, which spent 55% of its estimated total $275-million billings in TV-radio. In 1959, JWT’s TV-radio investment totaled 49% of similar billings. The No. 1 agency in terms of emphasis on broadcast media: Ted Bates, with 81% of its billings earmarked for TV-radio. Agency buying habits: Shops with annual billings of $100-to-199 million spent an average 61% of their budgets for TV-radio, topping all other groups. Runners-up: $50to-99-million agencies, 53%; $15-to-24 million, 52%; $200million-plus, 49%; $25-to-49 million, 42%. * ♦ ♦ Magazine lineage will be up almost imperceptibly — one-tenth of 1% — for 1960 over 1959, reports Printer’s Ink in a preliminary statement. Final figures will be available next month. December itself is off 7.8% from Dec. 1959 for the magazines. Oddest network sponsorship of season may well be credited to Mead Johnson & Co. subsidiary Edward Dalton Co. Ignoring all the standard TV precepts whereby the star of the show should at least look as though he uses & enjoys the sponsor’s product, the Dalton firm has signed with ABC-TV as exclusive sponsor of its Sun.-night documentary series Winston Churchill — the Valiant Years. Dalton’s hottest product : Metrecal. Star-Crest Recording Co., Hollywood firm operated by Stephen F. Singer, has denied FTC charges that it used false royalty claims & other deceptions to obtain fees from song writers (Vol. 16:48 p8). Demanding dismissal of FTC’s complaint. Singer conceded he made advertised claims cited in the case, but maintained FTC took them out of context so that they “assumed distorted meaning.” S. Klein Dept. Stores Inc., N.Y., accused by FTC of making false price & savings claims in interstate newspaper & broadcast advertising, has countered the charge with arguments that the govt, agency hasn’t established its local jurisdiction. Demanding dismissal of the complaint, Klein also denied that store customers were deceived by comparative prices listed in the cited advertising. Of the 130 U.S. cities with population of 100,000 or more, 80 now have their daily newspapers under single ownership, reports the latest Editor & Publisher. Ad People: Kelso Taeger named McCann-Erickson vp & media dept. mgr. . . . Sam Auerbach named vp-controller. Advertising, Radio & Television Services Inc. . . . Frank J. Fucito named Kenyon & Eckhardt vp . . . Lawrence J. Mulhearn and Lee W. Baer named Cunningham & Walsh vps. Obituary Allen E. Braun, vp of North Advertising Agency, and Robert W. Ellis, 29, asst, producer, Benton & Bowles TVradio commercial production dept., were killed in the Dec. 16 TWA-UAL airplane crash. Specials on Film: Allied Artists’ informational films div. is planning a dozen film specials, with budgets of $200,000 “and upwards” on each, we’re told by exec, producer Jack Copeland. Realizing it would be too much of a gamble to make these for TV without a sponsor in sight, AA plans to release them abroad as theatrical features. The first 2 specials (life of Albert Einstein; D. W. Griffith and early Hollywood days) go into production in February & March, and negotiations are now on with ad agencies for TV sponsorship. Copeland’s other projects include subjects such as the legend of the old West, George Washington Carver, and some in association with Pearl Buck. The producer believes the film special to be a wide open field that has been virtually ignored to date by the TV-film industry. He sees the potential as great because of the scope of film. Taped-in-London special, packaged by Val Parnell, a dir. of Britain’s Independent TV Program Co. Ltd., will be telecast next spring on NBC. Although various U.S. shows (notably Jack Paar’s, with a week-long stand) have taped shows in the British capital, this is the first major live package from a British commercial TV firm to be signed by a U.S. network. The deal was arranged between Parnell, who runs London’s famed vaudeville showcase, the Palladium, and David Tebet, NBC-TV talent-relations vp who has just returned to N.Y. from a European trip. Titled “A Night at the Palladium,” the 60-min. show will have as its host actor Laurence Harvey, best known to U.S. audiences for his “Room at the Top” film role. The show is a sort of “best-of-the-Palladium” effort — performances by featured British & American stars are being taped over a period of time at the Palladium during regular stage performances. Nielsen “P.S.” to TV election coverage revealed these highlights: 91.8% of all U.S. TV homes tuned in for some part of the election returns. The average home in this group spent 4.3 hours watching the final race. This produced a total-home-hours figure of 186,750,000 — a little better than double the total amount of time spent viewing the 1956 election. Each U.S. TV home (88% of all U.S. families) spent a total of 20 hours watching convention coverage, the 4 debates and the election reports (not including time spent viewing other pre-election political shows & specials). “The top-rated TV program Gunsmoke would require over 2 years of weekly telecasts to equal this volume of audience,” Nielsen added. Network programming vps are the first appointees to the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences’ Telecast Committee. Thomas Moore (ABC-TV), Oscar Katz (CBSTV) and David Levy (NBC-TV) will develop a special telecast on distinguished achievements in world-wide TV programming for the Academy’s International Festival next fall (Vol. 16:51 plO). Upon its completion, the 3 networks will submit sealed bids for the telecasting rights, stated Telecast Committee Chmn. Henry S. White. Lincoln radioscripts prepared & distributed by BMI as a contribution to sesquicentennial observances were presented to President Eisenhower at a White House ceremony Dec. 13. The presentation of an embossed leather-bound volume containing more than 70 scripts & a companion book, Lincoln for the Ages, was made by BMI Pres. Carl Haverlin, a Lincoln scholar.