Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

BROADCASTING THE B U S I N E S S W E E K L Y OF TELEVISION AND RADIO Spec/a/ Holiday Rotes ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION 52 WEEKLY ISSUES— $7.00 EACH ADDITIONAL GIFT— $6.00 Please send 52 issues of BROADCASTING as my gift to-. title/position *7 00 company name street & number city state Sign gift card. title/ position company name $1 3.OO street & number city Sign gift card. title/ position company name $19 00 street & number city Sign gift card. title/ position company name $25 .00 street & number city state Sign gift card. >< a O additional subscriptions may be listed separately at $5.00 \ ] I enclose $ ] please bill street & number implication yot) will be 'aievSt^^-^^^^n 6, D. C. PROGRAM SERVICES continued works will be forced — if they are to stay alive as a business — to become purveyors of "box office" entertainment to the few who can pay. This followed the tenor of earlier remarks by NBC's Sarnoff that if pay tv emerges, the networks would have "no choice but to follow the pay tide." [Lead Story, Oct. 28]. Outlining ABC's push this year as serious competition, Mr. Treyz cited the network's increased share of its sponsored evening time periods in the competitive markets — up 41% from Nov. '56 — and the fact that by next year ABC will be the only network with a vhf affiliate in each major metropolitan market. This competition, Mr. Treyz noted, is good for advertising and good for the people. If pay tv becomes a reality, no third network, and possibly no network at all, could afford to buck the competition. Calif. Outlets' Poll Swamps Pay Tv Offer Toll tv proponents who clamor for the public to be the judge in the subscription television hassle would do well to curb such confidence — at least in the Salinas-Monterey and San Luis Obispo areas of California. The reason: the public was asked there and only four people voted for pay tv while 5,002 were recorded as opposing the fee system. John C. Cohan, principal owner of KSBW-TV Salinas-Monterey and co-owner of KSBY-TV San Luis Obispo, last week explained that the project to get a pulse beat of the communities was undertaken as the result of numerous requests to the stations for an explanation of toll tv. A special television program was developed in which free television, closed-circuit tv and toll tv were explained with appropriate drawings. Then a condensed version of a kinescope used previously on KRONTV San Francisco was shown. In it the mayor and city attorney of San Francisco held a roundtable discussion with the station special events director and various newsmen from the Bay Area. Prior to presenting this material on KSBW-TV (ch. 8) and KSBY-TV (ch. 6), it was made clear to the audience that the main purpose was to explain the three sys NAYS HAVE IT As of last Thursday, the tabulation of Sen. William Langer's (R-N.D.) 8,500 letter poll of Bartlesville, Okla., residents on the question of pay tv [Special Report on Toll Tv, Nov. 4] stood at 1,930 against, 163 in favor. Many of the 2,093 persons who answered Sen. Langer's questionnaire, regardless of their views on the subject, refused to consider the Bartlesville Telemovie system as belonging in the toll tv category. In the Telemovies system operating there, subscribers pay $9.50 plus tax per month to see first run and rerun motion pictures via coaxial cable on their tv sets. Page 34 • November 11, 1957 Broadcasting