Variety (November 1956)

34 RABI0-TELEVISIO1V PfiRltiff Wednesday, November 21, 1956 Estimated Weekly Network TV Program Costs . —■ ■ ■ — Continued from page 28 ■ - ■- ■ ■ -:—-■ S NET- “We now switch you to...” The cue line from one of these commentators, the push of a button and your network audience is on the scene in Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles ... wherever the news is breaking. The magic of network switching j*ives viewers a front row look at the drama of current events. But behind this miracle are the skills of Bell System and network technicians. These highly trained craftsmen blend the technical ability of an engineer with an actor’s unerring ear for cues. With split-second precision, push buttons are operated to make connections that switch the television scene from one city to another. And Bell System technicians are receiving cues from several networks at once. To help them, the Bell System receives op¬ erating instructions from the networks which give all the necessary information on switches. This information is sped to 130 Bell System tele¬ vision operating centers throughout the nation by private line telephone and teletypewriter systems. This co-operation between network and tele¬ phone company... and teamwork along the Bell System lines... assure the American viewing public the smoothest programming and the best television transmission it is possible to provide. BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM Providing intercity channels for network radio and television, throughout the nation Ben Duffy Continued from page 21 =-!■■- j behind that show.” Rising costs, Duffy stated, have already eaten “into the ranks of marginal pro¬ ducers” and have eliminated “some of the inferior product.” But “for the competent, talented producer, the agency's new system of opera¬ tion can help secure his success.” The coproduction setup reduces the risk of a 13-week cancellation, “since this ‘trial’ run is largely absorbed in pre-telecast conference between agency and producer”; it allows the producer “to get the bugs out of his show before the advertiser sees it”; it increases the producer’s likelihood of being con¬ sulted on future properties. Eliminating Risk For the sponsor, the coproduc¬ tion arrangement “eliminates most of the risk of buying into a prod¬ uct that never stands up to the pilot film”; it assures that the client’s wishes “will be transmitted as quickly and effectively as pos¬ sible into the final product”; it gives the client “an extra creative dimension to the production of a quality series”; and it “assures the fact^that the agency will be as aware of what is going into the production of the series as the pro¬ ducer himself.” As to the agency, the arrange¬ ment would guarantee it “a much closer liaison between the other two interested parties—clients and producers. The solving of minor day-to-day problems will probably eliminate the big ones that used to crop up ‘out of the blueV so to speak.” Duffy said that such a role would create a heavy load for the agency programming people and woula require the hiring of talented specialists. “If it means' hiring higher-priced people away from other phases of show business, this must he done.” “A good hour live dramatic show not too long ago cost around $40,- 000, or less, in talent charges. We have just been exposed to some projected hour live dramatic shows for the 1957-58 season. These were good shows with fine people in charge, but they were not spectacu¬ lars. However, they were budgeted in the neighborhood of $60,000 to $80,000. An hour variety show that we talked to a producer about had an initial budget of $147,000 for talent charges alone. In addition, time charges have been rising as networks increase their facilities. “Costs can not keep rising for¬ ever, mainly because that kind of money is getting scarcer and scarcer. Fewer and fewer sponsors can afford a network show every week, Cosponsorship is an accepted way out. So is multiple sponsor¬ ship, despite the fact that some product identity is naturally lost in the latter system. But if the traffic can’t bear a much higher tariff, it’s also a cold hard fact that prices aren’t likely to get lower.” News Casting Continued from page 21 ■--- considering that it’s all out-of- pocket expense without benefit o£ sponsorship; or the Henry Sal¬ omon-inspired “Project 20” docu¬ mentations in the public affairs area of programming, or the pro¬ jected “Telescope” series, or again the policy of NBC preemptions of prime time slots under the web’s attendant precept that “if a show’s worth seeing at all, show it where it can be seen and not for the sake of Congressional credit." In this regard, CBS could take a cue and" earmark a Wednesday at 9, say, rather than a Sunday afternoon at 4, which seems to have become Col lumbia's anointed grounds for fighting its public affairs wars. Yet, save for these isolated com¬ mendable facets, the NBC short¬ comings in its news-public affairs division, it's felt, have been ac¬ cented in deeds of non-perfor- itfance. Its continued lack of a standoiit personality with the sta¬ ture of an Ed Murrow or an Eric Severaid is regarded as but one conspicuous deficiency. The fact that a CBS Will automatically dis¬ patch a Murrow posthaste to the Israel-Egypt sore spot while NBC contents itself with its “as usual correspondent” is cited as but an¬ other illustration of two-network philosophies in their respective news-public affairs areas. ABC thus far has done but life* tie in these directions.