Broadcasting (Apr - June 1960)

Sun will never set on UK tv says new British advisor Television for the colonies is the aim of the British Colonial Office. It has just appointed an adviser on television. He is 52-year-old Commander John Proud, a retired Australian Navy pilot. Comdr. Proud took over his new office in London last month. He had just completed setting up a publicly owned broadcast service in British Honduras. Before that, from 1955 to 1959, he was a special consultant to the Cyprus government where he aided in establishing the Cyprus Broadcasting Corp., which handles both radio and tv, and to the Kenya government where he was chairman of a special commission on the establishment of tv there. The form of television in the British colonies may be seen in the Kenya recommendations, Comdr. Proud explained recently in Washington. That commission recommended the establishment of a public corporation to operate a commercial tv system. The corporation will include on its board representatives of various ethnic and administrative levels of the Kenya government. Capital will be supplied mostly by local stockholders. A fixed rate of return will be set. Six Minutes Per Hour ■ Commercials, the commission suggested, should be limited to not more than six minutes per hour. The commission estimated that the Kenya system should break even in the third year of operation and should be making a profit of $250,000 by its tenth year. From the time of his retirement in World War II, due to injuries, to 1955 Comdr. Proud was director of overseas Cmdr. Proud Colonial tv adviser broadcasting of the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The British colonies are hungry for television, Comdr. Proud said. This is more than keeping up with the Jones’, he explained. It is a vital element in bringing education and enlightenment to the vast numbers of semi-literate and illiterate people of the colonies. Comdr. Proud toured the United States from March 22 to April 9. He visited Ampex, RCA, Ling Electronics, Armed Forces Radio Network, United States Information Agency’s Voice of America, educational station KQED (TV) San Francisco, commercial station WNTA-TV New York, TV-Radio Educational Center, New York and the National Education Assn., Washington. Malta Next ■ First major effort, Comdr. Proud reported, will be to help the government of Malta select a company to build a commercial tv system. After that, he said, he will work on the establishment of a tv system at Gibralter, then Nigeria and most likely the British West Indies. Almost all the British colonies (comprising 2 million square miles and more than 75 million people) have radio broadcasting, Comdr. Proud stated. Television in the colonies began in 1957 with the establishment of a wired service in Hong Kong. This is a companion to the wired radio service there. In October of 1957 a non-commercial, pilot tv service began in Cyprus. In January 1958 a commercial service was initiated in Bermuda, and in October last year a commercial tv service was inaugurated in the Western Region of Nigeria. Tv service is in the planning stage for Gibralter, Malta, Kenya, Aden, Bahamas and the remainder of Nigeria. Financial aid will be extended through the United Kingdom Colonial Development & Welfare Fund, Comdr. Proud explained. This fund was established in 1949 with $2.5 million. Allied with the various dependency governments is Overseas Redifusion Ltd., a private company which has arrangements to operate and furnish program and advertising material to radio services in Hong Kong, Singapore, Western Region of Nigeria. Trinidad, Jamaica, British Guiana, Malta and Bermuda. It also handles the commercial side of tv in Bermuda. Redifusion is expected to play a major role in television also. the network. Hubert Federspiel, Costa Rican businessman and stockholder in Televisora de Costa Rica, was elected president at CATVN’s first board of directors meeting, which was held May 9 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Televisora United Press International C y ■ Facsimile Newspictures and United Press Movietone News ilm Build Ratings L ■ de Costa Rica, which started operations this month, is the first tv station in that country. Other officers named: Miguel Brooks of KRTG-TV Honduras, vice president; Simon B. Siegel, financial vice president of AB-PT Inc., treasurer; William Klein, AB-PT attorney, secretary, and John H. Mitchell, formerly vice president of KGO-AM-TV San Francisco, general manager. The American Broadcasting Co. owns CATVN in partnership with five Central American stations. CBC’s football plans Arrangements have been completed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and both eastern and western Canadian football leagues to telecast games next fall. CBC paid $125,000 to the Western 116 BROADCASTING, May 16, 1960