TELEVISION BOOM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19884, 10 March 1939, Page 8

TELEVISION BOOM

REMARKABLE RESULTS BOXING CIRCLES ALARMEO LONDON, March 2. Television is booming in England. Five hundred sets a week are being sold, a.nd it. is expected that 40,0(10 will be sold iir 1939. Prices range from 21gns. to 120gns. Five thousand persons each day see a free television exhibition at Selfridge's emporium. Partly because of fire successful television of the Boon-Danahar fight at three London cinemas last week, the Baird factory is being enlarged to provide television equipment in 350 cinema theatres in England. Alarmed by the success of television, boxing promoters are discussing a proposal to exclude it from future contests. The fight broadcast by television last Saturday was seen so well on the screen that boxing circles fear it will revolutionise the sport if persisted in.

The Daily Mail says that in the cinemas the television was life-sized and life-like. The spectators followed every blow.

"It has raised revolutionary questions,” the paper says. "Will enthusiasts continue to pay £5 for ringside seats? Will television destroy the sport’s immerust* public? Will the boxing public desert the, stadiums and flock to the cinema?

"If tlie Board of Control decide Yes,' it will probably ban television.

The British. Boxing Board of Control on March 4 ruled that a promoter must not allow a fight to be televised or photographed lor motion picture purposes without the board’:sanction. Boxers must receive permission before taking part in sticT fights.