Variety (September 1957)

Wednesday, September 4, 1957 BRITIS! Nielsen's Top (Week. Ending Aug. 18) Jack Hylton Presents—Summer’s Pelevision Playhouse—My Hearts ‘Highlands ....... peseee Criss Cross Quiz—Wed. Emergency Ward 10—Fri. oovssocsccesscese(ALV) ‘The Army Game .... Criss Cross Quiz—Mon. ‘Play of the Week—The ‘Tigress o1 on the Hearth. (AR) Val Parnell’s Sat. Spectacular i Love Lucy (Figures reveal the audience in the London, Birmingham and Northern Region television homes capable ef receiving BOTH B.B.C. and LT.V. programs.) Politics, Sports Major Come-On In Argentina TV Set Sale Upbeat Buenos Aires, Sept. 3 + TV has made big strides in Ar gentina over the past six months.’ Politics and sports have ‘been the main motivating forces for set sales going to around 6,000 a month. Dealers complain they could double sales if manufacturers could only make bigger deliveries, and manufacturers . could double production if bureaucratic procedures didn’t snarl up im-. ‘portation of necessary parts. The decision to televise weekend football (soccer) games again acted as a big spur on sales, apart from public interest in hearing and seeing political debates between candidates of parties campaigning actively throughout the past couple of months, The Association of Set Manufacturers (AFARTE) now estimate the number of sets in use at a minimum of 90,000. ’ The management of Channel 7 has been divorced from that of. parent network Radio Belgrano, and the telecasts are a State service run on a commercial basis, ‘until such time as the networks, have been transferred to private owners before the end of this, year, Radio Belgrano (through pull with Eva Peron) has obtained the | first tv license, thus gaining an ad-: vantage over the other two big webs, Mundo and Splendid. As soon as these three webs are in private ownership, presumably they will each have to obtain tv, licenses. AFARTE has asked that these other two licenses be awarded immediately, so as to create competitive tv services and hurry up interest in purchasing sets. The manufacturers offered to cover all the costs of operafion: until the TATSE Threatens . Canada TV Strike Montreal, Sept. 3. IATSE local exec threatens to strike government-owned Ganadian | Broadcasting Corp. this month unless the firing of two of its members is dealt with under terms of an expired agreement. They say JATSE locals in Halifax, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Vancouver would support their action, which then |‘ Would shut down most of Cana~dian tv. CBC and union. toppers: meet in Ottawa Sept. 5 to discuss the issue. IATSE says federal labor department has declared old.contract in force until new one is signed. CBC says none exists. Negotiations for a new contract were suspended last May after four Toronto IATSE members applied for decertification of the union. They were backed by statutory declarations from 90% of 600-member Toronto local ‘and entire Halifax local. Strike, at any time Montreal exec decides, was voted by 200 of lecal’s 600 members here eaclier this month." Its president Lise Banglois says unless more firing occur no strike is likely before Sept. 5 meeting. vecevctcvcesssess(GQRANADA) Criss Cross Quiz—Fri. ..... svecccccevecees s (GRANADA) Sunday Night at Blackpool saevcccvevccscosl seccccseccvecescecres (GRANADA) » 60% 59% reeesecenccavececnsees(GRANADA) 58% ‘sedaeeese(GRANADA ) : J 56% ween recs oaeAATY) i wee c ccc eneees ve veee(ABC/ATY) 54% ‘tracts from his new comic novel 10 in Britain Here .....(AR) in the ATV) e ’ Compton Mackenzie TV’er dinburgh, Sept. 3. -.| Scottish iterendent television bosses have pacted Sir Compton Meckenzie, vet scripter and author, to appear each week before the cameras, ° He will read, in character, ex “Rockets Galore.” A sttecessor to “Whisky Galore,“ it deals with reaction of remote Scot islanders in the Hebrides to the setting up of an. island guided-missile range. Aussie Com’ TV a Expects to Be Out’ Of Red by Jan. | Sydney, Sept. 3. Aussie commercial tv operators ‘expect to come out of the red be fore year’s end if current, sponsor: ship tempo continues. And, what’ more important, the commercial toppers look to U.S. shows for the swing to black. The Robert Menzies’ Liberal government has just provided the necessary hypo for Aussie ty by agreeing to a Jarger outflow of dollars for program buys. Spokesman for a major commercial outfit said here this week that the Aussies{ prefer. U.S. entertainment to homebrew, and sponsors were now ready to sign on the dotted line for imported fare geared to the local taste. Another spokesman added that by Jan. 1958 tv should be right on top Down Under as an entertainment medium. It’s known that American agents of the major Aus-. sie ty stations have been instructed to go ahead on program purchases pronto. Several tv. toppers will plane to the U.S. to buy product personally, and the competition for top shows is already pacing. It’s estimated here that 150, 000 tv sets will be in use by the end of this month. ‘Over the past 12 months tv set sales increased by 43% and continue to rise. Cost of an average tv set here (Continued on page 46} —_—— BRITISH COM'L TV 486 ANNI SALUTE . London, Sept. 3. Associated-Rediffusion, the London weekday commercial tv programmers, are to put on a 90-min ute show entitled’ “Salute To Show Business,” at a cost of at least $48,000 to mark the second anniversary of Independent Television.. The show will be aired on Sept. 20. Most of the program will be prerecorded on film, and will be built round Margaret Lockwood, Ken ‘jneth More and-Dickie Valentine. The night before the show goes. out, the programmers are tossing a riverboat party on-a cruise down the Thames, for about 1,000 guests. They've taken out insurance coverage for all amounting to $5,600,000. oN INTERN ATIONAL TV RADIQ _ L IN-fAME Il {West Germany in No. STV Spot Among Nations & Still Climbing:. EL ene London, Sept. 3 British television is ‘celebrating its 21st anniversary with a super-. {colossal demonstration of its up|to-dateness at this year’s Radio | Show, at the Earls Court, Lendon. Around $6,000,000 worth: of radio |. and tv equipment is on show, along with hordes of Stars and personali[ |ties offered by both BBC-TV and “celebrity plat-| commercial on forms” where the notables daily display themselves. It’s estimated that $200,000,000 worth of business will be done as’a result of this year’s show. One of the main slants is} on portable tv receivers and pocket sized radios. ‘sets in the homet-a kind of His and~Hers—to stop any squabbles about the choice ofchannels, which sare limited to two at present. Among several noticeable trends in development made apparent at | the show is the increasing popularity of the 21-inch ftv screen, built into shallow cabinets which are no larger than those used to house the old type 12-inch. Also, there's a widespread use of transistors in most equipment replacing the now outmoded glass valves, and a marked accent placed on high quality sound. The show runs for 10 days until Sept. 7,.and is open daily between {11 am.and40 pm. There are 124 jstands and demonstration rooms. {in which 320 tv sets are constantly operating. The show was opened last Wed.:(28) by Aubrey Jones, Minister of Supply, who stepped in at the last minyte to replafe Lord Brabazon, prez of the Radio Industry Council, who had a slight heart attack the day before he was due to. perform the opening ceremony. ! ;| BBC, ITV in Skirmish | For Football Results Glasgow, Sept. 3. A battle to get in first with the latest football results is developing between BBC and the Independent Television producers here. BBC made the first move by taking dialers over to grounds for last-minute commentaries and results at 4:45 p.m. Saturdays. Now Scottish Television, the new indie outfit, will retaliate by pre senting a “Sports Desk” program,,. screened at 5:15 p.m., only 30 minutes after the final whistles have blown. It will be a speedy service of results and reports, and Is likely. to have some effect on sales of around | ere’s also a big |. drive to get folk to have two tv! This Could Mean War Glasgow, Sept. 3. ‘Indie tv-and BBC inter-relationg have started off on the wrong foot in Scotland. Roy Thomson, Canadian newspaper owner and contractor for the Scottish programs, which teed off Saturday (31), sent invites for gala opening to local BBC topper Andrew Stewart and his immediate predecessor Melville Dinwiddie. Bath invites were turned — down., ” Canada to Push Tint TV to Curb Set Mig. Layoffs: Toronto, Sept. 3. Urging the immediate action of the State-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in presenting color ty to-bolster Canada’s tv manufacturing industry and prevent imminent plant layoffs, an emergency meeting here of the United Electrical Workers union (mainly Canadian General Electric), voted to request Revenue Minister Nowlan, under whose Federal jurisdiction the .CBC operates, that 11 of Canada’s 22 set manufacturers close down by October, throwing some thousands out of work. On th saturation sales point of | black-and-white tv, the union ‘| urged the Government to begin im mediately to. converting all CBCTV. stations to color in order to create markets for color tv and preveht forthcoming mass layoffs. On prospects of no jobs this win ter, the union also requested an immediate meeting with Revenue Minister Nowlann “for discussion of this emergency.” The predicted layoff will also apply to manufacturers of tubes, parts and tv set servicing. According to the Radio-Teieyision: Manufacturers Assn., Canadian ty set sales in Canada are down more than 50% as compared with the first six months of ’57, with first half-years sales slumping from 216,000 sets to 107,700 at present. Opinion of manufac _— ‘sports evening newspapers. turers is that the heavily-populated areas of Canada now have sets and ty coverage and that there are no more set replacements necessary— in black and white. Creation of a color tv market In Canada, as in the United States, is governed by the. high cost of receivers. Rough Days for BBC London, Sept. 3. The BBC is being rocked back on-its heels in all departments. First came the news that sound radio: broadcasts were losing audiences at a4 fantastic rate, and now it’s revealed by the BBCAudience Research Department that the. nightly: average tv audience is only about 1,000,000. The state web estimate that the nightly average audience for | commercial tv is 2,000,000, but the Independent Television Authority claim it is more like 5,000,000..A report compiled by the BBC says that even in homes where commercial tv cannot be received, interest in BBC-TV airings is dropping off. BBC sound radio has dropped 1,000,000 listeners in the last three months. The average combined audience for its three oullets—the Home, Light and Third Programs—is now less than 3,500,000 ‘nightly, whereas 10 years ago it was in the region of 10,000,000. The BBC blames television for the shattering slump. They say ty now has an average audience—BBC-TV and commercial tv combined—of about 15,000,000, but admit there are an estimated 17,000,000 people in Britain who still depend solely-en sound radio for their home entertainment. Radio Luxembourg, the only commercial radio outlet. to serve Britain, recently reported that its listening figures were rising sharply. First move by the BBC to woo hack departing listeners is the introduction of.daily news flashes every hour from 7:30 a,m, until midnight on the Light Program. This new service will commence Sept. 30. Altogether there will be 26 news bulletins and sum maries, 16 of which will last for either one or two minutes. Scottish Television Ltd. have pacted Willie Woodburn, ace Scotland “and Rangers center-half player, to be one of their sports-. casters. The BBC has ace player eoree Young on. their pay-check st. By HANS HOEHN Berlin, Sept. 3. According to the West German — “|Federal Post Office, there are cur rently nearly 1,000,000 tv set owners registered in Western Germany. Latter’s population amounts to about 50,088,000, as against 17,}000,000 in Eastern Germany. Although the city of West Berlin is still not a direct part of the West German Federal Republic, it is already regularly included in the above tv statistics. At present, there are about 40,000 sets registered in this part of the fornaer Reich capital. Latest statistics revealed that West Germany’s smallest tv increase was registered by the Federal Post Office last June (19,205 new receivers), it’s true, but, generally speaking, one may say: that also this country’ s video is climbing up fast. It is also said that West Berlin cannot quite keep pace with West Germany in this respect which, however, is mainly matter of coin shortage here. In all, West Germany is currently holding fifth spot (after hte U. S., England, Canada and USSR) among the more than 40 different tv nations, Despite some difficulties arising from W-Berlin’s complicated economical, geographical and political situation, there is no denying the fact that this city holds an important function in the all-German tv net. Its television link to West Germany is Sender Freies Berlin (SFB), sending out for local view-~ iers a daily schedule of three ta four hours of varied programming, Quite in contrast to the gigantic itv networks in the U. S., the Ger (Continued on page 48) Canada TV, Radio Nixes Censorship Toronto, Sept. 3. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has refused to act on the suggestion of trans-Canada police that ‘a polite board of censorship be established that will okay all radio and television scripts deal ing with third-degree methods of ‘obtaining evidence. Action came when the Canadian Assn. of Chiefs of Police, meeting in 52d annual convention, claimed that the CBC was “blackening the eyes” of all Canadian cops and that the latter were unable to defend themselves, According to George hea, .Secretary-treasurer for the police organization, he has written CBC lofficials on specific radio and tele: vision sequences in which police {officers give the third degree, these including teenagers, in atj tempts to break narcotic cases, ,ete.; but the CBC has refused such t censorship. Suggestion that To ronto and Montreal police ofmainly originate—form a small j committee and be allowed ta read plays concerning police methods has been turned down by CBC piesa | iar Bergen to Preem | Granada Vaudeo Series | Granada TV will launch a weekly . {60-minute -vaude show featuring {ists on Sept. 17. Edgar Bergen will headline the first airing, which will Chelsea .Palace. Show will be screened in the eommercial tv area in a 9 p.m. te 10 slot. Music Corp. of America 2 for the pregram. Teéntatively lined up for the Oct. 1 show is ficials—where such CBC programs the. scripts of radio and television ‘heads. London, Sept. 3. | top American and Continental artcome from the Granada owned North of England and the London will play a big part in supplying Ftists Charles Laughton.