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Editorial „GUEST EDITORIALPay TV - Whaf It Means^ Maybe I never did oilt-grow the spotted brat in me f but boy-oh-boy I get burned up something awful when r some legislator in Washington says I can’t have some-Jthing I want. . . .One particular legislator named Langer, who is ouia earrsyincof the Dakotas, is raising an awful ruckus against pay [ES television. In my not very humble opinion, this lsfKe rolling a giant Sequoia in front of progress. ap7 I have kicked the keyboard around on this two or urls three times before because so many people in high rom places are saying they don't want it. Why don t they one ask you or me?hich It’s like telling a home owner he cannot have gas orfiRh- electricity. As far as I know, none of the big-wheelers ther have explained a confounded thing about pay television, arm quite possibly because they don’t understand it them-:ion- selves. , .1 °f Even the general public doesn't have a clear ideC otcted what it's all about. Many people are belabored with the rh!S impression they’ll have to pay for every show that comes on TV. That isn’t true. You can have pay-TV, 01* you can mc* stick with your regular “free” channels and get yourself bludgeoned to death with commercials, amc Boiled down, pay TV means you can have a gadgetthe connected to your set which governs a channel not nowen* in use. • •an It means you can get a first-run movie, or a heavv-not weight championship prize fight — no longer available iy 11 on free TV; or grand opera, if you can stand it; or mlt;.jorrnm league baseball games.Free television of major league baseball games is rapidly approaching extinction. It has all but destroyed first major* league baseball and has wrecked minor leagues hns so that now all major league owners are extricating me_ themselves from TV contracts as fast as they can. nfu1 All major sports, from college and professional foot-an‘ ball to boxing and baseball, have struggled away from me the mistake of televising home games. Why? Because attendance dropped heavily. piJohn H. Harris, owner of the Ice-Capades, hit the bull’s-eye when asked to televise his opening perfor-...J mance at the Pan Pacific Auditorium. akV “Gentlemen,” he said. “I will be delighted to tele-to vise my opening night if you and the sponsors will pay one me for all empty seats for the rest of our local engage-of ments.”I wrote a story for Cosmopolitan Magazine on pay ™d TV some time ago* so I do know a little about it. Suc-^’ou cinctly, you will be able to get outstanding shows you ,urf cannot now get on so-called free TV, and at small —mavbo 25 cents or 50 cents for your entire household.You do not have to pay for anything you do not ear want to see. You will be free from commercials, as ,().j mentioned, and you will get a better picture. It won’t jn jump or become fuzzy when an airplane flies overhead, ate because pay TV will be piped directly into your home the by a wire or. in other words, closed circuit, ery Not leastlv, pay TV would put a huge dent in unemployment, would revive boom business for movie ion studios, would put actors to work, would rejuvenate nc- minor league baseball and would increase income ior her athletes, and thousands of people directly and indirectly to kinked with the various productions, the pay TV people insist their product would stimulatered theater'business as an advertising medium. Many people would want to take advantage of large screen produc-nc' tions. However, the powerful networks are fighting the ' intrusion of this upstart. They know it will put a crimp Kn in the trick ratings of some of their large shows.^ College football and pro football and all otherfor sports would make more money than ever. You wouldn’t have to go to the Coliseum and fight the mob. The p?«y-m- TV costs would be fractional of what you would have ?n- to pay for tickets and parking at the Coliseum, lie I have a very selfish interest in pay-TV. Some night i would like to pay a modest price to see a whopping *rs show I cannot now get on my commercial-scarred set. *at I'd like to sit there in peace and without grating interns. ruptions. It is my set. I paid for it. I would like to put eir it to full use, just as I please. k° Tell me, is this asking too much?—V. X. Flahertv, Los Angeles Exami-*rof - :-
Newspaper Details
Taylor Daily Press
Taylor, Texas, US
Mon, Sep 08, 1958
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Drinda J.
NV, USA 07 Jan 2017
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