Radio: Hopalong in Nippon?

The only television station in Japan (NHK) is owned by the Japanese government. In the year or so that it has been going, it has been telecasting one night a week—lectures, political speeches, an occasional string quartet. There are only about 500 viewers in Japan; they all have home-built sets. Last week the lucky 500 heard good news: the Nippon Television Network Corp. (backed by a group of newspapers) applied for a license, and announced that it would begin competition with NHK early next year.

N.T.N.C. will rely almost entirely on U.S. technicians and equipment at first, plans to show plays, movies, sports, public forums, and, naturally, quiz shows. Eventually N.T.N.C. will own a 22-station network, but one immediate problem will be tough to solve: TV sets are too expensive for the average Japanese; N.T.N.C. will not make money until mass production of sets gets under way. Meanwhile, N.T.N.C., feeling that public demonstration is the easiest way to sell its idea, will donate 1,000 U.S.-made sets to educational and cultural groups.

At the threat of this competition, NHK has decided to brighten up its own program. This week the 500 could tune in animated cartoons as well as politicians. Said one wan government official: “We have tried to keep our television programs dignified and moral. Now it looks as if we may have to find ourselves a Hopalong Cassidy-san. Maybe even, a Dagmar-san.”

Elsewhere abroad last week, television was popping out like the measles:

¶ In Copenhagen, the Danish State Radio was sponsoring Denmark’s first TV programs (three hours a week). There were warnings that Denmark’s government budget could not stand the cost—$70,000 a year—but eager viewers pointed out that Danish production of TV accessories might earn as much as $5,000,000 from overseas export. Added income: a $7-a-year license fee from each set owner.

¶ In Zurich, Swiss scientists using the CBS color system (TIME, Nov. 28, 1949) showed off a new television projector on a 9 ft. by 12 ft. theater screen. Based on the Eidophor method first developed for black & white projection, the new projector gets most of its light from an arc lamp rather than from the conventional cathode-ray tube. Claimed Swiss Institute Director Ernest Bauman: “It is now better than Technicolor movies.”

¶ In West Berlin, German set manufacturers displayed 16 new models priced from $285 up. Unsponsored programs, produced by northwest Germany’s network NWDR (Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk) and telecast six to ten hours a week, will be supported by set owners, who will pay about $1.19 a month to the city. Next step in Germany’s TV expansion: a Hamburg-Berlin hookup.