Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

</> <f> to < X < mm. FILM » 3 ATTENDING the formal opening of MPO Television Films Inc.'s New York production center for tv commercials and industrial film are (1 to r): Owen Smith, vice president, Leo Burnett Inc.; Judd L. Pollack, MPO president; Joseph H. Cullman III, executive vice president, Philip Morris Inc.; Howard Connell, vice president, Foote, Cone & Belding; and Edmund Rogers, account executive, N. W. Ayer. Reynolds Buys New Ziv Series To Begin on CBS-TV in Fall SALE of a second tv film series produced by Ziv Television Programs in a network agreement was announced last week by Ziv. The new series, whose working title is Harbor Master, was purchased by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. through William Esty Co. for exposure on CBS-TV this fall. It is tentatively slated for the Thursday 8-8:30 p.m. period, with Reynolds planning co-sponsorship with Colgate-Palmolive. The time period currently is occupied by The Bob Cummings Show, which Reynolds co-sponsors with C-P. The Cummings series will be sponsored by Reynolds during the 1957-58 season and will be aired Tuesday 9:30-10 p.m., starting Sept. 24. Harbor Master portrays the adventures of a New England coastal captain. Considerable location photography is to be lensed in the East. Although the titles are similar, the new series has no connection with Ziv's Harbor Command, a seagoing police series due this fall in syndication and on which several major market sales already have been made. Ziv's initial network sale was West Point, currently on CBS-TV, Friday 8-8:30 p.m., for General Foods through Benton & Bowles. WNAC-TV, Crosley Buy Films; Pay MGM-TV About $6 Million MGM-TV Div. of Loew's has brought in an estimated $6,750,000 in new sales of its film library. Latest pacts have been signed with WNAC-TV Boston and with Crosley Broadcasting Co. in deals reported to involve more than $2 million and about $4 million respectively. The Crosley seven-year exclusive lease covers Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Indianapolis. The contract with WNAC-TV was announced by Norman Knight, executive vice president and general manager of the Yankee Network Division of RKO Teleradio Pictures, Inc. WNAC-TV already has feature packages including films from RKO, Columbia, 20th Century Fox and United Artists. Some weeks ago, WHBQ-TV Memphis, also operated by RKO Teleradio, licensed the pre1948 MGM library for a sum said to be in the vicinity of $1 million [B*T, March 4]. Another sale reported last week was lease of the MGM library to KBET-TV Sacramento for about $750,000. VTR Won't Bring End to Film, Snyder Assures Film Executives New York independent film producers and laboratory executives were reassured Thursday that the increased use and development of video tape recording will not seal their doom. Speaking before the monthly meeting of the National Television Film Council, Ross H. Snyder, manager of Special Product Sales, Ampex Corp., Redwood City, Calif., said that in the future of television, VTR and film will work hand-in-hand. He granted that "there are applications in television where tape can produce a better quality at a lower cost (i.e., where a production is to be played back a limited number of times), but at the same time, there are applications in tv where film can produce a better picture at lower cost." He explained that this application is "where a film is made through a live camera, later edited and copied for widespread distribution." He added, "A great many people don't realize that while VTR can produce as good a picture as live tv is capable of transmitting, live film (as opposed to "hot kine") transmits a better picture than live tv possibly can produce." Though Mr. Snyder admitted that "the analogy isn't perfect . . . but not a bad one at that," he declared that VTR and film will have the same relationship to one another as tape and discs have today in radio. Mr. Snyder "welcomed" the opportunity to meet with the New York film executives because it allowed him to "clear up" several misconceptions about VTR. He described how Ampex VTR works and the economies it effects through widespread use. He said Page 92 • April 29, 1957 Broadcasting Telecasting