Television digest and FM reports (Jan-Dec 1948)

MSN WITH MOHEY-AND MESSAGES: Comparing; notes, the men who buy and sell TV t ime had lots to say — some thought too much — at Tuesday's TV session of Assn of National Advertisers in New York. Though night meeting in CBS Theatre 4 came near to being a bust — musical "fantasy" setting was pretty silly and conventioneers simply couldn't stomach heavy statistics after day of conventioning and so soon after dinner — the keen observations of the later speakers, their prestige and the intense appeal of the subject soon subdued the disturbing claque. Result was worthwhile symposium on commercial aspects of TV that held interest and audience until near midnight. Out of the nearly dozen speeches and speechlets, these seemed to us to be the most pertinent points made ; By General Foods Corp. advertising director, Howard Chapin : Even by end of 1950, with perhaps 4,500,000 sets, TV will be "long way from offering the number of homes available through older methods of reaching masses of people." Though still weighted on side of upper income families, TV permits "selectivity of customers"... choosing the kind of program that will page "your kind of customer." TV's "affordable cost" is still not as determinable as older media. GF has at least dozen nationally advertised products it can sell more economically to more customers through other media, yet has achieved audience cost as low as $2.30 per 1,000 homes with Sanka weather spots on WABD. Will TV reduce time family devotes to radio and publications? "I don’t know ...but I'd like to remind you that in the last 25 years newspaper, magazine and radio circulations have all grown enormously. .. TV may also produce new and additional circulation without materially reducing other media. . .People are continually finding the additional time they need to be informed and entertained. The industrial worker is spending fewer hours on the production line, the housewife fewer hours in the kitchen and the laundry. All of us require less time to earn a living, to move from place to place, or to acquire the things we want... So, while TV may result in some adjustments, I don't believe it [will] squeeze other media out of existence." All-out for TV as an ad medium. Young & Rubicam's radio v.p. Pat Weaver said: Of 36 clients served by Y&R out of New York, 10 are now in TV, 15 considering it. "One thing we believe about TV commercials: the rewards are great because the conviction-carrying impact, the depth of impression are so great... At the least, the big budget products should take out time franchises on the networks .. .My advice is: Don't take a chance. It is later than you think. Don't gamble with your company's future. Play safe — and get into TV now!" NBC's president Niles Trammell cautioned: Don't forget, there's still radio. TV is a "new opportunity in a new medium. . .not a replacement for any present advertising." Though big ones are naturally turning to TV, it's also attracting new and smaller advertisers, e.g.. Bates Fabrics, Disney Hats, Motorola. Once dominant, sports now comprise only 27% of TV schedule. Audience acceptance of films is declining. TV can produce 5-t imes-a-week serials, miniature musical comedies, etc. Costs of programs aren’t as out-of-reach as feared, and spread of networks plus syndicated "TV transcriptions" augur a reasonably priced medium as TV "circulation" grows. This was CBS president Frank Stanton's thesis, bulwarked by some astonishing actual cost figures. He cited these as examples of complete TV program costs, including talent, writing, directing, rehearsals, sets and props, agency discounts; only cost of time (facilities as distinct from talent and production) omitted: Winner Take All, $1,730 per broadcast; Toast of the Town, $6,975; Author Meets Critics, $1,850; Tonight on Broadway, $7,435; Philco Playhouse, $10,000; Ford Theatre, budgeted for $20,000; Actors Studio, $7,020; We The People (simulcast), $1,800 extra for TV; CBS TV News Strip at 7:30 p.m., $800 per 15-min. ; 7 Brooklyn Dodgers games, $20,000 for package rights, $8,000 for production; Belmont races, $1,200 for rights per race, $1,200 for pickup, commentator; Louis-Wolcott fight, $100,000 for rights; Beau Jack-Ike Williams fight, $6,000; Bivens-Charles , $3,500. Stanton concluded: "No other medium in history had a swifter and stronger impact on the American people than TV. Indeed, the most obvious fact about TV is how much the American people want it. And what they want, they get."