Radio-Television Conflict Over Football Enters News Phase

This fall the Big Three title is back at Soldiers Field, after an absence longer than most memories. Accompanying the success of Lloyd Jordan's proteges is a revolution in policy. Last year the man who wanted to follow Harvard football needed only a radio. This fall, pending recision by the faculty committee on athletics, he will need a television set.

Every 1950 Game Telecast

It is not likely that the change is an HAA move to appeal to the upper income brackets. Nor does the growing number of television sets explain the problem. A long and confusing series of statements and counterstatements, involving the University's well known "advice of legal council," the Corporation's reluctance to be told where and when to do anything, and the intricacies of national-television programming lie behind the change.

Television left Soldiers Field in 1951, when scheduling difficulties forced the cancellation of two broadcasts. In 1950, every University game has been televised. Before arrangements could be made for 1952, the NCAA adopted its famous "game of the week" plan, and Harvard teams went off the screen.

The "game of the week" plan involved the selection of one game each week, to be televised across the country, and the elimination of other collegiate football telecasts. The plan was approved overwhelming, despite Harvard's opposition.

The University then issued a statement opposing the plan for two reasons: "The University must reserve to itself the right to decide whether and when to telecast Harvard football games," and "Legal council has questioned the legality of the NCAA program," under the Sherman anti-trust law.

Legal Minds Divide

The courts have never faced the issue. The best legal minds in the country divided on the subject, and after some deliberation Princeton decided the NCAA program was clean. The Supreme Court has ruled that professional baseball is not subject to the anti-trust law because it is not a business. But professional baseball is not collegiate football.

But the University's decision to televise this fall was not apparently the result of revised legal opinion. The new NCAA ruling provided for regional telecasts, what the University called "a material improvement." But it is still nationally controlled television, and the University has not indicated that it believes the program any more legal than in 1952. The most satisfactory explanation of the new policy is that the University has decided to live with the program because there was not prospect for change.

But the policy change was not based on legal factors. Legal or illegal, the University feels that it can not take part in a national program. In 1953 such a possibility was definitely rejected. Why then did the 1955 CBS offer meet success?

CBS Enters Picture

Very possibly the method of negotiation led to the policy change. Until this year, television programming had been done through the NCAA. Under the new ruling, while the national "game of the week" remained, regional broadcasts on two of five dates were allowed. The Eastern Collegiate Athletic Council arranged a regional schedule, which was bought by NBC, which had also bought the NCAA national package. But along with the NBC series, CBS also scheduled regional broadcasts, and this summer contacted the University.

Approval Contingent

Such an arrangement involved the NCAA only indirectly, and received University approval, contingent on approval of the other team involved. Brown granted this approval, as Harvard did with Dartmouth.

Under a direct arrangement of this sort, Harvard preserved its right to "decide whether and when," and was not committed to the NCAA program. Apparently, it also got less money for the concession than NBC offers.

Although the University can maintain that there has been no policy change, and even explain why, it accepted a contract to televise in 1950, refused one in 1953, and accepted one in 1955, it has not yet made any public statement on the implications of such a move.

The 1950 contract was not comparable to the new agreement, in two important ways. First, television five years ago was must less significant in terms of possible attendance losses and increased football audiences than it is today. Second, the contract this year is for only one home game, not all home games.

Saturated in TV

Boston and its environs are virtually saturated with television sets at the moment. Virtually every local alumnus can afford a television set. Most of them have afforded one. What this will do to attendance is hard to predict, and the HAA will not know much more than it does after only one local telecast. Such problems as comparative records and the weather will make comparative statistics on

University Television Policy Statement

"Harvard's decision to telecast the Harvard-Brown football game to be played at the Stadium on November 12, 1955, does not represent a change in Harvard's position in connection with the NCAA television program. Although the NCAA program for 1955 is, in our opinion, a material improvement over former NCAA programs in that it provides for the selection of games to be televised on an area rather than a nation-wide basis, Harvard is still opposed to nation-wide control of football television. Our position has been and is that we must reserve to ourselves the right to decide whether and when to telecast Harvard football games. The offer to telecast the Harvard-Brown game came to us directly from Columbia Broadcasting System. The athletic officials at Brown were, of course, consulted before the offer was accepted." the Brown game nearly impossible to evaluate.

Moreover, with only one game on TV, football enthusiasts will not have become used to watching games from their homes, as certain experts claim baseball fans have, and so this year's conclusions may be applicable if the program is expanded next year.

Sell Out Almost Certain

Another problem is the relative effect of televising popular and unpopular games. The HAA is not willing to say whether next year's Yale game will be televised. Certainly with the game being played at Soldiers Field, the possibility would be extremely attractive. Unlike this year's Yale Bown game, next year's game is virtually assured of being a sell-out, with or without TV.

There is no way of knowing how far local television could go if the HAA were willing, for the NCAA still restricts the number of television dates. The University will almost certainly refuse to buck NCAA regulations, even if it disapproves of them, since to do so would be to risk expulsion and to make opponents almost impossible to find. During the more restricted era from 1952-54, the University killed feelers on the subject.

Warm and Comfortable

But the most important question is the effect of television on local radio broadcasts. The arrival of CBS was accompanied by the departure of WBZ. The reasons given were disagreement about fees and dissatisfaction with the low quality of coverage. There seems to be reason to believe that with television covering one game directly and reproducing possibly four others. WBZ felt its contract was less than exclusive.

Indeed, there is only one major group to whom radio broadcasts are of importance if there is television coverage--the student. Many students would rather be warm and comfortable in their rooms with a date, than cold and uncomfortable in a cheering section. To accommodate them, WHRB has annually requested permission to broadcast the game.

Get Out and Cheer

Every year their request has been refused on the grounds that WBZ had an exclusive contract. This year, WBZ has no contact. The games will be broadcast only from New York, useful for the HAA in maintaining alumni interest, but not to local enthusiasts, who must now buy tickets.

The HAA apparently reasons that the ideal situation would be to have television of all games, assuming the contract is large enough to cover the attendance decline. This would mean that the budget would balance, and the student would be under even greater pressure to get out in the stands and cheer, along with his paying date.

Few radio stations are looking for television competition in a saturated area, and equally few want to broadcast the games which television would have. Meanwhile, the faculty committee on athletics deliberates the fate of the Saturday afternoon stay-at-home