A Spectator's Notebook
'AN. UNPRECEDENTED EXERCISE in
State patronage' was how the Spectator. last week described the handling of commercial television contracts; and now comes the news — that Associated Television's profit for the year amounted to £3,665,909. In a com- petitive industry, such a profit by any company would be a healthy sign: in a State-awarded monopoly it is not. I have heard it argued that if the commercial companies are awarded custody, of the third TV channel, they will begin to com- pete.with each other—ATV versus AR in London,' Granada versus ABC in Manchester, and so on— and that this will prevent profits from reaching such heights. Will it? To judge by the ATV re- port, the-company believes that with a channel to itself it would do still better—as indeed it should, being able to concentrate all its energies on Lon- don. In any case, even'if two companies compete, -commercial -television will remain a State mono- ' poly, in the sense that no rivals will be permitted.. The grant of a television station will consequently remain 'a licence to print money.' I trust, there- fore, that the third channel will not be divided up between the present contractors; and if it is to be put out to contract, the contracts will not be awarded by the Independent Television Authority. That body has far more power than is good for it already : and its handling of contracts so far, as last week's editorial showed, has been unsatis- factory.
Previous page
