Sponsor (1956)

office and the v. p. for the Pacific Division. He also continues in charge of the personnel department, engineering and facilities administration and the controller's office. David C. Adams, who was a staff vice president, has been made Executive \ .P., Corporate Relations. Dave heads up a new group that includes Station Relations, the Washington Office, and Planning. On January 1. Rohert E. Kintner. former president of the American Broadcasting Co., takes up his duties as Executive V.P., Color Coordination. In this new post, Bob will be responsible for coordinating all-out color tv activities, and will also handle other important stafT duties as assigned In the president. A. We cannot, and wouldn'l want to, advise affiliates on their own local schedules. Feature film has proven to be of value in certain areas of local programing. <^. Do you regard the recent criticism of network coverage of the United Nations as valid? A. Distinctly not. I am convinced that our News Departtnenl made the right decision in not covering recent crucial sessions of the U.N. in their entirety. Even the most dramatic meetings of this kind are marked by long stretches of procedural wrangling, dull speeches, and technicalities. You may recall that when the networks covered the recent politi Q. In today's era of highly organized network administration, will the advertiser be able to get the same kind of quick decision-making possible when operation was centralized in a few hands? A. One of the main goals of our new executive structure is to retain the fast-moving, hard-hitting, flexible qualitv that is more important than ever in a business like television. Tv networking is getting more complex all the time. But with our new structure, which centralizes responsibilitv for the principal activities of the company in specific top executive positions, decisions can be made more quicklv and thoroughly, and as a result advertisers can get answers on major questions fast, because that's what we're set up for. 0 What effect do you feel the backlog of feature' film now being released by the major studios will have on network television? A. I do not feel that the flood of Hollvwood features will have any long-range effect on network tv. True, an independent station showing a particularly good movie that doesn't show its age, might eat into the ratings of the network shows in that market on that occasion. But what about all the other Grade B, C and 1) films in the package? And what hold will the films have on the public when they have been run. and run again? I feel that network programing, with a balanced, comprehensive structure of entertainment and information, made specificalK for tv. is a much stronger audience draw than all but a ver\ few old features. Hollvwood films were not produced witli tv in mind. They generallv cant compete with good programing designed specifically for the home tv screen. Q. Does NBC have any plans to use feature film programing on a regular bsais? No. Q. Would you advise NBC affiliates to buy the Hollywood backlogs or stay away from them? Color tv interest is growing rapidly. NBC President Robert SarnofT told sponsor, reporting that NBC will invest another $3,500,000 in expansion of color facilities Above. Robert SarnofT with Gen. David SarnofT. RCA board chairman, at WNBQ ^i 1 1 -< -■ ■ I • « r announcement cal conventions from gavel to gavel, we were criticized for being dull. Networking is an intricate business, and it would be impossible to cut in and out of regular shows, especialb filmed productions, to bring the public the occasional dramatic highlights of the I .\. sessions as they occurred at indeterminate times. We retain the same right as a newspaper to use our best editorial judgment on the coverage of a story. A stud) of the record will show that both NBC TV and NBC Radio covered those sessions with great thoroughness — a thoroughness comparable to that of the top newspapers — and we also covered all the other important news events that were breaking all over the world, to give the audience an over-all picture of the news. ^ SPONSOR • 15 DECEMBER 1956 35