Opinion ID: 106483
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Initial Offer of Individual Films, Individually Priced.

Text: Under the final judgments entered by the court, a distributor would be free to offer films in a package initially, without stating individual prices. If, however, he delayed at all in producing individual prices upon request, he would subject himself to a possible contempt sanction. The Government's first request would prevent this first bite possibility, forcing the offer of the films on an individual basis at the outset (but, as we view it, not precluding a simultaneous package offer, United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., supra, 334 U. S., at 159). This is a necessary addition to the decrees, in view of the evidence appearing in the record. Television stations which asked for the individual prices of some of the better pictures couldn't get any sort of a firm kind of an answer, according to one station official. He stated that they received a certain form of equivocation, like the price for the better pictures that we wanted was so high that it wouldn't be worth our while to discuss the matter, . . . the implication being that it wouldn't happen. A Screen Gems intracompany memorandum about a Baton Rouge station's price request stated that I told him that I would be happy to talk to him about it, figuring we could start the old round robin that worked so well in Houston & San Antonio. Without the proposed amendment to the decree, distributors might surreptitiously violate it by allowing or directing their salesmen to be reluctant to produce the individual price list on request. This subtler form of sales pressure, though not accompanied by any observable delay over time, might well result in some television stations buying the block rather than trying to talk the seller into negotiating on an individual basis. Requiring the production of the individual list on first approach will obviate this danger.