SAY TELEVISION TRUST STOPPED BY FCC RULING
Say Television Trust Stopped By FCC Ruling New Industry Presenting Many Difficult Problems FROM "LABOR" WASHINGTON, D. C—The enormously wealthy and powerful "Television trust" tried to put over a...
...Sending and receiving equipment made by other manufacturers differ in these and other technical details...
...1. RCA immediately announced a huge "promotion campaign" to sell its television sets to dealers and the public...
...308 CO-OP STUDY CLUBS SUPERIOR, Wis.—The drive to organize 250 neighborhood discussion groups as part of its co-operative education program is already a month ahead of schedule, according to the education department of Central Cooperative Wholesale...
...I am amazed at the action of the commission," he said...
...The profits will come not only from television broadcasting stations, but also from sale of millions of television receiving sets...
...They were beaten, however, the Times reported, by a counter vote of 3,250,000...
...Delegates representing 1.323.000 members of the Cooperative party supported an amendment condemning the war as imperialistic, demanding im-mf.iate armistice and calling for an international conference to ensure that peace would be based on enduring principles...
...The sale of receivers may crystallize transmission standards at present levels, and give one manufacturer an unfair advantage over others...
...The commission swatted the ball back for a home run, and the trust squawked with anger...
...Progress and invention would be strangled in the interest of monopoly and quick profits...
...They are opposed by Paramount Pictures and Its Dumont television subsidiary, and by other groups which have been developing television systems...
...For example, the Radio Corporation of America uses 441 lines "per picture" and 30 frames "per second...
...With RCA in the "Television Trust" are the Bell Telephone Co., National Broadcasting Co., Farnsworth Television, Inc., and other concerns which have "pooled" their television patents...
...Say Television Trust Stopped By FCC Ruling New Industry Presenting Many Difficult Problems FROM "LABOR" WASHINGTON, D. C—The enormously wealthy and powerful "Television trust" tried to put over a "fast one" on the Federal Communications commission last week...
...Three hundred and eight such groups with more than 3,100 individual members are already organized and the rnmpalgn is going forward with increased speed...
...In other words, the trust seized on the slightest excuse to do exactly what the commission has long been trying to prevent...
...Any radio set, made by any manufacturer, can receive any program broadcast by any station...
...Lions Fight for Rule This field presents a rare opportunity for monopoly, for a simple reason which must be understood to know why the lions of big business are fighting over television...
...The prize in this game is the fabulous profits whicli will be reaped by anyone who gets monopoly control of television, a new industry which promises to develop to even vaster dimensions than ordinary radio...
...That is because (he station and the receiving set must use the same number of "lines" and "frames...
...This change was to go into effect on Sept...
...It is best explained by the difference between television and ordinary radio...
...Present-day sets may become obsolete overnight...
...We have spent nearly $10,000,000 developing television, and thought we were proceeding exactly In accordance with the commission's recently announced policy...
...its manufacturer, and all other manufacturers, could not develop and sell different and better sets without forcing the public to junk the old ones at tremendous loss...
...CO-OP PARTY IN ENGLAND SPLIT NEW YORK CITY — In a special dispatch from London, the New York Times reported that the Cooperative party at its conference in London reflected the "end-the-war" sentiment which, according to the Times, is apparently gaining ground in England...
...On the other hand, at the present stage of technical development, a television set made by one manufacturer can receive only pictures broadcast by a station operated by the same manufacturer...
...Closes Door to Research If the public invested millions of dollars in one kind of set...
...The commission promptly came back and "suspended" its change of policy, and announced that it will begin hearings on April 8 to determine whether RCA and the other companies in the "trust" are "retarding research, experimentation, and development of television.'' Recommendation Disregarded The RCA television set selling campaign, the commission declared, "is a disregard of the commission's recommendation for further improvement, of television before sets are widely sold to the public...
...They could not "commercialize" the programs by selling "time" to advertisers, because the latter would demand wide sale of receiving sets to increase their "audience...
...the commission until recently forced television stations to pay the entire costs of their programs...
...Therefore, this new and promising industry would be "frozen" at its present degree of technical development, which is still a "pioneering" stage...
...David Sarnoff, president of RCA, loudly protested against the FCC suspension order...
...Therefore, despite patents and the limited number of stations, there can be no complete monopoly...
...To make sure that television was kept "experimental...
...A few days ago, however, the commission modified its policy enough to allow advertisers to pay Tor the actors and other "talent" used in television programs...
...For many years the FCC has refused to grant permanent broadcasting station licenses to any of these groups, or to allow them to sell large numbers of television receiving sets to the public...
Vol. 10 • April 1940 • No. 14
