Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

mercial messages on tv stations, promoting the use of the classified directory, additional telephones in the home, greater use of long distance and various other telephone uses and services. Mr. Whitmore said that the network tv program "must reflect the character and personality of the [Bell] system. It should be a welcome guest in anyone's home." A search for the "right" program, "continued from almost the very beginning of television," Mr. Whitmore reported. More than 200 programs and program ideas were viewed and analyzed. At the end of last July a program was produced that seemed to meet "specifications." Contracts were signed and production started in Hollywood. A 40-minute "film description" was shown to the "heads of the three television networks" who liked the program, Mr. Whitmore said. But, with program schedules for fall and winter already completed and with "no desirable time available," the matter stood. And, presumably, it still does. Census Takes Sample For Tv Homes Count NEW Census Bureau compilation of television households will follow a nationwide sampling of U. S. homes conducted last week as part of the bureau's monthly current population survey. Late in the spring the bureau will announce tv saturation figures for the nation as a whole as well as for urban-rural areas and groups of cities by size. Second bureau's tv sampling, the survey will show the number of U. S. households having tv sets and the total number of sets in households (sets-per-home). Tv sets in commercial establishments are not included in the study. The first Census Bureau sampling was conducted last June as part of the current population survey. NARTB, Television Bureau of Advertising and tv networks underwrote the cost of the study, as they are doing in the current survey. The first study showed that 67% of U. S. homes had one or more tv sets, or roughly 32 million homes [B»T, Aug. 22, Sept. 26, 1955]. This count is being used by Advertising Research Foundation in connection with a county tv homes estimate due for release around April 1. The ARF county data will utilize available industry circulation tables with Census Bureau figures and set delivery figures of Radio-Electronics-Tv Mfrs. Assn. Another step in the long-range effort to provide reliable tv circulation data was taken Friday as a technical subcommittee of the NARTB Tv Circulation Study Committee met in New York. This committee considered ways of refining the question technique to be used when a permanent circulation audit is established and reviewed plans for the ARF interim estimate due around April 1. The ARF figures will be based on June 1955 data. In its mid195 5 compilation, the Census Bureau found that 80% of households in city areas have one or more tv sets. It found that 3.5% of tv homes have two or more tv sets. While there has been some demand for tv home figures based on the February 1956 Census Bureau figures, related to other available data, ARF and other interested groups have felt that a mid-1955 county-by-county estimate will be helpful to buyers and sellers of time. NARTB's three-year project is expected to move forward as a result of the Friday meeting. Once the technical details are settled to the satisfaction of industry groups, the intricate process of forming a corporation to underwrite and carry out a permanent tv circulation audit will be undertaken. NEW HOOPER INDEX TELLS ADVERTISERS HOW THEIR ADS STACK AGAINST RIVALS Hooper Index of Broadcast Advertisers takes a product, a market and a week and comes up with a standing for each sponsor in the field. B*T's exclusive reports on these studies begin in this issue. start the organizational wheels rolling on a newer and better road." In determining the lengths and number of YOU'RE an advertiser or an agency man and you want to know how much mileage your television or radio advertising is getting in Cleveland (or other major markets). How does it stack up against that of your competition? Who is your competition in Cleveland, anyway — are you sure that you know? If you're a network user, you also want to know how you're doing in that category, and how your local commercials stack up against your network average. In its "Hooper Index of Broadcast Advertisers," or HIBA, C. E. Hooper Inc. has a service designed to answer such questions. HIBA is a measurement of the extent to which commercials are seen or heard, taking into account ( 1 ) the length and number of the commercials and (2) the audience ratings of the programs in or between which they appear. Local HIBAs are made in major markets, each report covering all radio or television commercials in a given product category in one city during one week. They are done on order, and, according to Hooper President James L. Knipe, virtually all of the top agencies have ordered HIBAs at one time or another. They are done separately for radio and television. In tv there is also a separate report on network users, making it possible to compare the network HIBAs of these sponsors with their standings in the various local markets. Coincidentally, beginning with this issue, B«T will present in tabular form each week summary highlights of HIBA measurements made in various cities and covering various product categories. Some will deal with radio commercials; some with tv. In television, there will be a network HIBA for network advertisers, as well as the local measurement. The first table, which appears separately on this page, deals with beer commercials in Cleveland television. President Knipe describes the HIBAs' usefulness as follows: "The advertiser urgently needs to know how his brand's broadcast advertising exposure compares with that of competitive brands. In the 'Hooper Index of Broadcast Advertisers' he gets a figure which gives him a score, an exposure relationship, with which he can make a comparison between his brand and those of his competitors. "Study of HIBAs gives him answers to these five important questions: "1. 'Have I attained and am I holding the proper national television broadcast position?' "2. 'Is this national television position reasonably maintained in leading metropolitan markets, with local assists from spot radio and tv?' "3. 'If the answer is "no" to either of these first two questions, then "Where, how, and at what cost should I look for broadcast time to match my competitors?" ' "4. 'Is a dangerous new competitor pushing forward too rapidly on either the national or regional level?' "5. 'Is a formerly dangerous competitor fading out of the picture, so that I can practically ignore him?' "With these five answers in mind, the advertiser can either proceed on his present course with renewed confidence, or he can commercials broadcast for a sponsor, HIBA relies on the reports of Broadcast Advertisers Reports Inc., a monitoring firm in which the Hooper organization recently acquired a financial interest. BAR tape-records, for a full week every two months, all broadcasts on all leading stations within a given city. Formed in 1952, the firm has expanded gradually, now conducts this monitoring service in 12 cities and plans to increase this to about 25 in the reasonably near future. From its tapes, BAR compiles reports giving for each city a complete breakdown of each advertiser's schedule (according to product) and also a minute-by-minute log for each station showing just when each commercial was carried. Similarly, BAR monitors all radio and tv networks daily, every week of the year. These network reports are published in the week following the monitoring. From these reports — which BAR sells separately to a list of subscribers that now includes practically all major agencies as well as almost all stations in the cities monitored — Hooper people determine the lengths and number of commercials carried, in a given city, for each brand within the product category under study. The 'Commercial Unit' Each commercial is given a weighting factor in accordance with its length, and this factor, called "commercial unit," is then multiplied by the audience rating of the program in which it appeared. The result is the HIBA for that commercial. When all commercials for a single product in a single city have been thus evaluated, the results are added together to get the total HIBA for the product in that market. In the case of television HIBAs, the audience rating used is that of American Research Bureau Inc., with which the Hooper organization has a working arrangement. In radio, the local ratings of C. E. Hooper Inc. are used. Markets currently on the schedule for HIBA television measurements include Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington. The list for radio HIBAs includes Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. Tracing the genesis of HIBA, Mr. Knipe said: "When monitoring as done by BAR first came to our attention about two years ago, we realized that its meaning and usefulness would be greatly enlarged if we added rating and a weighting factor and so developed a common denominator. Then we could add together the commercials of all types and lengths and obtain a meaningful total. "The other way to do this would be by using dollars as a common denominator. But the dollar method has the disadvantages that (1) true prices for time are usually not known, (2) talent costs are not accurately available, and (3) dollars do not necessarily correlate with audience size." In developing the HIBA formula, certain Page 34 • February 27, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting