IN A FOREWORD to the Director's TV supplement, Sir Robert
Fraser, the Director-General of the Independent Television Authority, says : 'I share the almost unanimous view that the prohibition of sponsorship will prove a source of strength both to the programmes and also to the advertiser.' This strikes me as a remarkably misleading statement. Has Sir Robert spoken to any advertisers recently? It is their almost unanimous view that the prohibition of sponsorship destroys the prospects for commercial television. They don't want to make their own programmes, necessarily; but every advertiser with any sense realises the need to get his product's name linked with a popu- lar programme over the choice of which he can exercise con- trol. Their feelings on this point have already been bluntly expressed : no 'link,' no advertising! But they have been told (I quote from an article in the supplement) that although the statute is obviously unworkable in its present form 'sinister controversies are the one thing CTV must avoid until it is impregnably established.' By that time 'it is safe to assume that the Act will break before the will of the people.'
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