Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

LEE'S PAY TV ARTICLE CAUSES UPROAR FCC commissioner says let the public decide. Angry reactions come from subscription tv opponents who claim that he has disqualified himself by expressing a position on the controversial issue. Question of monetary compensation also raised by critics. OUTSPOKEN FCC Comr. Robert E. Lee— who's never been shy about expressing a viewpoint popular or unpopular (he was one of the first who publicly and without equivocation called for giving up on uhf, for example) — had a few things to say about subscription tv last week. They appeared in the March 20 issue of Look Magazine, on the newsstands March 6, and they caused an immediate outcry. Comr. Lee's approach was: Let the public decide whether it wants pay tv or not. And, he added, if it is successful it might prove to be the salvation of uhf stations. The angry reactions were immediate. They came from New York City Council President Abe Stark and from the co-chairmen of the Joint Committee Against Pay Tv, Alfred Starr, Theatre Owners of America, and Trueman Rembusch, Allied States Assn. Late in the week, actor Ralph Bellamy, president of Actor's Equity Assn., came to Comr. Lee's defense. In a letter to the magazine, Mr. Bellamy said that "Mr. Lee . . . has had the benefit of the best thinking of all those directly interested, pro and con, from which to draw his opinion." He added: "I hope Mr. Lee's opinion . . . will have wide and persuasive influence." Mr. Bellamy has been a proponent of pay tv from its inception. Gist of the protests was that Mr. Lee had disqualified himself by openly expressing a position on the controversial fee tv issue, still pending before the Commission. Is he going to disqualify himself? "I do not intend to do so," he told B»T last Wednesday. Mr. Lee's four-page signed article in Look concluded with four recommendations. They were for the FCC to: (1) Approve pay tv on a "broad" basis; (2) apply some temporary restrictions initially, like limiting subscription tv to uhf stations, putting a ceiling on the amount of time to be used for pay tv, etc.: (3) permit the test to run long enough so that the efficacy of pay television is proved or disproved, and (4) permit broadcasters to drop pay tv if it proves unsuccessful, or, if the converse, the FCC or Congress should establish regular rules for it. The article appeared only two weeks after Comr. Lee had expressed much the same attitude in a question and answer period following his speech at the Radio & Television Executives Society meeting in New York [B«T, Feb. 27]. The round of protests included a demand for a Congressional investigation. Stark Blasts Lee Mr. Stark — sponsor of a New York City Council-approved resolution opposing pay television [B»T, Feb. 20] — denounced "government by magazine article" and called Comr. Lee an So Soon? A PROPOSAL to investigate "paid television" (HB 1599) has been introduced in the Massachusetts Legislature, according to Massachusetts Broadcasters Assn. It provides for an unpaid commission of seven to study the need for legislation and regulation of pay tv. The commission would report by Jan. 1, 1957. "avowed propagandist for pay-as-you-see television while holding quasi-judicial office." He wrote all members of Congress calling for an investigation. Messrs. Starr and Rembusch maintained that Comr. Lee should "disqualify himself" in the FCC's consideration of the toll tv issue. They claimed he "has taken a highly unethical stand on an issue which a whole group is to pass upon by writing an exclusive article for his own personal gain," and has used his office to influence others. Mr. Stark also raised the question of payment for the article. His office said he asked for public confirmation or denial that Comr. Lee received "a substantial payment for the magazine article at the same time that subscription tv is still pending before the FCC." If he did, Mr. Stark charged, it represents abuse of the Communications Act section which provides that "no commissioner shall participate in any hearing or proceeding in which he has a pecuniary interest." Mr. Lee told B»T that he had received an "honorarium" for the article. Men Who Know Akron Best" BUY MOST IN AKRON... on WAKR st (N 10CAI AND NATIONAL SAUS RADIO-TELEVISION CENTER 853 Copley Road — Akron 20, Ohio Page 66 • March 12, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting