Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

VOL 15: No, 31 9 I ABC’s AFTERNOON GAINS: After a faltering start last I October, ABC-TV’s invasion of daytime TV is now payj ing some real audience-share dividends, an examination of the rating track record during the season indicates. The first of Nielsen’s national reports for July gives ABC a 21.1% daytime audience share (representing 1 about 1.4 million homes), or about twice the level of ■ the 13.3% share (700,000 homes) scored by ABC back in October in the 1-4 p.m. period. ABC’s daytime growth hasn’t been easy. Backed opI timistically by Young & Rubicam (on behalf of several I Y&R clients, including General Foods) ABC took the i plunge last fall with an afternoon participation lineup broadly titled “Operation Daybreak,” and talked hopefully of a 25% audience share before the end of the first , year. Rating levels in the winter and spring months, howI ever, fell notably short of this. Cancellations began showering on the network’s sales department, despite attempts to meet agency cost-per-1000 demands by giving extra minute participations in late-p.m. American Bandstand. Valiantly, ABC rode out the programming storm, with daytime program v.p. Giraud Chester revamping the lineup to build a 1-4 p.m. (except for the station-option 1:30-2 p.m. period) program roster that now includes Music Bingo, Day in Court, Gale Storm Show (reruns). Beat The Clock, and Who Do You Trust? Here’s what happened, meanwhile, to ABC’s daytime shares: ABC-TV Daytime Monthly Share Mon.-Fri., 1-4 p.m., Nielsen TV Index Oct. ’58 Nov. ’48 Dec. ’58 Jan. ’59 Feb. ’59 Mar. ’59 13.3% 14.8% 15.5% 16.1% 15.3% 15.9% i Apr. ’59 May ’59 IJune’59 II June ’59 I July ’59 I; 16.4% 15.8% 17.6% 20.6% 21.1% Twice, in February and May, ABC slid back, at times when new shows were being launched. But the trend was upward through the season and later in the summer months. The Oct.July share improvement is therefore just under 60%. From an advertising standpoint, clients have also given ABC-TV a daytime vote of confidence, with the 2-4 p.m. segment currently 75%o sold out. On a straight rating basis, or even on the basis of audience shares, ABC-TV still lags behind CBS-TV and NBC-TV in afternoon TV, and freely admits it. ABC, however, has tailored its prices to the kind of audience share it delivers; the 15-min. price of $7200 now delivers each 1000 homes at a cost of about $1.50 (highly competitive with the other 2 networks), and ABC research executives predict that a gain in daytime audience share will drop this CPM figure to about $1.30 this fall. ABC Seeks Station Ballyhoo: Promotional support of ABC-TV’s $75-million programming investment for next season by primary affiliates was urged last week by ABPT pres. Leonard H. Goldenson, and ABC-TV pres. Oliver Ti’eyz, who spoke before 175 station and network executives attending the 2-day ABC affiliates meeting in N.Y. Stating that the new season “is a critical one for ABC-TV and our affiliates”, Treyz pointed out that 64% of ABC-TV’s nighttime will be devoted to new programming. CBS will have 33 %o new programming, NBC 54%. Other speakers at the 2-day sessions were: Tom Moore, v.p. in chg. of programming; Julius Barnathan, v.p. for affiliates; Giraud Chester, v.p. in chg. of daytime programming; Dean Linger, dir. of advertising & promotion; Mike Foster, v.p. in chg. of press information and Sid Mesibov, dir. of special exploitation projects. Programming “Stunning” film drama produced by the Army’s Walter Reed Medical Center is described by N.Y. Times TV editor Jack Gould as a “towering theatrical accomplishment” that can show commercial TV “what can be accomplished within the dramatic form.” The film, “Strike,” produced by the Center’s TV unit, is a documentary on civil defense preparation produced for showing, so far, to interested medical & educational groups. “Incredible as it may seem by commercial TV standards,” reports Gould, “ ‘Strike,’ which runs approximately 90-min., had a production budget of something like $6000 and was staged in an incredibly small single studio. Yet ‘Strike’ need not take second place, for instance, to Playhouse 90 at its best.” A Walter Reed spokesman told us that a number of requests for copies had been received from broadcasters but that no provision has been made as yet for public release of the film. TV matches newspapers in public choice of medium for political news, a U. of Michigan political science survey has established. Prof. Samuel Eldersveld said that a random sampling of Wayne County, Mich., found 38%i of the residents get most of their political data via TV, an equal amount from newspapers. The survey also established that nearly 50% of those surveyed followed the 1956 Presidential campaign via TV at least once a week, and that TV delivers messages across party lines. In Detroit, 48%; reported viewing both parties — just 12% viewed only Republican programs, 14% only Democratic. NBC-TV’s 80-inch lens, which was called out by Baseball Commissioner Ford C. Frick for stealing signals (Vol. 15:29), is on the pry again. Frick had asked NBC-TV not to use the lens for its Game of the Week telecast because it clearly revealed the signs flashed by the catcher to the pitcher. However, the long-look showed up again at a recent Yankee-Tiger game. NBC-TV announcer Lindsay Nelson said: “The only restriction on it [the 80-inch lens] concerns the catcher’s signs and we purposely kept the lens off those.” TV’s largest all-female cast, 25 women, will appear in a GE Theatre adaptation of Katherine Brush’s short story, “Night Club,” next season. The 25 femmes will do their entering, exiting and emoting in a ladies lounge, where all the action takes place. Included are Barbara Hale {Perry Mason), Amanda Blake (Gunsmoke) and Rosemary De Camp {Bob Cummings Show). Libel actions for “shameful abuse of national TV time” by Senate Rackets Committee counsel Robert F. Kennedy on NBC-TV’s Jack Paar Show were threatened last week by Teamsters Union pres. James R. Hofl’a. He notified NBC pres. Robert Sarnoff that he’d sue the network, Paar, Kennedy “and all others” responsible for statements Kennedy made about him on the July 22 show. The Rackets Committee investigator repeated some of his statements about the Teamsters’ boss on NBC-TV’s Meet the P»'ess July 26, said Hoffa “sold out” his union, challenged Hoffa to sue “immediately.” Jurisdictional picketing by lATSE’s N.Y. stagehands Local 1 against CBS-TV in a 1958 job-assignment dispute was illegal, the NLRB ruled last week. The stagehands thi'ew a picket line around the liner United States, forcing the network to cancel a scheduled Let’s Take a Trip show, after CBS-TV had assigned lighting work for the program to IBEW Local 1212. The NLRB didn’t decide which union should have had the assignment, but said the lATSE members had no right to try force to get it.