Evening star., 1951-06-10
Ion the Air
|AN Sorts of Poy-os-You-Go
plans for N Are Proposed
By Harry Macarthur

IFQnS fOF Y ar
By Harry
Your television set is going to
be turned into juke-box some
day. if things go according to one
set Of plans. These are the plans
for making television pay more
than the present sponsors are
willing or able to pay. A number
of them were being discussed in
the past few days in the wake of
a pair of communicates from the
sports arenas having to do with
ITV.
First there was that announce
lment that the Joe Louis-Lee
Savold fight on Wednesday night
will be seen outside Of the Polo
Grounds only to those who pay
at certain theaters to see it, tele-
Ivised. This was followed by the
report, shaking stadiums from the
livy-covered ones Of New England
to the streamlined ones of Cali
Ifornia, that the University Of
Pennsylvania wasn't having any
| of the National Collegiate Athletic
Associations plan for putting TV
on trial.
Schemes for putting a box Office
somewhere between television pro-
gram and viewer are not new, OF
course. but there seems to be a
lot more talk about them right
now. The specific one which
would turn your television set into
a juke-box is called Telemeter.
This is just what you might
expect from the naine-a device
to be attached to the TV receiver
which would permit it to repro
duce a certain program when a
coin is dropped in a slot. You'd
drop the coin whenever you
wanted to see a show presented
by The Telemeter people and a
man would come. around once a
month to collect the cash, along
with a tape recording which
shows were seen, so the producer
could be paid off.
Phonevision Could Be
Used for Any Show
Phonevision is the home box Of
flee system which has had the
most publicity to date. It was
tested-satisfactorily, according to
it's sponsors Zenith Radio)-dur-
ing the first three months of this
year. The primary use planned
for Phonevision was the showing
of motion pictures on living room
screens via television, but there is
no reason why it couldn't be used
for football games, musical revues
or other programs as well.
Another method Of making
television pay which has had it,
supporters involves a device at
tached to the TV set which per.
mits it to receive a televised show
only when a properly punched
card is inserted in it. You woulc
buy the key card as ticket o1
admission, slide it in the slot anc
watch the program.
A man in the Middle West is
campaigning for a plan to bring
theater owners into televiSion anc
Ilet them reap some of the rewards
from movies telecast to home re.
ceivers. His idea is for motion pic
ture houses to get TV channels
and go into the broadcasting busi-
ness. Then, with Phonevision OF
some other system, they wouldn't
have to worry whether the custom
ers came to the theater or re-
manned at home.
They'd advertise. Colossal
Smoking Guns - Stupendous! -
See It Today! At the Bijou, or al
Home"
Poy-ds-You-Go PIons
Have Shortcomings
There are drawbacks facing al
these systems. The man in the
Middle West reports the theatel
people have greeted him with
APATHY and, according to Variety
the Phonevision people told hin
a couple of years ago to go home
and sell his theaters.
The Phonevision system, al
least according to the Telemetel
supporters, has shortcomings ir
that it requires the cooperation
of the telephone company Gar
Iunscrambling signal is sent BY
Itelephone) and it requires pay.
ment of monthly bills.
It Is easy to order tonight,
movie -television by telephone
but a considerable credit problem
can be foreseen when the fee fol
them all is added up at the enc
Iof the month.
The obvious drawback to the
system using the key card occurs
Immediately to almost any one
THE cards might be too easy te
Icounterfeit.
| The Telemeter system seems
reasonably free of at least these
complaints. It takes your money
before you see the show and you'C
be a lot more likely to drop 9
slug in the phone at the corner
drugstore than to drop slug ir
la coin box right there in youl
Iown living room. Slugs made out
of icean old trick Of people with
quarter gas meters - wouldn'i
work. either. They might work
Ibut that tell-tale tape would still
p there to record the shows