THE COST OF LISTENING.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 472, 9 July 1948, Page 16

THE COST OF LISTENING.

Sir,-May I congratulate you on the hard-hitting commonsense of your editorial on the cost of listening? What you wrote has long needed saying. But in your comparison with the Press you might have said more. It costs just twice as much to buy a daily newspaper for 12 months as it does to license a radio set, True, other costs have to be added-the current consumed, which. is a trifle, interest on the cost of the set, and repairs. But broadcasting gives an all-day service on all the 365 days of the year, whereas the newspaper publishes on 309 days. I have not observed any agitation for a reduction in the price of newspapers. Until fairly recently a lot of use was made of the fact that the BBC’s licence fee was only 10 shillings. Many critics overlooked the governing fact that while the NZBS numbered its listeners (and therefore its fees) in hundreds of thousands, the BBC did so in millions. Some little time ago what remained of the’ bottom of this argument (if anything) was knocked out by the decision of the BBC to double its licence fee. Not enough has been made of this highly significent increase. The fact is a large number of people look on broadcasting as they have been accustomed to look on newspapers. Till broadcasting developed, newspapers were, for value given, the cheapest of all services, but comparatively few readers envisaged the amount of capital, the international organisations, and the various processes, involved in providing this service. It is the same with broadcasting. Many listeners listen and grumble, but don’t think of the enormous expenditure, the extremely complicated technical equipment, the -links with other countries, and the army of men and women, that go to provide their entertainment and instruction. One might say of a lot of people that if they had to pay five pounds a year for their licence, they would appreciate broadcasting more. K

JOURNALIST

(Wellington),