THE STRUCTURE

By December 1964, 454 commercial VHF stations were on the air, 25 commercial VHF permittees were not operating, and applications for 11 channels were awaiting Commission action, leaving 63 unreserved VHF allocations available. Among commercial UHF station assignments, 90 were on the air including satel lites, 66 were assigned but not operating, 52 applications were pending, and 1,108 allocations were still available. All told there were, at the end of 1964, in the continental United States, 544 commercial stations on the air and 1,171 allocations available.

Table 1 shows a detailed breakdown of the assignments and availabilities. It appears that only 29 percent of the allocated commercial stations and 25 percent of the allocated ETV stations were on the air. Of the VHF component of the allocations 82 percent of the commercial group and 53 percent of the ETV group were operating. Of the UHF component only 7 percent of the commercial allocation and 13 percent of the ETV allocation were on the air.

The first priority

From the foregoing it appears that a substantial part of the television spectrum is being held in reserve as an idle resource in anticipation of its eventual utilization. In the absence of maximum usage there is the possibility that part of the population may not be receiving a single good television signal. The magnitude of this problem, which would represent a shortcoming in the fulfillment of the first priority, has its outside limits set by the 9 percent of the households which do not own a television receiver. Doubtlessly a large number of these 5 million homes could receive a serviceable signal if they wanted to; exactly how many could not be determined.

ETV 1

TABLE I.-Summary of assignments and availabilities, December 1964, television broadcasting stations, continental United States

Commercial !

Number of stations

Percent of allocation

Total 2

Commercial 1

ETV 1

Total

The second priority

To facilitate the development of a TV broadcasting industry consisting of local stations in accord with the second priority, the allocation plan provided for 1,880 "unreserved" or commercial stations. The need for this number of stations is illustrated by the number and growth of communities in the United States. Between 1950 and 1960 the number of incorporated places with more than 10,000 inhabitants increased by 420, or 35 percent in a decade, to total 1,654. The total population in these locations increased by more than 17 million persons, or 24 percent, to a total of 90.7 million persons, about half the national population. If the Commission plans toward a national television grid of single station markets the present allocation of 1,880 commercial channels seems about right. But even assuming conditions of complete UHF penetration of the receiver market, it is not possible to have both a universal local service as presently conceived and to provide three or more signals to most locations. As long as the Commission pursues a policy of universal local service and encourages and holds in reserve allocations based on local towns, there will be a growing consumer demand for auxiliary facilities to provide a wider choice of programing, particularly from the three networks. From the standpoint of consumer demand and the industry's structure there is an inherent conflict between the second and third priority of the sixth report and order.

Because densely populated but politically differentiated areas have been treated as homogeneous television markets, local service has not had much application in major urban centers. In some instances overlapping urban TV signals have precluded entire States from obtaining a local television station even where VHF is still unassigned. Thus, on the State level, neither New Jersey nor Delaware with a combined audience of 2 million television homes, has a commercial television station operating within the State. Parts of each State receive signals from Philadelphia and New York City. The commercial station allocation for New Jersey is 8 (one V), and for Delaware 3 (one V) channels.

Among the other States there is wide variation in the ratio of population to broadcasting stations. Thus nine States have over 141,000 TV homes per station, among 24 others, or nearly half the States, there are less than 70,000 TV homes per station, or about twice the broadcasting facilities relative to population as in the former group.

Table 2 compares the 1952 allocation plan on a State basis with the industry's structure as of December 1964. The fairly fixed pattern of the plan based on engineering constants such as minimum mileage separation and stations of one class, if fully implemented by 1964, would have resulted in an industry structure consisting of 38 States with less than 35,000 TV homes per TV station. In the actual 1964 structure, however, only seven States had fewer than 35,000 TV homes per TV station.

To some extent the disparities which exist among the States in the ratio of TV broadcasting facilities to population is explained by differences in their population density. Thus Montana (50 percent urban) and the Dakotas (less than 40 percent urban) are among the States with the lowest population densities and the highest ratio of TV broadcasting facilities to population. On the other hand, where the population densities are relatively high, a few stations can cover a substantial segment of the State's viewing audience resulting in a low ratio of TV broadcasting facilities to TV homes.

However, this explanation is not completely satisfactory. In the more populated States there are more communities and local political units. Thus the States that presently have a high ratio of TV broadcasting facilities to TV homes generally have fewer townships and fewer congressional districts than the more populous States which currently have a low ratio of broadcasting facilities to TV homes.

Table 3 compares these two groups. The first seven States shown have a total of 15.9 million television homes, about 30 percent of the national total, 135 congressional districts, and 50 standard metropolitan statistical areas. They are served by a total of 78 broadcasting stations in 32 TV markets. By comparison, the last seven States in table 3 have a total of 1.4 million television homes, 14 congressional districts, and 8 standard metropolitan statistical areas and are served by 54 TV stations in 37 TV markets.

TABLE 2.-Number of TV homes per commercial broadcasting station, FCC allocation plan and actual structure, by State,1 December 1964

3 According to the FCC plan this would have been New Jersey. However, as it turned out, New Jersey is in the "None" category.

4 New Jersey and Delaware have no commercial television stations.

Source: Number of TV homes based on State totals for 1964 (ARB), number of stations allocated based on FCC assignment table.

Chart No. 1

NUMBER OF TV HOMES PER COMMERCIAL TV STATION

FCC ALLOCATION PLAN & ACTUAL STRUCTURE, BY STATE, 1964 (Number of States)