It was June of 1947 when Weaver returned to Young and Rubicam, except this time he was given the title of vice president in charge of radio, television and movies. Weaver admits this position sounded grandiose and notes, with regard to the 'movies' part that "movies were included in my domain simply because my eyes were focused on grand visions of television's future" (p. 160). But, grand visions these were; by the end of 1947 there were only 200,000 television sets in all of the United States. In addition, at that time there existed only about twenty television stations in the nation. Most importantly, the coaxial cables necessary for transmission at that time were not yet laid in most places. But, television manufacturers were optimistic and were predicting that by the end of 1948 there would be more than a million television sets in the U.S. (p. 161). Weaver had caught this optimism. Or, perhaps it was a new challenge of which he caught wind.

The 1947-48 Y&R television season consisted mainly of simulcasts of some of Y&R's radio hits such as The Life of Riley and Talent Scouts. Weaver and his team were, however, able to put on at least one new television show, The Bigelow Show. The goal with these early shows was to keep costs to a bare minimum because the sponsor was not guaranteed any particular bang for his buck. So, shows with little in the way of sets, stagehands and scenery were easier to sell to sponsors; The Bigelow Show fit that bill.

It was during this time that Weaver began to form the foundations of the ideas that would eventually revolutionize the way broadcast advertising is sold. He began to realize that, since television shows were so much costlier to produce than radio shows, it would be difficult to find sponsors both willing and able to sponsor shows. In addition, this increase in production costs made it difficult, at best, to fully take advantage of the advantages that television offered. He thought that the networks were in the perfect position to "fulfill television's promise" (p. 164) because their programming policies could be based on the big picture instead of programming being held hostage by sponsors. In addition, the financial risks that sponsors faced by entering television were great.

To alleviate this risk, Weaver began talking with other advertising agencies to try to convince them to set up some sort of advertising cooperative. His idea was simple - get more than one advertiser to sponsor a show so that they could split the costs. But, agencies were too competitive to think they could work together. Sponsors too let the competitive spirit dictate their views on the subject; most felt that the audience would find that more than one sponsor would completely negate the effects of any advertising message.