Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

NEW SERIES VOL. 3, No. 40 TELEVISION DIGEST-9 our other home entertainment products— including b&w TV, radio, stereo "Victrola" and tape cartridge recorders.” Industry-wide color sales will achieve retail rate of more than $450 million this year, rising to $750 million next year and surpassing b&w’s 'Tjillion-dollar sales rate” some time in 1965. This year, one color set is being sold for every 9 b&w sets; next year, figure will be 1 to 5. "During the 10th anniversary year of color TV next year,” Saxon added, "this reasonably new medium will record retail sales equal to the present rate of the home laundry industry.” For first 8 months of 1963, RCA's color set sales have contributed "considerably” greater dollar volume than b&w— even though its b&w unit sales are running more than 10% ahead of 1962. By next year, Saxon said, RCA line will have more color than monochrome models. Saxon gave first details of consumer survey just completed by Elmo Roper & Associates, about 9 months later than Sylvania color survey (Vol. 3:37 p6, 38 p7). It showed— as did Sylvania survey— that color owners were satisfied with both color & b&w reception on their sets. Owners are enthusiastic color boosters, only 2% suggesting that their friends wait a while longer for color, 1% suggesting friends buy b&w sets. Some 30% of consumers questioned "firmly said their next TV receiver would be a color set,” while 25% were undecided whether to buy color or b&w. Sylvania survey, made early this year, indicated 9. 4% of prospective purchasers intended to buy color sets this year and 40. 8% would consider both color & b&w. In what appeared to be a bit of CBS-baiting, Saxon said that color set owners overwhelmingly preferred color programs to b&w. He explained by quoting survey results: b&w set owners preferred "Bonanza” (which is in color) over "Gimsmoke” (b&w) 53% to 30%— but "Bonanza's” margin with color owners was 87% to 8%. In other color news last week: (1) Mvmtz formally announced its entry into color market with 3 "competitively priced” sets— 2 phono combinations, one lowboy. Announcement said company expects to sell about 1, 000 color sets within a month, and that in color it will continue to specialize in TVradio-stereo combos, which now account for 65% of its b&w sales. (2) Chicago's American Television (de Forest brand) announced "rectangular color TV” at $299, $400 & $750 for combo. Tube used is regular 21-in. round with rectangular mask. TV-RADIO PRODUCTION: EIA statistics for week ended Sept. 27 (39th week of 1963) excluding 11-in. and smaller: Sept. 21-27 Preceding wk. 1962 wk. *63 cumulative *62 cumulative I Black & white TV. . . 180,777 151,603 159, 180 5, 183,592 4,864,120 , Total radio 458,309 498,147 483,494 12,909,440 13,848,819 Auto radio 210,609 237,098 196,820 5,510,900 4,990,274 _ ■ . ■ . TOPICS & TRENDS I One of Motorola's color-tube problems has been solved, we were told last week by Motorola Coni sumer Products Pres. Edward R. Taylor. He said National Video & Motorola engineers have licked )| troubles of lack of adherence of dots to screen, now are working to eliminate arcing & contamination. "We hope to get these problems solved, so we can go into accelerated production in Nov. & Dec., and »: have a good supply of tubes the first of the year.” Meanwhile, Motorola is producing 21 -in. color sets "to the extent that we can get tubes from RCA.” ■I "Zenith TV sales top million mark in just 9 months,” proclaims double-truck ad in trade papers, referring to distributor-to-dealer unit sales (presumably both color & b&w). "For the 5th straight year-over a million sold,” says ad, with this claim added: "Zenith is still Number One! Again with greatest share of industry ever! Even greater than record-breaking 1962!”