We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
SERIOUS PROGRAMMING
. . . Now Attracting Selling Message
By WALTER D. SCOTT Executive Vice President, NBC-TV Network
ON A recent Sunday, Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover appeared on "Meet the Press" and delivered himself of a sharp and cogent criticism of American education. He declared that education is the most important problem facing this country. in its competition with the Soviet Union, and he then called for some fundamental changes in the American public school system. Within the next few days, "Meet the Press" received more than 10,000 requests for copies of the interview — the largest viewer response in the 14-year history of the program.
When more than 10,000 viewers write in, not for a giveaway, but for the text of a program like "Meet the Press," it is time for a closer look at the program and its audience. It is time, I suggest, to reappraise the ability of television's cultural, public affairs and news program to excite real viewer interest and to serve as effective advertising vehicles. It may be that Admiral Rickover has unwittingly called our attention to some program values that are too often overlooked.
There is, for instance, the value of what I would call an active, rather than a passive audience. The viewers of these programs are not idle dial-twirlers who take what comes along. They are active participants in serious programming who study the schedule, select carefully and sit down to view their choice from the edge of their chair. I submit that when this audience tunes in it is in a receptive mood, not just for the program, but for the advertiser's mes
sage as well.
Secondly, this hard core of viewers who watch public affairs and cultural programs are an audience worth aiming at. They are a minority, but a minority that numbers in the millions. They include the educated, high-income groups who are this country's opinion-formers and tastemakers, who set the patterns of public opinion and set the pace for consumption. They constitute the first and most important market for any advertiser with a new product or a new idea.
Finally, the influence of this kind of programming extends far beyond the actual telecast. These are not shows that fade from memory as quickly as they fade from the picture tube. They are discussed long afterward, are quoted in the newspapers, win awards and are often repeated by popular request. The cultural and public affairs progams give the advertiser a lot of mileage for his money.
These programs, in short, are a good buy, and they are being recognized as such by a growing list of advertisers.
It is evident that the productselling message, as well as the institutional ad, is finding its place on serious programming.
I think that there is a deep popular concern for information and education in a world where these are becoming conditions of survival. I suggest that broadcasters and advertisers should make this concern their own.
765