Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

2— TELEVISION DIGEST JANUARY 7, 1963 issue initial decision, or turn everything over to full Commission for its decision. It isn't known which will be done. There may still be some testimony to come, regarding NBC qualifications, from William Bauer, retired FCC patent counsel who spent many years attacking RCA patent policies. Papers will be filed by Philco & NBC this week, and it's expected they'll urge these public-interest reasons for calling off fight: (1) NBC can more quickly comply with court decree ordering it to dispose of Philadelphia stations. (2) Philco can devote more corporate energy to building company, increasing employment, etc. FCC can't wrap up whole affair with lick & promise. Court of Appeals had ordered Commission to conduct hearing on Philco's allegations against NBC, asserting charges were too serious to ignore — after FCC had twice thrown out Philco's protest. WHAT FTC-RATING CONSENT DEAL MEANS: Buyers and users of ratings, both national and local, went into Madison Ave. tizzy late lost week when news of consent orders signed between FTC and 3 leading research firms — Pulse, C-E-I-R (ARB) and Nielsen — began circulating. Research companies admitted bombardment of calls from agencies, station reps, advertisers, film distributors and networks. What callers generally learned was that there'll be no immediate, sweeping changes caused by settlement of FTC's probe of head-counting in TV & radio. This was situation-at-a-glonce : (1) Present research techniques of all three firms will continue, largely unchanged, as regards sampling methods, final reports, etc. (2) There'll be "fuller disclosure" of how reports were arrived at, that figures are "estimates" and not precise numbers, and what degree of error may be involved. There'll be more complete cover text (as in case of ARB) and added footnote-type detail (as in case of Nielsen & Pulse). (3) Burden of honesty has been transferred, to large extent, from research firms to actual buyers. In effect, research firms will tell customers : "Here's your report and here's what it really means. How you use figures is up to you." This is old industry problem, veteran researchers told us, with nothing new added. Research vp of one TV network told us : "We've always known exactly what we were buying from research companies, so FTC is hardly protecting us. Abuse of ratings is not in computation but in application." Added the research head of a station-group-owned rep firm : "Most TV people usually just want to see a number, preferably one bigger than the competition's." Research firms were glad to be rid of FTC complaints which, as ARB put it, "appear unnecessarily strict in their requirement for minute detail." (More informally, a Nielsen official told us: "What FTC said would hold against any sampling operation — including those of Dept, of Commerce.") All 3 research firms, however, were quick to cite that "consent does not constitute admission of wrongdoing." Whether consents will harm individual research firms, or will cause basic changes in research methods under pressure from buyers who have studied FTC complaints, remains to be seen. Some N.Y. talk was generated, for example, by FTC charge that Pulse "adjusts 'Sets-in-Use' figures upward by 20% for morning programs and 40% for afternoon and evening programs without research to justify such adjustment," and that Nielsen and ARB didn't disclose "number or percentage of a sample that refuses or fails to respond or cooperate." Generally, rating users were waiting to see full details of consent agreements signed by rating firms with which they do business, and to study them before altering present plans. LEE IRKED BY MST UHF CRITIQUE: Uhf's staunchest advocate, FCC Comr. Lee, last week made it clear he believes Maximum Service Telecasters has badly mauled Commission's report on uhf receiver performance of N.Y. Commission had come up with a right bright summary of uhf results (Vol. 2:57 p3), but MST Exec. Dir. Lester Lindow said uhf is considerably less effective than FCC made it appear. FCC had found uhf as good as vhf, with indoor antennas, except in 10% of cases. MST said figure should be 50% — basing conclusion on householders' evaluation of picture, whereas FCC had used