Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

three in Italy; two in France; three in Luxembourg and others in Belgium, Switzerland and Monaco. Ziv has sold six programs in Australia and three shows in the Philippines. Ziv is producing New Adventures of ■ Martin Kane in England. Television Programs of America: In its first year of operations last year, TPA International grossed about $2.8 million and '| the figure is likely to rise this year, particu: larly because of expansion in activities, j highlighted by a co-production transaction i with Canada on Hawkeye and Last of The 1 1 Mohicans. These series become elegible for 1 commonwealth distribution outside Britain's J unofficial quota system. TPA International, headed by Manny J Reiner, currently distributes 14 film pro(] grams abroad, including Lassie for Jack :| Wrather. The company is active in Aust tralia which, outside of England, pays the . highest prices for programs, according to | Mr. Reiner. TPA series there include Lassie, . Count of Monte Cristo, Hawkeye and Last J of The Mohicans. i In England, TPA has sold Lassie, Private i Secretary, Fury, Monte Cristo and New Adventures of Charlie Chan, which now is j in production in England, plus several other i series. In Latin America, distribution inj eludes Lassie, for Kellogg Co.; Fury, Labj oratorios Picot; Stage 7, Corporacion Nail cional Electronica; Monte Cristo, National | Biscuit Co.; Lone Ranger, Borden Co., and | Monte Cristo, Campbell Soup and BristolI Myers. Mr. Reiner, who has a long background j of foreign sales experience with such companies as Samuel Goldwyn Productions and i David O. Selznick Productions, views TPA's . international operation as "at least a breaki|] even proposition at present," but believes . "the future is bright for companies with i know-how." Though dubbing is expensive, [ he claims that his experience at TPA has > been generally that films have been sold at I a higher price than the dubbing costs in all countries. He finds currency restrictions I and program time quotas "irksome." but not i an insurmountable consideration, j Though the larger proportion of adver| tisers abroad are American affiliates, Mr. || Reiner believes that local companies can || be persuaded in increasing numbers to \e invest in tv films. TPA, he said, has com; pleted various transactions with Latin Amerijj can advertisers, and he is convinced that (I other home-grown business organizations in foreign countries will "take" to tv films. i Screen Gems: This company is regarded j by other major distributors as probably the < top company in the foreign field in overall , volume, represented with programs in 13 . countries in Europe; 12 countries in Latin . America and in Australia, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines. The six leading buyers of Screen Gems properties, according to John Mitchell, vice 1 president in charge of sales, are (in order : of gross volume) : England, Italy, Germany, Belgium, France and Luxembourg, with England far and away the leader, purchasing 10 times as much in dollar volume as Italy. In England, Screen Gems programs are All-Star Theatre, Rin Tin Tin, Celeb I Broadcasting • Telecasting rity Playhouse, Patti Page Show, Jungle Jim and Father Knows Best. In the far eastern area, Australia is the leading purchaser of Screen Gems' properties, but Mr. Mitchell believes that Japan shortly will become the top market there. (Several distributors pointed out that English-language programs are shown in Japan, either with an announcer explaining the action or a Japanese cast hired to provide the dialogue. ) Screen Gems' Latin American operation has been in existence about seven months and already more than 23 sales have been made. Programs on the air (in Spanish) include All-Star Theatre, Rin Tin Tin, Jungle Jim, Tales of The Texas Rangers and Hollywood Mystery Parade. Countries which are telecasting SG series are Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina, with contracts signed for Guatemala, San Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic. Sponsors in Latin America include Nestle, BristolMyers, Coty, Sylvania-Frigidaire, Corn Products Refining Co., Procter & Gamble, Colgate, Stokley Van Camp, Del Monte, Goodyear Tire & Rubber. Max Factor, Esso .Standard Oil and various local advertisers. Since Screen Gems is a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, SG is not perturbed about currency regulations overseas. It was pointed out that these funds can be utilized in the many countries where Columbia Pictures maintains offices to defray expenses for these branches and to produce films for either the motion picture company or Screen Gems. SG currently is filming Ivanhoe in England with frozen funds and plans other production ventures abroad in the near future. ABC Film Syndication: This company is moving slowly but surely into the international field and has set up a staff under Don Kearney, vice president in charge of sales, that includes Leon Kagan, coordinator for Latin American sales; Jose Novas Jr. in Venezuela and Ray Falk in Tokyo. Plans are being completed to add representatives in Mexico, Argentina, London and Paris. The company has sold seven film series in 10 countries, including Japan, Cuba, Mexico, Havana, Puerto Rico, Germany, TV ACROSS THE ATLANTIC MR. McCRAY TELEVISION abroad is not the mass medium it is in the U. S., Thomas C. McCray, NBC vice president and general manager of NBC-owned KRCA (TV) Los Angeles, said on his return from a month's trip to Europe. In France and Denmark, he saw tv only by visiting the government operated stations. In Italy, there were tv sets in the hotels, in special rooms set aside for viewing by the hotel's guests. Only in England did he find tv sets in private homes and only in England was there any competition between stations for the viewer's attention. Mr. McCray emphasized that he went abroad as a tourist, not as a student of television, and that what he saw in this brief stay in the various European countries, outside of a few hours spent with officials of the broadcasting companies, was just about what any tourist would have seen. "Television was not the reason for the trip," he said. "It was pure vacation and I didn't allow tv to interfere. So I make no claims to being an expert and no pretense to having any special knowledge about tv abroad." Two things about foreign tv that impressed him, he said, were the uniformly good picture quality — whether the pictures had 405 lines as in England, 650 as in Italy and Denmark, or 819 as in France — and the lack of programming know-how that is taken for granted by American telecasters and viewers alike. "This is probably natural in view of the newness of tv in most of Europe," he said, "and with the limited schedules and even more limited budgets of the government operated tv systems. "The people in charge of television abroad are even more aware of their shortcomings than a visitor is and to me it seemed that they have an almost exaggerated idea of how much better tv is in America. It is better, but not as much as they think. But everywhere I went, before I could get out my questions about their operations, they would be peppering me with questions about how we do things over here and I'd wind up being interviewed rather than doing the interviewing myself." In Italy, Mr. McCray reported, commercials on tv are limited to two-minute commercials which are put on one after the other in a ten-minute block at about 8:30 each weekday. France has no commercials, nor has Denmark, he said, adding that one experiment in Denmark, when advertising was accepted in connection with a program designed to raise funds for Hungarian relief, evoked such strong opposition that the Danish tv authorities doubted whether commercial tv could ever be instituted. Mr. McCray said he had not seen enough of the commercial tv setup in England to comment on either its programming or on the advertising on tv there, but he reported that from conversations with BBC officials he gathered that the introduction of commercial competition had given BBC a shot in the arm, that it was revamping its programming in an effort to keep viewers from deserting.