Radio annual and television yearbook (1948)

Films 10 TELEVI8I00 By JIM OWENS, Associate Editor Radio Daily and Television Daily A QUESTION, important and compelling as any in the formative stage of television's expansion during this, the third year of its post-war development, is the role films will play as an entertainment device and as a tool of effective selling. Their place in the over-all structure of the medium was the subject of wide and vigorous discussion in 1947 and one on which segments of the industry were not always in accord. Already widely used as a vehicle of news and entertainment on many of the stations on the air last year, celluloid fare was becoming, at the yearend, a more imposing factor since it represented, in the opinion of several key executives, an appreciable reduction in the cost of reaching the public with a quality video presentation. For the broadcaster, films were an additional if not entirely satisfactory source of program material that offered many of the advantages of live production without the, sometimes prohibitive cost; for the advertiser it represented a streamlined method of airing his sales message with economy, together with the invaluable advantage of repetitive consistency. Films played an ironic role in television in 1947. Because of their physical affinity to the medium, they made up a significant portion of the broadcaster's schedule, in some cases as high as 25 to 30 per cent. Program material on celluloid ranged widely in scope, from travelogues to Hollywood features — reclaimed somewhat reluctantly from the archives— to individually-produced newsreels. The latter was later to become one of the most important phases of tele to be provided by films. • While their degree of importance in the programming future of television was a matter of diversified opinion, and usually stemmed from the financial position of the individual user, it was generally agreed during the past 12 months that film.s would play a role not too dissimilar, in many respects, to the electrical transcription in radio. Live programs and live commercials, while superior in principal because of their spontaneity — the very essence of television — were admittedly costly and perishable after one performance, economically speaking. Filmed-programs or commercials, on the other hand, remained available for limitless use, could quickly , amortize the initial investment for the producer. Although broadcasters depended upon i film material to a significant degree, and as such were an important source of revenue to the celluloid industry, exorbitant costs prevented their becoming an even more important segment of programming. Hollywood productions available to tele were conspicuously inferior, of ancient vintage and of questionable entertainment value. As such, broadcasters were loathe to use them with as much regularity as would have been possible if the opposite were true. The film capital's ban on use of their products by video, until they had exhausted other markets, had begun to make itself felt with sharper resentment as the number of stations increased. It was j a curious interpretation of the law of sup ;j ply and demand. Here was a new and I: vital market ready to absorb the residue :; of the motion picture industry but denied ,; one of the ingredients with which it could '§ rapidly mature. ' • There were, however, certain obscure signs of relief as the industry approached the new year. The film industry's attitude toward tele, once openly hostile, changed to one of interest, was later to become one of active association. Paramount Pictures, first of the major Hollywood companies to align itself with the new medium, with two stations plus a financial interest in an eastern network, developed a process of filming programs off the air which held promise of major importance to the advertiser as well as the broadcaster. NBC and Jerry Fairbanks Productions, a specialty film outfit, made the first official working agreement between the two industries with a long-term agreement by which the movie company would provide the network's entire celluloid video requirements, including newsreels. The trend was given further impetus when Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. became the first film outfit to provide a daily newsreel for television. These developments came with sudden and agreeable surprise to the video industry, and were looked upon as indications that both industries had approached the point of economic juncture. 1068