Variety (November 1957)

We<jnesday y November 6, 1957 ZUkIET? IXTERIVATIO V4L TV - RADIO S9 + “Watch’ % of Brit’s 27-Mil Viewers < ■ > | London, Nov. 3. There are 27,000,000 tv viewers in Britain. The adult percentage of them watch programs-for an average of 15 hours, every week, and people who own tv receivers see, on the average, two out of every five evening shows. These statistics were revealed by BBC- TV during an airing entitled “Facts and Figures.” It was also revealed that: 60% of the highest income grpUp own a tv set, against 50% in the lower income groups, 40% of set-ownert who earn between $13 and $22 a week watch tv during the peak eveningjiours. 34% of owners earning $56 and above each week will be viewing at any one time. * 34% of set-owners with a university education normally view' during the evening against 39% with a secondary education and 41% of those who left school at 14 or 15 years of age. The leading regular BBC-T.V programs are normally seen by 6,00(1,000 and 9,000,000 viewers. Big events rave been seen by 12,- 000,000 or as many as 20,000,000. In 1947 one out of every 5(M) adults was a viewer. Today, with 18 transmitters, 97% ofsthe population of Great Britain can re¬ ceive BBC-TV. The average hour of tv costs" Just over $9,000. This is how the total is made up: $4,300 for artists, orchestras,, royalties and gen¬ eral program expenses; $3,500 for engineering costs; $1,330 for overhead. The two pastimes ty dbes not seem to have affected are garden¬ ing and courting. - ■ „ - UN’s New Radio Series a Giant Spread Of bitl Talent; Set For *58 Preem That the radio-is-here-to-stay stance is still firmly entrenched at .the United Nations was indicated this week when it became known that a 13-week audio series, on which work was begun last Janu¬ ary, will be ready for preeming on the air early in 195S—after a full year’s work. Running the style gamut froth satire, fantasy, and drama to straight comedy and musicals, the show will illustrate the work of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organiza¬ tion. A joint production of United Nations Radio and UNESCO, the series will handle subject matter on the basso profunda side—but will be couched ip terms of easy listening via, star names, special music and effects, and other gim¬ mickry designed to capture ratings. Ihfo to be thus dispensed through a combination of artistry and craftsmanship will be concerned with such deep stuff as nuclear physics, international scientific col¬ laboration, human rights, etc. Gerald Kean, for 10 years one of the UN radio production top¬ pers, spent five months with his wife, actress Julienne Marie, gath¬ ering the material and taping much of the show in Paris, where they worked out of UNESCO’s world h.q., a£ well as in London, Geneva and other European centers/ Kean had special music for the show by French film-composer Marcel Stem; a 28-man orchestra under the baton of George Tzipine re¬ corded tbe music; and, as an extra fillip, the Parisian Les Blue Stars, jazz ensemble, did* some special numbers for the program. In Paris, as well as in London and U.S., Kean taped leading parts by 'a roster of stars including In- (Continued on page 46) Tilt TV’ Impact Edinburgh, Nov. 5. The iihpaej. of tv will more than triple in Scotland over, the next three years. That is the considered opinion of Roy Thomson/ chairman of Scottish Television Ltd., in a talk here to, radio dealers. He believer that, eventually, tv will have an even greater impact In. Scotland than in America. This Is because of the higher Standard of! living in the U.S.A.; where, he says, there are more of the “ameni¬ ties of life* to compete for the viewers’ time. Jn the U.S.A^ said; Thomson, television has become One of the most powerful social forces during the last 10 years. “It has changed just about ev- (Continued on page 54) Lanza’s Liz ‘Exclusive’ London, Nov. 5. Mario Lanza has bowed out of his “Sunday Night At The Palladium” show for Associ¬ ated Television on Sunday .(10) because he wants to make his British debut before the Queen at the Royal Variety Show on Nov. 18. Lanza’s spot will be taken by George Sanders in the tv program. Lanza will appear in a “Palladium” show on Nov. 24. Bermuda TV To Bow Next Jan.; USNetsRepped "Hamilton, Bermuda, Nov. 5. Bermuda’s first commercial tv station, ZBM-TV, plans to go on the air early next January, operating on a daily schedule from 6 to 11 p. m. The station has signed affiliation contracts with American networks, CBS, NBC, and ABC, as well a* Rediffusion Ltd: and BBC of Lon¬ don. Filmed programming also will be received from thejCanadian Broadcasting Corp. It’s anticipated that 70% of ZBM-TV programs >will emanate from these outlets, -wiUk the balance made up of both livPimd. filmed shows. ZBM-TV, to be located oh an additions! third story which is be¬ ing constructed on the present building occupied by. Radio Ber¬ muda in Hamilton, will use a. 1,006- watt transmitter. Engineers say that this will be more than ample power to cover the entire 22-mile- long mid-Atlantic British colony. There are now more than 5,000 tv sets in .this vacationland of 41,- 000 population. s House of Parfiament’s Built-In-TY Installation London, Nov. 5. BBC-TV has "installed an auto¬ matic television studio, claimed to be the first of.its kind, in the House, of Biriiament so that re¬ ports Of .government news can be telecast within minutes of being announced* - A reporter will be able to be on the sir within five minutes of leav¬ ing the press gallery by walking Into the - studio and telephoning a control .gallery at Alexandra"] Palace—nine miles away. The cam¬ era will be switched on from head¬ quarters by remote control and the speaker cuedin for transmission. ‘TOO FAR IN VAN’ London, Nov. 5. The state television web has thrown hr the towel in the fight with commercial tv in the battle for ratings. > BBC-TV will no longer compete with its unsubsidized counterpart other than in -“the most superfi¬ cial sense,” revealed Gerald Beadle, director of BBC-TV, at a Radio Industries Club luncheon. * The announcement came as a surprise .following news of ; plans which it was hoped would stream¬ line BBC-TV Into a strong com¬ petitor to commercial tv. It also came at a time when the national network was celebrating its 21st anniversary. But' it.also came shortly after the publication of statistics which showed that 72 persons out of every 100 prefer¬ red to stay tuned into the Inde¬ pendent Television channel. Beadle intimated that there was no stopping the spread of commer- cial tv. In view of this, the state web would no longer try to offer an alternative entertainment pro¬ gram, but would hencefdrt offer programs “nearer to the forefront of taste and intellectual interest. Speaking of -the success of in¬ dependent outlets have achieved over the short space of two years, Beadle said it would have to sticjc to a steady, predictable audience or fail, hut, he added “being good business men they will stick to it. I would expect them increasingly to go for well tried formulas— things which either BBC or they or the Americans have devised and built up as popular favorites with big followings.” The tv topper theorized: “I think it will be very difficult for them to be other than slightly oldfashioned. But it would be a mistake to expect it* to be a re¬ flection of the advancing taste and aspiration or of the perplexities of an educated democracy in the making.” To BBC-TV the average audi¬ ence was of no real importance. The corporation did not have to sell its average audience to any¬ one and was free to concentrate on audiences for individual pro¬ grams. “We must see to it that at least one of oiir national chan¬ nels is modern, up to date and devoted to satisfying the require¬ ments of an educated democracy in the making. That Is ,the course which the BBC television service will follow. Any additional rev¬ enues which may come to us dur¬ ing the next few years will be hdevoted mainly to that end,” he said. Brit* Bonnie in Scotland Glasgow, Nov. 3. ‘ To counter claims by indie tv that they are getting the higher audiences, the British Broadcastng Corp. has issued a statement say¬ ing that the 10 largest Scot audi¬ ences for any transmissions in the week of Oct. 6-12 were, esti¬ mated by BBC Audience Research to be “all for BBC programs.” BBC listed the shows, including three sporiseasts, two plays, the current affairs feature “Pano¬ rama,” and a 10 o’clock news bul¬ letin. According to the BBC, “the largest audience for any program transmitted on STV Ltd. fScot Television Ltd.) frequencies during the same week was estimated by BBC Audience Research to have been 300,000, for each of ‘Cross- Cross Quiz’ and ^Double Your Money.* ” STV is still in growing process, with viewers increasing daily as more sets ■are converted to the new Channel 10, On basis of their limited (meantime) population area, they are likely to challenge the BBC claims. Pittsburgh—Harold Goldstein, former p.a. at WCAE and WWSW who has been doing advertising agency work for the last couple of years, Is returning to Radio Row as publicity director for KQV. He replaces Owen Simon, moving to KDKA in a similar job succeeding Jack Williams. Wanna Improve Your Frequency? Shed Your Boxtops, Warns Canada Delay Wales TV Bow London, Nov. 5. Opening of the new commercial tv outlet to serve Wales and the West of England, TWW Ltd., sched- | uled. for Dec. 17, has been post¬ poned because of technical dif¬ ficulties. Ap alternative opening date has not yet been set by the In¬ dependent Television Authority, but the programmers estimate that it will be somewhere around late January or February. The technical fault is due to de¬ fects in the aerial system—a new type' which it was believed would gjve better reception. It will now be scrapped and replaced by the conventional type. The outlet will serve an estimated 3,250,000 view¬ ers. (Divorce, et al.) Ottawa, Nov. 5. Canadian Broadcasting Corp. seems tjying to hit the controversy jackpot Its new quarter-hour weekly radio program “Contact” over CBM, Montreal, teed off (31) with- a kickaround of “Censorship in Quebec” and continues Thursday (7) With “Divorce in Quebec.” Other topics include prostitution, homosexuality, scandal publica¬ tions, food pollution, the monarchy, the Quebec “index” and federal grants to Quebec universities. Quebec provincial film censor¬ ship is the toughest in Canada, with Social Credit-ruled Alberta a close second. Since the Roman Catholic church forbids divorce, all Quebec’s numerous suits must be handled by parliament—often referred to as a “divorce mill.” (Parliament also handles all di¬ vorce suits for Newfoundland, the newest province.) Though newsstands are blatant with scandal tabs that pull prac¬ tically no punches, “salacious” f books and cheesecake mags are banned by the hundred. Premier Maurice Duplessis, solidly en¬ trenched "for years, has long re¬ fused‘federal aid to Quebec uni¬ versities, some of which take dim’ view of his attitude. , The “monarchy” stanza perhaps ties in with French-Canadian ef¬ forts to have Montreal's new Queen Elizabeth Hotel (managed T)y the Hilton chain hut owiled by Canadian National Railways) re¬ named the Maisonneuve. after a French-Canadian hero. That.name was etched into some of its stone¬ work one night recently by some Maisonneuve proponents. “Contact” Is produced by Ken Withers, hitherto chiefly a tv light¬ ing man, who also, did the lighting for “My Fur Lady,” still-touring professionalized McGill U. revusi- cal. Raoul Engle prepares it. BRIT/S ROWSON IN U.S. FOR VAUD-A-VID GABS London, Nov. 5. Yet another British commer¬ cial tv program company is seek¬ ing to enter the bigtme televaude stakes. Today (Tues.), R.T. Rowson program coordinator for ABC-TV, the commercial outlet serving the Midlands and North at weekends, planes to New York where he hopes to set up deals for top American talent for future pro¬ grams. Rowson will be in the States for about, threg weeks. During his stay he’ll give several tv irograms the o.o. and search around for program material. He’s also set for ^confabs with several tv top¬ pers. + Vancouver, Nov. 5. After wagging a reproving finger for years at private radio’s big booty boxtop shows, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. recently resort¬ ed to threats. Issued a press release in blunt terms advising station op¬ erators that future applications for frequency changes and wattage hikes would be considered on the basis of program quality and that jackpot merchandising was not quality programming. Greatest offender here. New Westminster’s CKNW, was caught in the whirl of its five-and-a-half- yeyar-old “Fiesta” daily jackpot show with a weekly mail averaging 80,000 letters and a slew of happy sponsors counting the daily boxtop high returns. The other stations had alrefily tapered off. “Fiesta” emcee Wally Garrett shrugged, continued to pose the questions, give tbe clues, and await correct apSwers to win jackpots totalling tens of thousands in cash. One re¬ cent entry won $61,000 with the abstruse quiz answer “A T33 Cana¬ dian Jet Trailer” Five kilowatter CKNW was will¬ ing to let well enough alone until the second of the coast’s Big Two, CKWX, got a new frequency and a power hike to 50,000 watts, which occurred this summer. CKNW began scanning the AM band, looking for a lower fre¬ quency from their present 1320“ kc. and the resultant gift of great¬ er coverage, began eyeing the un¬ occupied 730 kc. and hoping for a power increase of their own. This brought the CBC warning hack into focus and the station’s manage¬ ment reluctantly announced that “Fiesta,” after giving away over (Continued qp page 46) British Corn! TV Vaudeo Rivalry London, Nov. 5. There appears to be growing rivalry between commercial tv pro¬ grammers in Britain over light en¬ tertainment. Until a short while back, Associated Television, who operate the weekday station cov¬ ering the Midlands, and supply the weekend programs in the Lon¬ don area, were the main source of televaude shows. There was virtu¬ ally no competition from the other programmers to match the three big weekly vaude programs net¬ worked by ATV, which often star American headliners. Now, both Granada-TV and ABC-TV have come up with their own offerings in the vaude vein. Granada’s new “Chelsea at Nine” show, aired weekly on Tuesday, is networked between London and Manchester but not to the Midlands outlet covered by ATV. “Chelsea at Nine” is an offbeat and slightly highbrow program, which has fea¬ tured artists such as Yehudi Menu¬ hin, Charles Laughton and top ballet stars, as well as many other performers who would not nor¬ mally be placed in a vaude bill. On Tuesday evenings, while “Chel¬ sea” is on the air, ATV put out “Gunlaw" and its own variety pro¬ gram, “The Big Show.” , ABC-TV, weekend programmers for the Midlands and the North, has done a similar switch, on ATV. On alternate Saturdays, It drops “Val Parnell’s Saturday Spectacu¬ lar,” to make way for Its own 30- minute light entertainment show, “Top of the Bill,” followed by 36 minutes of wrestling. -With Val Parnell and Lew Grade among its chief executives, ATV has long had the key to star names & for its “Sunday Night at the Palla- ■ dium,” “Star Time” and “Saturday Spectacular” shows which have been the hallmark of ATV’s pro¬ grams. Grahada-TV has how come upon the scene and stepped into the light entertainment “territory,” with some support from MCA in the search for talent.