Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

NEW SERIES VOl. 3, No. 27 TELEVISION DIGEST— 7 ) Con.suzn.ex* E21ectz*onics • • • • MANUFACTURING, DISTRIBUTION, FINANCE RCA STANDS PAT ON PRESENT COLOR TUBE: Still convinced no other approach can now provide the quality & reliability of its 70-degree round 21-in. color tube, RCA has notified TV manufacturers that it "does not now plan to introduce a new color picture tube in the near future." Don't try to read too much into this message, which was sent to all set makers by telegram June 28. It doesn't mean that RCA will or will not skip the 90-degree round pictvure tube and eventually move directly into 25-in. 90-degree rectangular production. It was designed to take a load off set makers' minds, to guide them in their planning. It was form of progress report. Last Nov. 30, you'll recall, RCA shelved its 90-degree round tube for "approximately 9 to 15 months." With the 9-month inner limit rapidly approaching, RCA sought to give them word on its plans so they could design color chassis, plan production lines, sign off engineering on new sets. RCA considers its report "a necessary commercial requirement" and soys timing the same week as Motorola's introduction of 23-in. color set (Vol. 3:26 p7) was "coincidental." Text of telegram: "In Nov. 1962, the RCA Electron Tube Div. sent you a telegram informing you that the introduction of a 90-degree round picture tube would be deferred for approximately 9-15 months. Since that notification, we hove continued extensive product-development work on color picture tubes. RCA does not now plan to introduce a new color pichnre tube in the near future and is continuing to produce the highly reliable and excellent quality 70-degree roLind color picture tube. You may be assured that if changes * occur in our product plan, we will continue to consider your planning need with regard to set design & tooling, and will inform you in advance to assist you in your planning. Your support of our color pictmre tube program is sincerely appreciated." • • • • Important source of picture-tube yokes for RCA-type 21 -in. color tubes has resmned production. General Instrument Corp.'s F. W. Sickles Div. has again started shipping color yokes. In recent years, RCA had been sole source. Sickles has also designed <S demonstrated new color yoke design for 90-degree tubes which "eliminates the electronic circuits heretofore necessary to correct raster shape, with resultant savings," ! General Instrument Vice Chmn. Monte Cohen took issue last week with our statement that Advance Ross Electronics (which makes yokes for Motorola's 23-in. sets) was first company, aside from RCA, to produce color yokes. We were talking about recent color history, but should have remembered that, as Cohen told US: "The F. W. Sickles Division was in actual production of color yokes from 1954 to 1957, when a steady growth of color was anticipated. Tens of thousands of color yokes made by the Sickles Div. were shipped to RCA, Philco, GE, Westinghouse & CBS." OBSERVATIONS ON WARRANTY WAR^: "Today marketing is on a guarantee binge," notes a leading advertising & marketing authority, which sees dangerous pitfalls ahead in use of warranties as competitive weapon. In view of warranty pandemonium prevailing in consumer electronics industry (Vol, 3:19 p7), these comments might appropriately illustrate one side in current dispute. They are expressed in "Grey Matter," the advertising & marketing newsletter published by Grey Advertising Inc. The change of warranty's status from an assurance of integrity to a competitive tool, says the newsletter, "poses dangers to which marketers must be alert." It traces history of guarantee from relationship