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Family Affair. For its first try in the world rerun market, BBC-TV is riding on The Third, Man series, based loosely on the adventures of Harry Lime—so loosely in fact, that Novelist Graham Greene, who wrote the original screenplay, has sternly dissociated himself from his kid brother's serial. Though The Third Man got a lukewarm critical reception in London, it has been bought for $1,500,000 (recouping the production cost) by Budweiser and Rheingold beers, will be shown on U.S. screens this fall. Another sales success: a Canadian Mountie series, snapped up by 20 U.S. cities the first week it was shown. Coming soon: a crime series based on Simenon's Inspector Maigret. Meanwhile ITV, far from dawdling on its domestic dollies, is cranking up its own shows for export to the U.S. (Robin Hood is an ITV series already seen on American screens).
The British are also trying in another subtle way to increase U.S. usage of British programs. No more than 14% of all programs carried on the BBC and ITV can now originate outside the Commonwealth. U.S. network men in London and New York have been told privately that the quota will become even stiffer unless U.S. broadcasters buy more British programs. Just as the foreign market has long since become the profit margin for Hollywood movies, the British rerun is sometimes the difference between profit and loss for U.S. programs. For example, CBS is inching into the black on Sergeant Bilko thanks to BBC payments.
The BBC has a special reason of its own for wanting to sell its TV output abroad. BBC's license conies up for renewal in 1962, and a third British network, due to begin after 1964, is up for grabs. The BBC will have no trouble getting its own license extended, but it would also like to be awarded the new network franchise. Only if it can prove itself competitive against front-running ITV in revenue as well as quality will it have much of a chance.