STANFORD UNIVERSITY
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION July 1, 1969 REDWOOD HALL
Telephone:
415/321-2300
Exe. 4903

Professor Joshua Lederberg
Stanford University Medical School
Stanford, California

Dear Josh,

Thanks for the copies of your articles on television. I had the
opportunity to read them when they appeared in the Chronicle and wanted
to comment on them before, but your kindness in sending the copies
finally spurred me to action.

Frankly, I think that the solution to the very real problems that you
pose are not technological, at least in the sense that any wildly in-
novative new technological break-throughs are needed. For that matter,

I am pessimistic about the utilization of such technology as may arise.
From my point of view the basic problem is that of economics and the in-
stitutionalization of broadcasting as, in the words of Lord Thomson of
Fleet when he was given the Independent Television Authority franchise for
Scottish Television, "a permit to print one's own money."

The novel notion of requiring programming in "the public interest, con-
venience, and necessity" as a quid pro quo for a frequency allocation,

and the refusal to define the public service obligations of broadcasters

in terms as specific as, say, the bandwidths of allocated frequencies lie

at the heart of this dilemma. It seems to me that the philosophical basis

of the refusal to define broadcaster's responsibilities, on the part of
Congress and the FCC is the assumption of similarity between the private

good and the common weal. What has happened as a result is a broadcasting
system based on the rule that a continually increasing dividend for share-
holders is the prime responsibility of broadcast managers, that this dividend
is increased by the sale of advertising, and that there is a direct relation-
ship between what advertisers will pay for air time and the circulation
figures. In advertising parlance, it is the "Cost Per Thousand viewers"

that matters.

Relatively few sponsors are wealthy enough, or product-specific enough for
that matter, to sponsor whole programs. They rely largely on so-called
“scatter plan" buying, in which a number of commercials are spread through-
out a broadcast schedule. Since charges are a function of circulation, the
possibilities of significant amounts of programming of quality being pre-
sented by single sponsors out of some noblesse oblige motivations diminish,
and the pressure on the broadcast manager is to engage in a continual rat-
ing battle at every hour of the day, for the greater benefit of the share-
holder.
Dr. Lederberg Page Two July 1, 1969

Rather than the present technology bringing this situation forth, I
suggest that it is in the economic interests of the industry as a whole
to preseverate the technology as it currently exists. The introduction
of color television, largely through the work of NBC when its system was
adopted rather than the system proposed by CBS, seems to have a great deal
more to do with the parent company, RCA, and the needs of its television
manufacturing units to continue operating after saturation of black and
white sets and transmission equipment had been achieved, than it did with
the technological breakthrough of color. Certainly the necessary condi-
tion was the technology, but the necessary and sufficient conditions were
technology in the service of economic gain.

To me the choices seem fairly clear. We can either assume, hope, or work
toward a situation in which multiple channel and perhaps even interactive
communication systems can be made more economically attractive than the
current system of broadcasting or we can set about re-structuring the
communication system in such a way that entertainment and information are
treated as public cultural utilities in much the same way as libraries

or museums. I see no reason to believe that in the long run the case for
equating private profit and public good will be any more possible than it
is now. At the least, if the institution of exploiting the public air for
private gain is too entrenched to be totally re-structured, we should be
prepared to rent spectrum space to the highest bidders in return for
minimal commitments and for cash with which to support a public service
communication utility.

When trying to understand how broadcasting works I am often reminded of
James Agee's comments about the film industry and how talented men turn
out trash. “If you have any problem figuring this out" he wrote, “then
I suggest that you consult both God and Mammon and see who has less
difficulty coping with the servant problem."

Cordially,

4

4 Oe
Henry Breitros
Associate Profdssor of Communication

P.S. I think that you take the case for the effects of television
violence too lightly. A memo that Wilbur Schramm prepared is enclosed
which is as good a summary of the data as I know.

hsb.