WHAT type of man is the new Chairman of the Company, Sir Robert Renwick, Bart., K.B.E.; stockbroker, company director, pioneer of Independent Television and chairman of the newly formed British Space Development Company?

He has been described in the newspapers as “tough”, “shrewd”, “enthusiastic”, “hard-working” and “a man fanatically interested in what he is going to do next”.

He is 57 — his birthday was the fourth of this month — has five grandchildren, one son and three daughters. He does most of his work from a small office down a lane off Threadneedle Street and spends most of his spare time at his country cottage at Winkfield, Berks.

Most mornings of the week Sir Robert takes a ninepenny ride on the Underground from Marble Arch to the Bank.

BY TUBE

“I go by tube because it is the best means of communication in London at that particular time of the day” he says. On the subject of communication Sir Robert can be considered to have expert knowledge. During the war he was Controller of Communications, Air Ministry and Controller of Communications Equipment, Ministry of Aircraft Production.

He played a big part in setting up the vast radar network which ringed Britain during the vital years of the struggle for supremacy in the air and the radar system later used to such good effect in the offensive by Bomber Command. He was also chairman of the Airborne Forces Committee which directed the fitting out of Britain’s airborne expeditions.

When the war ended Sir Robert returned to the great County of London Electricity Supply Company, founded by his father, Sir Harry Renwick. But these were the days of nationalization and when the Government took over electricity Sir Robert resigned his chairmanship and turned to other interests.

He saw the great potentials of television, both as a form of entertainment and a means of communication. And he resented greatly the monopoly which the Government had vested in the BBC to run the country’s TV service.

Long before ITV was ever talked about in the lobbies at Westminster, long before the term “commercials” ever crept into the vocabulary of the advertising fraternity, Sir Robert and Mr Charles Orr Stanley, who is also an ATV director, campaigned for an independent television service. They received a powerful ally in Mr Norman Collins — now ATV’s Deputy Chairman — who had resigned from the top post in television at the BBC.

FIRST COMPANY

They joined in forming the Associated Broadcasting Development Company in August 1952, the first commercial television company to be created in Britain.

As early as 1947 Sir Robert, as President of the Television Society had urged the Government to give TV more financial support or agree to have commercial programmes on the BBC for a trial period.

When nowadays they casually switch channels for alternative entertainment few viewers remember the tremendous battle the early advocates of ITV had to get them that privilege. Powerful interests were waged against them and at no time could they rally the kind of prestige support which the BBC and anti-ITVers could command.

ACTIVE MEMBER

Sir Robert and his colleagues eventually won the day. ITV came on the air in September 1955 and ATV, the company which had grown out of the original ABDC, helped to provide the first programmes. In the six years of its development Sir Robert has always been an active member. He, Mr Val Parnell, and Mr Lew Grade constitute the executive committee responsible for the day-to-day running of the company.

Now Sir Robert has become the occupant of the chair vacated by Mr Prince Littler, who will continue to serve on the board. He brings to the chairmanship an expert’s knowledge of company affairs. He has twenty other directorships and is chairman of the British Relay Wireless and Television Company Ltd., and the Reliance-Clifton Cables and Industrial Products Co. Ltd.

He is also deputy-chairman of the Institute of Directors, an organization he has helped to build up from a membership of 450 in 1948 to 37,000.

SINCERE BELIEF

He has a sincere belief in the future of television and of ATV in particular. He is a man of vision — a man who has his feet firmly on the ground but has his eyes on the space above us.

“This world of space is to be conquered” he says. “We can only begin to envisage the future that lies ahead in the atmosphere. It is the real Eldorado of the future. The money in space is more than any man ever dreamed of and the future gentlemen of space have a much bigger chance of vast wealth than ever did the adventurers of the Hudson Bay and East India Companies.

“So far as television is concerned we are now only at the bow and arrow stage. Satellites 22,300 miles high will, sooner or later, make world-wide television possible.

“There is no question at all that space communications will come. The language of space communications will be English — and, if we will take the initiative, the centre of communications will continue to be England”.

A BIG POWER

Sir Robert sees this country as a big power in the realms above the clouds providing we grasp our opportunities.

With so much business to attend to, Sir Robert finds little time for relaxation but most nights he drives home to his cottage where he reads the papers, watches television and then goes off for a walk in the fields with his poodle Benjamin.

Sir Robert has decided views about television. He has been very impressed with the work of the company’s engineers and technical staff whose recent exhibition he visited. He thinks technically the industry may have gone ahead of its programmes.

Programmes, he believes, could do with a good deal of improvement. Of personal preferences he says:

“I like Westerns and plays that don’t leave you in mid-air when they end. I believe that most viewers like a good story told in dramatic form without the author trying to be too clever.

ORIGINAL MATERIAL

“Outside Broadcasts, such as our recent visit to the circus, make wonderful television and sport is excellent to watch. I’m not overfond of old films as I think we should produce more original material for television. Series such as “Danger Man” are fine.”

As for the 625-405 line controversy, Sir Robert has had his mind made up longer than most people have had television sets. When TV was restarted after the war he supported Lord Cherwell in the view that it was wrong to go back to 405.

Sir Robert gives the impression of being a man who can completely lake command of any given situation, a man of integrity and purpose who would neither suffer fools gladly nor be impressed by the charlatan. His experience in commerce and industry has convinced him of the great value of concerted effort.

TEAMWORK COUNTS

“It is teamwork that counts — and will count in the future of ATV” he says. “If you are talking to men you know and have faith in, you can get something done in half an hour that would take all day to accomplish with virtual strangers. You must have a good team and inspire them — make them feel that they are doing something worthwhile.”

The post Sir Robert Renwick looks ahead at the Company’s future appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

THE men who really make television — but rarely make the news — had the unusual experience of being in the limelight when an exhibition of their work was staged at ATV House.

Members of the Company’s Development Department and Planning and Installation Department had assembled a selection of some of the most advanced television equipment that can be seen not only in Britain but in any part of the world.

And every piece of equipment on show was the result of work by ATV staff.

More than 300 people, including the new Chairman of the Company. Sir Robert Renwick, representatives of the national and trade press, electronic manufacturing companies and the BBC visited the impressive exhibition.

Centre-piece was the 34-channel fully transistorised studio sound mixer, designed and manufactured by Pye Ltd. to ATV’s requirements. This mixer is installed in the new studios at Elstree.

Peter Fowler and Ray McCabe dealt with hundreds of enquiries from visitors who marvelled at this remarkable piece of engineering which is quite unrivalled in the field of technical equipment.

The control vision mixer, designed and manufactured by the Development Department was explained to visitors by Ken Searle and Arthur Burbidge. This is a great contribution towards the stabilizing of the studio output picture. Unique circuits stabilize the picture against large variations of voltage and temperature.

ON DISPLAY

Among the interesting items of equipment designed and made by ATV were:

Cut and Effects Mixer. At the touch of a button or fader it provides inter-frame cutting and separate fading from twelve picture inputs.

Line Up Panel. This enables the accurate and speedy alignment of the many electronic circuits concerned with the vision mixing unit.

Special Effects Control Unit. This is used to select special visual effects to make programmes more interesting. Inlay and over lay may be used.

FOR OB’s

OB Portable Video Distribution Amplifier. The unit provides four separate vision outputs from a single co-axial input, particularly -useful at OBs where large areas are involved.

Transistorised Video Amplifier. Sixteen separate vision outputs are provided with integral power units.

Transistorised Microwave Transmitter. Designed for testing microwave paths before use on programmes. It is used in conjunction with a portable radio telephone.

Transistor Intercom Units. One is a simple transistor amplifier for a small technical centre. The other is a multi-studio system capable of operating between 44 stations in a studio centre.

Helping to explain the workings of these and other pieces of equipment were members of the company’s Engineering Department, all of whom have contributed to their development and manufacture.

The post Engineers on parade… appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“ATV Network remains the keystone of the Company’s operations. Nevertheless it is my firm intention that the corporation should comprise a wide variety of operations all with strong potential”

Results and Dividend

I am pleased to be able to report a Group Profit of £7,268,000 [£65.5m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed] before taxation which is marginally above the record profit made last year. The earnings per ‘A’ Ordinary Unit after taxation were 8.64p [77.85p] (1972/73, 10.42p [93.88p]). Your Board has decided to recommend an increase of the dividend to 5.125705p [46.18p] per ‘A’ Stock unit. This is equivalent to an increase of 5 per cent in the rate of the dividend (the maximum permitted under Phase III of the Government’s Counter-Inflation Legislation) making a total for the year of 30.067 per cent.

Television

In the year under review the prosperity of your Company clearly reflected the economic state of the nation. It was thus a year of sharply contrasting fortune. The first nine months proved highly profitable. Indeed, if the results for that period could have been maintained, the figure of profit would have been conspicuously the highest in the Company’s history. The final quarter, however, spanned the disastrous weeks of the energy crisis. ATV Network, in particular, was gravely hit.

Here it should be borne in mind that, in the past, the operation of the television franchise has been responsible for approximately half the profits of the Corporation. It therefore speaks highly for the healthy state of the other diversified activities that the figure for Group profit should remain virtually unaffected.

I am happy, moreover, to be able to say that the severe setback suffered by Commercial Television in the winter of 1973 and the early spring of 1974 proved to be only temporary. Confidence in the medium as an essential element in efficient salesmanship has been re-affirmed by the manufacturers, and the advertising revenue of ATV Network already shows full recovery.

Your Board welcomes the statement by the Authority that, subject to appraisal during 1974 of the performance of the Companies, no change in the present allocation of franchises will be made before 1979.

Diversification

Your Board has vigorously pursued its policy of expansion into other fields, and future possible acquisitions are constantly being investigated. The acquisition last year of 80 per cent of Ansafone Holdings Ltd. has abundantly justified such a policy. Elsewhere, there has been steady growth in the principal divisions already within the Group.

Film Production

Your film producing and distributing subsidiaries ITC–Incorporated Television Company Ltd., Independent Television Corporation (U.S.A.), and ITC of Canada — have all been exceptionally active.

Theatres

Despite the dislocation caused by the power cuts, petrol shortages and impaired train services during the winter months of 1973/74, your subsidiary Stoll Theatres Corporation Ltd. enjoyed a reasonably satisfactory year.

Records, Tapes and Music Publishing

Your record company, Pye Records, and your cassette and cartridge tape company, Precision Tapes, have both experienced exceptional success. Together with ATVs music publishing operations, they have returned a profit 83 per cent higher than last year’s at a figure of £2,502,000 [£22.6m].

Property

The results of your property subsidiary, Bentray Investments, have been most satisfactory, and your major development, ATV Centre, Birmingham, is now a valuable contribution to Group finances.

The post ATV financial results: 1974 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“Pretax profit highest in Group’s 17-year history”

The Seventeenth Annual General Meeting of Associated Television Corporation Limited was held in London on September 28th 1971. The following are extracts from the Statement by the Chairman, Lord Renwick of Coombe, K.B.E., for the year ended 26th March, 1972:

Results

The Group Profit of £6,240,000 [£70.3m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed] before taxation is the highest in the 17-year-old history of your Company.

This wholly admirable result shows an improvement of 27 per cent on the profit for the preceding year and fully justifies the confidence which I expressed at the time of the half-yearly interim statement.

This confidence remains unimpaired. Accordingly, your Board has recommended an increase in the total dividend for the year from 28½ per cent to 30 per cent, and proposes to recommend an increase in the Corporation’s share capital and a scrip issue.

Approximately half the Group Profit was derived from the Network operation and half from diversified activities. This is entirely healthy. And it is in both these fields that a continuing growth is to be foreseen.

Prospects for Television

From the Autumn of this year, the enforced restriction on broadcasting hours will be lifted, and ATV Network will be able to transmit programmes from mid-day onwards and thus provide the housewife with a full afternoon service of news, entertainment and information. This long-awaited development in the ATV Network operation is something which your Board has always been seeking.

The lifting of the restriction will mean that Independent Television in the Midlands will be on the air for an extra 40 hours a week. This extension of the Service will offer entirely fresh opportunities not only for new programmes, both local and national, but also for both new and established local and national advertisers.

The market demand is certainly unquestionable, and the extension of hours should be seen against the background of the year’s trading in which advertising revenue rose by nearly 14 per cent, from £14,255,000 [£160.5m] for 1970-71 to £16,232,000 [£182.8m] for 1971-72. It was this increased volume of sales, together with the reduction of Turnover Levy (£2,483,000 [£28m] for 1971-72 as against £3,865,000 [£43.5m] for 1970-71) which enabled the Network to do more than absorb the increase of nearly £600,000 [£6.8m] in the rental payable to the Authority.

Export Potential

Nor is large-scale growth foreseeable only in the operation of Television in the U.K. The export potential both for film series and for Special Programmes is enormous, and your production and distribution subsidiary ITC-Incorporated Television, and your American distribution subsidiary, Independent Television Corporation, are once again in a dominant position in the market. This situation could not have been achieved without a massive investment of some £7,000,000 [£78.8m]. Benefits from the income generated by this investment will be reflected in the current and subsequent years.

The other main subsidiaries are all in good order and offer assurance for the future.

Theatres

Stoll Theatres Corporation and Moss Empires enjoyed a year which fell only slightly below the previous record year and the present year promises well.

It remains to be said, however, that over the whole world of the theatre hangs the ominous question mark of Value Added Tax. If this tax — from which newspapers, for example, are to be completely exempted — is applied indiscriminately to the theatre, then the results will inevitably be far-reaching and deplorable. Such a tax, without alleviation, may well compel the eventual closure of certain Provincial theatres.

Records & Tapes

I am happy to be able to report that Pye Records has more than maintained its 10 per cent share of the total UK record production. Precision Tapes has, in its first two years of trading, achieved sales amounting to nearly one-third of the total UK market for tape cassettes and cartridges.

Music

Northern Songs’ music catalogue has been further strengthened by a new seven-year co-publishing agreement to cover future compositions with Paul and Linda McCartney. In order to rationalise, the whole of ATV’s interests are shortly to be re-grouped and controlled by ATV Music Limited.

Planned Music, which provides the Muzak service is also steadily expanding.

Indeed, within the Group the results of only two of the subsidiary companies, Ambassador Bowling and Bermans & Nathans, have proved disappointing.

Property & Investment

Of especial importance to the Corporation is your subsidiary, Bentray Investments Ltd., which is responsible for all ATV properties.

The last valuation of Land and Buildings was made in 1966, and a full re-valuation is being undertaken during the current year. This operation will serve not merely to enable a realistic figure to be quoted under Fixed Assets, but to provide a proper financial basis for the development of various of the Group’s valuable properties in London and elsewhere.

Up to date, Bentray’s major development — representing an investment of some £12,000,000 [£135m] — has been confined to Birmingham. The 29-storey, 200,000 square-foot office tower at ATV Centre will be available for tenancies by December.

In the Spring of 1973 the Holiday Inns Hotel at the Centre will be ready for occupation. During the coming year, therefore, the greater part of the whole six-acre complex will become revenue earning.

In June 1972, ATV’s holding of 4,290,000 shares in British Relay Wireless and Television Ltd., was disposed of for a profit before tax of £2,519,810 [£28.4m] and the cash inflow will serve most usefully to reduce current finance charges.

Directorate, Management and Staff

To the Corporation’s Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive, Sir Lew Grade, I must extend not only my thanks but my congratulations. ATV and Sir Lew are by now synonymous.

Finally, I extend my thanks to Management and Staff at all levels in Birmingham, Elstree, London, New York, Toronto, Sydney, Paris and Lausanne.

The post ATV financial results: 1972 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“Another highly satisfactory year…”

The Sixteenth Annual General Meeting of Associated Television Corporation Limited was held in London on 23rd September, 1971. The following are extracts from the Statement by the Chairman, Lord Renwick of Coombe, K.B.E., for the year ended 28th March. 1971:

This has been another highly satisfactory year; and one that holds great promise for the future.

For the third time in its history, your Corporation has been honoured by the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement.

I will now refer to the improved position in which your subsidiary Company, ATV Network Ltd., finds itself. During eleven of the twelve months under review the whole television industry was still labouring under the load of the high-rate Television Advertising Levy. In that single year ATV Network had, apart altogether from normal Corporation Tax, to pay a Levy of no less than £3,865,000 [£46.4m in today’s money, allowing for inflation – Ed]. It was to this level of forfeiture that I was referring in my last Statement when I said that if the rate of Levy were not reduced, Independent Television would no longer be commercially viable.

I therefore wish publicly to express my thanks to Lord Aylestone and the Authority for all that they did in presenting the facts of the case to the Government. It is not too much to say that the resultant action of the Minister in amending the scale on which the Levy is extracted from the advertising revenue of the Companies prevented inevitable financial collapse within certain sections of the industry.

Bearing in mind the current buoyancy in advertising revenue and the reduced rate at which the Levy is now operative, it is possible to view the future of the Network Company with a degree of confidence that would have been quite unthinkable a year ago.

Broadcasting Hours

It is a source of further encouragement that the awaited permission for further broadcasting hours cannot now be long delayed. ATV Network is already fully equipped to provide the programmes. All that is needed is the Minister’s approval.

Also, at the moment, only the BBC offers a dual service. There is no reason whatsoever why this should be so. It is wholly within the competence of the industry as it is at present constituted to provide ITV 2, and your Directors will continue to press for this highly desirable extension of the national broadcasting service.

Film Production

The current schedule of production is the strongest in the Company’s history and overseas sales — notably to the American networks and to Australia — have reached a level never previously achieved.

ATV Centre

The ATV Centre in Birmingham, of which the Network studios occupy a third of the total site area, is in itself a major piece of civic development. It represents an investment in excess of £12 million [£144.2m]. Building operations have throughout been most commendably on schedule, and the whole complex of office block, hotel, exhibition hall, restaurant and shops will be revenue earning by 1973.

Stoll Theatres

ATV is proud of its position in the theatrical world. Stoll Theatres under the chairmanship of Mr. Prince Littler has enjoyed a most excellent year. In total, half-a-million more tickets were sold at the box office than in the previous year and the profit figure improved by £96,000 [£1.2m].

Music

ATV is equally proud of the positions which it occupies in the world of music and music-publishing. The new management of your wholly-owned subsidiary company, Northern Songs, is certainly to be congratulated on its success. Moreover, the jointly-owned Company, ATV-Kirshner, has now established a worldwide organisation that is trading profitably in 14 countries.

Similarly, Pye Records which has steadily earned an increasing share of the disc market shows continuing improved results. The profit figure for music and records of over £1,800,000 [£21.6m] is substantially higher than earlier it had been felt safe to estimate.

Audio and Video Cassettes

Looking to the future when the use of audio cassettes will become wide-spread both in the home and in the car, your Board felt it wise to acquire the whole share capital of Precision Tapes Ltd., previously owned only 50 per cent by the Group. Already the sales of cassettes produced by this Company are mounting most encouragingly.

Again, in order to keep level with technical innovation your Corporation has entered the rapidly expanding market for video cassettes — the device which enables programmes of the viewers’ own choice to be shown on the home television screen. The potential here is enormous and, to exploit to the full the global opportunities which the video cassette offers, ATV has entered into 50-50 partnership with one of the three great American networks, the American Broadcasting Company. The entire programme resources of entertainment, information and education of both organisations have been pooled. It is an acknowledgment of the unique standing of this new Anglo-American enterprise that the National Theatre Company in London should have granted it the exclusive video cassette rights of the National Theatre productions.

Finally, for the future development of the Corporation, ATV has announced that it will seek to be active in Commercial Broadcasting as soon as legislation permits. ATV will both apply for a licence in its own right and in conjunction with newspapers, and will be ready and equipped to supply full programme services to other operators.

Summary

The Group, now widely diversified within the whole field of entertainment as well as in property, is both more securely based and more capable of further development than ever before in its history.

It is here that I must pay tribute to the one man who more than any other has made it so. When, for the third time, the Corporation was honoured with the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement, it was once more recognition of the fact that Sir Lew Grade is the master-salesman of the entire television industry. But it was more than that. It was also a recognition of the fact that Sir Lew is television’s supreme impresario. Indeed, his singleness of purpose, his energy and his farsightedness are displayed in every aspect of the Corporation’s activities.

Management and Staff

I will close by saying on behalf of the Board how grateful I am to members of Management and Staff at all levels in Birmingham, Elstree and London, as well as to our Corporation colleagues abroad in New York, Toronto, Sydney, Paris and Lausanne.

The post ATV financial results: 1971 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“Altogether a most excellent year….”

The Fifteenth Annual General Meeting of Associated Television Corporation Limited was held at ATV House, Great Cumberland Place, London, W.1. on 24th September, 1970, at 12 noon.

The following are extracts from the Statement by the Chairman, Lord Renwick of Coombe, KBE, for the year ended 29th March, 1970:-

Not only is the Group profit (after levy but before taxation) of £5,635,000 [£73.5m] the fourth highest in ATV’s history, but this outstanding result has been achieved despite the fact that the profit from your television subsidiary, ATV Network, has fallen away by no less than £2,152,000 [£28.1m].

In short, the Corporation’s long pursued policy of planned expansion in the entertainment industry is now reaping the reward of earlier long-term investment, and the warning in my last Annual Report of the impending unhealthy state of Independent Television has been sadly kustified.

I will deal later with the causes, mostly foreseeable but unfortunately beyond the Board’s control, of the current decline in the television Industry. For the moment I will confine myself to those aspects of the Group where there is every indication of continuing prosperity.

FILMS. First must come film production and distribution which contribute no less than 41% to the Group profit. The success in this sphere of your subsidiary companies, Independent Television Corporation of America and Incorporated Television Company Limited of England, represents an altogether remarkable personal achievement on the part of the Group’s Chief Executive and Managing Director, Sir Lew Grade. Until the mid-sixties, British-made television production was regarded as virtually unsaleable in the United States. The degree to which a transformation has occurred may be judged from an article in the April issue of America’s leading entertainment journal, “Variety.” I will quote the opening paragraph;

“Sir Lew Grade may do single-handedly to American television what it took four strapping Liverpool boys to do to American popular music. The British video impresario, who heads Associated Television there, is all by himself the first major foreign influence in the hitherto all-American tele industry.”

MUSIC. Equally gratifying have been the results of ATV’s expansion into music publishing. With the acquisition of Northern Songs, which owns the musical copyrights of Lennon and McCartney, your Corporation now possesses a commanding property. Profits of Northern Songs for the eleven months to the end of March, 1970, considerably exceed the profits for the preceding full year, and the volume of business is steadily increasing.

Taken in conjunction with Pye Records, which continues to hold an important and growing position in the international disc market, ATV’s operations in music and records are now firmly and broadly based. The profits from this division amount to 32% of the Group’s total.

THEATRES. ATV’s theatrical interests are of key importance within the Group, and the Stoll Theatres Corporation and its subsidiary, Moss Empires, under the chairmanship of Mr. Prince Littler, have once again enjoyed a good year. I am pleased, moreover, to be able to report that results for the current year are substantially better than for the year under review.

CRISIS IN THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY

In July, 1969, the rate of Turnover Levy was increased to a level calculated to extract a further £3 million from the industry. This, as I had already given warning would happen, immediately produced a crisis which changed the whole financial structure of Independent Television and endangered the very existence of some companies not protected by diversified operations.

In April, 1970, the Turnover Levy rate was amended to provide for a remission of £5 million. This purely stop-gap relief was, however, offset by the fact that over the year 1969/70 national television advertising revenue had itself declined by some £5 million. This decline is symptomatic of the state of the country’s economy. It is not possible to forecast the date by which the Government will feel able to take measures to raise, rather than to depress, the level of domestic spending upon which all domestic advertising depends. What is possible to forecast is the date by which the Independent Television industry will find itself unable to finance its increasingly costly operations. This date is 1971.

TURNOVER LEVY. Clearly, the Turnover Levy, which is imposed on revenue, and is required to be paid before meeting operational expenses and before paying Corporation Tax on profits (if there are any), should be abolished altogether leaving the Television Companies to make their contribution to the Exchequer entirely through Corporation Tax in the usual way. This would remove the invidiousness of a discriminatory levy imposed upon a single industry, and would place Independent Television upon an equal footing with all other commercial operations. On this basis – and on this basis alone – can the return both to shareholders in Independent Television Companies and to the Exchequer be made fair and equitable.

BROADCASTING HOURS. Because of the limitation on broadcasting hours, ATV Network alone is denied extra revenue of not less than £½ million [£6.5m] per annum. Any review of Independent Television must take into account the effect on the industry of the new major franchise — Yorkshire — granted by the Authority in 1968. While we welcome this recognition of Yorkshire’s independent status, it cannot be overlooked that the introduction of a fresh contributor to the Independent Television network has meant that other contributing companies have been left with considerable under-utilized studio facilities.

The redistribution of franchises in 1968 brought with it, moreover, heavy capital demands on some companies for the provision of new studios. ATV Network’s own development in Birmingham, for example, has called for some £6 million [£78.2m]; and this capital investment comes on top of some £1.5 million [£19.6m] previously required for the conversion of ATV’s Elstree studios to Colour on the 625-line standard.

Finally, rising costs — not least labour costs – within the industry continue to erode and, in many instances, entirely erase the narrow margin of profit which remains after the payment of the Levy.

AWAITING GOVERNMENT ACTION. The Independent Television Authority is no less concerned than the companies at the gravity of the situation which has arisen, and all the figures for the industry have been submitted for investigation by the Prices and Incomes Board. It is not too much to say that the whole future of Independent Television now depends action by the Prices and Incomes Board, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications.

MANAGEMENT AND STAFF

On behalf of the Board, I pass on my thanks and appreciation to members of the Management and Staff at all levels.

The post ATV financial results: 1970 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“POLICY OF PLANNED EXPANSION WILL BE VIGOROUSLY PURSUED”

Before I comment on the year’s results — which, for the fourth successive occasion, I must describe as truly excellent — let me refer to four important events in your Company’s history.

(i)        ATV Network Ltd., your wholly-owned subsidiary, has been awarded the seven-day-a-week Contract for the Midlands from 30th July, 1968, for a period of six years. This is the major Contract offered by the Independent Television Authority.

(ii)        Associated Television, the first television, film and programme producing Group to be recognized in this way, has been honoured by being chosen as a recipient of the Queen’s Award to Industry for Export achievement in 1967.

(iii)        The range of your Company’s operations is now so extensive that your Board has felt for some time that a new title would be more proper Accordingly, it is being proposed that Associated Television Ltd., the parent Company of the Group, should be renamed Associated Television Corporation Ltd.

(iv)        Mr. Lew Grade has been appointed a Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive of your Company, and Mr. Robin Gill has been appointed Managing Director.

GROUP RESULTS

The consolidated Profit and Loss Account shows a profit for the Group, before Levy and taxation, of £11,838,787 [£179.3m in today’s money, allowing for inflation – Ed], an increase of £779,476 [£11.8m] over the results of the previous year (£11,059,311 [£167.5m]).

The Levy on Television Advertising Revenue amounts to £5,761,068 [£87.2m] and is £328,702 [£5m] higher than last year. After deducting this levy, the profit before taxation amounts to £6,077,719 [£92m] (last year £5,626,945 [£85.2m]).

Taxation for the year is £2,348,188 [£35.6m] as against the previous year’s figure of £2,780,325 [£42.1m]. After adding back £528,697 [£8m] in respect of a provision for depreciation no longer required, the Group profit after deducting the Levy and taxation amounts to £4,258,228 [£64.5m] as compared with £2,846,620 [£43.1m] last year.

The Shareholders’ funds, at £22,708,000 [£344m], are more than £5,000,000 [£75.7m] greater than at the end of the previous year. The total increase since 1963 now amounts to £12,589,000 [£190.7m].

ATV GROWTH FACTOR. In an article, entitled “British Business Growth League,” published in the June, 1967, issue of “Management Today,” ATV was shown as the top company in the country for percentage increase in pre-tax profit for the period 1957-66.

In the same article, ATV was included in the list of Top Ten companies for percentage increase both in net capital employed and gross cash flow for the same period.

FUTURE PROSPECTS. I must refer to the disturbing economic conditions which prevail, but in your Company’s affairs, two major factors, both highly encouraging, now colour the whole situation.

In the first place, the matter of the ATV Network Licence is satisfactorily settled, and your subsidiary’s profitable working into the mid-1970s can realistically be predicted.

Secondly, in the year under review, the non-licence operations within your Group contributed some 42% to the Company’s overall profits; and the high level of these non-licence earnings should be at least maintained.

I am able, therefore, to inform shareholders that I find both sides of your Company’s activities in good order, and can assure them that our announced policy of Planned Expansion will be vigorously pursued.

ATV NETWORK

THE NEW MIDLAND CONTRACT. I have already referred to the new seven-day-a-week Contract for the Midlands (10.4 million population) which the Authority has awarded to your Company.

This is the Contract for which your Company applied. It enables us to enlarge our long-standing interest in the Midlands, and also to maintain the greatest possible output of programmes for the national network.

From the outset of Independent Television, ATV has urged undivided weekly working as preferable in every way to the weekday/week-end split; and your Company is delighted that it will now be able to provide the unified and unbroken seven-day-a-week service which the Midland viewer deserves.

Shareholders will appreciate that the previous short Licence period of three years, the extension of one year, and uncertainties as to the future shape of Independent Television, rendered long term planning impossible. For the first time, your Company con see a clear course ahead of it, and a new studio complex will be erected. Plans for this were commissioned over three years ago. The studios will be the most up-to-date in the country and will be built with all the requirements of Colour in mind.

Now that the Authority has clarified the whole position, and ATV Network con concentrate its interest on the Midlands viewer, the Board of ATV Network will be strengthened by the addition of leading Midlands figures, and resident Executive Directors from within the Company.

I am very happy indeed that it should be Mr. Bill Ward, for so long one of the key men in ATV who becomes an Executive Director of ATV Network. Mr. Leonard Mathews, who, as Midlands Controller, has played such an important role for the Company, has also been appointed to the Board.

THE MIDLANDS. Both local and nationally networked programmes hove shown a notable increase during the past year.

The daily serial, “Crossroads,” continues to enjoy top programme ratings, and the televising of the 500th episode in 1966 was celebrated by a dinner in Birmingham attended by viewers drawn from all parts of the United Kingdom.

ATV’s weekday network programme for children, “Tingha and Tucker Club” — the most popular in British television — has been joined by a Sunday network programme, “Tree House Family,” which is now seen in over 4 million homes.

The new regular weekly programme, “Midland Member,” enables a Member of Parliament from one of the 107 constituencies in the area to give a first-hand account of the work at Westminster; this is now recognised os providing one of the most important political contributions to Midlands life.

The magazine programme, “ATV Today,” continues to attract an audience of well over three million viewers; and, during the year ATV’s film unit covered more than 70,000 miles in collecting items for “Midland News.” No fewer than 66 Midland news stories provided by ATV appeared in the national news service of ITN.

In co-operation with the Midlands Police Forces, ATV has presented 52 episodes of the weekly “Police Five” programme. Over 250 crimes have been reported, and the police regard the information provided by television viewers as responsible, in at least ten per cent of the cases, for the successful outcome of police enquiries.

For the fifth successive year, ATV’s presentation of the Royal Show from the National Agricultural Centre, Kenilworth, received nation-wide coveroge.

VIEWING HOURS. ATV shareholders and the viewing public at large should be aware of the fact that your Company, in common with all other Independent Television companies, is denied the right to provide the full and comprehensive service which it is naturally anxious to present. Hours of transmission ore rigidly restricted by order of the Postmaster General, and protests from the Company have proved unavailing. The Authority has listened sympathetically, and is fully aware of the extra programmes which your Company is seeking to provide. Your Company has all the facilities for the immediate provision of the extra hours. Nevertheless, the ban remains, in spite of the fact that the BBC with its two services now provides some thirty more hours of broadcasting each week than is permitted to Independent Television.

COLOUR. In my last Report I stressed the fact that the ATV Network studios at Elstree would, by the autumn of 1966, be fully equipped for Colour operations in the various international line standards. This has been accomplished, and major drama productions electronically recorded in Colour now include three plays, namely “Ivanov” with Sir John Gielgud; “The Tormentors” starring James Mason and Stanley Baker; and “Present Laughter” with Peter O’Toole and Honor Blackman.

Light entertainment productions in Colour include the two-hour programme, “The Heart of Show Business,” in aid of the Aberfan victims; a series of 13 one-hour productions, “Piccadilly Palace,” with Morecambe and Wise, and Millicent Martin; and a series of 26 one-hour programmes, “Spotlight,” with British, American, and other international star artists.

All these productions are additional to the Colour programmes on film, to which I have referred earlier, and to mony documentary programmes made in Colour. Taken together, they constitute the largest library of TV Colour productions in Great Britain.

I am delighted that one of our news film teams, Mr. Gary Hughes and Mr. Noel Smart, should have won the Bronze Medal in the “hard news” section of the 1966 British Television News Film awards. This is the second year running in which ATV network has won on award.

ALPHA STUDIOS, ASTON. ATV Midland transmissions are co-ordinated through the Presentation Centre of Aston, either for networking or for routing to the Authority’s transmitters at Lichfield and Membury.

The Alpha Studios accommodate nearly one hundred hours of rehearsals, recordings and transmissions each week.

SALES. During a year in which there was a standstill in television advertising rates under the tight economic conditions of the “Squeeze,” the Sales Department of ATV Network nonetheless achieved an increase in net revenue of some 4½%. This growth was accomplished in a year when total national advertising appropriations fell for the first time since 1946.

ATV Network has developed the whole scope of television advertising. Holiday Tours, Fashion, and the Big Stores ore all now represented on the London screen; and, in the Midlands, the service has been extended to small businesses, retail shops and garages. Local advertisements now amount to some 1,500 a year. Moreover, industry throughout the Midlands responded warmly to the introduction by ATV Network of a Staff Recruitment Bureau, and viewers have been informed of over 500 vacancies, ranging from drivers and clerks to management accountants and project engineers.

ATV’s “Midlands Merchandiser,” a trade paper for grocers, now reaches more than 8,000 shops, and provides the only service in the industry which forms a direct link between television and the retailer.

“TV WORLD.” The programme journal for the Midlands is owned jointly by ATV Network and ABC Television, and is published by Odhams Press.

From the outset, this magazine set up new publishing records. The circulation has risen steadily from 640,000 when the magazine first appeared in September, 1964, to the figure of over 737,000 at which it stands today. A long and prosperous future had, therefore, confidently been foreseen. Under a new ruling by the Authority, however, separate programme publications will cease after July, 1968, and a national weekly, with regional editions, published on behalf of all companies will supersede them.

I must, on behalf of viewers in the Midlands, enter a plea that the distinctive character and individuality of “TV WORLD” should be preserved intact in the new publication.

EXPORTS

QUEEN’S AWARD FOR EXPORT ACHIEVEMENT. “Her Majesty The Queen has been graciously pleased to confer Her Award in 1967 upon Associated Television Ltd., London, W.1, for export achievement” — I quote the wording of the official citation which gave the world of British entertainment its first Queen’s Award to Industry.

The formal presentation of the Award was made by Major-General Sir George Burns, Lord Lieutenant of the County of Hertfordshire. The ceremony, which the Postmaster-General and members of the Independent Television Authority attended, took place on 4th July in your Company’s Elstree Studios.

I will not attempt to conceal my feelings of pride when I first read the Royal message. Nor will I conceal the fact that I regard it, in unique degree, as public recognition of the untiring work and devotion over the years of one man, your joint Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive, Mr. Lew Grade.

Shareholders should know that the establishment of a television export market for films has been a long, arduous and, at the outset, a heart-breakingly frustrating business. One by one, Mr. Grade has overcome the objections raised by foreign buyers when offered British products; and it is not too much to say that, through his efforts, your subsidiary, Incorporated Television Company, is now one of the most sought-after production sources in the world.

Knowing the strains that are involved in the many and complex transactions I am glad to think that, on his visits abroad, Mr. Grade should have your Managing Director, Mr. Robin Gill, there beside him. Together I believe, they represent the world’s strongest partnership in television film production and international distribution.

ATV EXPORTS TODAY. The turnover figure for your Company’s export of television programmes continues to rise steadily. U.S. dollar sales have passed the $10,000,000 [$91.1m] mark and sales in the European Hemisphere have correspondingly increased. There is every indication that this present trend will not only be maintained, but will be improved upon.

INDEPENDENT TELEVISION CORPORATION. This year your Company will have no fewer than five Colour television series on the American networks. This is the highest number in the history of the Company. In addition, a number of individual plays and documentaries have been sold to the American networks.

These results in the United States could not have been achieved without your Company’s American subsidiary, Independent Television Corporation.

INCORPORATED TELEVISION COMPANY. Nor could these export results have been obtained had it not been for the magnificent work of your production group, Incorporated Television Company. The schedule of work in hand has never been so extensive as at the present moment, and the following series, all in Colour, are currently reaching completion: “Man in a Suitcase”; “The Prisoner”; “The Saint”; “Spotlight”; “Piccadilly Palace”; “The Champions.”

The wealth of British talent among producers, directors, script writers and actors available to I T C has led to a deal with United Artists for three feature films starring Roger Moore. Further feature film productions are in negotiation. All of these are for distribution to cinemas throughout the world.

In addition to its production activities, Incorporated Television Company is responsible for Eastern Hemisphere television sales where the year produced record results. Your company’s programmes are now being shown in 62 countries on this side of the Atlantic alone.

THEATRES

STOLL THEATRES CORPORATION. I am happy to be able to report that this Group, under the chairmanship of Mr. Prince Littler, has enjoyed another successful year.

The current production, “Fiddler On The Roof” at Her Majesty’s Theatre has proved a triumph, and “There’s A Girl In My Soup” at the Globe Theatre has established itself as one of the outstanding attractions of the West End stage. Earlier in the year the centre of theatrical London was to be found at the Queen’s Theatre, which housed Noel Coward’s “Suite In Three Keys,” and the National Theatre Season.

The London Palladium pantomime, “Cinderella,” again broke all records, and “The Black & White Minstrel Show” at the Victoria Palace continues undiminished into its sixth year.

The satisfactory results of the Stoll Theatres Corporation have been achieved despite the dual burdens of Selective Employment Tax and rising costs. Elsewhere in the West End, however, and among the provincial theatres the effects of rising costs and S.E.T. have been most damaging.

PROPERTIES — CENTURY 21 — PYE RECORDS — MUSIC PUBLISHING – MUZAK — BOWLING

PROPERTIES. During the year we have brought our many property interests together within Bentray Investments. We now have a steady programme of improvement and expansion planned for the years ahead.

CENTURY 21. On both sides of the Atlantic it is acknowledged that the “Thunderbirds” series of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson established entirely new levels in film-making ingenuity. Equally remarkable technical advances have now been achieved with a new range of puppets which will be seen for the first time in “Captain Scarlet,” a series of 32 half-hour episodes currently in production in Colour.

CENTURY 21 MERCHANDISING LTD. — PUBLISHING LTD. — TOYS LTD. The business of these three companies is the exploitation of subsidiary rights in television and motion picture properties.

In conjunction with City Magazines Ltd., a subsidiary of the “News of the World,” four children’s weeklies are now being produced and “TV Century 21” and “Lady Penelope” in particular enjoy outstanding success.

PYE RECORDS. The year’s trading has been highly satisfactory. Among Pye Records successes are the First and Second Prize winners in the Eurovision Song Contest. Pye Records has, furthermore, established its Marble Arch Label in the forefront of the growing market for lower-priced LPs.

Overseas, the sale of Pye Records has increased by nearly 9%.

MUSIC PUBLISHING. Our joint companies with Chappells are progressing well.

MUZAK. Over 180 leading companies, practically all household names in British industry, now have the Muzak service of background music installed in one or more of their premises. The rate of recruitment to the Muzak service is greater than at any previous time in the company’s history, and shows recognition of the fact that Muzak provides the only programmed background music service with completely non-repetitive new programmes every day.

AMBASSADOR BOWLING. This company continues to operate profitably despite reduced attendance at bowling centres throughout the country.

TOP DIRECTION — YOUR BOARD – INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS — ATV STAFF

TOP DIRECTION. The rate at which your Company has developed and the steadily widening scope of what I have referred to in earlier Reports as our policy of “Planned Expansion,” has necessitated a new framework at the top.

The new post of Chief Executive has been created, ond this will naturally be filled by Mr. Lew Grade. Knowing, as I do, what every phase of your Company’s activities owes to the brilliant direction of Mr. Grade, let me add that it is only fitting that he should also be appointed a Deputy Chairman of your Company.

The name of Mr. Grade is synonymous with the emergence, over little more than a decode, of the name of ATV as a Company of world-wide standing; and I am delighted to have this opportunity of congratulating him.

I can, moreover, regard myself as fortunate in having on the Board a Deputy Managing Director in the person of Mr. Robin Gill, to whom the wider duties of Managing Director can so confidently be entrusted. I om happy to add my thanks to Mr. Gill for the great part which he is playing in your Company’s affairs. The partnership between Mr. Grade ond Mr. Gill to which I have referred earlier in connection with our Overseas Sales, is one which I am happy to say extends also to every aspect of your Company’s business.

During the post year. Mr. Grade become Chairman of Independent Television’s Network Planning Committee, and Mr. Robin Gill hos been asked to continue for a further period as Chairman of the Independent Television Companies Association.

My thanks, too, must go to the Company’s Finance Director, Mr. Jack Gill whose contribution to the running of the Company has proved of immense value.

Finally, I have to report that, owing to other business commitments, Mr. R. P. T. Gibson has tendered his resignation from your Board. Mr. Gibson has been a Director of your Company since 1957, ond I om only sorry that this long connection should now be broken.

BOARD OF ASSOCIATED TELEVISION. Let me say how deeply appreciative I am of all the help which I have received over the year from the various members of your most distinguished and experienced Board.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. Despite the unprecedented problems set by the Government’s Prices and Incomes policy, the Group has been able to continue its progressive approach towards the Unions, and has maintained good relations with its staff and with the Unions with which it negotiates.

A completely new system to productivity payments on the part of ATV Network Ltd. was worked out with the Unions and has been approved by the Ministry of Labour. New inter-Union arrangements were negotiated for Century 21 Productions, and these will eliminate various awkward lines of demarcation.

MANAGEMENT AND STAFF. My co-Directors join me in expressing their warmest thanks to everyone at all levels: Managerial staff, sales staff, accountancy staff and secretarial staff play their part equally with the technicians, the skilled craftsmen and the artistic producers and directors within the Company, and without their loyal and untiring efforts these admirable results could never have been attained.

The post ATV financial results: 1967 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“Results no less than excellent”

Profits, tax and levy

The Consolidated Profit and Loss Account shows a profit for the Group, before Levy and taxation of £11,059,311 [£171m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed]. This represents an increase of £1,699,370 [£26.3m] over the results of the previous year (£9,359,941 [£144.7m]).

Moreover, this year’s trading has had to bear the full brunt of 12 months’ Levy on Television Advertising Revenue. Thus, the sum of £5,432,366 [£84m] had to be set aside for this purpose, as against the sum of £3,837,593 [£59.3m] for the 8 months of the year to the 4th April, 1965 — the year in which the Levy was introduced.

Taxation for the year amounts to £2,780,325 [£43m] as against last year’s figure of £2,752,639 [£42.6m]. In total, therefore. Levy and taxation have consumed no less than £8,212,691 [£127m] (74%) of the Group profit.

It should furthermore be noted that this figure of Levy and taxation payable to the Exchequer is in addition to the sum of £985,253 [£15.2m] payable to the Independent Television Authority for the rental of the London and Midlands Transmitters.

Nevertheless, the Group profit after Levy and taxation amounts to the final figure of £2,846,620 [£44m] as compared with £2,769,709 [£42.8m] for the previous year.

EFFECT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY

In June your Directors announced the intention of recommending a final dividend of 10%, making a total of 26% for the year. The year’s accounts were accordingly drawn up on this basis.

In view, however, of the Government White Paper, “Prices and Incomes Standstill”, I have to tell you that your Directors now feel bound to recommend that the final dividend should be 6½% and not 10%, thus leaving the total dividend at 22½%, as for the previous year.

EXPANSION

The Chairman of a Company which is expanding so rapidly as Associated Television naturally finds himself at a disadvantage in preparing a Report which must suffer some delay before it can reach the hands of the shareholders.

Accordingly, even though these developments have occurred after the end of the financial year under review, I feel that I should report several new acquisitions to your Group’s interests.

First, there is our joint undertaking with Chappell’s in music publishing through our acquisition of a 50% interest in two companies New World Music Limited and Jubilee Music Inc. Secondly, there is the 50% interest in a new publishing company to be formed jointly with the International Publishing Corporation to operate in the general field of educational and industrial training publications and in connection with television programmes.

Thirdly, we have now acquired the remaining 50% of Pye Records making the company a 100% subsidiary of ours.

In addition we have acquired the remaining 49% minority interest in J. Rosenthal (Toys) and are arranging for the acquisition of a 7½ % interest in an insurance company already established by IPC, Reeds Paper Group and Eagle Star.

THEATRES

In my last Report, I referred to your Company’s “largest and most important single investment” in the shape of the acquisition of the whole of the share capital of the Stoll Theatres Corporation and of Moss Empires.

I am now happy to be able to speak of the eminently satisfactory – indeed substantially improved – results of the Theatre Croup, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Prince Littler.

A new record was established for the London Palladium; and, throughout the West End, our theatres played to well-filled houses. Conspicuous among other successes has been Noël Coward’s repertoire of three plays at the Queen’s Theatre which played to capacity business, and “Hello, Dolly!” at Drury Lane.

It is nevertheless sad that the theatre industry, so recently relieved of the burden of Entertainment Tax, should now be saddled with rising costs deriving from the Selective Employment Tax.

ATV NETWORK

In my last year’s Statement I referred to your Company’s policy of “planned expansion”. As this expansion of activities extended into fields other than television, it became increasingly apparent to your Board that a completely new Company framework was required. Accordingly, steps were taken to reconstruct the Group in such a way that the parent Company would become purely the holding Company of its various trading subsidiaries – including a new subsidiary company to be entrusted with the Television Service operated under licence from the Independent Television Authority.

In April, 1966, this major move was completed. A subsidiary company, ATV Network, was created. It was to this new company that, with the agreement of the Independent Television Authority. the Programme Contract with the Authority and the ancillary television activities were transferred.

TV WORLD

The Midlands programme journal for Independent Television is published by Odhams Press Limited on behalf of ATV Network and ABC Television Limited. The success of the magazine has been unprecedented, and sales have risen steadily to well beyond the 700,000 mark.

MERCHANDISING

In none of your Company’s subsidiaries has expansion been more rapid or more satisfactory.

The publishing venture, in association with the News of the World Organisation of the two magazines “TV Century 21” and “Lady Penelope”, has proved eminently successful, and their combined circulation is over the million mark.

The new subsidiary company, J. Rosenthal (Toys), which markets products associated with television programmes is now equipped to become the major distributor in this field, and shows substantial profits.

COLOUR

Colour on the 405-line standard could be made immediately available to the entire British receiving public in the existing VHF services. Those viewers content to watch only black-and-white pictures would remain entirely unaffected. If 405-line Colour Television were authorised in the New Year, ATV Network alone could immediately contribute not less than 20 hours of Colour programmes a week to the Independent Network.

In order that this country should not lag behind in the development of Colour Television, we therefore advocate the earliest possible introduction by the ITA of colour on the 405-line standard in the existing VHF service. By this Autumn, ATV Network’s Studios in London and Elstree will be equipped for Colour operations in the various international line-systems.

EXPORTS

For the first time in television history, British series have been purchased simultaneously by all three American TV Networks. Columbia Broadcasting System purchased 45 episodes of “Secret Agent” (known to British viewers as “Danger Man”), the National Broadcasting Company purchased “The Saint”, and “The London Palladium Show”, and the American Broadcasting Company purchased “The Baron”, “Court Martial” (jointly produced with MCA), and “McGill”, a new series for next season. The triple jackpot of selling to all three networks has at last fallen into British hands.

I am glad, moreover, to be able to say that, for the Eastern Hemisphere, the sales curve of ITC continues to point sharply upwards. Indeed, for the first six months of the current calendar year total sales approximate to the whole of the previous 12 months’ turnover. These sales have been made in more than 50 different countries.

FILM-MAKING

Another intensive programme of film production is currently in hand, including “The Saint” and “McGill” together with a new Patrick McGoohan series “The Prisoner”.

PYE RECORDS

This is the first Annual Report in which I am able to refer to Pye Records as a wholly-owned subsidiary, even though the results contained within the Consolidated Profit and Loss Account reflect only the dividends received under the 50% ownership which then existed.

During the past year, Pye Records has maintained a leading position within the industry. Although in the United States the sudden vogue for British Pop records has somewhat declined, sales have remained good and the overseas sales of Pye Records in other markets have shown a steady improvement.

THE MIDLANDS

At no time in your Company’s history, has the operation of the weekday licence played so conspicuous a part in Midland affairs and the scope of local programming has notably increased.

The first successful five-day-a-week serial, “Crossroads”, originates in Birmingham, and has proved to be nationally popular.

Another Midlands ATV Network programme – this time designed for the young – “Tingha and Tucker” has, as a result of its overwhelming local popularity, now won itself a place in the national Sunday network.

MUZAK

It is all the more agreeable, bearing in mind the originally slow acceptance of this commercial and industrial amenity, to be able at last to refer to its established success. Growth has been rapid, and the daily Muzak audience in the British Isles now numbers some 2,000,000 persons.

BOWLING

In the year under review, the ten bowling centres, comprising 273 bowling lanes, produced satisfactory results showing an improvement over the previous year.

The effects of the Selective Employment Tax cannot do other than affect future profitability.

MANAGEMENT AND STAFF

The debt which your Company owes to the efforts of its Managing Director, Mr. Lew Grade, can in no way be exaggerated. His energy, flair and foresight are apparent in every phase of the Company’s operations and, once again, I most gladly take this opportunity, on your behalf, of thanking him.

I am glad, too, to place on record how fortunate I feel that the Company was to secure the services of Mr. Robin Gill as Deputy Managing Director. The top management team of Mr. Lew Grade and Mr Robin Gill has proved an inestimable asset in the Company’s manifold and expanding affairs.

No less do I and my co-Directors wish to thank all members of Staff throughout the Group. The present healthy and vigorous condition of the Company could never have been achieved without their loyal and devoted work.

The post ATV financial results: 1966 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“Trading Profit £5.5 million”

“Another Excellent Year”

In my 1964 Statement I was able to report “an excellent year’s trading”, and I added that I had “every confidence in your Company’s prospects for the ensuing year”.

I am now happy to be able to say that my prediction has proved justified. Associated Television Limited has enjoyed another excellent year — in fact, despite the effects of 8 months’ levy on turnover, the second most profitable in the 10 years’ history of your Company’s activities.

The consolidated Profit and Loss Account shows that the profit of the Group, before taxation, stands at £5,522,348 [£88.9m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed] for the 52 weeks to 4th April, 1965.

EXPORTS

This year has been historic as the first in which ATV has broken into the American networks. The series “Danger Man” — re-named “Secret Agent” in the United States — was sold to CBS. Its reception was unprecedented. Following upon three shows which hod failed one after the other it promptly reached first place in the national ratings for programmes in that time period. In consequence, CBS has now placed an order for a further series of “Secret Agent” for next winter. The United States contracts for “Secret Agent” alone ore worth more than $3,000,000 [$30m].

The unique puppet series, “Stingray”, has now earned the highest prices ever paid in syndication — that is to say in sales to individual stations throughout the United States The revenue from this series will, it is estimated, exceed $1,500,000 [$15m] in the United States alone.

During the year 1964/65, overall exports to some 100 Countries throughout the world have resulted in a Sales revenue of nearly £2,000,000 [£32.2m]; and in the current year this figure should be passed by a very substantial margin.

EXCHEQUER LEVY

The levy on turnover, collected by the Independent Television Authority on behalf of the Exchequer, will be in force for the whole 12 months of the ensuing financial year (1965/66). This levy rises at the top end of the scale to no less than 45% of advertising receipts — the highest rate of discriminatory taxation in the history of British industry.

It would be idle to pretend that the effect of the levy on your Company’s profits will not be adverse. It cannot be otherwise. On the other hand, it would be totally misleading to attempt any direct equation between the amount of the levy and the resultant amount of the profits.

In the first place, your Company’s revenue from advertising is substantially higher than it has been at any time in its history: this is due to the exceptional performance of the ATV Sales department. Secondly, internal economies affecting every phase of the ATV operation except programme production have already shown good results. Thirdly, the benefits of diversification are apparent in the form of additional revenue coming from sources which are not subject to the television levy.

EXPANSION

ATV’s policy has been one of planned expansion in those fields in which your Directors and their Management have the widest background of experience and therefore the greatest contribution to make for the future. It was in line with that policy that your Company made its largest and most important single investment by acquiring the whole of the share capital of the Stoll Theatres Corporation Ltd , and of Moss Empires Ltd.

In London, the Stoll Theatres Corporation controls — either freehold or leasehold — the following theatres Coliseum (leased to Cinerama Ltd); Palladium; Victoria Palace; Hippodrome (leased to “Talk of the Town”); Apollo; Her Majesty’s; Globe; Queen’s; Lyric; Phoenix; and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. And in the provinces: Birmingham Hippodrome; Bristol Hippodrome; Brighton Hippodrome; Liverpool Empire; Manchester Palace; Manchester Hippodrome (site awaiting development); Morecambe Winter Gardens; Nottingham Empire (closed); Nottingham Theatre Royal; and Stoll Picture Theatre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Considerable as these interests are, they do not in any sense constitute a monopoly of the live theatre, either in London or in the provinces. Nevertheless they do provide a wide and substantial bridge between Television and the Theatre, and I am fully satisfied that this is to the advantage of both.

Still pursuing our line of planned expansion within the entertainment industry, in October of last year your Company purchased a controlling interest in M Berman Ltd., one of Britain’s leading firms of film and theatrical costumiers.

ATV AWARDS

Throughout the country the programmes produced by Independent Television have been preferred to those produced by the BBC in the ratio of 64% to 36%, and the programmes of ATV have greatly contributed to this success. Indeed, never before have so many distinctions for programmes been earned in any one year by the artists, personalities, writers and producers connected with a single Company.

The Guild of Television Producers and Directors made four ATV awards; The Screen Writers Guild made four ATV awards; The Variety Club of Great Britain made three ATV awards; and The Television Society two ATV awards. The awards constitute the acceptance of the outstanding position of Mr. Bernard Braden as the ITV personality of the year, and of “The Plane Makers” as the outstanding dramatic series of the year.

AUDIENCE

The Authority’s transmitter in the London area, where ATV is responsible for the week-end operation, reaches a potential audience of 13.8 million. In the Midlands, where ATV is responsible for the week-day operation, the audience has — as a result of the opening on 30th April, 1965, of the Authority’s Membury relay transmitter — now risen from a potential audience of 8.7 million to one of 9.2 million. This increase in audience potential will in due course be reflected in the revenue-earning potential of the Midand operation.

THE MIDLANDS

During the year we have entirely reshaped the pattern of our regional programmes in the Midlands. At a regular time throughout the week-days, our viewers now see a daily Midlands news and news magazine programme (“ATV Today”). ATV Midlands moreover has established the first successful five-day-a-week serial in British television. This programme, “Crossroads”, originating in the Alpha Studios in Birmingham, has now spread across almost the whole national network, and regularly appears in the regional Top Ten ratings. A national critic recently went so far as to say: “‘Crossroads’ is the biggest television success of 1965”.

COMMONWEALTH

In the past I have indicated that our investment in television companies in Canada has proved disappointing because of the heavy initial losses which these companies incurred. I am now, for the first time, able to report that the companies are soundly profit-making and that the value of ATV’s Canadian holdings has correspondingly increased.

ATV (Distributors) Pty. Ltd., is in the happy position of having been able to arrange sales in Australia of all the major ATV series and programmes which they have been asked to handle.

EDUCATION

ATV has continued to produce three fully networked programmes for schools. These have been well received throughout the entire country In the Midlands, where ATV maintains its own Education Officer, the number of schools in which there are provisions for regular viewing has increased during the year from 1,130 to 1,480.

Outstanding in the field of adult education was the series devised by Mr. Harold Wiltshire, Director of Adult Education at Nottingham, and produced by ATV in co-operation with that University. For the first time in the history of adult education on television in this country, the series (on basic economics) offered viewers the opportunity to enrol for a correspondence course based on the programmes and to have personal contact with tutors. Over 1,600 viewers enrolled, and a further course on a national basis is now being planned.

PYE RECORDS

Pye Records, which is 50% owned by ATV, has enjoyed a year of overall success and of individual successes.

On no fewer than five occasions, records under the Pye label reached the Number One position in the British Top Ten listings. Moreover, during this period British pop discs in general, including those of Pye Records, achieved a new fashionable status in the American market. No one would ever presume to predict how long any trend will continue in the pop record field particularly in the U.S.A. but, as a result of the sudden British boom — described by some critics as a “cult” — the dollar earnings of Pye Records more than doubled. Elsewhere in the world, where the trends are usually steadier, overseas sales of Pye Records have shown on increase of more than 50%.

BOWLING

Ambassador Bowling profitably operated 10 Tenpin Bowling Alleys with a total of 273 bowling lories. Three new Centres were opened during the course of the year — in Hounslow, Wolverhampton, Edgware.

Approximately 250,000 people visit our Centres each week. Tenpin Bowling is a sport which covers all age groups but, it should be noted, by far the greatest numbers fall between the ages of 16 and 26.

“TV WORLD”

The new weekly Midlands programme journal, “TV World,” published by Odhams Press Ltd. and jointly owned by ATV which provides the week-day programmes in the Midlands and by ABC Television Ltd. which provides the Midlands week-end programmes, was launched on 26th September, 1964. Its success was immediate. The circulation has grown consistently and now stands close to the 700,000 mark.

MUZAK

Though in the post the growth of this service of background music for offices, factories and public areas has proved slower than anticipated, the position has appreciably improved during the past year. The total value of contracts secured stands at a figure in excess of £1,000,000 [£16.1m], and is now growing rapidly as the benefits of the service become more widely appreciated.

MANAGEMENT AND STAFF

It would have been impossible for me to write in such confident terms of ATV’s overall buoyancy and prospects for the future if it were not for the vigorous, zealous and able leadership given to the Company by the Managing Director, Mr. Lew Grade. I also send my most sincere thanks and those of my colleagues on the Board to all the Staff throughout the Group for their loyal and hard work.

The post ATV financial results: 1965 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“An Excellent Year”

The Ninth Annual General Meeting of Associated Television Limited will be held on Thursday, 10th September, 1964, at 12 noon at ATV House, Great Cumberland Place, London, W.1.

The following are extracts from the circulated statement by the Chairman, Sir Robert Renwick, Bt., K.B.E. :-

On the 7th January, 1964, the Independent Television Authority informed your Company that the licence to broadcast in London on the week-ends and in the Midlands during the week-days was to be renewed after the expiry of the present licence on the 29th July of this year.

In the light of that event, it is all the more gratifying to be able to report an excellent year’s trading both in the home market and in the export field; and I may add that I have every confidence in your Company’s prospects for the ensuing year. The profit of the Group before taxation is £5,460,424 [£91.9m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed]. It will be noticed that the profit stands £2,054,710 [£34.6m] higher than for the 11 months of the Company’s 1962/63 financial period.

Your Board recommends the capitalisation of £4,650,000 [£78.3m] to be applied in paying up in full 18,600,000 “A” Ordinary Stock Units of 5s. each to be issued to Ordinary Shareholders and “A” Ordinary Stockholders on the basis of 4 “A” Ordinary Stock Units for every £1 Ordinary Share and 1 “A” Ordinary Stock Unit for every “A” Ordinary Stock Unit held by them respectively on 12th August, 1964. This will necessitate an increase in the authorised capital of the Company.

NEW LICENCE

The renewal of your Company’s licence is for three years from the 29th July, 1964, or until the opening of a second Independent Television Service, whichever shall be the sooner.

The licence provides that, if the date for the start of the second Independent Television Service should be after July 1967, the Authority may (subject to a review of rentals) extend the existing licence for a maximum period of a further three years. The immediate uncertainties which had been hanging over the whole television industry have thus been removed, and your own Company has been able to re-organise its operations in readiness to meet the changed conditions of the future.

The terms of the new licence which came into effect at the end of July of this year do not by any means follow the lines of the licence under which your Company has been operating since 1954. Quite the contrary, in fact.

First the levy on turnover, against which I had protested so strongly when the Government’s White Paper appeared in March 1963, begins to apply in August 1964. The amount of this levy on turnover – additional, it must be remembered, to normal income tax and profits tax – will, as far as can be judged, amount to something in the order of £4,500,000 [£75.8m] on a full year’s trading.

There is, admittedly, some respite inasmuch as, in the financial year 1964/65, only 8 months of turnover will be subjected to this reprehensible impost. This relief is, however, only temporary. And it is because the full effects will be felt in the financial year 1965/66 that your Board is taking active measures, which I believe will prove effective, to safeguard the overall financial position of your Company by building up additional revenues not subject to the Television Turnover Levy.

In this Report I am able to speak of the Company’s future with greater confidence than I have felt at any time during my Chairmanship. This is in no small measure because of the policy of growth through diversification consistently pursued by your Board. And I am happy to be able to say that there has been an overall improvement in your Company’s subsidiary activities.

MULTIPLE INTERESTS

Our production subsidiary, Incorporated Television Company Limited, has once again increased its volume of sales of film series and telerecordings in the Eastern Hemisphere.

In the Western Hemisphere our American subsidiary, Independent Television Corporation, has increased its sales to a figure in excess of $4,600,000 [$45.1m].

Late in 1962 we acquired the share capital of the A.P. Films group of companies, which includes a vigorous and expanding merchandising company. A.P. Films are the producers of the popular puppet film series “Supercar” and “Fireball XL5”. Their latest and most advanced production in colour, “Stingray”, is scheduled for showing in this country in the autumn and has already been offered a network showing in the U.S.A. I have never before predicted the success of any television series but, on this occasion, I do so without hesitation.

Our Australian group has continued to show satisfactory profits with improving results from television operations, and the decline in revenue from the radio operations resulting from the impact of television competition has been halted. For some time, however, your Board has been feeling that with the Company’s already large and steadily increasing activities in the film distribution field it would be better if it held no interests in individual stations and was therefore able to deal with all possible customers on terms of strict impartiality. Accordingly, since the year end we have sold our Australian interest to Fairfax Corporation Pty. Ltd. at a price of £2,060,000 [£34.7m] which compares with a book value of £543,815 [£9.2m]. We have excluded from the sale our Australian Television Programme Distribution Department which will be incorporated into a new company. The distribution operation, it should be noted, has been providing approximately 25 per cent of the profits derived from the Australian investment.

Commercial television in Canada has been gaining ground, and both stations in which we have an interest have now reached a profit-making stage though initial losses remain to be recouped.

Muzak, our background music service, continues its planned growth and your Board is confident that it will become profit-making in the not too distant future.

Ambassador Bowling Limited is already operating profitably and with the continuing increase of the popularity of this sport your Board is satisfied that this will prove a most rewarding investment.

Pye Records Ltd., of which your Company owns 50 per cent., has made most encouraging progress in the past year and there is every indication that the current financial year will show rapid and continuing expansion.

RANGE OF PROGRAMMES

The range of Independent Television programmes, already wide, grows steadily. Among the more serious contributions which have attracted large and attentive audiences are the weekly “Ombudsman” programmes, “Fair Play”; the highly topical and penetrating “Braden Beat”; the series of three programmes by Sir Kenneth Clark, “Discovering Japanese Art”; and the three programmes by Mr. Felix Greene on Red China which contained entirely new and hitherto unobtainable film material.

The programme year was memorable, moreover, for the second “Golden Hour” from Covent Garden in which Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi appeared in the whole of the second act of “Tosca”. This performance was seen by more than 9,000,000 viewers.

Adult Educational programmes in which, as the week-end Contractor in London, your Company has pioneered, continue to achieve successes which educationists in previous generations would have regarded as impossible. To cite an example, “Mesdames, Messieurs”, the adult French series, is regularly watched by some 300,000 viewers, and the companion volumes published on ATV’s behalf by Penguin Books have already sold over 60,000 copies.

ATV’s religious broadcasting amounted to 50 hours. It included the Coronation of Pope Paul in Rome; “Requiem for a Dead Statesman”, an anthology on the occasion of President Kennedy’s death; and the two programmes “Church and State” in which the Rt. Hon. R. A. Butler and the Rt. Hon. Harold Wilson appeared on successive Sundays.

During the year there has been a marked increase in the number of Outside Broadcasts reflecting the life of people whom we serve within the area of the Lichfield transmitter. The most notable of these was the two-hour broadcast of the celebrations at Stratford-on-Avon on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth.

“Midland Farming”, it is most pleasing to be able to report, has been cited by the National Farmers’ Union as “the most instructive farming programme on the air”; and the daily “Midlands News” – the first regional news programme in Independent Television – continues to command a major audience.

In the field of public service, it is good also to be able to add that “Police Five” has earned the special commendation of the Force in having helped in the apprehension of wanted criminals.

The number of homes in the London area capable of receiving Independent Television is now approximately 3,300,000. Your Company serves this public at week-ends. In the Midlands the number of homes is close on 2,000,000 and your Company serves this public on all five week-days.

SECOND INDEPENDENT TELEVISION SERVICE

In my Report last year I reminded you that on the 27th June, 1963, the Postmaster General had announced in the House of Commons that by 1966, when there should be not fewer than one and a half million sets in London capable of receiving a new 625-line service in UHF, he would authorise a second Independent channel in the main areas.

This announcement was greeted with especial acclamation by your Board because, throughout the whole history of Independent Television, we have consistently been advocating the introduction of genuine competition which would put an end to the present monopolistic system which exists in all areas.

With the foreseeable increases in advertising expenditures, or even with advertising expenditures remaining steady at their present level, there is an entirely sound financial foundation for two good and effective Independent channels in all the main areas.

Two facts, however, must be faced. First, it should be recognized that the levy on turnover was introduced by the Government in order to level off the high profits arising during the present monopoly phase and that this levy will have to be abolished entirely when companies are in direct competition one with another. Secondly, for some years to come there is bound to be a wide difference in the number of television sets capable of receiving the new 625-line UHF service and those capable of receiving only the original 405-line VHF service. This discrepancy is sometimes advanced as a reason why competition is impracticable and the question is asked “How can any company awarded the UHF licence possibly hope to survive?” The straight-forward solution which your Board would be most happy to accept is that of awarding licences for operation in alternate weeks on VHF and UHF respectively thus placing rival companies on an exact equality. It may be added that a simple matter of inter-company networking would ensure the continuity of programming which the public would have a right to expect.

Your own Board looks forward with eagerness to the day when we shall be empowered to operate a seven-day-a-week service, free of levy, and in full competition with a rival licensed company.

In the whole wide and, I trust, expanding field of British broadcasting the chief grounds for concern would appear to be the heavy costs involved in the operation of BBC 2 and the amount by which the BBC will be seeking to get the Government to agree to increase the licence fee, which already stands at £4 [£67]. A heavy licence fee is naturally a serious deterrent to the whole television industry, and must therefore be resisted.

The post ATV financial results: 1964 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

REASONS FOR DECLINE IN PROFITS

LEVY ON TURNOVER A DISTORTION OF TAXATION PRINCIPLE

GOOD NEWS REGARDING SECOND INDEPENDENT CHANNEL

SIR ROBERT RENWICK ON EFFECT OF NEW AGREEMENTS

The 8th annual general meeting of Associated Television Limited will be held on 26th August, 1963, at 12 noon at ATV House, Great Cumberland Place. London W.1

The following is the statement of the chairman. Sir Robert Renwick, Bt., B.E. circulated with the report and accounts for eleven months ended 31st March, 1963:-

Your Directors decided that it was in the interest of the Company to change its year-end date from 30th April to 31st March and the Accounts now before you are, therefore, for a period of eleven months to 31st March, 1963.

You will see from the Consolidated Profit and Loss Account that the profit of the Group before taxation is £3,405,714 [£59.1m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed] for the eleven months as compared with £5,038,204 [£87.5m] for the previous twelve months. This profit is after charging all expenses including depreciation. Taxation based on the profit for the period amounts to £1,556,005 [£27m] and, after making allowance for this and for the interests of outside shareholders, there is left a profit of £1,860,135 [£32.3m] attributable to ATV

The amount retained in subsidiary companies is £249,706 [£4.3m] leaving £1,610,429 [£28m]. Arising from the change in the Parent Company’s year-end date, certain provisions for taxation, made in previous years, amounting £1,546,000 [£26.8m] are no longer required and, together with the unappropriated balance brought forward from last year of £2,424,909 [£42m], make available for appropriation now an amount of £5,581,338 [£96.9m].

An interim dividend of 20% has already been paid and your Directors now recommend a final dividend of 21.25% making a total of 41.25% for the eleven months. This is equivalent to 45% for the full year as against 60% paid in respect of the year to 30th April, 1962. If this recommendation is approved and after transferring a further £500,000 [£8.7m] to Investment Reserve there will be left a balance of £3,906,486 [£67.8m] in the Accounts of the Parent Company.

Balance Sheet Items

Turning to the Consolidated Balance Sheet it will be noted that the Investment Reserve has been used to offset the Goodwill arising on consolidation. Current Assets have increased during the period by £518,077 [£9m] to £8,558,556 [£149m] whereas Current Liabilities have decreased by £816,170 [£14.2m] to £7,440,500 [£129.2m]. It will be noted, however, that Advances from Bankers have increased by £1,781,020 [£30.9m] to £3,018,618 [£52.4m]; this is in the main due to increased investment in the Group’s Fixed and Current Assets and the payment of an exceptionally heavy taxation liability in respect of the financial year 1960/61.

In deciding to change the year-end date from 30th April to 31st March, your Board recognised that this would inevitably mean the exclusion of the profit deriving from one of the more remunerative months in the calendar. Had the trading results for April been included, the profit figures would have been substantially higher.

A decline in profits would nevertheless have been revealed. This decline is due to a variety of causes. In the first place, there has been a drop in revenue from advertising of approximately 5%. Secondly, certain of the subsidiary companies have, as anticipated, made losses in the early stages of their development. Thirdly, the Company was feeling the full effects of the new agreements with Equity and the Musicians’ Union and, to a lesser extent, of a new agreement with the Variety Artistes’ Federation. Some indication of the increases which the Company had to meet in programme expenditure may be gauged by citing a few examples. The settlement with Equity on which work was resumed on 6th April, 1962, provided a new minimum fee for an actor on a networked programme of 36 guineas [£37.80 in decimal, £656 with inflation]; the old fee was 10 guineas [£10.50/£182]. The settlement with the Variety Artistes Federation reached on 17th November, 1961, provided for a new minimum fee of £30 [£521] for a networked programme as against 10 guineas: the settlement with the Musicians’ Union reached on 10th April, 1962, gave a minimum fee of £18 [£312] for a networked programme as against £6 [£104] under the previous arrangement.

Threat of the Television Bill

Historically, the year 1962/63 will be remembered by your Board as one of many and major preoccupations, chiefly concerned with the future of Independent Television in general and with the future of this Company in particular.

In June, 1962, the Report of the Pilkington Committee, which was appointed in July, 1960, was at last published. This Report, which proved to be hostile towards Independent Television as a whole, recommended the total abolition of the system as we know it to-day and the substitution for it of a system whereby the Independent Television Authority was to plan the programmes, arrange for their networking and for the selling of the advertising time – leaving Companies, such at ATV, to play the role merely of programme suppliers to a Government Authority.

It is to the credit of the Government that the main recommendations of the Pilkington Report were rejected. Nevertheless, when, on 20th December, 1962, the Postmaster-General presented his Television Bill it was immediately apparent that the atmosphere Pilkington was still pervasive. For, although it was recommended that the Programme Companies should continue as full operators of the television service in their various areas, it was laid down in the Bill that the Authority should be able to specify not only which programmes should be networked but at what price the originator should be required to supply them.

Nor was this all. The financial provisions in the Bill included a clause empowering the Postmaster-General to impose additional charges on the Programme Companies by way of a tax on profits deriving not only from the operation of a television licence but from the operation of any subsidiary company or companies.

It was because your Board felt that such a discriminatory tax was most improper that we took action. First, I wrote to shareholders warning them of the gravity of the situation; then, on behalf of your Board, I issued a number of statements to the Press; finally, I sought, and obtained, an interview with the Postmaster-General and corresponded with him. Throughout I made it my business to see that Members on both sides of Parliament were informed of the true facts of the situation

I mention these matters because in certain quarters much play has been made of a Television Lobby and the activities of a so-called Television “pressure group”. Those who have been most vociferous in expressing their disapproval have completely ignored the fact that within Independent Television there are nearly as many points of view as there are Companies, and that it was only in respect of certain limited objectives that there was any measure of agreement at all. This state of affairs seems to me healthy. democratic and in the true spirit of free enterprise.

So far as ATV is concerned I would regard it as a total dereliction of my duty as Chairman if, faced by a situation which could obviously be grievously harmful to your Company, I had not exerted every legitimate effort to induce the Government to revise its thinking.

The Board, and shareholders in general, have every reason to be grateful to your Deputy Chairman, Mr. Norman Collins, for the unsparing and untiring work which he devoted to securing improvement in the Television Bill.

An Ill-conceived Levy

Not that our efforts were entirely successful. Quite the contrary, in fact. For on 25th April, 1963, the Postmaster General suddenly withdrew his proposed omnibus tax on profits and substituted for it an arbitrary – and I think thoroughly ill-conceived – levy on turnover. In my view the levy is entirely mis-applied. The purpose of a turnover tax, as it is usually called. is to extract money for the Exchequer at the various stages where profit has accrued in a developing economic process – say between the suppliers of raw materials, the manufacturers, the wholesalers and the retailers. To attempt to apply it to an industry such as Independent Television which has only one operation – the earning money from advertisements to enable it to put out a free service to the public – is clearly a distortion of this taxation principle.

In order to substantiate our case financial statements were made freely available to the Postmaster General and to his colleagues. These statements clearly indicated one thing, viz., that a levy on turnover would affect some Companies far worse than others – your own Company, I regret to say, worst of all.

Why? For the simple and inescapable reason that ATV with its dual and divided seven-day operation in London and the Midlands has two lots of overheads, two lots of studios, two lots of offices, two lots of programme costs and so forth. The revenue – now to be subject to the levy – earned from this dual operation is no larger, and may indeed be smaller, than the revenue earned by a Company operating a five-day service in one area only with one lot of overheads, one lot of studios, one lot of offices, one lot of programme costs and so forth.

The Postmaster General has now said that he will look to the Authority to iron out these inequalities by imposing a system of differential rentals as between the various Companies. It may well prove to be the case, however, that the inequalities are so great that it is only by some measure of re-allocation of days or areas that the Authority will be able to seek to redress the balance.

Competition Achieved

Nevertheless, if your Board has failed in some of its efforts, there is cause for congratulation on one matter of major importance. On 27th June the Postmaster General announced in the House that by 1966, when there should be not fewer than 1½ million television sets in London capable of receiving a new 625-line service in UHF, he would authorise a second Independent Channel in the main areas. That is good news indeed and does much to remove the sourness of a singularly long and frustrating series of negotiations. It represents the culmination of a campaign that your Company alone has fought from the very beginning of Independent Television. Over the years we have repeated in Annual Report after Annual Report that we have never believed that a single Independent Television Service could comply with the basic requirements of the 1954 Television Act that “there is adequate competition to supply programmes between a number of programme contractors independent of each other both as to finance and also to control.” Within a single service the Companies inevitably tend to be complementary rather than competitive. Your own Board, moreover, has always felt that the advertisers. on whom the revenue to support Independent Television depends, should enjoy the freedom of buying in a competitive rather than a monopolistic market.

As the pioneer Company in advocating competition, ATV looks to play its full part over the years in the expanding field of Independent Television.

In the meantime. and for the immediate future. we have concentrated our efforts on making the most effective contribution that can be made in both the areas in which, under the terms of the licence, we are required to provide programmes. The success of London programming at the week-ends will be familiar to all the viewers who live within range of the Croydon transmitter.

4,000,000 Audience in the Midlands

Not that we regard our Midland audience as in any way less important. For those who do not live within the area served by the Lichfield transmitter I should report that for the first time our audiences have topped the four million mark. Many notable figures from all political parties and from all walks of life have appeared in programmes. These have included the Prime Minister, both when he addressed the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce early this year and also when he made his important announcement on leadership only last month at Wolverhampton. In such regional programmes as “Midland Montage”, “Midland Profile”, and “Look Around”. Mr. Iain Macleod and Mr Ernest Marples have appeared; and Miss Jenny Lee and Mr Roy Jenkins have spoken for Labour.

ATV is particularly proud of being the first Company to introduce a regular mid-day programme, and Noele Gordon’s “Lunch Box”, now in its seventh year, is already running into its 1,600th edition. Scarcely less important is the children’s programme conducted by Jean Morton, “The Tingha and Tucker Club”, which now has an estimated membership of half a million children and is firmly established as the most popular children’s programme in Midland television.

Company’s Multiple Interests

From the earliest days of the Company your Board decided on a policy of diversification. In the result our production subsidiary, Incorporated Television Company Limited, has traded widely throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. ITC Ltd. deals with 42 countries in the Eastern Hemisphere, 21 of them in Europe, nine in the Middle East and North Africa, seven in Australasia and the Far East, and five Commonwealth countries in Africa. ITC Ltd. also deals with the three of the Islands in the British Caribbean which operate a television service.

During the twelve months ended 31st March, 1963, over 5,600 hours were sold in these territories, approximately 4,300 hours being sales of film series, the balance telerecordings and documentary-type programmes.

Sales in these areas in this period amounted to £336,810 [£5.9m], and this is a steadily expanding market.

In the U.S.A., Independent Television Corporation has again shown progress in distributing our productions in the Western Hemisphere. Though trading conditions have been difficult within the USA. this Company since its inception has brought not less than $12 million [$119.3m] into this country.

“Fireball XL5”, beginning in the autumn, has been taken for showing on one of the principal American networks, while both “The Saint” and “Broadway Goes Latin” are being sold for syndication.

In partnership with the National Broadcasting Corporation of America and Herbert Brodkin, we are producing twenty-six one-hour episodes of “Espionage” in England. Our Group has world-wide distribution rights in this series outside the U.S.A. The series is to be shown on the N.B.C. Network as well as by our Company in the U.K. and has already been sold for transmission in Australia, Canada and Japan. The production on film of any television series necessitates considerable expenditure which can be recovered only over a period of years and provided a satisfactory sale can be secured in the U.S.A. Not the least of the reasons for deprecating the new levy on turnover is the fact that less money will be available for the production of film series which are vitally important both for home use and for export.

I am happy to say that Australia has emerged from its recession to which I referred last year and the results from our group investments in Australia have once again produced better figures. Our investment in Canada is also making satisfactory progress.

The build-up of our background music service, Muzak, is continuing slowly but steadily. It will be appreciated, however, that inevitably heavy investment in the development of this type of service will take some time before it can be fully recovered and the Company be made profit-making.

In the last eighteen months we have taken the first steps to set up and operate a chain of tenpin bowling centres. Our wholly owned subsidiary, Ambassador Bowling Limited, now has two centres in operation and a further three or four will be in operation in the course of the next twelve months. It is already apparent that tenpin bowling is a sport which has found considerable favour in this country and I am sure that this new venture of ours will prove remunerative over the years.

Pye Records Limited, in which your Company has a 50% holding, continues to make excellent progress and with the advent of its up-to-date recording studios will, I am confident, continue to expand.

As to our large investment in British Relay Wireless and Television, as shareholders will appreciate from the figures recently produced by that Company, it is progressing well.

Top Management

During the year under review,. your Company has seen major changes in top management. Mr. Val Parnell, who has acted as your Managing Director from the inception of the Company, retired at his own request. The services which he rendered during the formative years of the Company cannot be over-valued and we are delighted that he has agreed to remain on the Board and to act in a general advisory capacity, in addition to remaining responsible for one of the most popular programmes on Independent Television, “Val Parnell’s Sunday Night at the London Palladium”. Your Board was fortunate in having his successor so close at hand. Mr. Lew Grade, who over the years has acted as Mr. Parnell’s deputy, was immediately appointed to the top post. Mr. Grade’s appointment has proved to be universally popular throughout the industry and has been widely acclaimed by the Press. The Board regards itself as equally fortunate in obtaining the services as deputy to Mr. Grade of Mr. Edward J. Roth who, prior to joining your Company, was Director-General of Radio Eireann.

In the general context of Independent broadcasting as a whole I am happy that the date of this Annual Report makes it possible for me to be the first to express the feelings of the industry as a whole in welcoming the Rt. Hon. Dr. Charles Hill, now Lord Hill of Luton, as the new Chairman of the Authority. In doing so most warmly I will take this opportunity of thanking Sir John Carmichael who has acted Chairman since the retirement last November of Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick. Independent Television has never felt that it has had a wiser counsellor than Sir John. Once again I would like to express the appreciation of ATV to the Director-General of the ITA, Sir Robert Fraser, and to his colleagues within the Authority.

And now a word of tribute to our staff in London, Birmingham and elsewhere the world over. Despite the cloud of political uncertainties which has hung over the industry every member of ATV’s staff has worked most loyally throughout the year and the Board wishes to express its keen appreciation.

The post ATV financial results: 1963 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

POLICY OF “REAL COMPETITION” ADVOCATED THROUGH ADDITIONAL COMMERCIAL T.V. CHANNEL

LOWER PROFIT FROM REDUCED REVENUE, GREATLY INCREASED COSTS AND DEVELOPMENT EXPENDITURE ON NEW SUBSIDIARIES

SIR ROBERT RENWICK CRITICIZES ATTACK ON ADVERTISING

The Seventh Annual General Meeting of Associated Television Limited will be held on September 26 at ATV House, Great Cumberland Place, London, W.

The following is the statement by Sir Robert Renwick, Bt, K.B.E., the chairman, circulated with the report and accounts for the year ended April 30, 1962:—

You will see from the consolidated profit and loss account that the profit of the Group before taxation is £5,038,204 [£89.4m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed] as compared with £6,411,899 [£113.8m] for the previous year. This profit is after charging all expenses including depreciation. The provision for depreciation of £439,986 [£7.8m] shows an increase of £157,463 [£2.8m] as compared with the previous year, due to the fact that this is the first year in which is charged a full year’s depreciation on new equipment at our Elstree Studios.

After making allowance for taxation of £2,658,935 [£47.2m] and the interests of outside shareholders, there is left a profit of £2,387,884 [£42.4m] attributable to ATV.

The amount retained in subsidiary companies is £113,708 [£2m] and the balance brought forward from last year is £1,859,608 [£33m], making £4,133,784 [£73.3m] available for appropriation.

An interim dividend of 20 per cent has already been paid and your directors now recommend that a final dividend of 40 per cent be paid again this year. If this recommendation is approved, there will be left a balance of £2,424,909 [£43m] to be carried forward in the accounts of the parent company.

Consolidated Balance-Sheet

Turning to the consolidated balance-sheet it will be noted that under the heading of fixed assets there have been increases both in land and buildings and in plant, equipment and motor vehicles. These are attributable to our new studios at Elstree which are now completed and fully equipped. Whereas the total of trade investments has not altered materially, it will be noted that quoted shares have increased and debentures and loan stock have decreased. This is mainly due to the conversion into shares of the £500,000 [£8.9m] convertible loan stock in British Relay Wireless and Television Limited.

We already have in our balance-sheet an investment reserve of £500,000. Taking our trade investments and investments in subsidiary companies together, your directors are satisfied that the present investment reserve is adequate.

The reduction in Group profit for the year is due to three main causes — greatly increased cost of operations, reduction in advertisement revenue and losses made by subsidiaries in early stages of development

We believe that in time our subsidiaries will make a very useful contribution to the income of your Company. We have never stated, as I have seen reported, that our Company could maintain its present dividend from sources other than the profit which we make as television programme contractors. Our profit at present comes mainly from our operations as contractors for Saturday and Sunday in London and for the five weekdays in Birmingham and the Midlands. These two broken periods are, economically far from ideal.

We advocate a policy of real competition in Commercial television through an additional commercial channel. If we were to have a seven-day operation, not only would there then be real competition, but we would be able to use to the fullest degree, both at home and through our export subsidiaries, the new studios which we have constructed at Elstree, which are the equal of any in the world.

Efforts to Improve Television

Our purpose is to provide good television, and by ploughing back profits into the studios at Elstree we have supplied concrete evidence that we are making in the field of television production the sort of contribution which the Government must have believed in when we were appointed. Nevertheless, it must be appreciated that though we have been able to improve programme standards by bringing into operation the new studios at Elstree with their complex and up-to-date equipment, this has not been achieved without at the same time increasing production costs. Similarly the awards which have been made as a settlement of the Equity strike are also contributing to increased day-to-day costs of putting programmes on the air.

Last year my predecessor in his statement said: “We confirmed to the Pilkington Committee that we accepted the recommendations of the Television Advisory Committee for the adoption of 625 lines as the British standard. In order to give effect to this we offered, on the days we were not broadcasting in London, to put out a new programme on 625 lines in the UHF band which would carry in addition one hour a day of 625 line colour broadcasting — all at our own expense. Surely this would be a great contribution, and something that would give encouragement to the scientists, the technicians, the script writers, the producers and all the many people who will benefit from an expansion of television broadcasting.”

There has been a great deal written about the profits which contractors have made. It is surprising to me that, when a contractor offers to divert a large slice of its profit and to plough it back into advancing the art of television broadcasting, as we proposed, this should not have been mentioned in the Pilkington Report. It seems to me that to use profits to expand the art of broadcasting and to make new programmes available is a better alternative than to force companies, by penal taxation, to pass money to the Exchequer to spend on providing the public, not necessarily with what the public enjoys, but with with what the Pilkington Committee thinks it ought to have.

I am not one to believe that we are called on to make any defence because of the profits we have made in recent years but I think it is a good thing to repeat what the Hankey Committee on television stated in 1945:—

“It is quite clear that, until the television service is well developed, commercial interests would not be willing to incur large expenditure for this purpose, owing, for example, to the limited audience served. In the early stages, therefore, we could not expect sponsored programmes to provide a substantial contribution towards the cost of the television service. In these circumstances and without prejudicing the matter for the future, we feel it would be premature to come to a conclusion on this question.”

I can say that, for several years before and after the war, the people concerned in promoting commercial television lost a considerable amount of money in financing the pioneering work and when eventually the Government agreed to set up a commercial television service it was far from easy to find sufficient sources of capital. This only confirmed the conclusions of the Hankey Committee.

No sooner had the independent television operation started than the rate at which money was being lost became so alarming that it was extremely hard to get any new money. In our own company almost the entire original capital was lost in the first year, so that, far from having “a licence to print money”, we found that we had a licence to lose money in millions. Yet a substantial number of the people who were original shareholders put their hands back into their pockets and produced further capital. Even so, it proved necessary to go outside the group for still further backing. It is easy to be wise after the event, but when one considers the risk involved in putting up money for what, on the best authority, was a very long-odds chance, I cannot agree that the criticisms of large profits are warranted.

It should not be forgotten, that, if risk capital had not been put up six years ago, we would not have had commercial television. We would still have the low standard of television broadcasting which existed at that time. Occasions are bound to arise when it may be necessary to depend on voluntary risk capital if the many projects and services of the future are to be developed. If the Government undermines the confidence of the investor it will make it impossible to get the financial support which will be required if we are to bring many new inventions to the light of day.

The most important objective in the day-to-day existence of your Company is the creation and production of programmes. In London we have Saturday and Sunday. These are the two days when the great mass of our people have time off from work and look forward to relaxation and pleasure. The daily drudgery of any worker can be lightened considerably if great care is given to filling periods of relaxation during the weekend by presenting the right sort of entertainment for ordinary people. We have tried to achieve this by giving pleasure while at the same time maintaining balance in our programmes.

The Pilkington Report

I do not intend in this statement to deal with the Pilkington Report in any detail. I feel that the ordinary people will decide the answer and not the extraordinary people. I would only point out the many references, often of an offensive character, about advertising which have been made in discussions about the report. Advertising is an honourable profession. Its standards in this country are recognized as high throughout the world. The Government is constantly calling for more and more exports. Now there is no weapon in this job of selling so important and vital to its success as advertising. Is it a crime to advertise? — it cannot be right to do it in one place and wrong to do it somewhere else. It is certainly wrong to attack advertising in the way it has been attacked and then to say “but it will be all right as long as the advertising is sold and handled by a state enterprise”.

Many shareholders have written to me about the effect of the Pilkington Report and I can only say to every one of them “You have made an investment in an undertaking which was permitted and promoted by the Government, and you have all the rights and all the freedom to take any legitimate steps you wish to protect your investment”. In the same way, I say to any and all of our viewers — “We are an adult people and each one of us individually has been entrusted with taking political and national decisions of enormous importance, but the Pilkington Committee has made it quite clear that there is one issue we are apparently not mentally capable of deciding, and that is the sort of programmes the majority of people want to see on their television screens”.

Successes Abroad

One of our more important subsidiaries, Incorporated Television Company Limited, continues to be the biggest producer and exporter of British television programmes. Following the network success in the United States and Canada of the “Danger Man” series, a further series “Sir Francis Drake” is being transmitted this summer on the NBC network. During the year, the “Supercar” series, using new techniques with animated puppets, was completed and has been equally successful both here and on the American continent.

Four film series, “Man of the World”, “The Saint”, “Fireball XL5” and “Broadway Goes Latin”, were about to go into production when the strike commenced and as a result of this over six months were lost. However, production is now in progress and we can only hope that there will be no interruption during the coming year; but of course the interruption in our production will affect our sales throughout the world during the present year.

Incorporated Television Company distributes the Group’s products in the eastern hemisphere and supplies these programmes to our American subsidiary, the Independent Television Corporation, for distribution in the western hemisphere. To date over 10,000 hours of programmes have been sold to 32 countries in the eastern hemisphere, covering Australasia. Scandinavia, Western Europe Eastern Europe. Middle East, Far East, India and Africa.

Very few British series have achieved a network showing in the United States of America and our American management have to be congratulated on their achievement.

Australia

Last year we referred to our investment in Australia where we have holdings in seven commercial radio stations including stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra, and we are partners in the Australia-wide McQuarrie Radio Network. In commercial television we have interests in eight stations, including Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane, which are firmly established and are now showing satisfactory returns. Of the remaining five stations, one is in Canberra and four are in important country centres but these stations only commenced transmission in 1962. In addition, we operate a radio programme production company which has a large market for its programmes overseas as well as in Australia.

Last year Australia suffered a severe income recession. I am glad to say we now see definite signs of recovery and look forward to much improved results in the future.

Canada

We continue to sell a substantial amount of material in Canada through the Independent Television Corporation. In addition, we have a capital investment in two Canadian television stations, one in Halifax and one in Vancouver. We were reconciled to the fact that it would take some time before these companies had expanded to the stage of income being able to carry the expenditure. One of the companies has already got into a profit position and the other is now likely to achieve profits ai an earlier date than we originally expected.

Planned Music Limited

Our subsidiary, Planned Music Limited, which promotes the distribution of suitable background music programmes in public buildings, offices, factories, &c., is gradually approaching a period of consolidation. In the last few years the expenses incurred in preparing the groundwork in this particular business were heavier than we had anticipated. During the build-up period the time taken to get G.P.O. lines laid down and contracts completed is a much longer operation than one would expect, and the shortage of certain Post Office lines has, to some degree, continued. A policy of developing in the known profitable areas, with good administration, will, I believe, bring us to a profit-making stage within the next two or three years.

Pye Records Limited, in which we have a substantial interest, progresses according to plan and, although large sums of money are required to establish a records business. We have been making profits for the last three years.

British Relay Wireless and Television Limited

Shareholders will know that for a considerable time we have had a substantial holding in British Relay Wireless & Television Limited. This is one of the leading line networks for bringing programmes into people’s homes and has been in existence for many years. In fact, the original company, Link Sound & Vision Services Ltd., was the first company in this country to operate successfully a system of transmitting television programmes by wire, and consequently doing away with the difficulties of interference and weak signal strength.

Because of the lack of public demand for new television sets, caused by the state of uncertainty while everyone waited for the Pilkington Report, the company has undoubtedly suffered during the last two years. It has nonetheless continued to build and extend its networks, confident that the added complexities of ultra high frequency broadcasting and colour would lead to a greatly increased demand for wire reception. British Relay’s networks are worth many millions of pounds and we know that, if the maximum effect is given to the White Paper recommendations on the number of channels, well over 80 per cent of the company’s existing cables will be able to take all these new programmes, including colour, with practically no capital cost. The future of British Relay is extremely bright and we will do everything possible to help it to become a great success.

In addition, in the field of pay vision, British Relay Wireless & Television Ltd. has a system which in my opinion is technically equal to any other, and certainly from the economic point of view has a great many advantages. 1 believe that pay vision is one of the certainties of things to come and in due course will be available to viewers in this country.

Tribute to Staff

I would like to bring a personal note into my concluding remarks. The strike put a great strain on your company. A large number of our employees had to spend some months in comparative idleness; this not only cost a great deal of money but was a soul-destroying period for everyone concerned. Yet, in spite of the frustration caused by enforced inactivity among staff who love their work, our people supported us wonderfully in that difficult time and were a great encouragement to my fellow directors who are responsible for the day-to-day management of the business.

With the strike at last settled, but almost before we could get back into our production stride, the Pilkington Report was published and more unsettlement was created.

Broadcasting depends on creative people — script writers, producers, directors, actors and technicians — and all of these were thrown into a well of doubt and despondency. It is quite clear to your board that, if we have to go through a long period of uncertainty about the future, this will do irreparable harm to British broadcasting.

We can only say to our staff that we appreciate their great loyalty and we shall do everything in our power to restore a sense of sanity and stability into the commercial side of British broadcasting which is recognized as being unequalled throughout the world.

The post ATV financial results: 1962 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

We in ATV are very proud that for five days a week we are Independent Television in the Midlands.

It is a great privilege to operate from Birmingham, the industrial capital of the United Kingdom.

We are proud too, of those who serve ATV in the Midlands. Under the lively leadership of Philip Dorté we have a fine team of enthusiasts and experts. Working with them we aim to give as much enjoyment as possible, over as wide a range as possible — light-hearted, serious and moderately serious.

We believe that the purpose of television is to give entertainment and relaxation. We have tried to carry out that purpose since we first started in Birmingham in February, 1956.

We shall continue this endeavour to the utmost of our ability, and to bring to the development of the still new, still very exciting, medium of television the benefits of each new advance in the science of communication and each fresh ingenuity of the human mind.

The post This Exciting, Medium appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.