DEVELOPMENT OF TELEVISION

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25227, 4 July 1947, Page 9

DEVELOPMENT OF TELEVISION

USE OF TELEPHONE WIRES

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK. July 2. The Zenith Radio Corporation today announced the development of “telephone vision,” whereby key television frequencies could be transmitted to subscribers over telephone wires. The company said that, television had not measured up to expectations because of the enormous cost of producing and broadcasting firstclass shows. Television shows had been of comparatively poor quality, and the sales of receiving sets had been low. This would be remedied by telephone vision, in which subscribers could pay- as they watched, thus creating a “box office” for televised Broadway plays and current films and newsreels. The company will soon begin the production of telephone vision sets, and it is estimated that the new system will be functioning in between six months and a year in the biggest American cities.

The New York “Journal of Commerce” says that television sets now in operation in the United States number 50,000. of which 43,000 have been bought in the last seven * months. Prices range from 250 dollars to 2465 dollars. A

The Zenith Corporation said that telephone vision sets would cost about the same.