What The Secret TV Cameras Saw

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30958, 14 January 1966, Page 9

What The Secret TV Cameras Saw

(N Z. Press Association —Copyright)

LONDON, Jan. 13. Americans watching television in their homes were watched in turn by a secret camera in the set, a 8.8. C. expert has disclosed. The hidden camera recorded family fights, couples making love, and other “non-watch-ing” activities. It was part of an audience research experiment in the United States in which the hidden cameras were smuggled into 95 homes. The domestic activities of the families were recorded for 6000 hours while the sets were switched on. The cameras showed that

for 19 per cent of the time the sets were switched on noone was watching at all, said the 8.8. C. audience research head, Mr Robert Silvey, at a public lecture in London. For 25 per cent of the time that viewers were within range of the set’s hidden spyeye, the men, women and children were engaged in activities which were officially described as “non-viewing activities.” Sometimes they were fighting and sometimes they were making love. Whether they left on the sets as an aid to these activities. or whether the activities were in spite of the programme, Mr Silvey said he was not prepared to guess.