Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

NEW SERIES VOL. 3. No. 4 TELEVISION DIGEST— 3 • Twice as many people indicated they were eager to buy TV-sold brands as compared with people reached by magazine ads. • TV was twice as efficient as magazines in carrying out 2 key advertising objectives — improving public evaluation of brands and making consumers more eager to buy. These are merely highlights of exhaustive inter-media study of relative effectiveness which CBS plans I to show advertisers & agencies in nationwide series of special screenings. Full details of study are in 48-page i CBS book which contains enough equations & study details to keep slide-rule teams busy for weeks. CBS is not alone by any means in probing TV-vs.-print question. American Research Bureau is currently field-testing new "MediaLog" research diary in 5 cities, and hopes to have inter-media measurement service before year's end. ARB plans to provide (1) estimates of length of time of exposure, (2) number of minutes exposed and (3) frequency of exposure for consumer magazines, newspapers & supplements, as compared with TV-viewing data. Duplication, accumulation of audiences between & within media, will be covered. Pioneer in field is Nielsen, which has been measuring exposure opportunities provided by TV, major i consumers magazines & newspapers since 1960 through Nielsen Media Service. Currently, NMS has over 30 clients — major advertisers, agencies & publishers. Nielsen, which draws study data from national cross section samples, reports on audience duplications of print media & TV (among other inter-media items), is thinking of expanding service to Canada & United Kingdom. Outlook for future is for more TV studies in inter-media vein. Comparisons of cost-per-thousand in media by broadcasters & admen are handy — but lack accuracy since they ore comparisons of research apples & oranges. TV is apparently outgrowing bumptious period of shouting about mere audience size, is trying to tell its story in terms of measured effectiveness vs. its competitors. CATV vs. UHF POTENTIAL IN TIFTON. GA.: Unusual broadcaster-CATV conflict has developed in I Tifton, Ga. It's the first, to our knowledge, where dispute has arisen in area with neither TV station nor CATV. ' Seeking CATV franchise, Ga. Cable TV Co., Fitzgerald, Ga. (headed by Allen McDonald), made application to city commission. Ralph Edwards, head of radio WWGS Tifton, fought proposal on groimds I that uhf Ch. 14 will eventually be authorized there if CATV doesn't take away its economic potential. City commission met on subject Jan. 18, couldn't decide what to do, left situation dangling. This, despite fact Ed»' words submitted strong anti-CATV letter from FCC Chmn. Minow, who said CATV could have "serious, if not jl fatal, effect" on existing or potential TV stations. Though choice of signals is desirable, Minow wrote, many I; people can't afford CATV and those beyond built-up areas would receive no local TV if station is foreclosed. (■ In addition, he said, commimity would be deprived of treatment of local problems by local station. CATV franchise-seeker proposes to offer 5 stations, plus one news channel, one weather, one back1 groimd music — at $5.95 a month, with free installation. Edwards tells us CATV proposes to carry local adveri tising. He also says that system wouldn't offer Tifton much beyond what it gets now, that viewers con reI ceive NBC, CBS & ETV from Albany, Thomasville & Waycross. If city commission insists on granting franchise, .1 he concluded, CATV should be locally owned. City population is 10,000; market area has 99,000. 1 1 FORD DOUBTS 'OVERPOPULATION': Radio "overpopulation" is probably a myth, in opinion of 1 FCC Comr. Ford. In speech before National Religious Bcstrs. in Washington last week, he noted that although I more than 1/3 of AMs reported losses in recent years, new Commission financial forms probably will show I losers amounting to about 5%. He said, however, that engineering standards need tightening. Turning to industry commercial codes and proposals that they be adopted as official FCC rules, he j said such moves would reduce incentive of industry to govern itself and would often penalize smaller stations which are unable to comply with codes for valid reasons. Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Magnuson (D-Wash.) informed group that a 1957 TV network practices study by his committee showed networks were doing better job on religious programming than critics indicated. However, he said, amount of time given to such programs didn't seem to "reflect adequately the importance of religion in American life."