Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

16 MAY 9, 1960 Networks ABC Selling Activity: ABC-TV hopes to close a con vention-coverage deal “within the next 2 weeks” and has “at least one interested advertiser presently negotiating,” we were told last week by an ABC-TV sales executive. ABC is asking “around $4.9 million” for convention coverage, a figure “somewhat lower than CBS’s.” (CBS has sold its convention coverage to Westinghouse but NBC’s coverage is still unsold.) Advertiser interest in American Football League coverage also is strong, ABC said. Should the network obtain at least two-third sponsorship for the grid games by mid-May, it will go ahead with telecasts. ABC has also begun an active sales campaign on the Churchill series, which will use animation, dramatization and some Churchill vocal records as well as interviews with persons closely associated with the ex-Prime Minister. Forced political TV time on networks would have “many superficial attractions, especially to politicians,” but it would make “a mockery” of the Constitutional First Amendment, stated WOW-TV Omaha vp & gen. mgr. Frank P. Fogarty in an address before students & guests of the U. of Missouri’s 51st annual Journalism Week. Such govt, interference would also infringe on TV property rights of long-distance lines, technical facilities, manpower, and would commandeer “the property of the network affiliates without making any demands on the non-network station,” he added. Another guest, WBC Pres. Donald H. McGannon, reminded: “The existence of electronic media has not changed the pure objective of journalism, which is to keep the people fully & accurately informed.” Interleaved picture & sound experiment is proposed by NBC in a request filed with FCC. In a letter to the Commission, NBC states that video & audio are usually networked over different AT&T routes and that there are more drop-outs in audio than in picture. Interleaving picture & sound and transmitting both over the same facilities, NBC said, would provide an emergency source of sound during drop-outs of the regular audio circuit — and “adequate standby sound quality can be obtained by use of this system without noticeable picture degradation and without interference to any TV station.” NBC seeks a 30-day test starting May 15; the request is being processed by FCC. Positions on CATV expressed by CBS, NBC & NAB (Vol. 16:15 pl3) were inserted into the Congressional Record last week by Sen. McGee (D-Wyo.). He also inserted April 25 Time magazine article on pay TV and a newspaper article reporting that a doctor found a direct connection between a 13-year-old boy’s TV viewing habits and his beating & stabbing of an elderly widow. CBC & AFM have completed negotiations, subject to ratification, for a collective agreement governing the employment of musicians in Canadian network TV-radio broadcasting. When ratified, the new rates & conditions of the agreement will be retroactive to April 1 and will continue until March 31, 1963. Among 8 top crime-mystery shows, Trendex finds the Untouchables leading in number of men selectors (67 per 100 homes) ; 77 Sunset Strip leading for women selectors (56) and Mr. Lucky leading for under-18 selectors (30). CBS News, which begins its coverage of the Democratic convention July 11 in Los Angeles, will report both conventions with a crew of nearly 300. Latest profile of The Hetwork TV Viewer Reaching the right tv audience — not just a nice big rating number — has become a matter of increasing concern to major TV advertisers in the face of rising network program & time costs. Last week, NBC-TV sales executives were making agency-advertiser rounds armed with a special report that provides many audience-reaching guideposts for admen involved in the earliest fall sales season (Vol. 16:18 pp2 & 5). The report, highlights of which appear below, is based on March 1960 data from American Research Bureau diaries. It is an attempt to push beyond numerical rating levels to obtain an up-to-date profile of the network viewing audience. Reported NBC: • There are more than 2 viewers-per-set in the average U.S. TV home at night. There are 229 viewers watching in every 100 TV-tuned homes — 91 women, 73 men, 21 teenagers, and 44 children. • Women, not unnaturally, during daytime network hours, outnumber men by nearly 4 to one and children by 2 to one. • The nighttime shows that attract the largest audiences, in the sense of family group, are 60-min. shows (234 viewers per 100 homes). But situation comedies (generally 30-min. length) usually draw the biggest groups among types of shows. • Women are more bloodthirsty than they will generally admit to a PTA meeting. Slightly more women than men (85 vs. 82 in 100 viewing homes at night) are watching Westerns, and noticeably more women than men watch mystery or suspense shows (91 vs. 77) and adventure series (83 vs. 77) . • Men outrank women in the audience for only one of the major program categories of nighttime network TV : sports. In the average 100 living rooms watching an evening network sports show, there are 100 men, 49 women, 10 small children, 7 teenagers. • On the other hand, women are interested in more shows than they’re credited for by some males. In every 100 viewing homes tuned to a 60-min. network nighttime documentary show {World Wide 60, CBS Reports, etc.) there are 100 women, 82 men, 19 children and 9 teenagers watching, for example. • Teenagers, backbone of the movie industry’s theater and drive-in audience, represent virtually a lost audience to TV. Only 2 nighttime shows — The Sat.-night Dick Clark Show, with 49 teenagers per 100 viewing homes, and The Many Loves of Dohie Gillis, with 42 — do a sizable job of attracting them. Most shows are lucky to collect 20 teenagers per 100 viewing homes, and some — like Original Amateur Hour with 6, and NBC’s Journey to Understanding with 5 per 100 — are practically ignored. • The largest audiences per set during daylight network hours are attracted not by live programming or even fresh film programming but by film reruns (174 viewers per 100 viewing homes vs. an all-daytime-program-average of 161). Sole exception: American Bandstand, of which more than 50% of the audience is under 17. These are the highlights of NBC’s general audience findings. But there were also a number of striking facts