MARKETING TELEVISION FILLERS 1969 TO 1989 The use of television fillers by the ITV network (formed between 1954-1962) became well established by 1959.The deal between ITV and COI Film Division was that each regional station would be supplied with a “library” of around 100 television fillers. The actual decision about which filler to broadcast and when it was broadcast was to be made at the discretion of the ITV station. This decision was in order to establish a clear distinction between television fillers and paid time commercials where the decision about what to broadcast and when was determined by the sponsor and the media buyer. The fillers would be used to “fill” unsold advertising time or when programmes under ran their scheduled airtime. As might be expected a number of rules governing the nature of the television fillers and their usage were gradually evolved. They are well set out in a note by COI to Treasury (Fleming to Slater: 29 June 1973: NA INF 12/1100) as follows: 2. The policy of ITV on the free transmission of public service fillers is:
Television fillers on subjects in the health, safety and welfare categories are accepted. These have to be approved at the script stage and in finished form by the Independent Television Companies Association and by IBA itself.
If a subject in the approved categories is also being publicised by COI in paid advertising time, that is, as a commercial, transmissions of the free-time filler are suspended for the duration of the paid campaign and resumed at the discretion of the companies. The resumption is never later than six months after the end of the campaign.
If a national advertising campaign is being conducted by COI in media other than television advertising, existing free-time fillers on that subject are not shown by ITV, but the transmissions may be resumed at the television companies discretion on the same basis as b. above.
In practice these rules were not onerous. Relations between COI and the ITV companies were very amicable. A similar arrangement was made with the BBC though the BBC were insistent that the films shown by them were not simply those transmitted by the ITV companies. The consequence was that the operation with the BBC was on a smaller scale. On the face of it the scope and transmission opportunities might not appear to have been very significant. However as part of the arrangements the stations were asked to log the use of fillers and these logs demonstrated, over time, a remarkable level of usage. By 1969 some 25,000 transmissions by ITV stations and a further 10,00 screenings by BBC were recorded during that year. By 1975 the ITV screenings had risen to 40,00. The value of this amount of airtime was estimated at the time to be of the order of £8 million was based on ITV rate cards. (NA: INF 12/1100). This level of transmission value can be compared with the production costs of the Television Fillers. While the overall level of expenditure on production of the television fillers varied from year to year a useful snapshot is contained in a memo of April 1976 (JNR Barran to John Hall) that gives production expenditure for: 1972/73 at £192,100 1973/74 at £243,900 1974/75 at £138,800 The actual number of fillers produced in 1974/75 was 46. Generally production costs varied between £4,000 and £7,500 but some fillers could be a good deal less. The extent of the use of television fillers and the ability to influence transmissions of particular fillers meant that they were particularly useful to departments who did not have the financial resources to mount paid advertising campaigns. While smaller in number the BBC also maintained a library and used television fillers albeit on a smaller scale. In 1973 it was noted that the BBC logged about 650 transmissions annually. As a comparison with ITV the figures are somewhat misleading since BBC transmissions were national whereas ITV were regional. So a more accurate comparison required multiplying the BBC figure by 15 giving a total of just under 10,000. As many transmissions were in the afternoons they were particularly useful in terms of reaching audiences of housewives, mothers and young children with relevant subjects. One particular area of difficulty with the BBC was its reluctance to show fillers that were also appearing on ITV. COI made some adaptations of ITV fillers but the overall situation was not altogether satisfactory despite many discussions. Distribution Section handled the physical supply of Television Fillers advising the television stations of the production of new fillers with some background about the nature of the message. So that the television stations were free to make their own decisions about what to screen and when each station was provided with a library of television fillers from which to choose. In time this library might consist of up to some 400 television fillers at any one moment. As new fillers on a particular subject came on stream older items were withdrawn when the sponsoring department decided that a television filler needed refreshing or the message changed. The Distribution Section thus maintained the library and the catalogue of up to date television fillers. Film Division were also, over time and informally, able to influence the apparent random nature of transmissions. In order to maintain links with the 15 regional stations and make sure that the “libraries” were in good order, Distribution Section provided a member of the distribution staff, - for many years Ron Salmon - who travelled regularly around the stations. In this way good and friendly relations were built up. Similar discussions were held with sponsoring departmentsto keep them in touch with levels of use by stations. One consequence of these close connections was that the Film Division was often able to influence stations to screen particular television fillers at times of concern to departments thus enhancing the value of the operation.