Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1955)

A850 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — APPENDIX February llf or falling to sell them — It crosses the Imbecile and verges on the suicidal. [Advertising] will be an asset, worn as a bright feather in the cap of free TV, not as a soiled choker round the throat." About his editorial concept of commercial TV, Sir Robert Fraser had this to say last month before the Institute of Practitioners of Advertising: “Free television should now evolve on principles that will place it beside our free press, our free books, and our free arts as a normal part of the equipment of our free society. For this was, in essence, the great decision — to rest the future of TV, as far as Initial physical shortages of transmitting stations permit, on the same foundations as those of a free press; to give freedom to Individuals to offer TV programs to the public, as newspapers and entertainment are offered: to give freedom to the public to see the TV programs of their choice." Backgrounds of the other members of the ITA board would seem also to assure a realistic and at the same time an adequate cultural approach ; Sir Charles Colston, manager of Hoover, Ltd. (vacuum cleaners), vice chairman: Miss Margaret Popham, ex-principal of Cheltenham Ladies College; Miss Dllys Pcwell, movie critic of the Sunday Times; Lord Aberdare of Duflfryn, president of Welsh National School of Medicine; Lt. Col. Arthur Chichester, chairman of big Moygashel textile concern; Sir Henry Hinchcliffe, director of Barclays Bank; Dr. T. J. Honeyman, director, Glasgow Art Gallery: G. B. Thorneycroft, director of the British Travel & Holidays Association; Lord Layton, publisher, News Chronicle and London Star. ITA will run the stations and any day now should announce program contractors, but it will not have studios of its own or put on shows. Sir Kenneth Clark actually expects to run ITA with a staff of not more than 60, except for engineers who actually come under the postoflBce department. His budget is £750.000 (about $2,100,000) and he is expected to put the agency on a self-supporting and even profitable basis with that sum as the pump primer. Commercial TV could profit the Government more than it realizes right now, for the fact is that many advertisers are itching for a crack at TV. Often cited is one experience of BBC. Though it is ever careful to avoid trade plugs, the name of a toy was Inadvertently mentioned in a program; within a few days, it couldn’t be had, and the toyshops were clamoring for more stock. Also, recently, BBC carried a tear-jerker about a stray pup; within 48 hours, Just about every day pound in the country was emptied. Ad men told us — and Sir Robert Fraser verified — that there were plenty of seekers after the program contracts. Soneone said there were at least 25 applicants, all willing to take the risk in the face of the political dangers Inherent in a system eyed askance by the Laborites and requiring that the contractor secure his own program originating equipment — all. that is, save transmitters. He must contract for studios, cameras, crews, programs, talent, etc., always unsure what a new government may decree. The applicants Include theater men. newspapers, ad agencies, program builders, et al. (Editor’s Note. — Since this article was written, ITA announced selection of the first 3 contractors: (1) Granada Theaters, operating a big chain of movie houses. (2) Broadcast Relay Services, operator of a widespread and vastly successful community antenna service, in association with Associated Newspapers, Ltd., publishing the Dally Mall and other papers. (3) Showman Maurice Winnick. in association with Kemsley Newspapers. Inc., i;ublisher of the Sunday Times, Sunday Graphic. Sunday Chronicle and various other newspapers in Elngland, Scotland, and Wales. They’re all extremely wellheeled, but the fact that the newspaper owners are Tories has already provoked criticism that’s expected to reverberate in Parliament. Two other major applicants, also strong in program fields, are Associated Broadcasting Development Co., headed by ex-BBC Chief, Norman Collins, and the newly formed Incorporated Television Program Co., which includes such stockholders as Alan Towers (Towers of London) and other big names in British entertainment. They await further decisions of ITA. and everybody still awaits details of plans for dividing the hours of the day or days of the week among the program contractors on its stations.) So many eyes and ears will focus on their offerings, so outspokenly critical as a matter of habit are the British people and their influential press, so far committed is the Labor Party to doing away with commercial TV if and when it returns to power, that the burden is on industry as well as on ITA to do an acceptable Job. If they do, we were told, no party in p>ower would dare attempt to do away with commercialism. If they don’t, a simple fiat of Parliament could switch the whole structure overnight to BBC. As a writer in the News of the World of London put it: “The politicians were much more interested than the public in the why and wherefores of commercial TV during the endless debates in both Houses, and the public breathed a sigh of relief when at long last it proved possible to hand the demoniacal babe over to the ITA. If the Cabinet now find the Infant left on their doorstep overnight, I think we can expect a spot of bother." Some 3,500,000 TV sets are in use in Britain today, most of them tunable only to 1 station. It’s expected the total will be 4 million by end of this year, reach at least 5 million by end of 1955, then zoom to better than the current 1 million a year rate when the second service is under way. How much more, the set makers are reluctant to guesstimate. One told us, “We should have 10 million sets in use by I960” — covering most of nation’s nearly 15 million family units. The American Industry’s postfreeze experience— that second stations in a community have invariably zoomed the rate of receiver sales and Installations immediately — seemed to interest the British manufacturers greatly. But their native inclination is to move cautiously, to underestimate their market, not to pressure things. There are some who (familiar folk) don't like all this talk about color, mostly emanating from America and played up heavily in the British press, because it might rouse false hopes in the breasts of prospective buyers. (The British color situation is a story in Itself, about which more later. SuflSce to state now that the post oflSce department’s TV advisory committee, under the chairmanship of Adm. Sir George Daniel, has been conducting closed hearings on the subject, figures a year or more of work ahead of it, can be counted on to take advantage of all of the American experience — without the pressure of politics, such as we had here, to bring color to Britain in a hurry.) There is a problem, of course, of converting existing sets to receive 2 channels in lieu of one — but plans are afoot to do it at small cost, maybe as low as $10 or $15 and the fact that the second service’s signals will come from the same towers as BBC’s should help simplify the installation Jobs. Most sets being sold today are equipped for the second channel, a hot selling point. Some 30 receiver manufacturers share the 1 million annual output. They sell direct to retail outlets, for the most part. “Hire purchase," or installment selling, has only lately come back on a big scale, having been prohibitively restricted until recently. Standard size is 14-lnch, with trend lately to 17-lnch. Only one 21-inch model was shown in the whole National Radio Show in London’s Earl's Court in early September. There seems to be no push on to sell size, one manufacturer explaining that the extra cost isn’t worth it for homes which mostly have small rooms. We saw a scattering few TV shows while motor touring the country, but rarely did we find even the best-rated hotels TV equipped, although in a space of 3 weeks we were in a different one nearly every night. They seldom had TV’s or radios in their lounges, and they looked at you as though you were crazy if you asked if they might be rented. Very few pubs had TV's either, though radios were commonplace in them. Looks like the British TV Industry is missing an extremely good marketing bet here. Cost has been the major factor in set sales up to now — still is with most families, though the current high employment and prosperity wave, along with the vast publicity about TV in general and ITA and commercialism in particular, are making more and more people TV-minded. Receiver list prices have been brought down to an average of about $150 for a 14-lnch, $200 for 17lnch, table models predominating. How can they priced that low in the face of a government exercise of 50 percent? The answer is much simpler for the British than for us, albeit we offer good 21-lnch sets at $200 and under. The girls on the assembly lines earn £5 a week ($14) and the men at the partsstamping machines very little more. Workmanship is the finest. The 14-lnch set we rented for our London hotel room gave us a picture (on British 405-line standard) that for clarity and cohtrast and all-around quality is vastly better than what we generally see in the United States (on 525 lines). Signals came from a multiplex antenna atop one of the tallest hotel structures (10 or 12 stories) in Mayfair. Receiver was a KolsterBrandes; remember the brand names from our old radio days here? The explanation for the good picture seems to lie also in superb transmission facilities and plenty of power. Great Britain has magnificent engineers, second to none, and some of the best are in the BBC. The programs you see are somethin again. By our lights, there’s not on enough choice but a lack of pace and regard for timing that seems queer tc American observer. The British people press are quite outspoken in criticism, sou.ctimes unfairly so — for the fact is that quality and craftsmanship stand out in everything the BBC-TV people do; their dramatic are finished products, their news films ex cellent, their “outside” (remote) pickups extremely well done, especially sports. But the day’s program more often than not seems unbalanced, aiming at the few rather than the many. Consider these program listings for two different days, presumably typical, exactly as clipped from the London Times: “3 p.m., Knights for a Day, British comedy film. 5, children’s television. 7:25, weather. 7:30, news. 7:45, public inquiry: The trade unions — too much power, too little responsibility. 8:30, Music for Tou. 9:30, amateur boxing: London ABA versus Paris. 10:30, news (sound only). “3 p. m.. About the Home. 4. Watch With Mother. 6, children’s television. 7:30, news. 7:55, Sportsvlew. 8 : 15, Down You Go. 8:45, Shakespeare's Troilus and Cresslda. 11:5, news (sound only)." The home and children’s shows weren’t particularly exciting, the latter going in for American cowboy films as part of a potpourri Intended to Interest different Juvenile levels. The Shakespearean production, running well over 2 hours, was a repeat of the Identical show also carried in prime night time the preceding week. The news films and sports pickups were excellent. The news via sound only at 10:30 (or thereabouts, depending on whether the preceding program ended at that time or a little earlier or later) seemed peculiar, to say the least. Twice we viewed classical soloists, one a pianist, one an operatic singer — and in each case the camera was focused on the artist without shift for the entire 30 minutes. It was very dull viewing despite the excellence of the talent. One Sunday night we watched the British version of What’s My Line? — very popular and as much fun as the CBS-TV show; 2 of its 4 panelists were American, and it offered no prize money. Note. — The 6-6 p. m. Childrens’ Hour is followed by a long gap until the weather at 7:25 and news at 7:30. We asked a top BBC official why. His reply: “So that the mothers may prepare dinner and put the children to bed without any distraction from TV. The children have had it, and if they know the screen is dark they make no fuss about staying up for more.”