Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

GOVERNMENT FCC QUIZ A POSER TO NETWORKS tion, will be Hollis M. Seavey, executive director of the service, Mr. White added. At least one commissioner will represent the FCC at the hearings, but the State Department plans to send a written statement on the subject rather than a representative, he said. The State Department was invited to send a representative because of the international implications in this hearing, Mr. White pointed out. Most North American countries are included in radio frequency coordination treaties with the U. S., he said, noting the 1950 North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement and the 1957 treaty with Mexico. Some other small independent station owners who have asked to testify at the DBA hearings also will have their say, Mr. White noted. Sen. Morse's office has received such letters from station owners who support the DBA complaints and those who oppose them, he said. Among those invited to testify at the hearings is Louis N. Seltzer, president of WCOJ Coatesville, Pa., who wrote a scathing letter to Sen. Morse denouncing the daytimers' complaints and asking to appear. In their request to the FCC, the daytimers had asked for extension of hours from the present sunrise to sunset limits as follows: from 5 a.m. or sunrise (whichever is earlier) to 7 p.m. or sunset (whichever is later) [BoT, April 1]. Robert Hall Pays $10,000 Fine For False Radio Advertising IN SETTLEMENT of a civil penalty suit charging it with violating a Federal Trade Commission order to stop false radio advertising of the "sales prices" of its suits. Robert Hal! Clothes Inc., New York, has paid $10,000 in the U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Robert Hall was charged by the lustice Dept. with 12 violations of an FTC cease and desist order, which forbade the clothier from misrepresenting the regular price of its merchandise or savings afforded by buying clothes at "sales prices." The FTC order was issued in 1953, and the lustice Dept. suit filed in August 1956. Under the law each violation was punishable with a $5,000 penalty, but the $10,000 total was agreed on in settlement. WRC-TV Site Change Granted WRC-TV Washington last week was granted FCC permission to move its transmitter and main studio location from the SheratonPark Hotel to 4001 Nebraska Ave. However, in granting the move for the NBCowned station, the Commission reserved the right to rescind the action if Wespen Tv Inc. is granted ch. 4 Pittsburgh. The new WRC-TV location is 1.2 miles short of the required 170-mile separation from the proposed transmitter site of Wespen, one of five applicants for the Pittsburgh facility. An initial decision was issued in the Pittsburgh case a fortnight ago favoring WCAE Pittsburgh [B«T, April 15]. THE tv networks are still wrestling with a complex 16-page questionaire sent out by FCC's Network Study Committee calling for intimate details of their program production and program sales operations over the past five years. Although they have been compiling the information for some six weeks, it was learned, the complexity and detail of the questions are keeping the networks still at work. The committee, which originally set April 5 as the deadline for answers, is understood to have recognized later the impossibility of meeting that deadline and, instead, is accepting material piecemeal. The questions cover some of the ground roamed over by the House Antitrust Subcommittee in its network hearings last fall — but in infinitely more detail. They are believed to resemble those which the FCC group put to film syndicators late last year in another phase of its investigation. In addition to soliciting the names of program production and syndication "divisions, subsidiaries or affiliates" of the networks, such organizations in which the networks may own interests, the identities of motion picture or theatrical productions in which they have rights, and network practices in acquiring scripts, the questionnaires call for such detail as: • For each of the last five seasons (195253 through 1956-57), a list of all sponsored evening programs, live and film, which consisted of ten episodes or more and which were produced or financed wholly or in part by the network, or in which the network had or has any financial or proprietary interest. o For the same years and the same programs, the site of production — whether in the U. S. or elsewhere — and, for those produced or wholly financed by the network, the above-the-line, below-the-line and total production costs, plus the average cost per segment or episode. • The name of sponsor or sponsors, day and time of program, gross price to each sponsor, and the names of all persons who have acquired profit-sharing, re-run, merchandising or other subsidiary rights — for each program. • Information on whether the program was subsequently sold or licensed for nonnetwork or syndicated showing and. if it was, the season or seasons when it subsequently appeared, the title under which it was syndicated or sold, and the names of those who sold, licensed, or distributed it. • For one specified week in each of the five years, the number of hours and number of programs shown on the network in each of three categories: ( 1 ) programs produced and wholly owned by the network; (2) those produced jointly by another person and the network, or solelv bv another company in which the network had an interest; (3) those produced by others in which the network had no financial or proprietary interest. In addition: The number of hours of sustaining and of sponsored programming in each category. • List of all non-theatrical programs produced, sold, licensed or distributed for nonnetwork or syndicated television by the network during each of the last five seasons. ® For each of these syndicated programs, such information as the number of markets in which sold; gross billings; value of station time involved; and network's policy, if any, as to discount or price differential in multi-market sales to the same purchaser and in sales to multi-station owners. • Copy of most recent standard or usual form of sales contract for syndicated film, and, for each program on the list, an indication as to whether or not the present standard contract contains exclusive coverage provision. • If the present standard contract does not provide for exclusive coverage, a statement of usual policy or practice, if any, with regard to granting exclusive coverage. • A list, with "brief" explanation, of all contracts or sales arrangements made or in effect during the 1955-56 and 1956-57 seasons "where exclusive coverage provision would prevent sale of same program at the same time for television exhibition in adjacent or nearby market or markets." • For the five syndicated programs sold in the largest number of markets during 1955-56 season, call letters of stations carrying the program, time period in which program was carried, and network price to purchaser of the program. • Information on whether the network's owned stations and affiliates have first call or get any price consideration on programs offered by the network for syndication. The questionnaire also includes a section calling for detailed listings and price information on any theatrical film syndicated by the network. Another section goes into detail on the network's facilities for production of programs, live and film; any plans for expansion of such facilities, and the extent, if any, to which the network leases or uses non-owned program production facilities used by other companies. Ellsworth Okayed as CSC Member APPOINTMENT of former Rep. Harris Ellsworth (R-Ore.) to serve on the Civil Service Commission for two years beginning March 1 this year was confirmed last week by the Senate. Mr. Ellsworth, who was defeated last November in his bid for reelection after serving in the House for some 14 years, is a 25% stockholder in The News-Review Co. which owned KRNR Roseburg, Ore., until October 1956. The company also publishes the Roseburg NewsReview newspaper. Senators Wayne Morse and Richard L. Neuberger. both Democrats from Oregon, said they had been asked to oppose Mr. Ellsworth's nomination, but in speeches from the floor the senators urged — with some reservations — approval of the former congressman's appointment to the Commission. Page 58 • April 22, 1957 Broadcasting • Telecasting