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)