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Boxoffice-January.17.1953

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INDUSTRY READY TO PUT BEST<br />

FOOT FORWARD ON THEATRE TV<br />

All-Important Hearings<br />

Before FCC to Draw<br />

Many Top Figures<br />

WASHINGTON—Film industry witnesses<br />

will tell the Federal Communications Commission<br />

that six SF>ecial theatre television<br />

channels are necessary to give the public<br />

the full advantages to be derived from this<br />

new form of entertainment.<br />

The FOG'S theatre TV hearings will resume<br />

on January 26. In accordance with a<br />

Commission ruling, requiring all participants<br />

wishing to present witne.sses to file a list of<br />

such witnesses together with summaries of<br />

testimony, the industry and American Telephone<br />

& Telegraph filed their lists and summaries<br />

on the deadline day, Monday (12 1.<br />

TO OPPOSE INDUSTRY POSITION<br />

AT&T will enter strenuous opposition to<br />

the industry position. That company will<br />

claim that it can handle theatre television<br />

network transmission more economically, can<br />

be in a position to do it faster, and can manage<br />

the job without sacrifice of channels<br />

which it claims are needed for other purposes.<br />

F. A. Cowan, engineering staff manager,<br />

long lines department, will describe Bell<br />

facilities in detail and will contend they can<br />

meet the technical transmission requirements<br />

of theatre TV as specified by the theatre<br />

interests, including among others those specifications<br />

having to do with bandwidth,<br />

definition<br />

and linearity.<br />

Cowan will liken the AT&T ability to meet<br />

those needs with its performance in relation<br />

to needs of broadcast television, and will also<br />

argue that the Bell system companies have<br />

already had considerable experience with<br />

successful handling of theatre TV programs.<br />

He will describe tests of existing Bell facilities<br />

to determine their suitability for the ten<br />

megacycle transmission outlined by the industry<br />

and will give cost figures.<br />

ARGUE THE ECONOMIC SIDE<br />

The ability of the Bell system to integrate<br />

its theatre television transmission service wtih<br />

its other services makes possible important<br />

economies in operations, in engineering and<br />

in the use of frequencies, he will argue. It<br />

will also permit development of theatre TV<br />

networks sooner than would otherwise be<br />

possible.<br />

F. M. Ryan, radio engineer of the AT&T<br />

department of operations and engineering,<br />

will contend that the common carrier bands<br />

in which frequencies might be assigned for<br />

theatre TV use are needed for anticipated<br />

common carrier use.<br />

Diversion of portions of common carrier<br />

bands to any type of exclusive use, such as<br />

theatre TV, would reduce their ultimate capacity,<br />

he will say.<br />

M. G. Wallace, commercial operating engineer<br />

of the long lines department, will testify<br />

that the Bell System now has over 30.000<br />

intercity miles of broadband facilities devoted<br />

to transmission of television programs, serving<br />

113 TV stations in 70 cities and also utilized<br />

for theatre TV. He will say that AT&T<br />

BOXOFnCE January 17, 1953<br />

Arthur Mayer .^. H. Fabian Truetnan Rembusch Kmanuel Irisi li<br />

To Present the Industry's TV Cose to<br />

plans to expand these facilities to meet increasing<br />

requirements.<br />

The film industry will counter with more<br />

than 30 witnesses, with Eric Johnston, president<br />

of Motion Picture Ass'n of America, giving<br />

a general outline of the reasons the industry<br />

seeks specific frequency allocations,<br />

potentials of theatre television, probable effect<br />

on the industry's economic and financial<br />

position.<br />

Spyros P. Skouras, president of 20th Century-Fox,<br />

will testify that there is a need for<br />

exclusive theatre television channels in order<br />

to insure competition within the service itself.<br />

Census Bureau Plans<br />

Wide Industry Survey<br />

WASHINGTON — The Census Bureau<br />

plans to learn for the first time such<br />

things as number of double features, age<br />

of film theatres, costs of theatre television<br />

programs and number of showings<br />

during the year in a new census of the<br />

film industry now in the planning stage,<br />

it was learned Monday (12).<br />

The new census of the film industry,<br />

part of a general census of manufacturing<br />

and business, is expected to be the most<br />

complete yet undertaken.<br />

There will be two separate questionnaires.<br />

One will go to production, distribution<br />

and service companies, with the<br />

other going to exhibitors. Tentative<br />

forms already have been sent to MPAA,<br />

TOA, Allied and other industry groups for<br />

comment. Actual mailing will not be<br />

undertaken until at least the end of this<br />

year.<br />

It is not anticipated that any results<br />

will be known before the end of 1954, at<br />

which time they will be far from complete.<br />

The complete story will not be published,<br />

it is believed, before mid-1955.<br />

the FCC<br />

Wilbur Snaper<br />

atid as between theatre TV and other services.<br />

Mitchell Wolfson, past president of the Theatre<br />

Owners of America, a TV station licensee<br />

and one of the first to install theatre television,<br />

will tell FCC that theatre television<br />

will not deprive home television of anything,<br />

but will make available to the mass American<br />

public for the first time new entertainment<br />

and cultural opportunities.<br />

Wolfson also will<br />

say many attractions are<br />

not now practical for viewing on home television,<br />

such as entire plays, operas, ballets,<br />

and that these can be presented on theatre<br />

television. He also will cite possible use by<br />

state, local and federal governments of theatre<br />

television conducted successfully by the<br />

Federal Civil Defense Administration in the<br />

use of TV for training programs.<br />

Channels of sufficient number and width<br />

must be provided if theatre television is to<br />

realize these potentials, he will contend.<br />

Theatre television is but a logical development<br />

of the film industry's constant search to<br />

improve the quality of its product and<br />

methods for its distribution and presentation,<br />

according to Wolfson.<br />

S. H. Fabian, chairman of National Exhibitors<br />

Theatre Television Committee, will discuss<br />

the organization and operation of that<br />

group and its cooperative efforts in conjunction<br />

with MPAA. As another pioneer installer<br />

of theatre television, he will attempt to .show<br />

from his own experience why theatre television<br />

requires and should have its own assigned<br />

frequencies.<br />

Theatre television must produce a picture<br />

comparing in quality to that obtained from<br />

35mm film, largely because the public would<br />

be dissatisfied with anything inferior, he will<br />

point out.<br />

Fabian will go into reasons why the industry<br />

asks six channels.<br />

Six chamiels would supply more competitive<br />

systems than there are currently in either<br />

radio or television networks. Exhibitor experience<br />

indicates that the greatest number of<br />

first run attractions ever being shown at one<br />

(Continued on page 10)

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