Introduction

In the United States, television is as essential a part of the home as the automobile or the ice-box. Nearly 40 million American homes have television sets. Much abuse of television has been aimed at the medium instead of at the people who put on its programmes, or who pay for its programmes to be put on. It is potentially vast in total, but actually small in audience per receiving set. An average cinema audience in Britain consists of 750 persons sitting closely together in rows facing the screen. Today, exactly the opposite is true. It is important to realize that a big proportion of viewers consists of people who seldom read a book or go to the theatre. Round the corner, too, is colour television, already being transmitted to a restricted few because of the set expense.