Now that 1985 budgets have been set, we have begun pursuing our strategy for next year for U.S. television markets. The plan is to double our coverage in the top fifty population centers where we currently have only one station. In the past couple of weeks, the following stations have been cleared.
Market - NEW STATIONS - Effective Date
California San Diego - KGTV, Channel 10, Sunday, 7:00 a.m. - January 6 Los Angeles - KSCI, Channel 18, Friday, 8:30 a.m. - December 21
District of Columbia Washington - WJLA, Channel 7, Sunday, 11:00 a.m. - December 23
Missouri Kansas City - KSHB, Channel 41, Sunday, 7:30 a.m. - December 23
New York New York - Lifetime Cable Network, Saturday, 10:30 p.m. (EST) - December 15
Virginia Richmond - WRLH, Channel 35, Sunday, 9 p.m. - January 6
Market - TIME CHANGE - Effective Date
Florida Tampa - WXFL, Channel 8, Sunday, 11:30 a.m. - January 6
The Lifetime Cable Network, with 22.5 million subscribers and available in many states, produced a very fine response at its first airing of the broadcast last Saturday evening. The station could very well provide our second or third best response each week.
Last week I returned from visiting several cities in the top thirty markets — Miami, Orlando, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Houston. Already Orlando has come on stream, and as you can see above, the Tampa station will move "The WORLD TOMORROW" to 11:30 a.m., preceding their news analysis program. We are hopeful that Miami, Houston and St. Petersburg will open up a second time for us early next year.
International
On his return to Pasadena recently, Mr. Armstrong related an interesting development in Sri Lanka. We have had difficulties airing the telecast there for quite some time and following Mr. Armstrong's visit with President Junius Richard Jayewardene, the program will run 7:30 Sunday evenings without interruption. In fact, in the few days following Mr. Armstrong's visit, several TV tapes were run.
Meanwhile in Canada, we are gearing up for our largest direct mail campaign to date. One million pieces will be mailed in late January. We anticipate fifty to sixty thousand new subscribers as a result.
READER'S DIGEST ads continue to show excellent responses, with the following editions slated for ads in early 1985.
February Hong Kong Japan South Africa South Korea Sri Lanka Taiwan
March Belgium (Dutch) Canada (French) Netherlands (Dutch) New Zealand
Your prayers that these doors will stay open around the world are certainly appreciated.
MEDIA PURCHASING UPDATE
Worldwide Church of God