Word: fcc
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...investment in TV broadcasting. The latest buyer: Stanley-Warner Corp., the theater chain separated from Warner Bros. Pictures a year ago (TIME, March 2). It has bought a 50% interest in a new TV station (WTRI) under construction in Schenectady, N.Y., plans to "obtain as many licenses as the FCC permits...
...only when unscrambled by a special device attached to the receiving set. Telemeter Corp., 54% owned by Paramount Pictures, uses a coin box hitched to the TV set, which unscrambles the picture when the proper amount of money is inserted. Zenith Radio Corp.'s Phonevision, now awaiting an FCC decision, originally used a special unscrambling signal transmitted to the set via a telephone-line attachment, and depended on the phone company to do the billing. But now Phonevision has several alternate methods. One uses the coin box; another uses a gadget which would unscramble the TV picture when...
Would televiewers, accustomed to free shows, pay for them? Pay-as-you-see proponents think the answer is being given in an FCC-approved test going on in Palm Springs. Calif. More than 70 TV sets were equipped with Telemeter, and for 30 days set owners were offered such attractions as the Notre Dame v. U.S.C. football game and first-run movies (Forever Female, Here Come the Girls') simultaneously with their first showing in the local movie houses. First-run pictures (at $1.35) were an 80% sellout; all Telemeter programs drew an average "attendance" of 60%. Telemeters...
Among the most outspoken opponents of pay-as-you-see is RCA's David Sarnoff, who feels that 1) charging for programs might peril freedom of broadcasting, since FCC regulation of such rates might open the door to overall rate regulations; and 2) free programs are an American tradition. Pay-as-you-see proponents fear FCC also believes the air should be free, but they see no reason why FCC cannot set aside certain channels for their use, while free telecasting continues on all the other channels. They think the tradition of free programs is no more sacrosanct than...
Known Problems. The set-manufacturing industry has been trying to bring color along as carefully as possible, and no one wants to rush into production without first testing the ground ahead. Three years ago, when FCC approved CBS's whirling-disk system of color TV, the industry shied away because it was noncompatible, i.e., it couldn't be seen on black & white sets. Manufacturers refused to make sets, and CBS was glad to drop the project when the Korean war put restrictions on color-set manufacture. The industry set up a National Television System Committee headed by General...