Canadian Film Weekly (May 8, 1957)

Page 8 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY May 8, 1957 JOHN GRIERSON (Continued from Page 1) was introduced to the members by Ralph Foster, former Deputy National Film Commissioner of Canada, and was thanked by Hye Bossin, editor of this publication. The famed Scot, often called the father of the documentary film movement, came to Canada in 1938 and established the National Film Board, which has since won wide recognition for Canada as a maker of fact films. He resigned in 1945 and later joined Unesco. After returning to Britain he became comptroller of the film section of the Department of Information, under which the Crown Film Unit was operating. On leaving that post after his task of examining film matters was finished, he made several features under the Group Three arrangement by the government. He began his Canadian lecture tour at the University of British Columbia and was heard on the hour-long CBC TV program, Explorations, from Vancouver. Later he visited various parts of the Canadian Northwest, including the Mackenzie Basin. He spoke in Ottawa under the auspices of the local Film Council, the chairman being the Honorable J. W. Pickersgill, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, who is responsible to Parliament for the National Film Board. Also present in the National Museum theatre were Ross McLean and Dr. A. W. Trueman, both former Government Film Commissioners. After addressing the producers in Toronto on a Saturday, he appeared on the CBC TV program chaired by Nathan Cohen, along with Thorold Dickinson, UN information section film and TV head; Walter O’Hearn, drama and literary editor of The Montreal Star; and Morley Callaghan, author. On Monday night in Toronto Grierson spoke at the Unitarian Church under the sponsorship of the Film Societies and Film Council of Toronto. An hour earlier he was interviewed on Tabloid. Grierson has been warmly welcomed everywhere in Canada. He still has the gift that brought such a secure place in Canadian intellectual life. ‘He starts people thinking,” is what Foster said about him to the luncheon guests. They found it to be truer than ever. FOR SALE 16MM Equipment complete with two Projectors, two Arc Lamps, etc. In almost new con dition. Purchase price new $5,500. Make us an offer. BILTMORE THEATRES 221 Victoria St., Toronto Subscription Television “Although we do not think we can, for the present, recommend the introduction of subscription television in Canada, whether on public or private stations, the door should not be closed to the idea for the future” —Report of the Royal Commission on Broadcasting. Following is what the Commission had to say on the subject of pay-as-you-see TV: HE Commission heard spokesmen for the separate briefs of three different companies proposing the _ introduction in the Canadian broadcasting system of a television service by individual subscription. This service would consist of televised programmes made available through the use of electronic devices of various designs, only to the owner of a receiving set agreeing to pay a given fee for a particular programme. In this way he would be paying an admission fee much as he would do were he, for example, a spectator at the theatre, the cinema, the concert hall or the stadium. The companies who put the proposals forward are the Zenith Radio Corporation and Teco Inc., of Chicago, IIll., the TransCanada Telemeter Corporation, a Canadian subsidiary of Famous Players Corporation, of Los Angeles, California, and the Skiatron Electronics and Television Corporation of New York City. Although the patented devices of subscription television differ in design from one manufacturer to the other, the notion behind each one is essentially the same: it involves the scrambling and the unscrambling of the signal received. The subscriber is informed in advance of the nature and content of the programmes to be offered over a period of time and of the fee that each one calls for. The programmes thus offered to the subscriber appear in scrambled form — both the sound and the image — on his screen until they are unscrambled through the operation of an_ ingenious decoding device of which each individual subscriber has a key fitting only his own receiving set. It is therefore not possible — so at least is the contention of the manufacturers of the various devices — for a viewer to intrude on a subscription programme unless he pays the required fee. PERSUASIVE arguments are marshalled by protagonists of subscription television. It is certain that under the regime of gratuitous telecasting now existing, many spectacles of merit may be held off the air because they appeal only to audiences limited in number and for that reason do not draw commercial sponsorship. It is argued, with plausibility, that quality spectacles, for instance in the realm of drama, or spectacles of interest to educators, to scientists or to practitioners of surgery and medicine, to mention only a few possibilities, might be telecast in greater abundance if the general public were in a position to support their presentation through the payment of a fee. In this manner, it is suggested a variety of programmes might be produced, for paying audiences, that otherwise might never see the light at all. However alluring the perspective thus painted we find it difficult to look upon subscription television as a rightful use of the air waves. Would not subscription television tend to narrow the field of broadcasting when the general drive is rather toward expansion? And how could the use of the public domain for individual rather than general service be justified? Two questions which raise serious doubts. Also surrounded with difficulties, in our minds, is the manner of introducing subscription television in the Canadian broadcasting system, a system supported partly by commercial revenue, partly by government grants. In a sense, Canada already has a crude form of subscription television in the shape of tax revenue applied to broadcasting. It could be argued, moreover, that the cost of collection is probably lower under the Canadian system of ‘‘subscription”’ through taxation than under a regime of individual and direct sub WE POSSESS *A RECOGNIZED AUTHORITY The equipment that can remove SCRATCHES from films, either negative or positive stock — 16 and 35 mm. IN CANADIAN Pil 4824 Cote des Neiges Rd, Montreal 26, Que. RE, 3-7181 | FILM PROCESSING scription. The latter, it must be noted, involves substantial costs for scrambling and unscrambling devices and for administration. PROMOTERS of subscription television are likely, furthermore, to remain subject to the same pressures for the presentation of mass appeal spectacles as are the producers of commercially sponsored programmes. It may be true in theory that subscription television could offer to relatively small audiences, at a substantial cost to the individual viewer, programmes of narrow appeal. It is more reasonable to expect, however, that the incentive of pecuniary reward would make for the offering of spectacles of wide popular appeal at a lower charge for each individual. One must bear in mind also the likelihood that subscription television would tend to canalize for its own use the great popular programmes now offered free to the viewing public, such as the major sports events and the more extravagant shows. From this would arise, as a consequence, a sort of permanent conflict between the demand of the public to continue to receive free what they have been accustomed to receive free, and the natural desire of promoters of sports events and of other forms of entertainment to raise their gains by means of the subscription device. Such a conflict of interest would be difficult to check by regulation. Finally, one fails to see how the CBC could substantially better its financial position by the use of subscription television unless the more lavish or popular productions were withdrawn from the free sector and offered to Canadian viewers for an individual fee. This would result in depriving the remainder of Canadian viewers of those spectacles, thus impairing in effect the service available to them. ALTHOUGH we do not think we can, for the present, recommend the introduction of subscription television in Canada, whether on the public or private stations, the door should not be closed to the idea for the future. There are conditions under which subscription television might play a complementary role in a broader system, and the day may come when the usefulness of this role will be demonstrated. One of the conditions might be fulfilled, for instance, when television stations in Canada have become more numerous and their services to the public more varied. There would then be less force to the objection that subscription television is likely to leave the Canadian viewer with no choice but to leave his screen dark if he is unwilling or unable to pay the required fee. ‘The Day Of The Outlaw' Robert Wagner will star in 20thFox’ The Day of the Outlaw.