Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

ual viewing hours, and thus a decline in total viewing hours per week for the first time in the study's history. Social-Leisure Time • The return to more activities away from the home, which increased last year, has been maintained this year. But, the report notes, the renewed activity outside the home "does not make as deep a cut in tv viewing as might be expected." Reasons: the increase itself is small for any one evening, and people rearrange tv viewing rather than eliminate it entirely. Movie Attendance • It fell off 77% when a tv set was purchased in the early growth of television. This downward trend was reversed in 1953, and by 1955 attendance by people in tv homes reached a posttv peak though still less than two-thirds the pre-tv level. Last year it received a setback, dropping to the level of the early tv years, but this year attendance is up once more but not at the 1955 level. The study finds no "apparent" trend. Reading • Magazine reading in tv homes has been hit hard again this year. The level about equals what it was in the early 1950's. During the first year of tv in the home, magazine reading on a weekday evening dropped 53%. In 1953, the downward spiral was arrested, and reading increased in 1954 and 1955. But last year and this year, magazine reading has been dropping steadily. The number of adults in the tv home reading newspapers, however, has remained quite steady (within a few minutes) over the years. There has been a high level maintained over the years. Radio • The report states that, initially, tv's impact on radio during evening hours was severe. Only 5% of people in tv homes in 1951 listened to radio at some time during weekday evenings (compared to 60% in those same homes before the family obtained its tv set). But, since then, evening radio listening has been on the upswing: 8% in 1952, 9% in 1953, 10% in 1954 and 1955, 12% in 1956 and 16% this year. Much of this evening radio listening is concentrated in early evening hours. The study for the past several years has included a census of radio ownership. In Videotown, 94% of all families have one or more radios, very near the national average and the same as last year. There's been a slight drop in multiple radio ownership since 1954 — from 47% to 45% in tv homes; from 37% to 32% in non-tv homes. Tv homes average two radios, non-tv 1.8. Set Sales • The replacement factor now accounts for most sales, with the other chief reason being "impulse buying." Two (and more) tv set homes rose from only 1% in 1951 to 8.7% last year and 10% this year. Portables account for many second sets (2% of set owners have them, and 10% are expecting to buy a new set because it is a portable). In 1956, nearly 9% of all Videotown tv sales were portable sets. Radio Location • Of interest in Videotown are figures for percentage of radios according to room location in the home. In homes with more than one radio, the bedroom is becoming the favorite room. In 1954, in tv homes, 51% of radios were in living rooms, 47% in 1956 and 40% this year; 56% in 1954 were in bedrooms, 71% last year and 77% this year; 54% in kitchens in 1954, up to 66% last year and 69% this year. Lineup in non-tv homes last year: 85% in the living room, 52% in the bedroom and the same number in the kitchen; this year, 76%, 79% and 69%, respectively. A similar movement away from the living room is seen in one-radio homes, but there the kitchen is the room which gains. Videotown also carries its revisions on a breakdown of families into upper middle and lower income groups. These figures are of little significance except for showing an obvious trend to more middle class (which benefits the community as a test city). VIDEOTOWN COOL TO COLOR; ENTHUSIASM DOWN FROM '56 Color tv is not much further along in Videotown this year than it was 12 months ago, according to Cunningham & Walsh's 10th annual survey of tv in its "typical" U. S. community (New Brunswick, N. J.). Last year, 23% of respondents in tv homes had seen a color telecast; this year 25%. Last year about three-fifths were favorably impressed; this year two-fifths, a turnabout in the percentage of people who generally liked or disliked color. Color also lost some ground with people who were asked directly if they desired to own a color tv set (not if they would buy one). A little over half would like to own one compared to more than three-fifths last year. A shift in emphasis on reasons for not owning a color tv set was detected this year. In 1956, 74% said they were dissat isfied with the quality of the color pictures (by those who saw a color program), and cost was mentioned by 21%. This year 40% were dissatisfied while 37% asserted they liked what they already have. Cost was mentioned by 24%. The breakdown was similar among those who had never seen a color program: 42% objected to cost, 37% preferred black-andwhite or their own set and 20% didn't look forward to color because of experience with color movies or from hearsay on color in tv. Last year those respondents who mentioned the approximate price range they thought was "fair" for color placed the figures between $300 and $400 or a median of $363. This year the "fair" price dropped — between $300 to $325, or a median of $320. Of those expecting to buy a new set this year, 10% said they would buy color — actually only 0.4% of the total tv families. The report notes "there is still no evidence of rapid expansion of color set sales." UNIQUE YET TYPICAL CITY MATURES WITH THE MEDIUM Videotown was set up by Cunningham & Walsh in 1948 for its clients and its own staff to answer questions about "tv's value as an advertising medium" and about "its influence on human behavior." Since that time, the agency has repeated the survey each year to obtain a continuing measure of growth "of this important new medium." The community actually is New Bruns Broadcasting December 9, 1957 • Page 33