TV Viewers Pay For Film

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30961, 18 January 1966, Page 12

TV Viewers Pay For Film

(•Special Crspdt. N Z.P A.) LONDON, January 17. The pay television experiment in Westminster and Southwark has got off to a fair start in spite of one or two technical hitches, says the “Observer.” The experiment is the first to be undertaken outside the United States. So far audience figures have been slightly higher than in comparable trials in the United States and Canada. Between 40 and 50 per cent of the 2500 subscribers have paid six shillings to watch recent films, including “The Yellow Rolls Royce” and “A Shot in the Dark,” starring Peter Sellers. The films are run two or three times a week.

A ballet film, with Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf

Nureyev, specially shot for pay-television drew 20 per cent of subscribers in two showings. It is hoped that 10,000 subscribers will eventually be able to watch pay-television by May. More than 200 homes a week are being wired for the scheme.

The first English university television centre is expected

to be opened at Leeds later this month. The centre, which began last month, will be used at first for demonstrating to teachers the possible use of television. It will not be used for direct teaching until next year. Other universities in England are carrying research into the feasibility of using television.