Just Stay in the Room

Feature of the well-appointed hotel room is closed-circuit television. At Manhattan's Statler Hilton, guests jaded with westerns and private-eye shows can now watch Telad Corp.'s repeating half-hour program on what to buy, do and see in New York; this week and next, Telad will open shop on Channel 6 (normally a blank on the dial) in two other New York hotels. A rival outfit, Teleguide, will start broadcasting via its own coaxial cable to some 12,000 rooms at a dozen Manhattan hostelries this week. Its basic one-hour program will include entertainment, shopping and sightseeing news--plus weather and transportation reports, rundowns on special events, gallery openings, and availability of tickets for Broadway shows and ball games.

In the future, Teleguide will extend its service to two other hitherto unused New York channels. One will be reserved for special broadcasting of conventions and exhibitions; the other will offer short foreign-language programs telling visitors from abroad how to enjoy themselves in New York. Not covered by FCC regulations, Teleguide will restrict its advertising to 2 1/2 minutes for each 15 minutes of air time. Telad's advertising is subliminally inserted into the running chatter. Sample: the announcer, listing ten Broadway plays, pauses and expands on the one whose producers are paying for the time.

In Washington the company's name is Hotelevision, but the gimmick is the same: a repeating half-hour program to be launched at the Sheraton-Park Hotel and the Shoreham late in March. In addition to standard what-to-do-and-see features, Hotelevision will run stock market news, show slides and film clips of key tourist spots such as the White House. Various companies hope to open circuits in other U.S. cities in the future.

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