Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

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area than television and is in all types of communities, not neces-
sarily only the richer ones which today are the only markets able
to support television and its advertising.
The producer of a film for television has a much more limited
market for his product; even at the end of 1950, providing all
the projected stations are built, there will not be more than 107
in the whole of the country. Of course, they will have a tremendous
potential audience, but in many cases two or more serve the same
area and consequently reduce the effective coverage by competi-
tion. In the case of the movie theatres which accept advertising
films, there is quite often no competition close at hand. While cost
per thousand viewers for television station varies so considerably
that an average figure is impossible to quote, for movie advertising
films it is about $4 for a sixty-second commercial.
These facts about movie advertising do not seem to be as generally
known around the television industry as they might be, and
it is thought that some producers or even stations might bear these
points in mind when working on commercials for television use
and capitalize on the extra market thus opened up. A local station
might even find it profitable to make films for the local advertising
houses which use theatres. However, this might take some very
diplomatic selling and tactful approaches due to the suspicion with
which television has been regarded in the past by many theatre
owners. If any deal of this sort is attempted, it should be remembered
that 35 mm stock must be used exclusively, and 16 mm
film can never be used and enlarged for theatre use although 16
mm prints will probably be made for television showing. The
Movie Advertising Bureau of New York can provide any further
information on this subject and a complete breakdown of the var-
ious cities and states where such theatres operate including popu-
lation, income, performances weekly, and attendance, etc.
If television commercials are made with the possibility in mind
of using them on the movie theatre circuit it opens the door to
more rapid amortization of costs by widening the circle of users
and reducing the cost per showing. Many interesting advertising
setups are possible by this tie-in, and an alert station or agency