Motion Picture Herald (1954)

IT’S “LAY IX FILMS ©X, MACDUFF” TOLL TV TILT Exhibition Edging Sword As Subscription TV’s Forces Counterattack The teams already picked, the strategy was being mapped this week for the forthcoming duel over subscription television. The weapons, at least until formal arguments get under way before the Federal Communications Commission, will be press releases at 50 paces. Statements Issued by McDonald And Exhibition Group The week’s first move was in the form of a statement from Commander Eugene F. McDonald, president of the Zenith Radio Corporation and promoter of Phonovision, one of the three toll TV systems (the other two being Paramount’s Telemeter and Skiatron’s Subscriber Vision). This was followed by a point-by-point rebuttal in the shape of a joint statement by Alfred Starr and Trueman Rembusch, co-chairman of exhibition’s recently formed joint exhibitors’ committee on subscription TV. Also available were statements from Arthur Levy, president of Skiatron Electronics and Television Corporation, and from an unidentified participant in the Chicago meeting at which the Theatre Owners of America and Allied States Association and other exhibitor organization representatives formed their committee to fight pay-asyou-see TV. At this vantage point it appears that the following two arguments will spearhead the respective campaigns : For exhibitors. Toll TV violates the principle of freedom of the air and would eventually result in the control of several communications media by one group. For the toll TV interests. Toll TV is inevitable progress designed to take television into areas which now cannot support it because of lack of advertising revenue. Something of the campaign planned by exhibition was revealed by the participant in the Chicago talks. Now being set up, he said, are a series of meetings in which groups outside of exhibition who have a stake in the demise of free television as such, would take part. These might include representatives of the free TV networks, advertising agencies, newspapers, as well as numerous businesses at a community level. The role of exhibition coming to the aid of free home television was frankly explored by the informant. He saw no contradiction in such a role, pointing out that beyond the economic interest, exhibition has a stake in maintaining the theatre as a separate by the Herald OUTLINING the arguments. Julius Gordon, above, head of the Jefferson Amusement Company of Texas and a member of the Theatre Owners of America-Allied States committee on toll TV, said in New York last week that Commander Eugene F. McDonald, president of Zenith Radio Corporation, was doing a disservice to earlier Zenith customers who purchased Zenith TV sets with free TV in mind. Mr. Gordon said the Commander must know that the creation of subscription TV would give a monopoly to the current seven channels and that the Commander must also be aware of the fact that to cripple any other means of public communication for the benefit of the few would result in the few controlling all outlets. means of communication in this country, a means which he claimed would be closed if toll TV should gain wide acceptance. Further, he reported the joint committee saw no reason why the Government through the allotment of air time should subsidize subscription TV, while other entertainment media conform to the free enterprise system. In his statement Commander McDonald said, in part : “There is no connection whatsoever between the stopping of subscription television and preservation ‘of free home television for the American people.’ The contrary is true. Already 30 operating TV stations have gone off the air, and nearly 100 holders of construction permits have surrendered before ever going on the air, for the simple reason that there was not sufficient advertising revenue to support their TV operation.” The Commander, who also commented at one point that “the American people will not for long throw away their leisure time watching stupid television programs because they happen to be free,” concluded on a comparatively conciliatory note: “This does not mean that we expect subscription television to replace the movie theatre. In my opinion, there is room, need and public demand for both.” In their answering statement, Mr. Rem busch and Mr. Starr said they are supported in their contention that toll TV would kill free TV by the majority of the present V. H. F. television broadcasting stations and by “the historical postion taken by our Government in 1929 through the former air wave regulatory body, the United States Department of Commerce, denying permission for fee broadcasting.” Cite Loss of TV for One-Station Markets Mr. Rembusch and Mr. Starr continued : “Commander McDonald states that toll TV would bring about the strengthening of free television. However, the Commander does not explain what listeners seeking free TV would do for entertainment in a one-station market when that station was being used by toll TV operators. Nor does he explain what would happen to free television in a two<;pr three-station market when, through competition, all stations would be forced into toll TV at choice broadcasting hours, depriving listeners of meager means of all available broadcast channels.” The Rembusch-Starr statement concludes : “Now Commander McDonald would set aside the principle of freedom of the air waves and substitute slot machine television, which slot machine television would inevitably bring about under one group the concentration and control of several communications media.” Such concentration, they said, is “unthinkable.” Immediately upon release of the StarrRembusch statement, Commander MacDonald released a second lengthy press statement in which he said of the joint committee communique : “Most of the Starr-Rembusch statement is a rhetorical smoke screen, with Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee about imaginary situations, designed to prove that subscription TV would harm, rather than benefit home TV.” The metaphor is mixed and the battle joined. Subscription TV Advocates Also Wave “Free” Flag The banner of freedom also was waved in the ranks of subscription television. Skiatron’s Mr. Levy, commenting on the formation of the exhibitors’ joint committee, said, “In our opinion it is against progress in the entertainment field and against freedom of choice on the part of television home viewers.” Out in Illinois, George Kerasotes, TOA leader, speaking before a regional meeting in Peoria, urged independent exhibitors to join the ranks of an association like TOA so as to effectively combat toll TV which, he said, would create a new communications monopoly which “most assuredly would soon put motion pictures under the supervision of the Federal Government.” MOTION PICTURE HERALD, OCTOBER 30, 1954 13