RUMOUR LIFTS C.B.S. STOCK ON NEW YORK

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30998, 2 March 1966, Page 21

RUMOUR LIFTS C.B.S. STOCK ON NEW YORK

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

NEW YORK, March 1.

The New York stock market was flooded with demands for Columbia Broadcasting System stock yesterday after a “New York Times” report that the company had developed a device to reproduce motion pictures through television sets.

C.B.S. has denied the reports, says the Associated Press.

The opening block of stock was 30,000 shares and sent the price of C.B.S. stock up 3.12 dollars a share to 46 dollars. Denials of the "Times” report pushed the price back only slightly to close at 45.25 dollars.

According to the "Times,’’ the new C.B.S. system, nearly complete, consists of a metal disc that reproduces motion pictures through television sets. It was similar to a microgroove record reproducing sound in a gramophone. Flat Denial Mr E. K. Meade, vice-presi-dent of corporate information for C. 8.5., said: “We flatly deny we have developed such a device or that work is going forward on one. This denial is unqualified.”

Dr. Peter Goldmark, president and research director of C.B.S. laboratories in Stamford, the man credited by the “Times” as being responsible for the disc device, denied that it exists. Dr. Frank Stanton, the C.B.S. president, also denied the story. Cheap, Simple

According to the “Times,” the cheap, simple discs may eventually give home television viewers the same freedom of choice they now have in selecting long playing records. It said the disc, about seven inches in diameter, was

dropped in to a well in a box connected by wire to the antenna posts of the television receiver.

The disc revolved so slowly that 33 minutes of visual material could be recorded on a single disc.

The cost of the raw material of the disc was estimated at one United States dollar, while the cost of the device into which the disc is inserted was put at about 400 dollars.

The "Times” predicted the discs could be sold or rented through supermarkets.

Christchurch Customs

Revenue collected by the Customs Department. Christchurch. during February totalled £726,194, compared with £682,521 in the corresponding month last year. Details are:—Customs, £625,686 (£597,673 in February, 1965); sales tax, £97,384 (£69,127); light dues, £2237 (£1166): tyres, nil (£893); others, £BB7 (£13,662).

British Offic* Supplies.—The notes register of British Office Supplies (N.Z.), Ltd., will be closed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16, to determine noteholders entitled to payment of interest on Si per cent registered unsecured convertable notes for the half-year to March 31. and payable on that date; ex Interest March IS—(P.A.)