The document provides an overview of the emergence and development of television in Britain from the 1940s-1960s. It discusses the slow start of television due to postwar austerity and its infancy as a technology. It then covers the key events and developments that accelerated television's growth, including the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the launch of ITV in 1954 which ended the BBC's broadcasting monopoly, and influential reports like the Pilkington Report of 1962. The document also examines early television programming and audiences, and the debate around quality versus commercial broadcasting that helped define the postwar "cosy duopoly" between the BBC and ITV.

1. WK 7 – THE INVENTION OF
TELEVISION
Dr. Carolina Matos
Lecturer in Sociology
Department of Sociology
City University London

2. Core readings
• Essential reading
• Crisell, A. (1997) An Introductory History of British Broadcasting.
Routledge. Chapters 4, 5 & 6.
• OR
• Williams, K. (1998) Get Me a Murder a Day: A History of Mass
Communication in Britain. Arnold. Chapter 8.
• Highly recommended reading
• Curran, J. and J. Seaton (2010) Power Without Responsibility - 7th
Edition. Routledge. Chapters 11, 12 & 13.
• Scannell, P. (1991) A Social History of British Broadcasting – Vol. 1:
1922-1939 Serving the Nation. Blackwell.

3. Key issues
• The emergence of television
• Early TV sets
• The 1953 coronation of Queen Elisabeth II and television
• The campaign for commercial television
• The 1954 Television Act
• The impact of ITV on the broadcasting system
• The Pilkington Report
• The 1964 Broadcasting Act
• The cosy duopoly
• TV programmes examples (i.e. That Was the Week That Was)
• Conclusions and class topics
• Readings for week 8

4. 1946-1955: The Emergence of
Television*
• Key points:
• Postwar austerity
• Television programming was slow to develop
• Television technology in infancy
• Between 1945 and 1960, radio enjoyed what has been deemed its greatest
era, with distinguished programmes reaching audiences of several millions
• The BBC provided a vast amount of music of all kinds, but it was in the
field of comedy where its greatest achievements lied
• The post-war period saw the development of a series of comedy shows,
many of which lasted five to ten years

5. The early years of television*
• * The search for ways of sending pictures over distances began as early as
the efforts to transmit sound. The problem was to break down a sequence of
images into units of information which could be transmitted by wireless. The
first attempts were mechanical, and carried out by the German Paul Nipkow
and others like Charles Francis Jenkins.
• * The other strand of research into the scanning of images was electronic:
the cathode ray tube was developed by Karl Braun in 1897 and the photo-
electric cell by Julius Elster and Hans Geitel in 1905.
• The BBC became involved in developing television from about 1929 and
was pressed by the Post Office to provide the facility for the Scotsman, John
Logie Baird, to continue with his transmissions.
• Initially, sound and vision occupied a single wavelength: the speaker was
first seen without being heard.

6. Early TV sets: RCA CT-100 (April 1954)

7. The early years of television in Britain (in Crisell,
1997)
• In 1933, the BBC resolved to end Baird’s experiments because the rival
electronic technology seemed to be making more progress in the form of the
American-originated EMI system.
• In 1934, the government appointed the Seldson Committee to consider
the future of television broadcasting, and the latter recommended that a
regular public television service should be operated by the BBC, using both
the Baird and EMI systems on a weekly basis until the superiority of one or
the other had been proved.
• “According to Roy Armes (1988) it was not the first regular TV service in
the world: the Germans had begun theirs in March 1935. But since the latter
was transmitting only 180 line pictures, the BBC could claim credit for the
first high-definition service. It transmitted from Alexandra Palace in north
London and was received within a radius of 40 to 100 by a few thousand
viewers….”

8. The early years of television (in Crisell, 1997 and
Williams, 1998)
• The government accepted the recommendations that the service should not
carry advertising, but be paid out of the existing licence fee.
• Early broadcasts runs for two hours a day, excluding Sundays.
• The EMI system, using all-electronic, mobile cameras, delivered a picture of
405 lines, and in February 1937 the Baird system was dropped
• By modern standards, even the EMI picture was dim. It was in monochrome,
as all television pictures would be for the next thirty years.
• Television sets and audiences:
• * By 1938 about 5.000 sets had been bought. The average TV screen was
about eight inches by ten, and the pictures lacked definition and frequently
people needed to sit in a dark room in front of the set.
• * Pre-war television was aimed at a small and affluent audience in London.

9. Early TV sets: Zenith, circa 1950

10. Programmes of the time and audiences (in Crisell,
1997 and Williams, 1998)
• The service was a child of the BBC, and thus influenced by
the commitment to Reith’s public service principles
• However, as television was new and there was more
concern with its technical reliability, content was coming in
second and there was less concern with seriousness in
programming
• As well as light comedies nonetheless, viewers were
presented with plays by Beaumont and Fletcher,
Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw
• As Stuart Hood (1980: 60) affirmed:
• “The programmes the viewers wanted were dominated by
the concept of the West End show, of the revue and the kind
of entertainment which was the middle class audience’s idea
of a night out.”

11. The BBC and its attitudes to television*
Television and its slow development:
•The news until 1948 was broadcast in sound only: an anonymous announcer
reading the news behind a picture of the BBC clock.
•Dominated by the ‘old radio hands’, the BBC’s hierarchy regarded television
as an extension of radio
•The television service in the immediate post-war years was heavily
circumscribed, opening for an hour in the late afternoon, between 5 to 6 pm,
aimed at women and children mainly, and closed down until 7.30pm
• Other problems: the cost of producing television programmes, the cost of
television sets and the small audience
•“As a result TV output during this period was dull, dreary and unimaginative.
Many of the staples of radio were transferred to TV, in particular ‘Talks’
which constituted a strong part of the early output of BBC TV. …” (Williams,
1998).

12. The BBC and the 1950’s
• The predominance of radio over television:
• As Williams (1998) notes, the war had established the public’s appetite for
news, but radio did not want to jeopardise its reputation by putting its news
reporting at risk with television.
• The other important characteristic of this period was the absence of domestic
political discussion and commentary. The BBC’s own political
programmes focused on foreign and international politics.
• Panorama began life in 1953 as a fortnightly general information
programme, and when it became a harder current affairs programme, the
initial focus was on the world
• Two TV shows originated during this period: Come Dancing in 1950, and
What’s My Line? in 1951

13. The 2nd
June 1953 Coronation (Elisabeth II)
and television
• As Williams (1998) notes, the 1950’s were the ‘age of affluence’, with the
postwar rebuilding that followed the austerity of the late 1940s having
stimulated demand and economic growth.
• People were hungry for new goods, pleasures and activities.
• Britain’s first media event
• This was considered the corporation’s greatest television triumph and
symbolised the moment when television surpassed radio as the major mass
medium.
• 56 % of the UK adult population (20 million people) watched the
Coronation
• TV becoming a mass medium:
• 1950: only 4 % of the UK population owned a TV set
• 1955: 40 %
• 1960: 80 %

14. The 2nd
June 1953 Coronation
(Elisabeth II) and television

15. The 2nd
June 1953 Coronation (Elisabeth
II) and television

16. The Campaign for Commercial
Television
The Beveridge Report, 1951
Charges against the BBC:
• Acted as if it believed it had a divine right to broadcast (the Reith
legacy)
• Too biased in favour of London
• Minority report: Tory MP Selwin Lloyd
The BBC monopoly was questioned because:
• The deficiencies of the BBC
• The socio-economic climate
• Efficient lobbying from the advertising industry

17. The debate on quality in broadcasting*
• The commercial campaign lobby consisted of a group of Tory backbenchers
and enjoyed strong backing from business, among others Pye Radio, the
West End theatre managers and the advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson,
as well as the support of the Daily Mirror and the Financial Times
• Campaigners were concerned with distribution, and wanted to offer their
services to more than one broadcasting organization.
• Their opponents were seen as more concerned with content. These were led
by the Labour MP and BBC broadcaster Christopher Mayhew, including
churchmen, educators, politicians and journalists.
• Those who sought to preserve the BBC’s monopoly took on an elitist view,
that competition would drive out quality.
• The campaigners for commercial TV argued that competition would force
up quality.

18. The 1954 Television Act
• The 1954 Act ended the BBC’s monopoly
• ITV was to be constructed around two aspects of the Beveridge Report –
the preference of spot advertising over programme sponsorship and the
decentralisation of broadcasting
• ITV: Independent Television
• A network of 14 regional franchises
Each franchise holder entered into a separate contract with the ITA and was
answerable for the programmes in its region
• ITN: Independent Television News (central news service)
• ITA: Independent Television Authority
• The 1954 did not produce a truly commercial system, and more a hybrid one
combining characteristics of commercial and PSB.

19. ITV: A network of regional
franchises

20. The Impact of ITV on the Broadcasting
System
* Initial years were difficult, with audiences in small numbers which
made it difficult to attract advertisers
* As the transmitting system started to reach greater numbers and other
companies came on air, the growth in audiences brought a rise in
advertising.
1.Success - By 1957, the ITV companies saw a change in their financial
fortunes
2.Innovation
• Televisual approach to news - ITN reporters less deferential to
politicians than BBC journalists
• More popular programming (i.e. eight quiz shows every week)
• Introduction of new drama series, such as Coronation Street

21. • Sir Hugh Greene is seen as having been the greatest BBC director since John
Reith.
• By the time the Pilkington Committee reported in 1962, Greene had raised
the BBC’s audience share to 50:50 for the first time since the competition
began.
• Under him, the Corporation succeeded in justifying itself to Pilkington and
discrediting the achievements of ITV, thus capturing the third channel.
• The Pilkington report was disposed in their favour, as it had among its
members Professor Richard Hoggart, who was critical of the cultural
standards of the ITV
• It was seen as confining itself to entertaining people and not improving
them, and was sensitive to the enormous profits made by ITV, besides the
acquisition attitudes encouraged by the big money prizes of the ITV give
away shows.
The Pilkington Report and the state of broadcasting
(in Crisell, 1997, 108-109)

22. The Pilkington Report, June 1962
“Television does not, and cannot, merely reflect the
moral standards of society. It must affect them, either by
changing or by reinforcing them.” p. 19
“The kinds of programme which were cited to us as tending to
erode moral standards were, we recall, these: some
crime and adventure programmes, quizzes in which
valuable prizes were offered, programmes which
ridiculed and humiliated ordinary people, and some
forms of drama.” p. 57

23. The Pilkington Report
“It is not that an intellectual minority finds the
programmes trivial. Rather, it is that as quiz programmes
some of them do not stand on their merits – whatever the
educational standards of the audiences. In relying upon the
appeal to greed and fear, and to the pleasure of watching
these emotions roused in others because of valuable prizes
are at stake, and in relying on an atmosphere of artificial
good fellowship, these programmes abandon the objective -
light entertainment which amuses because it is good – for
light entertainment which is poor in invention and needs
the support of extraneous appeals… Accordingly, we
recommend that the maximum value of prizes should be
greatly reduced .” p. 58

24. The 1964 Broadcasting Act and BBC 2
1. The BBC rewarded for good behaviour
2. ITV’s commercialism curbed
3. Creation of the cosy duopoly
• Programmes that started in the 1960s include:
• That Was the Week That Was; Z Cars; Coronation
Street; Match of the Day; News at Ten, Monty
Python’s Flying Circus.

25. Quality versus commercial broadcasting:
the Cosy Duopoly
• Thus after initial difficulties in the 50’s and 60’s, the 1954 Act provided the
basis for the BBC and ITV to live together in relative harmony for the next
20 years.
• The changes brought about by the 1964 Act saw the ITV network move more
closely towards the public service responsibilities and away from
commercial considerations.
• At the same time, the BBC embarked in more adventurous programming
• Limited competition between BBC and ITV – For most of the period from
1964 up to the election of Thatcher in 1979, the BBC and ITV had roughly
the same share of viewing audience.

26. That Was the Week That Was
• A satirical programme
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INxp98-2i6A

27. Coronation Street
The first ever Coronation Street episode, 9th
December 1960
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT0Jz8KC9DA

28. Cathy Come Home (Loach, 1966)
• (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1RYVjlP0dM)

29. Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Final episode of Season 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyPRpmOpxnU

30. Conclusions and questions for thought
• Television was slow to develop, but eventually surpassed radio from the
1950’s onwards as a mass medium
• The BBC initially was reluctant and hesitant to embrace television due to
cultural elitism attitudes, and the medium took some time to find its potential
• The emergence of ITV, and commercial broadcasting, also shaped
significantly the development of broadcasting in Britain
• The debate on quality and commercial broadcasting does not seem to
have gone away.
• Class topics: - Outline the circumstances in which ITV was launched and
explain what was so innovative in the network’s structure and programming.
And what was the impact the network on broadcasting in the 1960s and
1970s?
• - What was meant by the phrase ‘comfortable duopoly’ as applied to
television in Britain?

31. Readings for week 8
• Essential reading
• Chalaby, J. (2010) ‘The rise of Britain’s super-indies: Policy-making in the
age of the global media market’, the International Communication Gazette,
72(8): 675-693.
• Doyle, G. And R. Paterson (2008) ‘Public Policy and Independent
Television Production In the U.K.’, Journal of Media Business Studies, 5(3):
17-33. (Web link on moodle and article free to download from the journal’s
website.)
• Highly recommended reading
• Crisell, A. (1997) An Introductory History of British Broadcasting.
Routledge. Chapter 9.
• Curran, J. and J. Seaton (2010) Power Without Responsibility - 7th
Edition.
Routledge. Chapter 13.