The Busy Air

P: Televiewers will be the first in the U.S. to see Sir Alexander Korda's lavish new movie, Richard III, starring Producer-Director Sir Laurence Olivier. NBC paid $500,000 for the right to one telecast (some time in January) of the $2,000,000 Shakespearean classic, thereby assuring the movie producers of one-quarter of their investment. Since the film's running time is 2 hours and 49 minutes, it will be, with intermissions for advertising, NBC's first three-hour Spectacular. NBC has also paid $250,000, or a quarter of the movie production cost, for one-time telecast rights to another new Korda film. The Constant Husband, starring Rex Harrison. British film executives, taking a tip from Walt Disney's successful Disneyland, believe that a TV showing of a film stimulates movie attendance.

P: Following the lead of Warner Brothers, 20th Century-Fox and Paramount, M-G-M announced that it will take the big jump into TV next fall with a weekly half-hour show over ABC called The M-G-M Parade. Its aim: to sell "the studio's forthcoming pictures to be played exclusively in motion-picture theaters."

P: In 1954, for the first time in its brief history, TV's gross income was greater than radio's. As radio income dipped, TV's soared to $593 million, or 37% more than the 1953 take. TV's net profits rose 33% for the year to $90,300,000.

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