Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1955)

ruary. Its newly-elected national chairman is David Manning, film director and buyer at WHAM-TV Rochester, N. Y. An eastern organization already has been set up and its western counterpart is on the way to being established. While attempting to get the organization whipped into shape, its creators are not marking time. A Committee for Standardization of Operational Procedures has been working under the chairmanship of William Cooper of WJAR-TV Providence. Its job is a big one. By convention time in February, it hopes to have prepared a proposed list of standards that will take in such hectic problems as cueing of film — how and in what way, in what sizes and shapes; the transhipment of films; possibly a demand that film distributors edit out obscene or otherwise undesirable material from original negatives to aid the station film processor's editing task, and various other methods of film handling, particularly where the print is to be sent on to another tv outlet. Involved are schedules, booking, the "mishandling" or mutilation of prints. The creation of a central clearing house for the exchange of ideas on film has been suggested by some. As yet, NATFD is exploring virgin territory but the hope is that before long a much-recognized gap in tv film station relations will be filled. Along with this, it is expected that the distributor-station relationship will be improved and that the industry as a whole will benefit. In general, membership has been confined to tv station film buyers, directors or supervisors. Only a few months ago, the organization, which expects to work closely with NARTB and the latter's National Television Film Council, received official recognition and promise of support from NARTB President Harold E. Fellows. Arrangements for the Chicago convention are under Elizabeth Baine, film buyer and director at WGN-TV Chicago, convention chairlady. On the West Coast, the first organizational meeting will be held Sept. 25 with Harold P. See of KRON-TV San Francisco slated to be its guest speaker. Among those active in organizing NATFD, in addition to Messrs. Manning and Cooper, are Dick Norman of KPTV (TV) Portland, Ore.; Jim Bentley, KCENTV Temple, Tex.; George Vale, WRCA-TV New York, and a number of others representing stations throughout the country. The committee concluded with this comment as part of its "recommendations": "It is our judgment that we need to know much more than we now do about the actual effect of television as a medium of communication. Any encouragement which could be given by the company to a full-scale professional study of the effects of television, especially on children, would seem to be advisable. In the judgment of the committee, there would be value in having this study supported and directed by a foundation rather than by interested parties, but it would call for the full cooperation by the television industry." FOOTBALL FILMCASTS SPORTSVISION INC. PACES THE FIELD IN DELAYED GRID FILM ANY WAY you look at it, football is big business and big box office off as well as on the field — and on film as well as live. This fall, with NCAA relaxing its restrictions over the nation's football tv diet to permit regional telecasts, interest in the grid sport might well rise to new heights. With this more liberal policy, the football filmcast, which has come into its own the past few years, seems destined to reap a rich bonanza. Last week stations were getting their first batches of delayed football film. Most of the nation's football filmcast fare is produced by Sportsvision Inc., which was organized by William J. Parry in 1950 when the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. was asserting itself on the football television front [B»T, Feb. 8, 1954]. Today it turns out The All-American Game of the Week, Big 10 Hi-Lites and Pacific Coast Conference Hi-Lites, all 13-week series. There is evidence that televised football has emerged as the skin local advertisers and stations love to touch with their dollars. Renewals and sponsor gratification appear to be the order of the day. What will be the effect of NCAA's more liberal policy? Says Al Madden, general manager of Sportsvision: "We believe that regional live telecasts will increase interest in film in various regions. For example, if five Big 10 games are released regionally (as they' have been), people in Big 10 areas will see more Big 10 football than they ever did and their interest in the Big 10 Hi-Lites will be higher, since the package picks up four Big 10 games each week and gives coverage of the Broadcasting • Telecasting September 26, 1955 Page 49