Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

5 The three catchwords of color remain "price, picture size and programming." There is growing opinion that programming should be accorded more weight than it is generally given in relation to other two factors — that it may be more important than picture size, at any rate. There's little doubt in our minds that public will really begin to hanker for color when it can get sufficient programs of caliber of March 31 NBC-TV "Home" show. Mobile unit in Washington showed cherry blossoms, models, fashions, picnic table, etc. — achieving one of best color shows to date. Another example was the beautiful flower display on "American Inventory" March 28 — a program which would have been impossible to present with significance in monochrome. Such programs may be contrasted with March 26 boxing match (Vol. 10:13), which gained scarcely anything from color. It's expected that some other sports, such as football, will be substantially enhanced by color. * * * * Some of NEC's color-expansion plans were detailed last week (Vol. 10:13), when pres. Pat Weaver described 90-min. "spectaculars" scheduled this fall. NBC will have capacity to deliver 5-7 hours of color weekly this fall, color coordinator Barry Wood told newsmen in Washington this week. Robert E. Shelby, NBC engineer in charge of color systems development, reported on AT&T's plans for feeding color to additional cities this year. There are some additions and changes in schedule we reported recently (Vol. 10:11). Here are current estimates: April 15, Providence, Boston; May 1, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Ft. Worth, Dallas, Tulsa; May 15, Youngstown; June 1, Fresno (changed from April 1) ; June 15, Syracuse, Utica, Schenectady, Dayton, Buffalo, Columbus, 0. ; July 1, Houston, San Antonio, Peoria, South Bend; July 15, Winston-Salem, Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans, Jackson, Miss., Birmingham, Charlotte, N.C., Portland, Seattle (last 2 not certain); Aug . 1 , Louisville, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis; Sept. 1, Miami, Jacksonville, Ft. Lauderdale, Macon, Fort Wayne, Wheeling, Columbia, S.C. ; Oct. 1. San Diego, Hannibal, Mo. Changes are always possible, of course. Some of these cities and others already get color via microwave uncorrected by AT&T — sometimes excellent, sometimes not so good. Notable among the new connections are first dates for equipping coaxial to handle color — for Miami, New Orleans, et al. Up to now, all color connections have been microwave; coaxial requires more special equipment. Though CBS has delayed its proposed addition of color programs, it's going ahead on lining up network facilities for affiliates. Among latest, it has Denver and Cleveland scheduled for June 1, Cincinnati Aug. 1, Detroit Aug. 15. About 650 tv stations will be on the air in more than l.300 communities by end of 1957, when about 909'^ of U. S. homes will be equipped with TV. This prediction by CBS pres. Frank Stanton, addressing central states group. Investment Bankers Assn., in Chicago March 31, was implemented with another significant forecast: “Advertising expenditures on TV . . . approximated $700,000,000 in 1953 which repi-esented about a 40% increase over 1952. Assuming the continuation of the past relationship between advertising expenditures and TV set population, I believe we can look forward to aggregate TV advertising expenditures of the order of $1% billion by 1957 or 1958.” Where is the additional half billion coming from? “The spectacular growth of TV has not cut into the aggregate revenues of any of the competing media. Looking at the list of radio, newspapers, magazines and all other media combined, we find that advertisers’ expenditures in each type of medium in 1953 was greater than in 1948, in spite of TV. Some part of the growth in the old media was, of course, merely keeping up with the growth of the overall economy and the rise in the general price level. “However, it still remains true that the printed media as well as TV grew at a faster rate than the economy as a whole. Accordingly, it is clear that TV was financed out of the increased aggregate advertising expenditure rather than at the expense of the other media. There appears sufficient room for TV advertising to grow since only a small part of the expected growth of aggregate advertising will be adequate to support the projected total increase in TV. , “TV presently absorbs less than 10% of the total advertising expenditure. Even if the aggregate advertising expenditure should cease growing, it is quite probable that, given TV’s share of the public attention and its sales effectiveness, it would successfully increase its total revenues at the expense of the other 90%.” Research-minded Dr. Stanton finds average of 5.2 hours of viewing per set per day, figures lineup of about 60 stations sufficient to cover about 75% of total TV homes in country by 1957, but predicts advertisers in future will want to use 100-225 stations with average well over 100. Thus average gross time revenue for night half hour on CBS-TV, which was $26,000 in Oct. 1953, can be expected to go “something over $60,000 in the not too distant future.”