Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1961)

Record Details:

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This Fall in Birmingham 19 OF THE TOP 20 SHOWS * WILL BE THE CREAM OF NBC AND CBS TV NETWORKS ★ GUNSMOKE ★ ANDY GRIFFITH ★ DANNY THOMAS ★ GARRY MOORE ★ HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL ★ G. E. THEATER ★ CHECKMATE ★ RED SKELTON ★ CANDID CAMERA ★ I'VE GOT A SECRET ★ RAWHIDE ★ JACK BENNY ★ BONANZA ★ DUPONT SHOW ★ DENNIS THE MENACE ★ TO TELL THE TRUTH ★ (SYNDICATED) ★ DOBIE GILLIS ★ ED SULLIVAN ★ WAGON TRAIN * ACCORDING TO ARB, MARCH 1961, THESE SHOWS REACHED MORE HOMES THAN ANY OTHER. 1VAIM-TV £p CHANNEL 13 ( BIRMINGHAM, ALA. REPRESENTED BY HARRINGTON, RIGHTER AND PARSONS, INC. OPTION-TIME COMMENTS Networks tell FCC practice is reasonable and necessary for continued operation The three tv networks and affiliated stations made new pleas to the FCC Friday (Oct. 6) for the retention of option time while KTTV (TV) Los Angeles again urged the commission to ban the practice and all other exclusive arrangements as well. Often argued in the past before many forums, the practice of time optioning was the subject of further comments in the commission's reopened rulemaking. The networks again pleaded that the time-honored custom is reasonable and necessary for a continuation of the present broadcast system. A year ago the FCC ordered a cutback, effective last Jan. 1, of the time an affiliate may option to its network from 3 to 2V2 hours during four separate periods of the day. This action was taken on a 4-3 vote. Last spring, by a 5-2 vote, the commission asked the Court of Appeals to remand the earlier action for further consideration. The case was in the court on the appeal of KTTV which maintained option time is a violation of the antitrust laws and should be abolished entirely. The commission then asked for further comments directed toward (a) if time optioning, apart from whether it is legal under the antitrust laws, is in the public interest, and (b) if time optioning should be found to be contrary to the public interest, what form of rule should be promulgated to effectuate its prohibition. Reply comments will not be accepted and oral argument is scheduled for Nov. 3. KTTV Solution ■ Independent KTTV maintained the commission should not only abolish option time but should prohibit any station from devoting more than 75% of its time during prime hours to programs from a single source. Such a rule would restore full responsibility for programming to the licensee and would bring the benefits of free enterprise to tv by providing access to the medium for all programming sources, KTTV said. "It would do this by preventing the existing power of the network companies . . . from being employed to compel stations to accept programs on an exclusive dealing basis, rather than on the basis of individual merit," the station said. At the present time, KTTV continued, the three-network control of programming is stronger and more extensive than ever. "Mere prohibition of the option-time practice will not reduce that control one iota unless the commission also takes affirmative steps to ensure some meas ure of free choice to the licensee in its selection of programs and some measure of competitive opportunity to nonnetwork program sources and non-network advertisers." ABC Operations ■ ABC gave a detailed explanation of each of the separate operations of a network designed to show that option time is necessary and tied-in to each one. Primarily, the network made these points: (1) the network system operates in the public interest and is essential to the development, expansion and success of quality tv, and (2) option time is the keystone to the survival of broadcasting as it exists today. The network said that its annual broadcasting expenses are substantially over $100 million and that 3% of this total goes into the development of new programming. Such an investment would not be possible without the assurance that affiliates will carry offered programming, ABC said. All that goes into the makeup of a vast network complex is an undeniable conclusion that the same functions could not be undertaken by individual stations or non-network organizations, ABC maintained. Option time was further compared to the circulation guarantee offered by print media and if abolished all operations of networks and advertisers in the public interest would be crippled, the network said. No other conclusion can be drawn except that option time is necessary and in the public interest ABC said. It could think of no worthwhile substitute. All three networks quoted from the FCC's 1960 decision that, irrespective of antitrust considerations, option time is "reasonable and necessary." CBS noted that on three separate occasions the commission has found that optiontime practices were in the public interest. With this in mind, CBS said that the FCC already has answered in the affirmative its first question. "Moreover, in the light of the existing record, any attempt now ... to decree a total abolition of option time would be manifestly unfair and would . . . constitute a serious abuse of the administrative process." CBS also questioned the move by the FCC to reconsider the case after a change in the agency's personnel (Chairman Newton N. Minow has replaced Charles H. King on the FCC since the 1960 order). "Administrative chaos would result if a regulatory agency may properly change its definition of 68 (GOVERNMENT) BROADCASTING, October 9, 1961