Turning off the viewer of colour TV

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33212, 30 April 1973, Page 12

Turning off the viewer of colour TV

Since the Tariff Board in Australia has announced the results of its commissioned survey of the likely sales of colour television sets, the manufacturers of colour receivers in New Zealand should not feel too badly about the restraints that are being imposed on the prices for sets made in New Zealand. Market research on the sale of a product that has not yet reached the market must necessarily be a hazardous business Before black-and-white television was introduced in New Zealand, many prospective buyers were not happy about the proposed prices. But when television broadcasting spread its network widely through the country the earlier reservations about the cost of sets diminished rapidly and television became more rapidly established in New Zealand than in almost any other country. The Australian survey of householders, and of shoppers who have seen demonstrations of colour television, suggests that Australian consumers will strongly resist buying colour sets if they cost more than 3500; so much so that the commercial television stations are apprehensive about their ability to attract advertisers — at the high rates needed to pay for colour transmissions. The public television corporations in New Zealand would also be in difficulties if the revenue from advertising and licences fell short.

The Australian customer is now paying about $lOO of the price of the average black-and-white television set towards the cost of maintaining the manufacturing of sets in Australia. In other words, the price would be about §lOO less if the set were importer". It is hardly surprising that the survey showed public resistance to expensively-produced colour sets from Australian factories. Yet experience of the demand for black-and-white receivers in both Australia and New Zealand suggests that this resistance might be much less once colour broadcasts begin. There is, however, an obvious difference between the choice of having television or not and the choice of having colour instead of black-and-white reception. Colour is a very impressive refinement of television broadcasting; but the added satisfaction to be had from colour might not be sufficient to induce the rapid replacement of black-and-white receivers that were costly in the first place and still have much life in them. The transition to colour transmissions in New Zealand will be slow at first and, until a high proportion of programmes are in colour, viewers will not have a powerful inducement to turn in their old sets. In spite of the accepted policy to protect the local manufacture and assembly of sets from imports — at the customer’s expense — there is still a good argument for allowing imports of the smaller class of receiver, Tie New Zealand Government probabh does not want to encourage an excessive diversion of spending power to television sets. But if the Australian survey is any guide to what might happen when sets go on the New Zealand market at the forecast prices, a supply of colour sets at more modest prices would stimulate the acceptance of colour television. By then. New Zealand manufacturers should be able to turn out sets at prices that would appeal to a 'air number of customers. A poor start might be disastrous, even to a protected industry.