Film Weekly 1963-64 year book : Canadian motion picture industry with television section (1963)

TELEVISION SINCE the last edition of this Year Book there have been a number of interesting and perhaps historic deve¬ lopments in television. Home televi¬ sion itself continued to expand, main¬ ly through about 60 rebroadcasting stations and several new stations re¬ commended for Transport Dept, ap¬ proval by the Board of Broadcast Governors. These and the continued expansion of the community antenna form of toll TV (there are now more than 300 systems in Canada) have brought the percentage of Canadians to whom TV is available to over 90 per cent. The free broadcasters, rep¬ resented by The Canadian Association of Broadcasters, objected to the CA operators being free of BBG author¬ ity at a BBG hearing and its chair¬ man, Dr. Andrew Stewart, expressed the opinion that there should be some control over cable. Theatre operators became very angry over the fact that TV stations were playing movies at prime time, when the public goes to the cinemas, and distributors were denounced for making films available, calling the practice a “suicide policy.” With a shortage of old films in sight the USA’s National Broadcasting Co. and MCA, of which Universal is now a subsidiary, plan to make two-hour features for TV. Telemeter, in its third year in the Toronto suburb of Etopicoke, is still losing money and is considered an ex¬ periment. It uses cable, whereas the Hartford, Conn. pay-TV project uses Associations ASSOCIATION OF RADIO & TELEVISION EMPLOYEES OF CAN. Suite 5. 1846 Dorchester Blvd., Montreal, <?ue. (932-2978-9) OFFICERS National President Omer C. Higgins National Vice-President (Zone 21 G. R. Willson National Vice-President (Zone I) .... Ota Reichman BOARD OF BROADCAST GOVERNORS 48 Rideau St., Ottawa 4, Ont. (CEntral 2-8211) FULL-TIME MEMBERS Chairman _ Dr. Andrew Stewart the air. The Hartford project, more than a year old, is making satisfacto¬ ry progress, its owners say. These are the only pay-TV projects in the world — if one excepts Community Antenna from that classification. However, Subscription Television, Inc., a company which will offer about $30,000,000 in stock to the public, will begin operations in California in mid’64 and use cable to telecast the home games of the LA and San Francisco major league baseball teams. Telemeter’s subscriptions have laps¬ ed from a peak 5,500 to 3,500 and the company needs from 20,000 to 30,000 to make money. The company claims that it allowed this to happen in or¬ der to install its new and improved coinbox. Theatre television, proved out as highly successful in Toronto, where hockey telecasts contracted from the Maple Leaf Gardens by Telemeter drew large houses at Famous’ College Theatre, got a big boost. Enough Eidophor machines have been impor¬ ted from Switzerland to extend the hockey telecasts to four more Toron¬ to district theatres and to three more Ontario cities. Further expansion in Canada and the USA is expected. Meanwhile other theatre-TV interests have experimented fairly successfully with telecasting Broadway plays to theatres in other cities. The Board of Broadcast Governors, which cost Canada $336,600 to operate in its fiscal year, still insists Canada isn't ripe for color TV. Vice-Chairman Caryle Allison Member . Bernard Goulet PART-TIME MEMBERS Joseph Frederick Brown, Vancouver Dr. Emlyn Davies, Toronto Ivan Sabourin, QC, St. -Jean, Que. Dr. Colin B. MacKay, Fredericton, NB Roy DesBarres Duchemin, Sydney, NS Leslie M. Marshall, St. John's, Nfld. R. Louis Burge, St. Peters Bay, PEI John B. Lewis, Montreal, Que. Claude B. Gagnon, QC, Quebec City Charles B. Chambers, Toronto John M. Coyne, Ottawa THE CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS 85 Sparks St., Ottawa, Ont. (233-4035) 115