Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1956)

Television Today A CONCISE REPORT AND ANALYSIS OF THE SIGNIFICANT NEWS AND EVENTS otlighting the News g Auto Money e face of dwindling auto sponsorship on the other ts, ABC-TV appears to be iigh on the largesse from It announced last week ae of the automotive indus«atest weeks on any televitwork will take place on y November 4 through 11" ven different auto accounts represented on the network, the five regular ABC-TV vertisers will be the Buick [ of General Motors, spon.he election night coverage ler 6, and the Oldsmobile presenting their 1957 Revue to introduce the new vember 8. ABC-TV's reguomotive accounts, said to he total auto business on ■tworks, include in the 1956•n: American Motors, alterek half-sponsor of Disneylevrolet Dealers of America, ship weekly of Crossroads; Division of Chrysler Cori, sponsor of the Lawrence how weekly and co-sponsor •ence Welk's Top Tunes and lent, weekly; Ford Division Motor Company, sponsor Theatre, weekly; Plymouth . of the Chrysler Corporaonsor of the Ray Anthony vveekly, and co-sponsor of :e Welk's Top Tunes and lent, weekly. BBC ain's Independent Television ty, which is commercial m, British-style, reports the cial TV audience is increas•h more rapidly now than at ;ie since the programs beyear ago. The rate of set ions is the criterion, running [y 50,000 weekly. ITA fore;otal of 3,000,000 homes for cial TV by Christmas. The 5 "seems to reflect the growmlarity of the programs," >e ITA modestly, and also i growing percentage of the time of homes able to oetween ITA and BBC. TV :identally, sold at a 30 per :her rate this July than last per cent higher this August [st. BBC's Sir Ian Jacob ently proves ITA's point by nng: "The Corporation (BBC) is going to be hard put to it to carry out its task in the coming year, particularly in television, wnere competitive pressure is constantly rising." Blue-Chip Syndication ► There are more than enough blue-chip local sponsors to justify the production of top-flight syndicated film shows at a profit, Jake Keever, director of sales for NBC Television Films, told the Pittsburgh Radio and Television Club last week. "We at NBC," said Mr. Keever, "feel most strongly that there are more than enough local sponsors to make the production of a first class, first run entertainment vehicle entirely feasible from a production standpoint, from a sales standpoint and from a successful financial standpoint." He also declared that the heavy influx of feature film will have little effect on the syndication business. "From what I have discovered talking to station owners, they are buying features only to replace their older feature films and the market for syndicated film is firm and will remain firm." TASO is Launched ► TASO, the Television Allocations Study Organization, was officially launched in Washington last week with a meeting of its board of directors. Temporary chairman is Harold E. Fellows, president of the NARTB. The new organization stems from the work of a special planning group representing five major elements of the television industry, first called together September 20 by the FCC to conduct a "crash" research program into the technical aspects of UHF and VHF. The groups represented m the organization include, besides the NARTB, the Association for Maximum Service Telecasters, the Committee for Competitive TV, the Joint Committee on Educational TV, the Radio-Electronics-Television Manufacturers Association. Color Cost ► RCA and NBC have spent more than $70,000,000 in pioneering color television. The figure comes from a man who should know, Frank M. Folsom, president of RCA, speaking late last week at the opening of a new $1,400,000 distribution center built for RCA in Los Angeles. Electronics, says the RCA chief, has become one of California's fastest growing industries, and he predicted a 60 per cent gain in the next 10 years. Echoing the RCA-NBC optimistic approach with regard to color TV, Mr. Folsom foresaw demand for the color sets soon outstripping the supply There would appear to be grounds for the optimism. TV Set Output ► Factory production of television receivers in August last showed good gains over the production total for July, it is reported by the Radio Electronics Television Manufacturers Association. The TV set output, totaling 612,927 units in August, the highest since March, nevertheless was slightly off from the August, 1955, total of 647,903. The July, 1956, total was 336,931 units, RETMA reported. For the first eight months of the current year the aggregate output of television sets was 4,820,991. New Discount Plan ►WRCA-TV, NBC-TV's New York flagship station, made two attractive rate changes in the week. Jay Heitin, director of sales, announced (Continued on page 10, col. 1) In Our View THERE is more than a little of interest, significance and logic in statements made last week to his stockholders by Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures Corporation, in his annual report. Columbia, it must be noted, is the not unhappy parent of that precocious, active and responsive offspring known as Screen Gems, so that, in a sense, Mr. Cohn may be said to be riding two horses at the same time. This is by no means an impossible feat. "Television," Mr. Cohn tells his stockholders, "has proved to be a competitor (for the screen) — and a very strong one. However, ours is a business of supplying the public with entertainment. . . . We have also delved deep of late into the field of supplying television entertainment. Let it be noted that we believe there is ample room for both media to exist profitably. Each, we are sure, can and will contribute to the progress of the other." The last sentence of the quoted observations of Mr. Cohn is to us particularly cogent and germane to a current situation in the economics of the entertainment business generally. We grant, of course, that Mr. Cohn may feel constrained to justify one objective of his organization with the other, at initial glance, but a more careful study of the matter indicates that he has really no basic conflict at hand. The point fundamentally is that the television medium must and will have material to satisfy its almost insatiable appetite for programs and that inevitably the mainspring of the motion picture must be the source of that supply. Inevitable it is, then, that the world's film production center shall supply it. There are many ways within the entertainment orbit where the television medium can supply the public requirement better, and others in which the theatrical screen and theatre can do far better. There is a place for both, as has been said here before. — Charles S. Aaronson