Broadcasting (Oct - Dec 1945)

[Raibourn Denies Anti-Trust Charges TV Retarded by U. S. Movie Interests, Suit Alleges DEXIAL of charges by the Government that U. S. motion picture interests had conspired to retard development of large-screen television was made in New York late last week by Paul Raibourn, president of Television Productions Inc. ^nd head of television activities for Paramount Pictures Inc. J On the other hand, Arthur Levey, president of Scophony Corp. of America was not "unhappy" over e suit filed Tuesday in New York ederal Court by the Dept. of Jusce naming Paramount, Television roductions, Scophony Corp., Scoony Ltd. of London, General Presion Equipment Co., its president, arl G. Hines, and Mr. Raibourn. The civil action seeks to: (1) eak up the alleged conspiracy, ) free patents and licenses asrtedly long frozen by the monopoistic cartel. The United States Government charged that Scophony Ltd. ob;lined between 1937 and 1939, basic patents on the "Supersonic" and 'Skiatron" systems of television, itiese systems, it was alleged, opiate with light sources, not unlike dose used in motion picture proection, making possible the pro(jction of televised images on creens as large as those in movie heaters. Enlarged Through Mirrors i In other systems, notably the tost popular one which used the ithode ray tube, the image may ; enlarged only through use of irrors, the complaint alleged. Loss : brilliance inherent in optical agnification has retarded comercial development of large:reen television, the complaint ated. In 1942, the complaint charged, elevision Productions, General recision, and Scophony Ltd. irmed Scophony Corp. of America, hose stock the three corporations vn or control, to hold American ghts to Scophony Ltd. patents hd inventions. The defendants agreed, it was leged, to divide the world by mispheres for commerce in telesion equipment. The eastern misphere was Scophony Ltd.'s iliwick, the western hemisphere, Revision Productions' and Genal Precision's. The complaint charged that to ite Television Productions and sneral Precision have failed to ake a serious effort to exploit ophony products and have prented Scophony Corp. of America om granting licenses under these { Itents to their competitors in the tion picture and electronics ds. ther interests, unidentified in i£ suit, were said to be ready, JUSTICE Dept., in suit filed last week in New York Federal Court, charged an international cartel dominated by U. S. motion picture interests had conspired to retard development of large-screen television. Among defendants, Scophony Corp., Paramount Pictures, Television Productions, General Precision Equipment Corp. Paul Raibourn of Television Productions was "amazed" that his firm hadn't been questioned about Scophony Ltd. Skiatron principle. Arthur Levey, Scophony president, welcomed court action. willing and able to develop and exploit the Scophony patents and inventions in this hemisphere on terms favorable to the Scophony Corp. of America. Mr. Levey, president of SCA, in a news conference after the filing of the suit, identified these "other interests" as "prominent financial concerns," two of which he said had offered to ante up $4,500,000 to exploit Scophony patents, but had withdrawn from the pot upon learning of the strings attached to SCA by Television Productions and General Precision. Effect Charged Effect of the conspiracy alleged in the suit was to: (1) postpone development in this country "of an important advance in the television art," and (2) delay the "opening of a new field of public entertainment and education," according to Wendell Berge, assistant attorney general in charge of the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice. To Mr. Levey, the suit came as no surprise. He had known, he said, that an investigation by the government had been underway for several months. Although refusing to admit flatly that he welcomed the suit, he said its initiation certainly did not make him unhappy. "We see in the suit a chance for us to go ahead and improve our equipment in America," he said. Break-up of the cartel, whose dominant movie interests have restrained his company from exploiting its inventions, would, he said, come as an agreeable relief. Mr. Raibourn first heard of the government's action, he said, when he read of it. At week's end, Mr. Raibourn, still reportedly unserved by the government of notice of the suit, said he was "amazed to learn from the press that we are charged with hindering the dedevelopment of television because of a small interest in . . . Scophony." Wartime developments of radar, electronics and television, he said, may have made obsolete the original supersonic ideas of Scophony. "The large sums of money spent by governments during the war on the Scophony Skiatron principle have so far failed to produce a successful method of applying it to television," he added. "Television scientists would have laughed at us had we at any time claimed Scophony to have the possibilities indicated for it in the newspaper publicity in the last few days." Mr. Raibourn said it was "amazing" that no representative of the Dept. of Justice had "seen fit to discuss with me the question of Scophony's possibilities or our activities in connection therewith." Clear Channel Group Seeks Third Party To Prepare FCC File Data for Hearings NEGOTIATIONS were in progress last week for employment of a "third party" to prepare data from the FCC's confidential station financial files for use in the clear channel hearings in January. Louis G. Caldwell, counsel for Clear Channel Broadcasting Service, who requested that the data be made available, said the FCC's affirmative decision [Broadcasting, Dec. 10] was interpreted as meaning that the job of preparing the exhibits would be handled "through some third party who would not violate the confidential pledge." He said neither his clients nor his firm want access themselves to confidential information, but that they had made an effort to secure a disinterested outsider who would be recognized as reliable and trustworthy to do the job. He said negotiations were in progress but had not been completed. Mr. Caldwell had asked that the Commission prepare exhibits and make them available to all parties before the hearings, explaining that the clear channel hearing order sets forth several issues which depend in large part upon economic considerations' for determination. The Commission replied that certain data already are available in tabulated form but the FCC has not processed the rest and its staff is not large enough to undertake the task. Information requested included such items as analysis of revenues, expense and similar data on broadcast stations; "average" figures; information by class of station, time designation, netwoi-k affiliation, etc., and analysis of net revenues and other data for all networks and independently owned stations and for stations by class of control and class of station. 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