Sponsor (Apr-June 1961)

u 19 June 1961 Latest tv and radio developments of the week, briefed for busy readers SPONSOR-WEEK Y&R RECONCILED TO 40s "Pete" Matthews asks "move in orderly and realistic fashion" on new breaks William E. Matthews, v. p. of media relations and planning of Young & Rubicam, proposed that the industry "move in orderly and realistic fashion" to deal with the 40 second chain breaks. His proposal, made at Y&R last Wednesday morning at a special meeting of tv station representatives attended by about 65 industry people, reflected a transition in Y&R policy from criticism to acceptance of the 40 second break. Matthews called for the solution to practical problems such as pricing, frequency discounts, and creative approaches to the new breaks. He pointed to the importance of having such solutions in hand before early August, when the heavy buying season begins. He declared that he assumed stations would not use the larger break as an opportunity to triple-spot. He hoped to see the 40 second breaks composed of thirties-and-tens, twenties-and-twenties, or forties, and "not twenty-ten-ten and certainly not," he added with a smile, "ten-ten-ten-ten." Matthews called attention to this W. E. Matthews "problem of considerable importance": the unsold ten seconds in a break where a twenty and a ten are sold. He expressed a preference for seeing a public service spot rather than a promo for the remaining ten seconds. The 30 second spot is still largely untested, Matthews stated. He hinted that "inducements" to get 30's used would be of great value. A 40 second spot would need even more testing. Matthews noted the dilemma of two-twenties back-toback. How would it be priced in the new chain break, as one spot or two? He also put forth another real poser: (Continued on page 8, col. 1) B&B sees shortage Severely curtailed availabilities of ID announcements by September or October are anticipated by Lee Rich, Senior v.p. of media and programing for Benton & Bowles. In a memo circulated internally to management supervisors and account supervisors on 9 May but made public just this week, Rich listed reasons why a shortage of 10 second availabilities could be expected. Only if stations use both a 30 and a 10 will the ID be plentiful. Rich regarded the chances of reviving the 30 second announcement, tried un successfully two or three years ago, as "virtually nil" at the moment. ID users, Rich pointed out, will lose a great deal of their present maneuverability in the fall when two 20's fill out new strong positions. Rich projected costs of 40 second announcements and doubted their feasibility. He expected they would cost more in 100 markets than a network minute in 150 markets. Based on maximum discounts a 40 would probably cost $40,000 for 100 top markets, more than the $30,000 or $35,000 for a minute network participation. Similarly he expected that the 40 would deliver inefficient CPM's. A heavy user can get costs-per-thousand of $1.15 for 10 second announcements and $2.25 for either 20 or 60 second announcements. However the 30 would cost $3.40 and the 40 even more, $4.00. P&G'S $3,900,000 NBC TV DAYTIME P&G last week renewed for its daytime spread on NBC TV, covering the 1 July 1961-30 June 1962 span. On the basis of a 52-week stay the commitment involves $3.9 million. This is about $600-700,000 shy of what P&G spent for daytime on NBC TV the previous fiscal year. P&G has been cutting back on daytime and beefing up its nighttime network investments. NAB 4 not 6 mins. The NAB tv code board recommended that commercials be reduced from six to four minutes per half hour during prime time. SPONSOR 19 june 1961