Variety (March 1956)

42 lOTEBNATIONAL BABIO-XV ' PtiSsFETr Wednesday, March 14, 195 ^ Associated-Rediffusion Cuffoing Plugs as British Coipl TV Biz Fails to Hit Anticipated Stride 4.- : - Benny to the ‘Rescue’ (or BBC-TV London, March 13 BBC-TV apparently has no intention of taking a back seat'to the new commercial television enterprise here when it comes to spotlighting of major show biz personalities. For one thing the BBC is taking its cue from the Palladium in lining up top Ameri¬ can stars as a means of curbing the inroads in viewership since tv also went commercial here. / Jack Benny is due over the latter part of May. He'll be starred in a one-hour BBC-TV variety show. In addition Benny is plan¬ ning to film several half-hour segments for his Sunday night CBS-TV series for use next season, a la the same pattern put into use this season by Bob Hope in giving his Tuesday night NBC-TV entry an international flavor. In all Benny will remain abroad from two to three months. Moscow Liberalizes Privileges For CBS, NBC Correspondents in Soviet - + By HAROLD MYERS London, March 13. One of London’s commercial pro¬ grammers has entered the giveaway field. Associated-Rediffusion, which operates the competitive station on weekdays, is giving advertisers one free plug for every spot paid for. This is the first frank admission that advertising revenue is way be¬ low expectations and special in¬ ducements are necessary to lure advertising support for the week¬ day programming. The decision was taken at a full day sesh with the other program contractors, and- was announced in a formal press statement last week, reinforced with a full page advertisement in the London Times. A breakdown of advertising time sold on the London station reveals, all too clearly, that the network has failed to sell anything like the time permitted in the Tele¬ vision Act. By statute, advertis¬ ing time is restricted to a maxi¬ mum of six minutes in every hour, but there have been times in re¬ cent weeks where they’ve not reached this total in a full day. On Feb. 13 and Feb. 15, for ex¬ ample, advertising spots sold on A-R programs were two mins. 58 seconds and five mins. 13 seconds, respectively. A week later, on Feb. 22, the day’s advertising schedule absorbed only six mins, nine sec¬ onds of screCn time. Consistently, the best weekday has been Friday, and in the last two weeks the time sold was in the region of 20 min¬ utes, with Thursdays following as a close second with 17 and almost 19 minutes, respectively. In the first week of the new Birmingham outlet, the same lack of response has been apparent. On the first weekday (Feb. 20) of reg¬ ular transmission, the amount of advertising time fell below three minutes. Space sales improved progressively through the week, however, with five mins. 30 sec¬ onds on the following day and 14 mins., 15 mins., and 32 mins, on successive days. Associated Television, which is responsible for weekday program¬ ming in Birmingham and which also has control of weekend time on the London station, has consist¬ ently had an encouraging adver¬ tising response for their London programs. On Feb. 18 and 19 they sold 33 mins, and 41 mins., respec¬ tively, and the following weekend space ratings hit approximately 38 and 33 minutes. The first tWo Sat¬ urday nights in Birmingham (run by ABC-TV) were supported by ad¬ vertisers with 29 and 23 minutes, respectively. The Associated-Rediffusion gift terms took effect from yester¬ day (Mon.). Their 100% bonus will apply to all advertisers other than those using slides, time sig¬ nals, seven second spots or maga¬ zines. They now reckon that with the new incentive advertisers can reach a thousand homes in a half¬ minute advertisement at a cost of approximately $2.65. They esti¬ mate, on the basis of latest statis¬ tics, that there are 640,000 sets in the London area equipped to re¬ ceive the alternative program. AUSSIES PREP FOR COM! TV SETUP London, March 13. In anticipation of the launching of state and commercial tv net¬ works in Melbourne and Sydney this year, the Australian Broadcast¬ ing Commission, which will be op¬ erating the national outlets, has named Global Television Services as their exclusive purchasing agents. They’re authorized to buy all types of filmed programs, other than those emanating from the BBC-TV. As part of the deal, Global have also been given a mandate to ac¬ quire suitable programs from France,.Germany, Italy and other European countries. ABC will have one station in Sydney and another in Melbourne, and their income will be dependent on licensing fees, as is the case with the BBC here. 64,000 Kroner Quizzer Copenhagen, March 13. Now the- Danish listeners and tv viewers will get a 64,000. kroner ($9,000) quiz show for charity — with only the number of coins similar to the famed American show. Danish Breweries’ Assn, has given the whole prize amount to the Statsradiofonien, which usually doesn’t go in for money prizes (except on a Sunday night “Stop the Music” show, where the top prize is $15). “The 64,000 Kroner Quiz Show” will be held night of April 8, and both the 1,000,000 listeners and 12,000 tv view¬ ers will follow the show and are expected to send in money or buy lottery tickets to help Danish crippled persons, CBS-TVFiim Sales Has a $3,120,880 Stake in Britain CBS Television Film Sales, the network’s syndication subsidiary, has taken ,on all foreign sales rights to most of the network’s filmed and some of its kinescoped properties, with the result that it has forged to the front in at least one foreign market in terms of properties sold. That market is England, where it is way out in front of its competition with 11 shows sold and on or about to go on the air via either the BBC or the commercial channels. At the same time, however, the web subsid is plowing back far more money in the country than it has taken out via an intensive production schedule in England that currently sees three series be¬ fore the cameras and a fourth slated for June or July. CBS Film Sales v.p.-general manager esti¬ mates that his current production budgets for England when project¬ ed to 39 shows per series would run to $3,120,000—when the fourth starts, it will be well over $4,000,- 000. The money CBS will take out of England via the sale of its 11 shows, however, won’t run to more than $1,000,000. CRS shows set in the U.K. are “Annie Oakley,” “Amos ’n’ Andy,” “Range Rider,” “Adventure of Champion,” “San Francisco Beat” and “Under the Sun,” all out of the Film Sales stable, and “Gun- smoke,” “I Love Lucy,” “Decem¬ ber Bride,” “Person to Person” and “Our Miss Brooks” from among the network properties to which the subsid has acquired for¬ eign sales rights. But Harris, like other American distribs, is annoyed over the Brit¬ ish protestations at the BBC-ITA expenditures for American vidpix. Not only is all that coin from Brit¬ ish features sold to American tv counterbalancing Britain’s ex¬ penditures for American vidpix, Harris states, “but look at all the money we’re plowing into produc¬ tion in England.” He points to three of his* own shows, “The Le¬ gionnaire,” which has started shooting a cycle of 39, and “King Richard the Lion-Hearted” and “The City,” both of which are in the pilot stage but will undoubtedly go a full 39 each, bringing total* production monies spent in*. Eng¬ land to $3,120,000. Once produc¬ tion starts this summer ' on “Sir Francis Drake,” the ante will be even higher. Guam Preps Com’lTV Washington, March" 13. Anticipating plans for commer¬ cial tv in Guam, the FCC last week assigned channels 8 and 10 to the Territory. Station KUAM in Agana intends to-file for channel 8. Island popu¬ lation is largely composed of Air Force troops. Schoenbrun Makes Out A Good Case for Radio Paris, March 13. According to David Schoenbrun, CBS news correspondent for France,, radio is still very< much alive arid vital. . In his daily radio newscast to the U. S. last week he talked about the high price of steaks here and the French house¬ wife’s discontentment. Almost im¬ mediately it was picked up by a Senator in Washington who read this problem into the Congressional Record and recommended help to France. President Eisenhower reacted to this, and a new aid program to France of foodstuffs was set in motion. Guy Mollet thanked Amer¬ ica for the help. The recent cold wave was responsible for some shortages and the corresponding price raises. So Schoenbrun is well Convinced that radio, as well as video, has its proper place in the dissemination of thought, plus still being a powerful influence. BBCJVGetthig Trailer-Happy London, March 13. With the full cooperation of the industry, BBC-TV will launch its own film magazine next month. The program, to be. directed by Alan Sleath, is now in an advanced planning stage and fuller details should be known within a week or two. Peter Haigh, one of the top BBC announcers, will omcee. The program, which will be aired weekly, will select snips from all pre-releases, thus getting a beat on comparable programs featured on the commercial webs which feature general releases. The most important of the latter is the new ABC-TV Sunday after¬ noon “Film Fanfare,” which is be¬ ing networked from Birmingham to London, pending union agree¬ ment to use the Elstree studios. This program Includes the weekly releases and among other features has a weekly showdown between a critic and a star. Two film pro¬ grams emanating from London on the commercial outlet are “Movie Magazine,” which concentrates on releases and personalities, and “Portrait of a Star,” which spot¬ lights one star name each week. Transatlantic Video Hookup, Sans Coaxial, In London Test Stage London, March 13. Tests started in London last week which, if successful, may make a transatlantic tv hookup possible without the use of a coaxial link. The experiments 'are being con¬ ducted by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. with the approval of the Post Office which has granted them a temporary license. The company is testing the trop¬ ospheric scatter, a VHF system with a potential radius of around 300 miles which is considered ade¬ quate to achieve an effective trans¬ atlantic link. It could run from the mainland to the Shetland Isles, to Iceland via the Faroes, then on to Greenland, Baffin Island and the Canadian Arctic, eventually reach¬ ing the northern districts of Amer¬ ica. Commenting on the tests, a Mar¬ coni exec said last week that while the possibilities of a transatlantic hookup had been discussed for some time, the project must be Considered as purely experimental at this stage. There was no guaran¬ tee that- tv programs could be transmitted across the Atlantic in the near future. ‘PLAIN & FANCY’ AS BRC-TV SPECIAL London, March 13. For the first time BBC-TV have negotiated a deal for a live tele¬ cast of an American musical from Drury Lane. Next Tuesday (20) they will feature a 40-minute ex¬ cerpt of “Plain and Fancy,” with Shirl Conway, Richard Derr and Joan Hovis. In the past, West End manage¬ ments have found that these live telecasts are an effective means of hypoing the b.o. It is no secret that “Plain and Fancy” has been doing disappointing biz since it opened on Jan. 25. Show No Quarter London, March 13. A restriction on the use of 15-minute programs is to be in¬ troduced by Radio Luxem¬ bourg from the spring on¬ wards. This is the only sound outlet for commercial broad¬ casting into the United King¬ dom. In a report prepared re¬ cently by the Luxembourg sta¬ tion, it is stated that experi¬ ence has shown that too many quarter hours are Unaccept¬ able to the listener and give the evening’s broadoasting an unsatisfying impression. As a result, half-hour programs, with a preference for Jive shows, will be given key spots. Refusing to accept the de¬ featist view that radio is tv’s poor relation, Luxembourg’s statement points out that the potential listening audience for radio still stands at around 20,000,000 adults." ‘Assignment UN’ Series for ABC; Set Global Ride A major series of documentary radio stows, for .which special audio material is being gathered vis' tape in many parts of the world, will be broadcast by United Nations Radio under the title “Assignment United Nations,” with the domestic kickoff slated for Fri¬ day (16) 10:30-11 p.m., over ABC. John Daly will narrate the entire series. “Assignment United Nations,” the first big Series of UN shows to be put on the air since .last year’s celebration of the world or¬ ganization’s 10th anniversary, will attempt “to combine thoughtful analysis of the issues with special actuality reporting from the field,” according to Michael Hayward, chief of the UN Radio Division’s English-language services. The opener, starring Francis Sullivan, will take up the tough international subject of disarma¬ ment, and has been written by Gohl Obhrai, who is also super¬ visor for the entire series. For the second show, a month later, Irving Berenson is making 12,000-mile trip through Asia and the Far East, recording the actuality ma¬ terial. for this show, which will deal with the Asian economy. George Movshon is leaving next week for Togoland, Africa, to wrap up the actuality material from that area where the natives will hold a plebiscite - under UN auspices. Later shows scheduled a month through October, will take up the celebration of the UN Charter Day in June, the subject of food for the world In July, atoms for peace in August, the Latin Ameri¬ can economy in September, and the annual report of Secretary- General Dag Hammarskjold in-Oc¬ tober. The series, as broadcast in this country over ABC, will be broad¬ cast by every English-speaking network in the world. In addition, the show will be translated and adapted for domestic broadcast around the globe in at least 20 other languages. By IRVING R. LEVINE (NBC & Variety Correspondent) Moscow, ‘March 13. For what is believed to be the first time ever, American radio cor¬ respondents in Russia are now able to broadcast from Moscow to the United States without dependency on Radio Moscow. A broadcasting booth has been set up in Moscow’s Central Tele* graph Office, a grey stone building on Moscow’s main Gorky Street, and the two American radio news¬ men now accredited to the Soviet Union are permitted,*" for the mo¬ ment at least, to make daily broad¬ casts. Previously correspondents were entirely dependent; on the govern¬ ment’s radio station, Radio Mos¬ cow, for studio facilities which were granted with irregularity and withdrawn in rather whimsical fashion. As far as is known, no radio broadcasts were ever done from the Soviet Union outside of Radio Moscow before this time. The first broadcast from the new facilities at the Moscow Central Telegraph Office were made on Sunday, Feb. 19, for the NBC World News Roundup by NBC's Moscow commentator Irving R. Levine. He was followed a few minutes later by Dan Schorr, cor¬ respondent for CBS. Since then Schorr and Levine have been broadcasting from Moscow daily. The facilities consist of a tele¬ phone booth of somewhat larger dimensions than the usual Ameri¬ can booth. For the first few days the undraped wooden walls caused an echo which interfered with the quality of the reception in New York. However, soon after the Ameri¬ can radiomen hung up their own blankets in an attempt to baffle the sound, the Soviet authorities provided a rich blue plush cloth With which they lined the booth. One American correspondent de¬ scribed the cloth-lined booth with its glass door as looking 'like “a coffin turned on end.” The broadcasts are beamed from Moscow to London to New York so that the Moscow correspondents are able to talk directly with their home studios. The quality of the circuits have varied greatly. Poor circuits may be due in part to sun¬ spots and in part to the fact that, despite the blue plush cloth there is still considerable work to be • done in the way of improving the quality of the lines from the Cen¬ tral Telegraph Office to the Mos¬ cow transmitter. At the end of one day’s feed, a CBS engineer in New York ex¬ plained the poor circuit by coin- plaining that “whoever is moni¬ toring your broadcast there is do¬ ing a technically poor job.” Easier Access to Photos The Moscow Telegraph Office also provides facilities for radio photos, for telephone calls during two and three-quarters hours a day to the U. S., and for .cabling of news material. It’s at the Central Telegraph Office that all correspondents, radio and otherwise, hand in their ma¬ terial to censorship* which is easy on certain subjects and difficult on others. Correspondents never see the censor. They cannot argue with .him—or her. Scripts and dis¬ patches are handed in through a window to a clerk who delivers the material to the "censors in an¬ other room. The copy, when re¬ turned, bears a stamp. Often ma¬ terial is returned without dele¬ tions. Sometimes a few words are (Continued on page 46)