Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

SECOND ITA STATION Commercial outlet in Birmingham will serve England's Midlands area. Operation will be same as London station, with ATV and ART/V furnishing the programs. BRITAIN'S second commerical tv station, located at Birmingham to serve England's Midlands area, is scheduled to begin operations Feb. 17, five months (minus five days) after the first broadcast tv commercial in the United Kingdom was sent out from the Croydon transmitter, covering the London area, on Sept. 22 [B»T, Sept. 26, Oct. 3, 1955]. Under the British formula of separating operating responsibility from that for programming, the new Midlands station was built and will be operated and maintained by the Independent Television Authority, chartered by the Crown for the express purpose of providing the nation with commercial tv service in addition to the video programming provided by the tax-supported non-commercial BBC. ITA does not, however, program its London station, although it is ultimately responsible for seeing that a balanced program structure is maintained, nor will ITA program its new station at Birmingham. Programs are purchased by ITA from independent program contractors; organizations which undertake to provide program material for the commercial tv stations on a block booking basis. Two program contractors. Associated Television Ltd. (formerly Associated Broadcasting Co.), and Associated Rediffusion Ltd-, have, during its five months on the air, supplied all the programs broadcast by ITA's London station. ATV furnishes the Saturday and Sunday programs, with ART/V handling the MondayFriday tv fare. The same two organizations will also program the new Midlands station, but the other way round, ATV doing the weekday shows and ART/V those telecast over the weekend. Program sponsorship as such is not permitted under the British tv rules, which restrict all commercials to spots, inserted between programs or at "natural" breaks within a program, such as between the acts of a dramatic show. The program contractor sells the commercial time to advertisers and advertising agencies. In London, the choicest times — midevening, Saturday and Sunday — were originally priced at 1,000 pounds ($2,800) and scaled down from there, but a new rate card is reported to be in preparation. Rates for the Midlands station, also in preparation, are expected to be somewhat below those prevailing in London. Although bitterly resisted in advance by many Englishmen who felt that advertising coming into their homes via tv would be an unbearable invasion of privacy, commercial programming in the American manner seems to be capturing an ever increasing audience. Set conversions to enable reception of the ITA programs as well as those of BBC, which was all the British tv receivers previously accommodated, trebled in the first 13 weeks of ITA operation, according to a mailing piece sent out by ATV, which was part of an aggressive American-type campaign to sell video advertising to advertisers and agencies, "Independent [commercial] television now has a place in the lives of at least 500,000 homes," ATV states. "This figure is an average of the estimates of two independent and competitive research organizations — the A. C. Nielsen Co. Ltd. and Television Audience Measurement Ltd. When Independent Tele BEGINS FEB. 17 vision began, there were estimated to be 170,000 sets equipped to receive it." Rating services — Nielsen and Pulse invaded England along with the commercial tv service — show that where both ITA and BBC programs are available, the ITA programs get the audience most of the time. Even more important to British advertisers is the finding of another research organization — Tv Research (Gallup Poll) Ltd. — cited by ATV in another of its mail pieces. Following the February debut of its Midlands station, ITA will push work on the construction of a third commercial tv station at Manchester to serve the north of England, which is expected to begin program service early in the spring. Provided it can get the allocations (for like the U. S., Great Britain also does not have enough spectrum space to give all applicants all the channels they'd like), ITA hopes to have 20 stations in operation before its present charter comes to an end in 1964. TWO TV REQUESTS BEFORE CBC BOARD OF GOVERNORS Three new am applications, one fm, power increase and share transfer requests also will be heard by board at Feb. 3 meeting in Ottawa. BIDS for television stations for Kamloops and Victoria, both B. C, are to be considered at the Feb. 3 meeting in Ottawa of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. board of governors. Three applications for new radio stations and one fm station will also be heard by the board, as well as a number of share transfers, changes in ownership, power increases for am and tv stations, and an application for a booster station. The full agenda includes an application by Twin Cities Television Ltd. for a 100 w video station on ch. 4 with 50 w audio power at Kamloops. David M. Armstrong, president of CKDA Victoria, is applying for a tv station on ch. 6 with 1.8 kw video and 0.9 kw audio and antenna height of 269.5 feet above average terrain. CFCM-TV Quebec City, Que., is asking for a boost from 1.27 kw video and 635 w audio to 12.65 kw video and 6.33 kw audio on ch. 4. Antenna height will remain the same, 473 feet above average terrain. CHLT-TV Sherbrooke, Que., is asking for a power increase on ch. 7 from 17.3 kw video and 8.8 kw audio to 170 kw video and 100 kw audio, with antenna height to be increased from 1,848 feet to 1,920 feet above average terrain. Howard C. Caine, manager of CKFH Toronto, Ont., is applying for a radio station license at Oakville, Ont., a suburb of Toronto, with 1 kw daytime and 500 watts nighttime on 1250 kc. Two applicants are asking for a daytime station at St. Jean, Que. Radio-Iberville Ltd. is applying for 1 kw on 1090 kc and Jean-Philippe Toupin is applying for 1 kw on 1110 kc. At Swift Current, Sask., Frontier City Broadcasting Ltd. was recommended last September for a 250 w station on 1400 kc. The Minister of Transport has asked the CBC board to hear this application again and also that of the Swift Current Broadcasting Co. Ltd., which is applying for a similar station there. Earlier the CBC board had suggested the two applicants get together to make a joint application, but this proved impossible. At Toronto Edward James Piggott is applying for an fm station of 282 w on 98.1 mc. CFOS Owen Sound, Ont., is asking for an increase in power from 1 kw on 1470 kc to 5 kw day and 1 kw nighttime. CJBR-TV Rimouski, Que., is requesting that the station be leased to the Central Public Service Corp. Ltd., of which the station's president, Jacques Brilliant, is a director. Transfer of control of licensee companies is being asked by CHEF Granby, Que.; CHLT Sherbrooke, Que., and CKRB Ville St. Georges, Que. Change of ownership is being requested by CKLD Thetford Mines, Que., from Radio Thetford Ltd. to Radio Megantic Ltd. Fourteen stations are asking for permission to make share transfers. CARTB Selling Clinic Hears Erickson, Treyz MORE THAN 350 advertisers, advertising agency executives and television station executives from all parts of Canada attended the television clinic held by the Canadian Assn. of Radio & Television Broadcasters at Toronto, Ont., Jan. 19, with Jack Davidson, CARTB president, as chairman. Rodney Erickson, vice-president in charge of tv for Young & Rubicam, New York, and Oliver Treyz, president, Television Bureau of Advertising, New York, told the Canadian audience in word and picture the findings of various U. S. surveys on the effectiveness of tv selling. On the assumption that Canada will undergo approximately the same tv development as has the U. S., Mr. Erickson reviewed tv set saturation, program development and cost of commercials. He pointed out that tv in the U. S. has thrived in competition whereas in Canada at the present time only one station is allowed in any one city. Mr. Erickson also said that tv program ratings are going down due to increased competition, while tv circulation is rising and costs are increasing and dealt at some length on the progress of the magazine-type program, pointing out that at present about 68% of all nighttime half-hour shows are now shared by three or more product advertisers; that 19% of such shows have two products advertised, and only 13% carry advertisements of one product. He emphasized that no matter how popular a program, it will not sell a product if the commercial is not well done. Mr. Treyz dealt primarily with the people who make up the tv audience, showing Canadian advertising people the results of various surveys which brought out that the young housewife accounts for the largest category of viewers. Canadian advertising men and women learned that surveys in the U. S. showed that 42% of all viewing is done by women, that men make up 27% of the audience and children 31%. He said that tv advertising of many retail store items must be done in the same way as by a good salesman in a store. As an example he stated that one Seattle tv station handled a specific item by having its woman announcer take a selling job on the product in a retail store for a few days to learn how to sell the item. The clinic finished with a panel of experts answering questions on summer tv selling and other problems of Canadian television. On the panel, in addition to Messrs. Erickson and Treyz, were Bill McGregor, CKCO-TV Kitchener, Ont.; Keith Chase, McKim Adv. Ltd., Montreal, Que.; Fred Lynds, CKCW-TV Moncton, N.B., and Cliff Wingrove, CFPL-TV London, Ont. Page 70 • January 30, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting