Sponsor (July-Dec 1951)

advertiser who is putting most money in his pocket. Reps all claim that they can clear time more easily on stations than the networks can. With time clearance as tough as it is, this is music to the ears of many a harassed agency Station income also has a bearing on two big intangibles: publicity and promotion. Pulling out of network TV also pulls an advertiser out from under network publicity and promotion, which has a real dollars-and-cents value. However, reps say that the stations— since they receive a higher income from spot TV — will be more inclined to do a better local-level promotion job for the spot advertiser. Do they balance out? Does increased station publicity and promotion counteract the loss of network publicity and promotion? This is hard to answer, depends largely on the promotionmindedness of the individual station in each case. Various pro's and con's Apart from the kev arguments, there are several other side issues which are debated with equal vigor by reps and network exponents. 1. Flexibility: The rep position is that a sponsor can choose any station he wants in multi-station markets, and can skip markets he doesn't want. This leads, in turn, to better choice of adjacencies, audience compositions, and a chance to cash in on local viewing habits. Networks jgenerally concede this point. But. networks will argue for a combination of network and spot against this, saying that an advertiser "Newspapermen outlive advertising men by three and a half years — but both occupational classes offer a shorter life expectancy than for average Americans. Surveys show . . . the average death age of newspapermen is 65.5 years; of advertising men, 63 years; of thei average American, 67.2 years." ART EIIRENSTROM Writer, in Publishers' Auxiliary can use a network as far as possible. then shift the rest of the campaign to a spot operation. 2. Film Costs: Networks figure that it takes an average of $5,000 a week on top of a program's normal production budget to put a program on film. Add to this the cost of extra prints (average: $30-$40 each) which must be made to service stations, the cost of 1000 WATTS The deep south, suh, is predominantly hillbilly, and hillbilly is what our folks get to the tune of nearly 8 hours a day. Live bands, disc jockeys, and farm and market reports have made WPAL the too favorite with the hillbilly fans who comprise the vast majority of the Southland. Let our reps tell you more about our "folksy" way of sel'ing. It's mighty effective, suh! shipping and routing the prints, etc., and the savings on time costs may disappear in a shift from network to spot. Reps say that film costs are not this high, that more advertisers are planning these days to put the show on film from the beginning to insure the best quality on non-interconnected station. Also, reps insist that many film package producers will be willing to amortize their film costs in second and third runs, and not try to collect it all the first time around. The reps point out, in addition, that prints can be bicycled, limiting the number of extra prints needed. 3. Network Prestige: This is one of those intangibles, like a BergdorfGoodman label on a woman's dress. Networks say that being on a network with a show lends the show the prestige and identity of the network and makes it a part of the habit of viewing a particular network. Reps say this is nonsense, that a show builds its audience locally via local promotion. However, this is more of an argument for the cocktail hour than for conference rooms. Who's using spot TV? At this time, only a minority of the "national" program film advertisers in television are using either a straight spot operation, or a mixture of spot and network. But more will be around this fall. The best example of the shift to spot TV in recent months is probably Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Company's Bigelon Theatre. The show has been operating on a limited ( four or five stations I CBS-TV network on Sunday evenings, 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. But the show has been seen weekly over nearly 35 other stations, with all of the nonnetwork timebuying being done by the. agency (Young & Rubicam I at spot rates. Bigelou Theatre was already film. being made in Hollywood by the threecamera process worked out by Jerry Fairbanks, a leading independent producer recenth linked to Official Films. Some of the films were originalh shot, it's reported, for another Y&R show, Silver Theatre, thus bringing Bigelow's film costs down. They have featured stars like Chico Marx, Jimmy Lydon, Victor Join. Diana Lynn. Virginia Bruce, and others. Videodex ratings have run from 5.0 to 12.5 (average 9.0-10.01. and picture quality (due to the film factor) has been very good. i\ SPONSOR