The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

42 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN March-April, 1953 THE PROBLEMS of SPONSORED TV This survey of sponsored TV in America was prepared by A.C.T's Executive Committee for consideration by A.C.T's Annual General Meeting in April, where a final decision on A.C.T's policy on Sponsored TV will be made The survey does not therefore represent A.C.T's official views on the subject. It is published here for the information of A.C.T. members and all others interested in the future of TV in Britain Introduction: Ten out of the eleven members of the Broadcasting Committee which was held under the Chairmanship of Lord Beveridge and reported in 1949 were against commercially sponsored radio or television. The eleventh member, Mr. Selwyn Lloyd, Conservative M.P., was in favour of it " as a means of avoiding the dangers of monopoly, of giving traders a new facility, and indeed of improving the broadcasting service." Three members of the Committee were in favour of " allowing traders the facility of the ether for making their goods known to the public," though agreeing that broadcast programmes should be devised as at present as a public service without any influence from a sponsor. Seven members thought that " no case has been made out for departing from the established practice of barring broadcast advertisement completely and that it would be wrong to depart from this in practice; they hold that there are ample means of advertising goods otherwise than on the ether and that to admit advertisement there would sooner or later endanger the tradition of public service, high standards and impartiality which have been built up in the past 25 years." We are not concerned in this Memorandum with the merits or demerits of permitting controlled advertisements on radio or television; it is no doubt arguable that such advertisements would not detract from standards any more than the advertisements often displayed between films at many cinemas. This Memorandum is concerned solely with sponsored programmes in which the advertiser arranges or is responsible for the actual programme and its contents. It should also be noted that here in theory sponsored programmes need not necessarily mean commercially sponsored programmes. It has been argued by a number of organisations that some part of the facilities for radio and television should be taken out of the hands of the B.B.C. and put under other non-commercial auspices; with this discussion we are not here concerned either, but confine ourselves to commercially sponsored programmes. There are two ways in which commercially sponsored programmes could be introduced into television in this country. The first is by way of that Clause in the B.B.C. Charter, re-enacted in the new Charter last summer, which prohibits any commercial advertisement or sponsored programme without the written consent of the Postmaster-General. Consent for this, according to the Beveridge Committee, has in practici " neither been sought nor given." If it were given now, so far as television is concerned, it would mean that a certain proportion of time would be allowed for sponsored programmes from the B.B.C.'s own television stations. The second is by way of new television stations to be built and equipped by sponsors who would then be able to offer an alternative programme simultaneously with the B.B.C.'s own programmes. This proposal was put forward in the Government White Paper which was published on May 15th. 1952 (and debated in the House of I. cuds 22nd ami 26th May, 1952; and in the House of Commons 11th June, 1952), when it was pointed out that the licensing of other bodies to broadcast television programmes would involve the use of higher frequencies; thai new stations and studios would be required, which would have to be provided from the sponsors' own financial resources; and that a controlling body would be required to regulate the conduct of tin new stations, to exercise a general