The Busy Air

¶ In Washington President Eisenhower signed a bill setting up a nine-man commission to study the feasibility of a transatlantic television system. The commission, still to be appointed, will report at the end of this year. Primary goal: a method for the U.S. to broadcast TV direct to Europe. Said the House committee report on the bill: "Television can become an important medium in the overseas-information program of the U.S. Its impact upon other peoples could be greater than that of the Voice of America . . ."

P:The Broadcast Advertising Bureau pointed out that even in the 64 urban areas that have had television stations for three years or longer, radio is still far ahead of TV, both in set sales and in "penetration" of the market. Radio-set sales in 1953 totaled 6,786,000 in the 64 mature areas; TV-set sales were 2,803,000. More significantly, 99% of the families in those areas have radio, only 81% have television.

P:Television Factbook figured out that a mere $194,875 will buy one full hour of Class A (evening) time on all the U.S.'s 382 commercial TV stations. Although network key stations in New York value their evenings at about $6,000 an hour, the national average is only $510. In Bellingham, Wash, a sponsor can buy an evening hour on KVOS-TV for $90.

Last year TV stations and networks were paid a grand total of $430 million and made a profit of $68 million. But 26 stations have gone off the air since January, most of them because they could not make ends meet.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.