Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1953)

MARTIN COREL'S AUTHORITATIVE NEWS SERVICE FOR MANAGEMENT OF THE VISUAL BROADCASTING AND ALLIED ELECTRONICS ARTS AND INDUSTRY with Electronics If Reports vr PUBLISHED WEEKLYpBY RADIO NEWS BUREAU • WYATT BLDG .11 1 jUL U* I WASHINGTON 5, D.C. • TELEPHONE STERUN6 3-1755 • VOL. 9: No.RIO MAR 8 9%arch 7, 1953 In this Issue: TV Swinging to Film — and Vice Versa, page I Springfield-Holyoke & Lawton, Okla., page 2 7 CPs Granted, More Hearing Dates Set, page 3 The UHF Markets: Youngstown, Ohio, page 4 Network TV-Radio Billings — January, page 6 Newsreel Field — 'Every Home a Theatre', page 8 Reports on Upcoming New Stations, page 9 Seasonal TV Cutbacks; Radio Doing Well, page 10 All-Channel Tuning Is Definite Trend, page 71 TV Sets-in-Use by Cities as of Feb. 1, page 14 TV SWINGING TO FILM — AND VICE VERSA: It’s a simple axiomatic fact, beyond dispute, that film is becoming increasingly important to TV. And it shouldn't require a wedding of a big network with a big motion picture exhibitor (ABC-UPT) to impress upon movie diehards the other side of the coin: TV is important to the film industry. Filmed programming, filmed news, filmed backgrounds, filmed commercials — all are now integral to TV, and requirements are steadily growing. Many new stations, expanding program schedules, depletion of network time, economies of syndication to multiple users — all dictate TV's heavy swing to film. Banking heavily on future of film in TV — and not merely kinescope recordings — NBC this week set up an autonomous film division on par with its TV-radio networks div. and its stations div. , with film v.p. Robert W. Sarnoff in charge; he's son of the RCA chairman, now reports directly to president Frank White. This division's activities include film procurement, production and syndication, White announcing he expects it to become a "centralised source of film material and services not only to NBC-TV [but] also to other stations and enterprises." It's an open secret that NBC plans to go beyond TV in its film services; among plans are films for theatrical release, including currently a condensation of its Victory at Sea series and remakes of highlights of top-flight shows like the Colgate Comedy Hour & All Star Revue, featuring Jimmy Durante, Eddie Cantor, Martin & Lewis, etc. "An annual profit of $40,000,000" from TV film production and syndication is anticipated by NBC in about 3 years, reports March 7 Billboard Magazine, quoting a "confidential report" to Gen. Sarnoff. This may be the usual hyperbole of show business, but Billboard purports to know that NBC film operations netted $5,000,000 profit in 1952 and says the network anticipates "film activities will parallel, or perhaps even exceed, its live programming by 1956." It's of more than passing significance, too, that RCA Victor is sponsoring filmdom's big Academy Award dinner March 19 (see Telecasting Notes ) ; this comes only a few days after RCA board meets in Los Angeles, so presumably the RCA brass intend to put in an appearance on a scene that TV will inevitably dominate one day. * * * # TV has cut into boxoffice — there's no doubt about that, and few think the wound is going to be healed by third dimension or fourth dimension, "smellies" or "feelies", or theatre TV. It's hard to believe the movie industry isn't yet convinced it should make its peace with TV — considering how the latter is expanding, to say nothing of TV's terrific promotional potentialities. Yet to date TV film production hasn't been lucrative for movie producers who have made tentative stabs at it. Independents , sometimes operating on a borrowed shoestring, and to some extent networks , radio transcription people and ad agencies, have taken over the field up to now. But when TV films begin bringing in big money. COPYRIGHT IBB3 BY RADIO NKWS BUREAU