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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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Session:         Page of 755

the mass media that we used to call radio and television, and the Saturday Evening Post and magazines of that kind. Forget the advertising, I'm just talking about the content of the program material. The more channels you have probably the lower the quality is going to be on the programs, because you have to write off the cost of a program against maximum circulation, and if you reduce that circulation or restrict it by the means of distribution or by the number of channels competing simultaneously, there just isn't the opportunity to write off the cost of that program against a broad base. Whether we like it or not, there is a pretty high correlation between quality and the kind of budget you put in to the production. That goes for the writing and acting, also for the location and for the amount of work that you have to do to produce a “Jurassic Park,” for example.

Q:

I'm thinking of the essay I think you wrote in 1929, 1930, “Is Television Pricing Itself Out of the Market?” and I'm thinking of the situation of CBS that I read in the paper yesterday, that they're having real difficulties in terms of having the money to put in to quality programming. Do you think there will come a time when the networks will price themselves out?

Stanton:

No. Not the networks as we know them today. No, they can adjust their cost pretty well to what they can get by way of income.

Even today, with all of the talk about cable, the most economical way to reach a national audience is by network television, not by cable. Cable is segmented. It's not even competitive in terms of total circulation. Let's say seventy percent of all the families have cable connections--maybe it's a little higher than that, but I think it's about seventy per cent. With television and radio it's in excess of ninety-five per cent. So if you want to really reach the





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