Report on Phonevision

In Hollywood, the Theater Owners of America cried that it was "a monumental flop." In Chicago, Zenith Radio's vocal President Eugene F. McDonald Jr. crowed: "It was successful far beyond our expectations." Both were talking about Phonevision, the system of selling feature movies by television and charging the set owner $1 per picture on his phone bill (TIME, Jan. 8). In a preliminary report on the 90-day test of Phonevision among 300 Chicago families, McDonald claimed last week that his brain child was a lusty million dollar baby.

During the first month of the test, said McDonald, the average Phonevision family saw 2.1 movies a week; in the second month, the figure dropped to 1.5; in the third month it rose slightly to 1.6. Even at that modest rate, McDonald figured that Phonevision families were seeing TV films 33-times oftener than the average U.S. family was going to the movies. Projecting the returns against a TV audience of 10 million, he estimated that movie producers could average $1,250,000 on each Phonevision film.

But the report had less welcome news for theater owners. Though all of the films were more than two years old, only 18% of the families viewing them on Phonevision had previously seen them in movies, and 92% of the Phonevision audience said they would rather see films at home than in theaters.

The average Phonevision picture was seen by 25% of the potential audience. Variations ranged from a top of 60% to a low of 8% one evening when the "free" TV competition was the Robinson-La Motta fight. Most popular film of the experimental series: Bing Crosby's 1947 comedy, Welcome Stranger. Least popular: a 1947 comedy, Undercover Maisie.

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