Television digest with AM-FM reports (Jan-Dec 1951)

TV PRICES-KNOCK-DOWN AND-DRAG-OUT? Things are looking up. so far as marketability of TV receivers is concerned — but factory-ordered price slashes may add up to actual "price war" that could mean intensified buying surge but little or no profit. Only thing certain is that public will get some marvelous values. Clouding widespread confidence that trade is firming up, is puzzle where the price breaks will lead — who can survive. It's true swollen inventories must be disposed of, true that lowered picture tube and components costs can be passed on to the public. But the anomaly is that new lines are being introduced at same time. RCA gave official sanction to what has been done without approval on name brands when it ordered big reductions last week (Vol. 7:33). Also heavily stocked, GE did same thing this week (see p. 8), but unlike RCA it isn't offering new models at same time. And next week Philco will slash prices on all 28 sets it introduced just 2 weeks ago (Vol. 7:32), as well as on the 11 lower-end models it brought out last June (Vol. 7:22) — at same time may also introduce several new models ! What comes next is anybody's guess, but this sort of maneuvering and pricecutting is more than mere factory sanction for what the overloaded dealers have been doing anyhow during last 4 or 5 months of trade slump. RCA and GE frankly state it's out-and-out effort to get rid of inventory, but Philco claims it hasn't much inventory any more — as does Admiral — so the price-cutting on such big scale thus takes on deeper competitive undertones. It could turn out to be knock-down-and-drag-out . * * * <: All this is happening just as everybody was beginning to feel sure buying slump was just about over. Not only are all the trade factors favorable for seasonal upsurge (Vol. 7:33), but reliable trade estimates are that even during the summer months the retailers sold not less than 1,000,000 sets — proving that people had not really stopped buying altogether. GE still clings to belief, not much talked about now, that materials shortages and govt, controls will drastically cut production later this year anyhow, and its receiver manager W.H. Sahloff says "costs are increasing in every area of production. " GE admittedly has huge inventory, but Mr. Sahloff says "demand for our product is greater than our present ability to produce" and he definitely forecasts an "actual shortage" before the year end. RTMA president Glen McDaniel, in significant speech in San Francisco this week, analyzing defense demands on the electronics industry, also predicted: "In the light of tightening materials controls, TV receivers may again be in short supply before Christmas." Long range, he said, the industry has every reason to be optimistic. (We regarded his analysis of defense impact on electronics economy so significant that salient excerpts are published as Special Report with this issue.) With customers "looking and buying" once again, with inventory out of way and current production held down, bitter experience of the 1951 spring-summer may impel the industry's survivors to pace themselves more prudently — more slowly than during the too-lush days of 1950. Everybody wants equilibrium of supply and demand. Production is being kept down, meanwhile, and latest weekly figure is still quite low — only 52,748 TV units (3489 private label) for week ending Aug. 17. This compares with 43,359 week before (Vol. 7:33) and with some 180,000 during comparable third August week in 1950 (Vol. 6:36). Factory inventories went down some 11,000 units, too, even as production went up less than 10,000 from preceding week — marking what everyone in the industry may well hope will be a continuing trend. Total factory inventory Aug. 17 was 754,854, or down to about the July 20 level. Latest distributor inventory figure was 633,077 sets as of June 29 — as 6