Variety (March 1957)

48 RABIO-TEUBVISION P^IBfr • ~ Wednesday, Miirch 27, 1957 Britain’s Rating Fever Continued from page -20 mercial companies «n average 2 to 1 beat over their pid-establi^hed, rivals. Gerald Beadle, prompted to reply to numerous questions on' these points,, neatly avoided the issue when he. wrote an article on the subject , in ' the BBC's official journal, the Radio Times. He did, however, state that the audience figures for opposition programs were widely publicized by the commercial companies '“who nat¬ urally wish to make their spaces for advertisements appear as at¬ tractive as possible to their pro¬ spective customers ” Beadle also explained away the fact that at the end of last year, about one-fifth of the homes in- Britain were equipped to receive both channels, and that around 62% of the time viewers elected to watch commercial tv. From the BBC point of view, he insisted, that was not true. State tv pro¬ grams were at all times command¬ ing a “vastly greater" audience than their competitors. . As an example of the disparity i between the : audiences. Beadle cited tfie BBC Viewing figures for the week Feb. 10 to 16, which put “Sunday Night at the London Palladium" into 4Dth. place, with; amateur homing irom ' Glasgow] running away with the honor* f^r the BBC ^th an widlence ht S.750,000. Accordia# to Televliiott; Audience Measurement*; one-of the sources which coinplto* jrathigs for the ;commeitti|d proframmers, on 'the percentage of receivers capable of tuning into both BBC arid commercial channels, the Pal-* ladium show had an overall rating of 69; while the boxing had 51 in the Northern area and 43 in both the London and Midlands zones. Meanwhile, since commercial programs began 18 months ago, their audience has risen from 700,000 to over 10,000,000,^. and^ plans for new outlets in Wales and Scotland are well under way. .‘Escapers’ ^Continued from iMiRe* 21 = scheduled for April 15 to 26 on the coa.st. Kinnie will be a Swift original, “Emergency Operation.” Swift, Mann and Shaw, together with agent Herb Jaffe, .who set up the deal (his first under his new Herb Jaffe Associates shingle), will go out to the Coast to supervise, the session. The new l>roducing com¬ pany, Carolina Productions (named, after Mann's wife), ds contemplat¬ ing Paul Stewart «5 director of the fi^ed shows once the series itself gets ioUlng, Series,' incidentally, had to un.- dergo a titlte change from the prigi- jial ‘^Esca^^’ to the new ^the capers." Reason was A conflict with an old CBS Badto show of the same riam.e and a'novel and.motion pic-, :tnre». ^ Daytoii-4Slar ^ - . - ■; Continued from page 22 __ other FS-Zane Grey pilot, lensed last season. Niven nersonall# plans to do more than ^10 tv shows during the coming year, including telefilm, live shots and guestings,. ,iOf these, at least eight appearances are to be ia the !‘Gulliver’s". aeries, half to be shot here and half abroad. . .F4)ur StaivDayton Will stick pret -1 ty much to the half-hour telefilm format, according to partner Niven. The firm has been offered an hour- long series by ABC-TV, but Contact: RICHARD A. HARPER, General Soles Mgr. MGM-TV^ a senvica of Loewfs Incorporatod 701 7th Ave.^ New York 36, N. Y. • JUdson 2-2000 thumbed down the proposition be¬ cause it was felt that it would be uneconomic to shoot a 60-niInuta format, for the time and coin in¬ volved. Opening a new can of beans, Niven commented that “We’d live to do a feature film." indicating that Four Star has some discus¬ sions going along these lines. D.O.Correspoadents Cbutiiiued from pace 31 belting to the softer “Just a Gigo¬ lo” went okay. But, again, this was. the wrong audience for herr Estelle Sloan, tap dancer in tights, opened pleasantly. Closing number was the U. S. Naval Awd- emy Glee Club. These dinners are normally given for the President of the United States. This year, because of his tight schedule, he has re¬ jected invitations to all of them. Vice President Richard M. Nixon subbed. Nixon drew a tremend¬ ous hand, for became out of a sick bed at Walter Reed Hospital for the affair, and returned to the hospital immediately afterjvard. Joseph F* McCaffei^ of WMAL- TV and ABC, outgoing president of the association, turned over the gavel of office to^his successor Rob¬ ert F, Hurleigh, Mutual network’s national news and special events director. Dinnei: chairman was Julian>Gpodma]i, uf Among hea^tahle guests were Leonard Goldenson^v head of AB- PT; Thpiha* F. O'Neil, Mutual wch board ^diahmau; Charles Denny, NBC vice-preay; OHver Treyz, ABC; John B. Poor, president of Mutual Network; Merle S. Jones, president CBS-TV; Arthur Hull Hayes, presi¬ dent CBS radio; Davidson Taylor, NBC; and top figures in Govern¬ ment and the Supreme Court. Lowe. WBC Capital Bareau M Continued from page 31 tions than itsr ty’ers, and stems largely firom their indie status. When the outlets had an NBC af¬ filiation, they got network news coverage, which with their hot local news operations, was sufficient. Now that they’re indies, the new service will give them straight na¬ tional news coverage with a brand- new added bonus—^locally slanted coverage and special material on specifically local issues being leg¬ islated or handled in Washington. Object; according to WBC prez Don McGannon and program v.p. Dick Pack, is to give the outlets wider scope than the ordinary mu- sic-and-news operation, which works off the press association tickers and little else. MacGannon believes that hard coverage of local station areas’ Representatives'’'and Senators will open up a new field of “intimacy” betweeq them and the listeners and will make for an exciting new kind of radio-tv journalism. MacLeish will open the office with one assistant, adding staff as he goes along. He'll basically cover Washington, though handling the UN and some international stories as well. Hollywood—^KFWB is laying out $50,000 to refurbish broadcasting- and office equipment, according to .station topper Bob Purcell.* Sta¬ tion is installing a new 5,000 watt transmitter, iplus two tape ma¬ chines, added turntables, special mikes and two shortwave receivers. ZIV HAS THE HOT SHOWSI *1 nn{ ill Mlwork skm ill mck tied with Playhouse of Stars and Vyhat’s^y Line and beating Arthur Godfrey and many others. PUkSE, July, ZlV HitYiilON L'v “ AM, INC. C'n^.rnr,'- Play’s Nol llie Thing 1 ,;; Continued from page 27 , the only means to an economic comeback, and it’s also destructive of all ihe values networking has^ placed upon itself. CBS, for cx« ample, dislikes the term “tonnage buying," and its affiliates In okay¬ ing a rate reduction, once again in¬ sisted that the web sell prqgram segments and riot announcements, CBS of course insists it’s selling programs or sefments of programs, but any advertiser buying a' five- minute segment of a half-hour pro¬ gram is not, let’s face it, buying for the sake of the show, but for the sake of the one minute of commer¬ cial time he gets. Naturally, the networks will con¬ tinue to vai^ and shake up their program schedules, and all for the sake, of maintaining the highest possible audience, which means the highest circulation. But the webs no longer shuffle for the 4;ake of building a particular show or per¬ sonality, but simply to raise the general level of a. single-priced block of time. The CBS daytijpic lineup, for example, is priced the same throughout, and while it's concededly the most potent lineup n all network radio, virtually ndne of its advertisers bought for the sake of a single show but -simply for tonnage circulation spread; throughout the week. What’s happened is that. .After s^ven years of lapdog statu*,, the radio''networks have at last be^n to become competitive to televi» sioUj but at the cost of4osihg much 6f the once-keen condpetitibn; among themselves. U-l Backlog Continued from page 23 wanted to cull the Universal li^ brary for’the top BO. to 100 pix for WRCA-TV’s Sunday night feature program. Disagreement bn price was the major factor in the col¬ lapse of talks. The broadcast syndicate is seek¬ ing full tv distribution rights of the Universal library in'the U. S., with broadcasters In the syndicate being given prior rights to pur¬ chase the library in their particu¬ lar markets, with a distiibuticm or¬ ganization formed to reach the re¬ mainder of the markets. Under present plans) the possibility even exists that the broadcasting mem¬ ber of the syndifcate may elbet not to buy the full library in a particu¬ lar market. In that instance, the sale would be handled by the yet- to-be-formed distribution organiza¬ tion. Weintrahb is not representing Flamingo Films in the negotiations, nor would Flamingo- Films take overi the distribution function In¬ herent in the deal. Free Bailie: FGG --^ Continved from paxe 27 the rule in this industry; it will be the exception. In any event, such consequences of competition are not so unexpected, remote or rare for us to assume that Congress was unaware of these possible results when it decided that free competi- tioi\ should exist in the broadcast industry." The Commission suggested that if WBAC's allegations are true and the public is injured by the new station, then WBAC must per¬ suade Congress to modify the law. “Until Congress gives tis the power to permit something less than free competition in the industry, the Commission said, “we have no power to save either the public or the protestant'’from certain of com¬ petition’s uncomfortable effects." EvaftSG ; Continued from page 23 ; ander Paal. Their outfit and SG share ojqL. a 60-50 basis. Paal has turned but a number of theatrical films in the past, chiefly in Eng¬ land and on the . continent. “Eva" project won’t xoU untU next year. Meantime, a aciipter if being sought. It’ll be Mis* Bar- tok's initial teleseries. However, the actress isn'thew to the medium since she recently completed “Bar¬ gain Bride" with Ronald Reagan for “General Electric Theatre’’ airing April 7. She also did a tele¬ film for Joseph Gotten’* “On Trial" series. . Gene Austin Story To Goodyear 1Y Despite Upcoming Feature Pic Hollywood, March 26. , In, belief that ari hour-long show¬ case will hypo its upcoming feature film project bn Gene Austin, Case Productions has sold live tv rights for a segment of the Attstiu, story, for showing on NBCt’TV “Good¬ year Playhouse" April 21., Case is an affiliate of Desilu Productions. Deal presents a sharp contrast to Warner’s beef to upcoming CBS-TV “Climax” telecast of the Helen Morgan story. Case feel¬ ing ,is that vidcast will arouse in¬ terest in the Austiu pic. WB, on other hand, objects to thll MorgAn teleshow on the grounds that it will hurt the studio’s biopic of the singer. George Grizzard, Broadway ac¬ tor, will play Austih .in the tv show and is a possibility to reprise in the theatrical pic version. Admiral Earnings Dq» > Chicago, March 2flf. Admiral Corp.'s side* and net dropped sharply last year under the impact of the intense.competi- tion'ihat marked the radio-tv man¬ ufacturing. field. ' Firm earned $1,637,274, equal to 44c A share on sale* of $182^,166. Profits ill '55 were $3,932,144,. or $1)66 a share, on. i, a l>oo ' of $202,361,797. As any old riverboat-man will tell you, thil best channel runs deep and lets you travel fastest. Same is true today with tele* yisipn throughout this busy Ohio I Jliver Valley of ours. No advertising medium gives you . such smooth sailing into over 100 of its high-producing counties as WSAZ-TV ... no station’s influence runs so deep with Almost three-quarter million TV families comprising Amer¬ ica’s 23rd television market. Today the nation’s heaviest con¬ centration of industry crowds the banks of the Ohio — generating within the WSAZ-TV area a buy¬ ing potential nearly four billion dollars deep! You can reach it surely via WSAZ-TV’s Channel 3, without fear of shoals, snags or backwaters. You’ll travel, loo, in company with many-of Amer¬ ica’s most successful advertisers. Any Katz office ha* the latest soundings for your inspection. .A/ JUBUoAwi With Radio Stations WSA2, Huntlngfw and WICAZ, Cbsrlistoa LAWRENCE H ROGERS, PRESIDENT Rapr^ntsd by Ths Kats Agsnqf hc- 'WCCd St-rt VoiK