Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

ADVERTISERS AND AGENCIES The objective is to obtain for the Commission the most useful information and data upon which it may base its conclusion in the matter. Accordingly, the Commission has requested the interested parties to submit statements informing us as to their views on specific questions relating to the conditions and factors which would govern the conduct of trial demonstrations of subscription television. With respect to the specific questions raised in your letter, the Commission feels that it would be premature at this time to attempt to state its views on matters as basic to the proceeding as those presented by you. The Commission has not as yet. except to the extent indicated in the attached Further Notice, made any final determinations on several of the fundamental problems facing it in this proceeding and which were contained in the original Notice of Proposed Rule-Making issued on Feb. 11, 1955. It is our belief that the detailed information which we expect will be submitted in response to the Further Notice will be extremely pertinent and helpful in the resolution of these questions. More particularly, you will note that the information called for is of the very nature which is necessary for an adequate response to the policy questions raised in your letter of April 19. 1957. In addition, such information should also enable the Commission to determine whether amendatory legislation is required and should be recommended to the Congress in connection with subscription television service. The Commission feels that its reply will be considerably more meaningful and useful to your Commmittee if it is based upon an evaluation of the specific data, information, and viewpoints of the parties submitted in response to the enclosed Further Notice. We are, however, in a position to provide the factual information you request with respect to the volume of comments received by the Commission in the proceeding in Docket 11279, as follows: The major comments in the subscription television proceeding were filed by the following parties: Proponents: Skiatron Electronics & Television Corp., Skiatron Tv Inc.; International Telemeter Corp.: Zenith Radio Corp.: Teco Inc. Networks: ABC, CBS, NBC. Associations: Joint Committee on Toll Tv, NARTB. Equipment Manufacturers: Jerrold Electronics Corp. In addition to the foregoing, briefer comments were filed by a number of vhf and uhf stations and by organizations including educational institutions and others. Informal letters expressing views pro and con have been received from over 28.000 members of the public. I trust that the foregoing will suffice, for the present, as a response to your letter. You may be assured that the Commission will keep your Committee advised of further developments in this proceeding and will, as expeditiously as possible in the circumstances, respond to the matters raised in your letter following the receipt and evaluation of the comments requested in the Votice of Further proceedings. KUDNER DROPS GM TAB TO MJ&A • $6 million institutional: NBC-TV 'Wide Wide World' • $5 million radio-tv budget for Pontiac marks jump A SWITCH of the General Motors Corp. institutional advertising budget — from the Kudner Agency to MacManus. John & Adams. Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and New York — was only one reason for joy in the MJ&A camp last week. In addition to GM's $6 million "institutional buy" — unprecedented in automobile history — of all of Wide Wide World on NBC-TV, MJ&A got unofficial word that a quadrupled Pontiac Motors Division broadcast budget of S5 million will be added to the agency billings for next season. The agency president, Ernest A. Jones, had just finished adressing over 150 of MJ&A"s key personnel at a two-day management session at Bloomfield Hills headquarters when approval of the Pontiac budget came through. Mr. Jones had predicted MJ&A"s billings would reach $100 million by 1955 and based this optimism on the past record of agency growth. While total advertising billing has increased 134% since 1947. he declared, that of MJ&A has shot up 317%. Presently it stands at over $37 million, he said. The figure shortly will be changed to $48 million. The GM institutional purchase, announced jointly last Wednesday by GM President Harlowe H. Curtice and NBC President Robert W. Sarnoff. is all of Wide Wide World next season in its regular 45:30 p.m. time slot on Sunday. Effective Sept. 15. GM will sponsor 20 ninety-minute programs every other Sunday WWW will alternate with Omnibus, so far to be sponsored by only one advertiser, this past season^ Union Carbide Co. (Also scheduled for the 4-5:30 p.m. spot next season on NBCTV are four sports spectaculars as yet unannounced). The GM purchase is of interest for these reasons: • Pegged at $6 million, it is understood to represent the largest single tv outlay by an automobile manufacturer for "institutional" advertising in a single tv season. Chrysler Corp.'s sole institutional efforts to date have been last year's It's a Great Life on NBC-TV and the current CBS-TV Climax-Shower of Stars. This weekly CBS-TV hour-long series is estimated to run into a figure of $4 million per season. Ford Motor Co. is not now sponsoring an "institutional" tv show, having dropped CBS-TV Ford Star Jubilee and having bowed out of NBC-TV Producers' Showcase last season. • In former seasons. WWW was purchased by GM and then reassigned to its divisions, among them. Delco-Remv and AC Sparkplug. Involved were several agencies, now one will handle the show. • It marks an end to the reign of Kudner Agency as the "institutional agency" for GM, although the WWW purchase does not affect Kudner's status as the Buick agency. The additional $5 million gained by MJ&A in broadcast billing for GM has not been announced formallv. but it entails Pon tiac's 1957-58 radio-tv budget, representing a jump of $3.5 million over this past season's expenditures. A proposal for the 1 95758 ad strategy was submitted to Detroit GM officials a month ago and won approval. Just as the 1958 Pontiac wiil undergo a facelifting job, so will its advertising strategy. Bullish on tv in the 1955-56 season (NBC-TV Playwrights '56 and other network tv sponsorships), Pontiac cut broadcast expenditures drastically this past season, being seen o:i only one show — the Dec. 30, 1956 pro-football sportscast on NBC-TV. Pontiac spent SI million on its 1957 newmodel announcement campaign, scattered radio-tv spot drives and the MBS Notre Dame U. football series. This past spring, it souped up its radio activity with recent purchases of the NBC Radio hourly newscasts and in CBS Radio's segmentation plan. All told, its 1956-57 broadcast budget could safely be estimated at no more than $1.6 million. The 1957-58 strategy for Pontiac. envisioned by MJ&A and approved by GM: » It plans to use approximately SI. 5 million worth of network tv time, sponsoring four or five spectaculars, two of which already have been firmed up on NBC-TV. These are the Mary Martin "Annie Get Your Gun" musical extravaganza, which Pontiac will co-sponsor with Pepsi-Cola Co. (through Kenyon & Eckhardt) on Nov. 27. It has signed, too. for the Dec. 29 pro football World Series on NBC-TV, but has an option to relinquish parts of this to other sponsors, should Pontiac wish to redistribute its tv coin at a later date. The remaining three spectaculars are not yet scheduled but Pontiac expects to be on with them the end of February, end of March and end of May. • It plans to spend $2 million in tv spot announcements in the top 35 markets, with the intention of staying in these markets for periods up to 52 weeks. This is based on Pontiac's and the agency's desire to "latch on" to the best possible time slots during the day and evening. The $2 million spot figure conceivably may mark not only a "first" for Pontiac, but for the entire auto manufacturing industry. Although auto dealers and associations from time to time have spent considerably more in spot, this Pontiac purchase may mark the first time an automaker has had a spot campaign of this scope. • Another $750,000 has been allocated toward a 13-week radio spot campaign to coincide with announcement time for the new model. This drive will go into 80-90 markets, but will not represent the actual announcement campaign. This push will enter the nation's living rooms via 1,400 radio stations, probably around the end of November. (Pontiac, as conscious of the competition as the next automaker, naturally won't divulge unveiling dates). • Beginning Sept. 22. Pontiac will sponsor the MBS Notre-Dame U. football eames. Broadcasting Telecasting .\/rtv 27. 1957 Pase