Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

4— TELEVISION DIGEST FEBBUAHY 25, 1863 New House Special Subcommittee on Investigations will conduct hearings, Harris os chmn. First witnesses will be NAB Pres. Collins — who has long fretted about misuse of ratings — and FTC Chmn. Dixon. Network probabilities: NBC's Exec, vp Walter Scott, CBS's TV Pres. James Aubrey, ABC's witness not yet identified. Plans don't yet call for FCC spokesman. And, of course, major rating services will testify: ARB, Nielsen, Pulse, Hooper, plus some smaller regional firms. Hearing will cover the obvious: use of ratings, reliance placed on them, purported accuracy, etc. Charles Howze is chief coimsel, and field work has been done by staff men Rex Sparger & Robert Richardson. Membership of Committee is much same as former Regulatory Agencies Subcommittee which, in turn, succeeded Legislative Oversight unit : Democrats — Moss (Cal.), Rogers (Fla.), Long (La.), Hull (Mo.). Republicans— Bennett (Mich.), Springer (111.), Younger (Cal.) Brotzmon (Colo.). TV AS MARKET YARDSTICK: Old marketing concepts are changing, reflecting TV's importance os basic advertising medium. Seldom has this been clearer than in new "Survey of Television Markets" published by Sales Management as first of what will be annual studies. You can expect extensive use of these SM figures to be made by TV industry — broadcasters, reps, networks, agencies, etc. — in all kinds of research studies & promotion campaigns, for they represent important yardstick in modem marketing. Survey ranks 168 U.S. markets on basis of several characteristics, of which most important is TV. Unlike old methods of market determination on basis of population density, city boimdories, sales territories, newspaper circulation, etc. etc., measure in SM study — in which A. C. Nielsen cooperated — was average number of TV homes in prime-time quarter-hour segments watching stations originating in metro center. Cutoff point was 25,000 homes (exception: Las Vegas, which had 21,000-home figure but had 3 TV stations). Some major jumps are achieved, both up <S down, when TV becomes market yardstick. Prime example in SM survey is Charlotte, N.C., which ranks 93rd in U.S. markets on basis of simple metro-orea population (285,000) but which leaps up to 24th place when TV-reached population in Charlotte area (2,291,000) is considered. Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. is 49th in usual population list, but 28th in TV terms. At some time, Johnstown-Altoona is often considered as integral port of lOth-ranking population area (because of Pittsburgh), but is ranked at only 27th spot in SM's 'TV-deter mined list. In addition to TV yardstick, such factors as food sales, automotive purchases, furniture & household buying, general retail sales, effective buying income, etc. were used in achieving SM rankings. Not all TV markets ore on list; about 50 single-station markets were dropped as home count wasn't above cut-off point. TV-oriented marketing isn't new concept in either TV research or in actual marketing oporotions of major U.S. advertisers. A few seasons back, Westinghouse Bcstg. Co. promoted "Megotown" concept for its own TV stations, which stressed that Boston, San Francisco, etc. should be viewed in terms of urban & suburban homes covered by WBC stations in those markets. CBS has frequently stressed marketing areas covered by CBS-TV as basic tool in planning ad campaigns. ARB has been publishing "Market Digest & TV Audience Analysis," which ranks 245 markets by various criteria of which TV is prime, for pxist 3 years. Virtually every major ad agency has its own list of U.S. markets ranked by TV in combination with marketing patterns of agency's clients. And several major advertisers — notably Anheuser-Busch & Lestoil — have revised soles & marketing territories based on TV coverage rather than old-fashioned concepts of geography, factory sites, and the like. TV agenda at NAB convention in Chicago March 31-April 3 will include (1) TvB presentation “Computers — Friend or Foe?” (2) Management panel on “The State Image — Local Programming & Public Sei*vnce.” (3) Informal discussion, between FCC Comr. Lee and TV Code Chmn. William Pabst, KTVU Oakland, on former’s proposal that FCC adopt Code commercial standards as part of its rules. (4) Management panel discussion on problems of markets smaller than 100,000. (5) TIO discussion on use of its materials and report on upcoming projects. Growth of over $100 million in national spot T\' gross time billings during 1962 as compared to 1961 level is cited proudly by T\'B. Figure represents a 17% jump to new peak of $721 million. Spot billings in last quarter of 1962 were nearly $200 million. L’nlike network TV, where talent & production costs are often as large (or larger) than gross time cost, spot figure is fairly close to actual dollar spending when modest talent costs in spot (about 15% of time value) are added and time di.«counts subtracted.