Television Threat To Radio, Films & Sports Fixtures

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22872, 16 February 1949, Page 4

Television Threat To Radio, Films & Sports Fixtures

(By William Hardcastle, Reuter's Correspondent.)

WASHINGTON (By Air Mail). Television is casting a shadow of economic uncertainty over the whole of the rest of America’s sports and entertainment industry. Even sound radio is affected, for television is threatening to take away from it the one thing that keeps it alive, the advertisers' dollar. After many false starts television has, as the saying goes, finally ‘‘come of age” in America. Stations are now operating in 20 cities. The most important towns on the north and central east coast area are already linked with coaxial cables. Within 12 months New York will be able to funnel programmes through to Chicago, and vice versa. By 1952, a coasl-to-coast network will have been completed. Manufacturers of television sets have not yet caught up on the demand, and do not expect to do so for another three years. In 1947, they produced 180.000 sets; in the first nine months of 1948, they made 500,000. Television is, indeed, booming in the United States. This fact has, however, to be qualified by at least three other considerations; — 1. As far as trade records show, no single television station has yet shown a profit. The stations, rely on advertising to pay their expenses, and so far this revenue has not been sufficient to cover the heavy expense involved in starting and running a television station. 2. Television programmes are far rnore expensive than radio programmes, Though the opening up of new stations and the increased distribution of sets will eventually mean more ‘‘coverage” for the advertiser, it is nevertheless inevitable that television programmes will cost the advertiser much more than a radio programme, A fair example of this is provided by the sponsorship of an hourly radio dramatic series and a precisely similar show on television. The first cost 10,000 dollars (about £2500) to produce, the second 17,000 dollars (about £4250). These figures also supply a comparison between United States and British television costs. According to reports here, the British Broadcasting Corporation’s most expensive television venture—the appearance of the Paris Lido Cabaret, cost 8000 dollars (about £2000). According to the mathematics of the advertising industry, this means that radio was costing the advertiser 2.40 dollars to reach 1000 radio sets, while television cost 60.17 V dollars for a similar ‘‘coverage.” But these figures are misleading. It has been shown, the advertising experts say. that television has a far greater and more effective impact, and also that television owners tune in proportionately greater numbers to any given programme than do radio owners.

3. There is no immediate prospect of television sets becoming notably cheaper then they are today. At present a set with an adequate screen costs a minimum of 300 dollars here, and an additional 70 dollars for professional installation and service. It is. therefore, only people above a certain income level who can afford them. An advertiser who uses ’’video” is bound to miss the lower income class with his appeal. There is no firm method of forecasting how these various factors will combine to settle television into its permanent place in the social picture. At present, television is admittedly a parasite. Losing money itself, it is living on the profits of the radio industry. On the other hand, it is taking money gradually away from the industry and, if it is itself to thrive, it may be forced to reduce radio to ‘‘indigent circumstances,” but radio is not the only industry alarmed at the Frankenstein it has produced. Sceptical for many years, Hollywood is becoming increasingly concerned over the effect of television on cinema going habits. Their fears seem to be, in part, substantiated. Surveys show that television set owners tend to reduce their regular visits to cinemas. The sports industry is also suffering. Owners of small football and baseball clubs find their attendance falling because people can stay at home and see “big time” games on their television sets. Prize fight managers have become wary, too. In future, they will permit the televising of their contest only if a certain “gate” is guaranteed in advance. Television, is, in short, an infant prodigy. The great w-orry is where he can be fitted in. The possibility that great new developments changing the present transmission and reception methods by the use of colour or some such device, is also a nagging anxiety among buyers of television sets as well as those organising the industry.