Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

, December 11, 1954 'i 11.. SUMMARY-INDEX OF THIS WEEK'S NEWS NETWORK-STATION AFFILIATION and ownership jig-saw indicates changing face of the telecasting industry; big interests may hypo uhf (pp. 1 & 4). MILLION-WATT UHF A REALITY as RCA and GE ready their 'showcase' transmitters in rival Wilkes-Barre stations; first 1000-kw due next week (p. 2). FCC REVIVES OLD PATENT PROBE as 4-3 majority votes to call rule-making arguments, reviving issue bitterly fought during color hearings (pp. 2 & 10). FLA. UHF RETURNS, NEW VHF gets started in West Virginia, new Canadian station in Saskatoon; total on air now 422 in U. S., 23 in Canada (p. 3). FLINT AREA'S UPCOMING WJRT plans to change transmitter site; equipment shipments continue slow as more grantees report on-air plans (p. 5). FCC GRANTS CPs for Tupelo, Miss. & Rapid City, S. D., refuses to reissue grants in Hot Springs & Amarillo, considers Flint, Hartford, Portland situations (p. 6). LITTLE OR NO PRODUCTION CUTBACKS planned by TV manufacturers for first quarter of 1955, despite warnings of rising inventories (p. 11). PITTSBURGH'S WDTV, sold to Westinghouse for $9,750,000, earned $7,500,000 on gross of $12,500,000 in 34 mo.; DuMont says he's staying in network TV (p. 9). DEMAND FOR COLOR FILM EQUIPMENT accelerates as RCA ships six 3-Vs, schedules new live camera production in March; DuMont deliveries stepped up (p. 10). COLOR TV USED BY ARMY at Ft. Huachuca battle exercises,CBS field sequential system equipment and 'secret' 4x6-ft. screen found impressive (p. 13). FRANK STANTON BUYS 40,000 more shares of CBS Inc. stock under option at 3814; Storer reveals imposing balance sheet (p. 13). 5% OF TV HOMES HAVE 2 SETS, 'Videotown' survey shows, also disclosing replacement sales surpassing new set sales, 24 & 27-in. demand growing (p. 14). THE NETWORKS MANEUVER FOR POSITION: Big changes are under way in telecasting. They involve shuffling of network affiliations, plans for new stations, more sales of stations — and they may alter the face of the industry over the next few years. The changes are being wrought largely by the major networks, whose program and sponsorship supremacy gives them virtual power of life and death over a station. They also involve group ownerships of stations, whose bargaining power enables them to enjoy preferential treatment in the matter of network franchises. "Top favorites" in the horse race are CBS & NBC, so far as first calls on affiliations are concerned. Up-&-coming but still a relatively far back third runner is ABC, which stands to gain from any casualties the giants inflict on one another. As for DuMont Network, the Madison Ave. advertising & selling fraternities are now more than ever inclined to write it off as a serious competitor in view of last week's sale of its main fiscal prop, WDTV in Pittsburgh, to Westinghouse (Vol. 10:49). This, despite Dr. DuMont's avowed intention of staying in network TV (p. 9). Involved also may be the future of uhf. which conceivably will gain a new lease on life cut of the considerable interest in it now being evinced by CBS, NBC, Storer, possibly other big interests. Uhf's technical qualities have been obscured by the advertising fraternity's zeal to get into markets already well populated with TVs — meaning mainly vhf sets, which got there first. But new factors are arising; There's the advent of 1,000,000-watt power for uhf, for example (see p. 2). There's CBS ' s projected entry into Milwaukee via uhf (Vol. 10:43,47) and NBC ' s avowed intention of getting 2 uhf in major markets. There's Storer 's plan to build up uhf in Miami and possibly even bear all or part of cost of conversions (Vol. 10:47,49). And this week a rather .mysterious situation cropped up in the Hartford area, where it was disclosed that unnamed interests had acquired Mt. Higby, about halfway southward toward New Haven, as site for an undescribed TV station. It's believed to be a project of either CBS or NBC, possibly predicated on new 1-megawatt power. It COPYRIGHT l»84 BY RADIO NEWS BUREAU