Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

6 AUGUST 17, 1959 Networks More about BOOM IN BILLINGS: Research crystal balls this season show a gilt-edged picture of gi'oss advertising expenditures on the networks in the important final quarter. At night, CBS-TV is expected to set the pace in sheer dollar volume of gross time (some $46 million, representing 10% gain over the final quarter of last year), with NBC providing strong competition and ABC scoring a major gain due to the success of shows like The Rifleman & 77 Sunset Strip and high sponsorinterest in new ABC nighttime packages (see p. 1). We asked the networks for a comparison forecast, and got these figures for nighttime network TV (although CBS-TV’s 1959 figures in the charts below are our own estimates, since it’s CBS policy not to issue projections) : GROSS NIGHTTIME NETWORK BILLINGS Mon. -Sun., 7-11 p.m. (in millions) Last % ’58 Est. last % ’59 % gain ABC-TV $22.0 $28.5 30% CBS-TV $42.0 $46.0 10% NBC-TV $39.2 $42.9 9% On the daytime scene, CBS-TV will continue to set the pace, with strong sponsor lineups on tape for such daylight fare as the Dec. Bride & 1 Love Lucy reruns. Top Dollar, the daytime serials. Art Linkletter’s House Party, and others. NBC will register, by all indications, a slightly higher percentage gain, but won’t equal CBS-TV’s top money position. ABC feels it’s “conservative” to figure its daytime billings “at the same level as a year ago,” in the words of one ABC executive, on the basis of orders in the house from clients like Block Drug, Warner-Lambert and Reynolds Metals, plus charter advertisers like Johnson & Johnson and Lever Bros. Here are the figures: GROSS MON.-FRI. DAYTIME NETWORK BILLINGS (millions) Last % ’58 Est. last 14 ’59 % gain ABC-TV $ 7.4 $ 7.5 1%, CBS-TV $20.7 $23.5 14% NBC-TV $17.7 $20.4 15% Sat.-Sun. daytime (prior to 7 p.m.) shows are another area in which expansion continues. ABC, which has been making audience strides with juvenile-slanted shows like Rin Tin Tin, Lone Ranger and Annie Oakley, expects a sizable percentage gain (although dollar value is only an increase of $600,000 over the modest previous level) this fall, but the other networks, notably NBC whose Sat.morning block of action-adventure shows & moppet-appeal comedies holds a rating lead, still set the pace : GROSS WEEKEND DAYTIME NETWORK BILLINGS (millions) Last Vi ’58 Est. last V4 ’59 % gain ABC-TV $1.4 $2.0 43%, CBS-TV $3.9 $4.4 13%, NBC-TV $4.2 $4.5 7%. The booming fall sales season was not without its problems for the networks last week, however, as advertisers jockeyed for position in the 1959-60 program lineups. Mogen David wine found NBC-TV unable to clear a full network station roster for its alternately sponsored Dollar a Second at 10:30-11 p.m. Thurs. (across from the CBS-TV Revlon SpeciaXs-Playhouse 90 series) and wound up shifting the billings, but not the show, to ABC-TV’s 8-8:30 p.m. spot on Wed., hitherto unfilled. ABC, meanwhile, was in a hassle with Clairol Inc., Bristol-Myers subsidiary, which claims a verbal agreement with the network for min. participations in the upcoming Gale Storm Show, 7:30-8 p.m. Thurs., although ABC claims that the show is sold to rival Warner-Lambert. At CBS-TV, Kellogg Corp., which had signed for full sponsorship of the 7:30-8 p.m. Sun. Dennis the Menace Screen Gems series, has found itself short of fall TV ad dallars, and has asked for a co-sponsor. Slide-Rule Showman: The surprise (to many) winner in the executive sweepstakes surrounding Hubbell Robinson Jr.’s vacated post as program boss of CBS-TV (Vol. 15:22) last week: Oscar Katz, v.p. in chg. of daytime programming. No immediate successor for Katz’s old job was ^ named, and program v.p.’s Bill Dozier (Hollywood) and | Mike Dann (N.Y.) remain in their posts, reporting to Katz. Slim, 46-year-old Katz, who joined the CBS research dept, in 1938 and rose to the post of research dir. (195156) until moving into the program area, is the latest sliderule expert to go on to a higher executive level in network broadcasting. Others: CBS Inc. pres. Frank Stanton, who joined CBS research in 1935 and became pres, of the network in 1946; John Karol, onetime radio research dir. of ) CBS and now v.p. in chg. of planning & development for i CBS Radio; Oliver Treyz, named dir. of research & development for ABC in 1951 and (after a stint as TvB f pres.) named ABC-TV pres, in 1958; Julius Barnathan, j ABC-TV research dir., named v.p. in chg. of affiliated sta « tions only last month (Vol. 15:29). \ Said CBS-TV pres. Lou Cowan of the Katz appoint i ment, cocking a watchful eye at agency preoccupation to * day with TV research & performance: “His years of ex a perience both in research & programming have given him t an unsurpassed background for his new duties.” I One of Katz’s first duties in his new post was to a announce the promotion of an associate, program develop §. ment v.p. Robert M. Weitman, to the newly created job of k v.p. in chg. of independent productions. Weitman will re M port to Katz, but will have new duties in supervising what #■ CBS describes as “a greatly expanded program of liaison with independent production companies.” ' Mutual Nears Goal: Two-thirds of Mutual Bcstg. Sys I tern’s 3-part reorganization plans were approved & ac ■ cepted by bankruptcy referee Asa Herzog in N.Y. Aug. 12. 1 Still to be finalized is the other third — payment of 10^ on f the dollar to Mutual’s 750 creditors. To be accepted, this ■ part must be approved by claimants representing 51% of the total indebtedness. At the week’s end. Mutual was ■ $100,000 short in financial acceptance. Parts 2 & 3 involve a $1.3 million note to H. B. Tuskin 4 of Seattle, and payment of 50(1 on the dollar for the first l $600 owed to creditors in the category of employees (Vol. •' 15:29). Another meeting is called for this week (Aug. 19), i at which time Mutual’s counsel hopes the remaining re : quired debtor segment will agree to the plan. Formal n papers have to be drawn & signed by next week (Aug. 27), a Mutual spokesman told us. Meanwhile, the network contracted for a new chunk .i of business with Baltimore’s National Brewing Co. for half-sponsorship of the Baltimore Colts football game i coverage which begins on Mutual Sept. 27. The 12 games . will be carried on all of Mutual’s 450 affiliates, except stations in the other 9 Natl. Football League cities. NBC has teamed with 4 top British ITV program contractors in a joint application, as Central African TV, to operate commercial TV in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. NBC’s team-mates: ATV, ABC, Granada, f TWW. The NBC group is contesting 2 other applicants for ) the TV contract. The applications are under study by the i Federations’s Federal Bcstg. Corp., whose board of governors is slated to meet later this month on the subject. < Other applicants for the channel are Rhodesia TV Ltd., dominated by the big Philips of Netherlands electronics i combine, and P. Holender, a Ndola businessman representing “overseas financial interests.” ki