Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

4-TELEVISION DIGEST MAY 13, 1963 believed in the need to place more emphasis on qualitative information, but you have to coimt heads first before you can count the kinds of heads." Ratings con be improved, but so can any business, PeUegrin states: "There ore a few crooks, but for the most part we believe in the integrity of the major rating services. I think the print media ore making more out of this than is warranted." Pellegrin doesn't believe in a single service. "There is a need for competition because any one service can be wrong. If a tri-partite research company were established — comprising agencies, advertisers, broadcasters — it should be in competition with present research firms." Thus, there seems to be substantial support for views expressed by SRA Pres. Edward G^del, Katz Agency TV dir., who recently told us (Vol. 3:17 pi): "A single system would work a great hardship on the business. There would be no recourse. No one has a foolproof service." CBS^S N.Y. PEP RALLY: Annual gathering of CBS affiliates in N.Y. last week had much of feeling of a well-heeled Yankee baseball fan club which has just seen its team win Series. Mood was optimistic (without being pugnacious) and relaxed (without forgetting ever-present competition from NBC and ABC) concerning forthcoming 1963-64 season. Affiliates also received Pres. Frank Stanton's full views on role of ETV (see p. 5). CBS-TV pres. James T. Aubrey Jr. addressed morning gathering of broadcasters May 8, shoe-homed into Trans-Lux movie theater near Waldorf-Astoria, to stress durability & acceptance of network's nighttime programming. "There was a time when, if a program lasted 3 years, it was a big success," he send. "Now, there's no reason to believe that if we keep a show bright & fresh it won't last for memy yecers." Retrenchments mcry be made in one progrennming enrea, Aubrey suggested, however. Terming TV sports "the biggest poker game in the world," Aubrey cited recent CBS attempts to acquire rights to pro football championship game, which it had last year for $615,000. This year, CBS entered bid of $750,000 — "about what we thought traffic should bear" — but lost out to NBC, which got it for $926,000. Snapped Aubrey: "In my opinion, if this spiralling continues, we'll be priced right out of the TV w ports market." General strength of CBS shows is in healthy state, affiliates were told by Dick Golden, network's market planning dir. < Golden's presentation included some charts which made basic point that CBS program structure has "never succumbed to passing fads." Action programming (westerns, private eyes, etc.), he said, has declined both in terms of amount of time given in 3-network combined schedules (from 45% of nighttime shows in 1959-60 to 35% in 1962-63) and in overage ratings (from 20.0 to 18.4). "Not one of the ABC 'action' shows in the Top 40 two years ago is still there," said Golden. Attempts to maintain "balance" in programming have paid off during past few seasons for CBS, Golden added, citing fact that CBS shows have edge in long-range durability and thus form keystone of fall program structures. In fact, CBS is bringing back 20 shows this fall which ranked in Top 30 this season, as compared with 5 for NBC and only 3 on ABC. Denial of "star-oriented" schedule was made by new TV Program vp Mike Dcrnn, who defined network's approach as ". . . dedicated to attracting & holding the best talent available," while not signing stars without "the production team to back up." Actually, Donn's we-don't-just-buy-stors protests sounded somewhat thin in face of new shows CBS will add this fall. With exception of relative newcomers like George C. Scott ("East Side, West Side") and Roy Walston ("My Favorite Martian"), CBS's fall program deals hove centered on program showcases for such ready-made, big-nome stars as Danny Kaye, Judy Garland, Phil Silvers and Robert Goulet. ("CBS buys programs the way Aristotle Onassis buys paintings," said one knowledgeable broadcaster after the session, "and does little to encourage new artists.") Further proof of CBS bias in favor of established performers and program artisans could be glimpsed in postscript statement by Aubrey to Dann's preview of new fall offerings. Shows built aroimd Silvers, Garland and Kaye were bought without seeing pilots ("That way we wouldn't wound the vanity of a major star") although CBS insisted on deals "whereby we hove the right to approve the creative process, step by step."