THE COMMERCIAL TELEVISION people cannot be very happy about the
results of the survey conducted by the hardware retailers, which have been published this week in the Hard- ware Trade Journal. Of the retailers in the transmitting area, nearly three-quarters of those who have answered a question- naire on the subject say that they are unable to trace any sales directly or indirectly to television advertising. 'There is little doubt,' the Journal says, 'that the benefits received from com- mercial television advertising of hardware products have, so far, been.negligible.' Obviously it is too early yet to reach any definite conclusions, because TV advertising depends heavily on repetition. But of one thing I am quite certain : if the figures do not show a rapid improvement in the next few months, there will be strong pressure by the advertisers for more say in CTV. They have never made any secret of their conviction that the TV Act, by divorcing them from any con- nection with (let alone control over) programmes, has made itself unworkable; and such surveys as this can only confirm them in that view.
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