Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

Record Details:

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8-TELEVISION DIGEST OCTOBER 7, 1963 already getting fairly good share of vhf tuner market. More set makers are producing their own tuners. Several component manufacturers not now in tuner field are understood to be developing I tuners. I There could well be over-capacity in uhf tuner business in next year or so. But by spring, it now appears there'll be sudden & frantic scramble for tuners. And FCC can't be counted on to bail anyone out. NO 11-lN, TV STATISTICS FROM EIA; Starving for details on production & sales of 11-in. tinyvision, TV industry will have to tighten its belt and sharpen its guessing until early next year. Dispute which came within hair's breadth of destroying EIA's TV production & sales data program was resolved this way: EIA's reports, for balance of this year, will include no sets 11-in. & smaller. Final figures for 1963 will be adjusted retroactively to include production & sales of 11-in. sets. Beginning in Jan. 1964, all b&w sets, of all sizes, will be included in EIA's regular reports. Recent meeting of EIA consumer products marketing data committee in Chicago burst into acrimony when it was revealed that GE had not been including 11-in. sets in its marketing data reports. Other manufacturers, including RCA, talked of withholding TV data entirely or withdrawing from EIA's statistical pool. Compromise forestalled break-up of statistical organization. GE had been withholding 11 -in. data on basis of EIA rule that where one manufacturer makes more than 50% of any category of product, statistics on this product will be withheld on option of manufacturer. Rules provide that EIA collects data and notifies manufacturer that it has 50% or more of given market, then asks manufacturer whether it wishes to waive its "security right." In current case, however, GE decided that it had more than 50% of 11-in. market and invoked another privilege of membership in EIA statistical pool— that reporting is voluntary. In this decision, GE had precedent. RCA has never reported production or sales of color sets & picture tubes. Thus, industry is deprived of statistics in TV's 2 hottest areas— color & tinyvision. Although Admiral also produces 11 -in. TV, and Curtis Mathes will be in production next month, ( latest figures (preliminary Aug. statistics, Vol. 3:38 p9) reflected no 11 -in. output, since Admiral hadn't started production and GE withheld figures. (Admiral, though not mem^r of EIA, is member of its statistical pool.) In its reports to manufacturers, EIA breaks down tube sizes into categories of 21-in. & larger, 19-&-20-in., and 18-in. & smaller. For remainder of year, latter category will be changed to 12 through 18-in., and no sets with screens 11 -in. & smaller (by any manufacturer) will be included. All production & sales figures, including those reported weekly & monthly in these pages, are exclusive of sets with 11-in. & smaller screens. EIA's statistics will give clue to whether 11-in. sales are "plus business" or substitute for larger sizes. If sales of conventional-size TV, as reported in EIA figures, continue to equal or exceed last year, this can be cited as evidence that tinyvision sales are "extra." (July TV distributor sales as reported by EIA— without 11-in. sets— were very slightly behind July 1962; preliminary Aug. figures indicate increase of about 3. 5% over Aug. 1962.) Lacking figures on color & tinyvision, EIA statistics thus are probably lamning more than million sets below actual TV output, on annualized basis. Best guess of 11 -in. production for this year: 300,000-350,000 sets. Resolution of tinyvision problem doesn't alter color TV reporting situation. There's still no indication when— if ever— RCA plans to report its color TV production or sales. "COLOR IS OUR MOST IMPORTANT PRODUCT": RCA shipped its first sales team to N. Y.'s Sales Executives Club last week for presentation on color TV, armed with dazzling new statistics & predictions—and preview of first results of new consumer color survey. As World Series color week opened, RCA Sales Corp. Pres. Raymond W. Saxon and Ad & Sales Promotion vp Jack M. Williams put color story across with some snappy comparisons. Examples: ^ Dollar sales of RCA Victor color sets next year, said Saxon, "will surpass the combined total of