History of Television

The following account of the history of British television is largely based on more detailed histories provided by Wyver (1989) and Wheen (1985), amongst others (see sources). It is provided to give a background to several key issues and debates that reoccur in discussions about the television medium.

A Scottish engineer - John Logie Baird - is often credited with the invention of television . He had been experimenting with the the problems of sending pictures from one place to another for a number of years and in 1926 he demonstrated a television by mechanically scanning a screen made up of twenty-five lines. His experiments continued for ten years, but those who bought or built early receivers (at great cost) had to telephone him after transmission to check what they had been watching !

In fact, the race to build the first television had been going on around the world for some years. The idea of television had been in the minds of scientists since the 1880s. The invention of photo-sensitive selenium cells in 1873, the German Paul Nipkow's rotating scanning apparatus in 1884, and Karl Braun's cathode ray tube in 1897 were just some of the important developments that brought the possibility of what the British scientist Campbell Swinton described in 1908 as 'distant electric vision' a step closer.

At the same time that Logie Baird was transmitting rudimentary images in London the Hungarian D. Von Mihaly, a Japanese lecturer in engineering Kenjiro Takayanagi, Soviet inventor Boris Grabovsky and Russian exile Vladimir Zworykin and an American, Charles Francis Jenkins were independently giving similar demonstrations of 'televised' images of varying qualities at different locations around the world.

In April 1927, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) gave a public demonstration in which a speech by the US Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, was broadcast from Washington and watched in New York by an invited audience of business executives, bankers and newspaper editors. Hoover's appearance, the first by any politician on television, was front line headlines in the next day's New York Times.

In May 1928 General Electric began making regular, thrice weekly broadcasts from radio station WGY in New York. In August 1928 WGY transmitted Al Smith's speech accepting his nomination for the US Pesidency and in September 1928 it broadcast the first television drama - 'The Queen's Messenger'. According to Wheen (1985):

'The play had only two characters in it, which was just as well, since anything with a large cast would have defeated General Electric's primitive equipment. Each camera could only scan an area twelve inches square - enough for a human head and not much else. Three cameras were used: one for the actress, one for the actor, and one for the two 'doubles'. These doubles had an essential part to play, as the main actress and actor could not move their heads without going out of focus. Whenever the script called for another shot - a hand holding a glass of wine, for instance, there was a switch to the third camera, where one of the doubles' hands would be seen.'

In May 1927 John Logie Baird, aware of the competition from across the Atlantic, transmitted pictures of himself from London to Glasgow - more than twice the distance covered by AT&T's transmission of Hoover's speech the previous month. In February 1928 Baird gave a public demonstration of television transmissions from London to New York - an event descibed as of 'epochal importance' by the New York Times. In July 1928 he demonstrated colour television by using a spinning disc fitted with red, blue and green filters. However, 'the father of television', as he came to be known, was still unable to broadcast officially, until the Post Office's engineers were happy with the quality of his experimental transmissions. The BBC was also unhappy about the quality of the transmissions and only reluctantly allowed him to use their transmitters from September 1929, when the radio was not on air - in the morning and late at night.

The first regular 'high-definition' television transmissions began from the BBC studios at Alexandra Palace, North London in November 1936. ('High definition' had been defined by Lord Selsdon's 1935 government report as a minimum of 240 lines). Broadcasting was limited to a twenty-five mile radius from the transmitter . Initially the BBC used competing systems: (EMI's electronic scanning system and Baird's mechanical system), requiring different televisions, on alternate weeks. Eventually, EMI's system was clearly shown to be more reliable and have better picture quality than Baird's mechanical system. Because of such initial confusion and the high cost of television receivers, the earliest audiences tended to be both wealthy and few in number. The new medium was, at first, seen as an experimental 'poor relation' of radio.

Early television material , like early cinema, made use of sporting, political and social events such as the Derby, the coronation of George VI, classical concert performances and political speeches. These had the obvious attraction that they did not include any actual production costs other than the recording of the event. Early television also included forms from other media such as variety shows, plays and Hollywood produced feature films and series.

In Germany and the Soviet Union regular transmissions were being broadcast, but the only sets built were designed for communal viewing. Berlin for example, had eleven public viewing rooms, which were run by the German post office. Both Dr Goebbels and Hitler took a close interest in the possibilities of television for broadcasting Nazi propaganda in the form of speeches, short films and documentaries, as well as for morale boosting entertainment. For example, the Berlin Olympics of 1936 were televised and audiences in the viewing rooms were said to be as high as 150,000. German television continued to broadcast in the evenings throughout the war (on the basis of 'forces' welfare) until the Berlin transmitter was destroyed by Allied bombers in November 1943.

British television broadcasts, by contrast, were stopped altogether during the war in case the transmissions aided enemy bombers. Marconi-EMI, whose television system had been selected in the trials against Baird's, built the Chain Home Radar system using much of the same equipment as was used for the television transmission. After 1945, however, Marconi UK, amongst other companies, were eager to use wartime developments in the electronic's field and existing assembly lines. The BBC resumed limited broadcasting in June 1946, when viewers were required to take out a 'combined sound and TV license'. Nine months later it had an audience of less than 15,000, but by 1951 there were nearly 600,000 viewers. The new "consumer society" was growing slowly in Britain compared to America. Nevertheless, by 1956 the total number of TV receivers numbered 6 million, due to increased wealth and new transmitters. This growth and the success of sponsorship on television in America led to pressure from manufacturers to break up the BBC's monopoly of the medium and allow advertising on British Television.

TV in the 1950's

Television in America had stayed on throughout the war. By the 1950's big profits were being made in TV and advertising was being attracted away from radio. Variety and 'sit-coms' became the staple of the new medium. Advertisers could pay for complete programmes, so it was easy for sponsors to bring pressure to bear on programme makers. Lewis (1986) illustrates how much power these advertisers had:

'For example, you couldn't 'ford' a river in a Western sponsored by Chevrolet. And Ford are reported to have deleted a shot of the New York skyline because it showed the Chrysler building. In 1953, Kipling's 'The Light That Failed' had to be broadcast as 'The Gathering Night' because Westinghouse, who make light bulbs, was a sponsor. When the American Gas Association sponsored 'Judgement at Nuremburg' all references to gas chambers were eliminated from the account of the holocaust.'

In Britain, increased affluence, pressure from advertisers and the electronics manufacturers and the BBC's only half hearted commitment to the television medium led to growing demands for a commercial TV channel funded not by the license fee but by advertising. In 1954 the conservative government introduced the Television Act which enabled 'television broadcasting services additional to those of the BBC...' While allowing advertising the Act also required commercial television to provide a 'public service' that would 'inform, educate and entertain' its audience.

Independent Television (ITV) - a group of independent regional TV companies began broadcasting in September 1955 initially to a fairly limited audience. Fear of financial collapse forced the networks to exchange their best programmes on a regular basis and schedule more popular items such as the American Western series 'Gunsmoke' at peak viewing times. 'Spot' advertising breaks, limited to six or seven minutes per hour , were far less frequent and intrusive compared to American television, but with a high quota of US imports and cheaper production costs (e.g. cheaper prizes for quiz shows) ITV was soon making a profit. By 1956 it was clear that ITV was a success. The Canadian franchise holder Roy Thompson, first owner of Scottish TV, described commercial TV as 'a licence to print your own money'.

While ITV grew, the BBC continued to build new transmitters so that by 1958 80% of the population could receive both BBC and ITV programmes. But the BBC's share of the audience was falling rapidly, reaching a low point of 28% in 1957. While ITV set out to be popular with 'brash' new programmes seeking the mass audience, the BBC was still felt to be trying to 'improve' its audience, creating feelings of alienation with its 'highbrow' approach.

TV in the 1960's

In the late 1950's the BBC began to challenge ITV 's position with more popular, fast moving programmes such as Jack Good's '6.5 Special' pop music show, the comedy series 'Hancock's Half Hour' and the hugely popular 'Grandstand'. This new more popular direction was further continued by the new Director General Hugh Greene who was appointed in 1960. Under Greene's control the BBC was given a younger and more contemporary image. Successful programmes included 'That Was The Week That Was', the gritty police series 'Z Cars', science fiction in the form of 'Dr Who', comedy such as 'Steptoe and Son' and 'Till Death Do Us Part' and controversial drama such as 'Up the Junction' and 'Cathy Come Home'.

As John Wyver notes in 'The Moving Image', this new, questioning attitude distinguished much of the Corporations output in the 1960's, and seemed to match the political promise offered by a new Labour government and the broader social and cultural changes of the decade. But even in this new climate there were still limits, in television if not elsewhere, as when in 1965 the BBC stopped the transmission of 'The War Game', Peter Watkins' graphic account of a nuclear attack on Britain.

Part of the BBC's new-found confidence in the 1960's sprang from the findings of the Pilkington Committee, set up to advise the government on the future of broadcasting. The committees report published in 1962 praised the BBC's 'professionalism' and its commitment to public service broadcasting. It ruled out the need for advertising and accepted the BBC's bid to start a third channel (BBC2), which went on the air in 1964.

Its profile as an up-market, special interest and cultural channel was successfully developed with series such as 'The Forsyth Saga' and 'Civilisation' contrasting middle-class culture and popular presentation in ways which proved enormously popular and influential. Initially, at any rate, the transfer of more 'quality' programmes to the new channel meant that the BBC could put more 'popular' programmes on BBC1 and compete on a more equal footing with ITV.

In contrast to its praise for the BBC, the Pilkington Committee was widely critical of ITV who it effectively criticised for 'debauching' public taste and recommended that greater control be placed over its output via the Independent Television Authority (ITA).

Since the mid 50's new kinds of highly formulaic content were being produced specifically for the television medium with the US market usually leading the way. These included game shows, talk shows, half hour situation comedies and hour long action drama series. Drama, like comedy, was constructed around a repeatable situation, often provided by a professional activity (eg legal or medical). A major limitaion of the drama/comedy formula was that the central characters had to remain unchanged by the episode's events in order to be in their proper places by the following weeks episode. The serial form provided the programming stability necessary to deliver viewers to advertisers on a regular basis.

ITV was in danger of moving towards the position of the networks in the US of carrying their audiences from one show to the next using the principle of 'least objectionable programming'. This meant that the majorty of viewers who simply watched television, rather than selecting specific programmes, would watch whichever show they disliked least. The unit of television viewing was therefore not the individual programme but the daytime or evening schedule as a whole. (Wyver 1989)

In 1966 the ITA, spurred on by the Pilkington Committee report asked each of the regional networks to look at the make-up of their primetime schedules and to try 'to whet the appetites of the more intelligent viewers by providing more variation from the standard fare'. One indirect result was 'News at Ten' - a half hour news broadcast from ITN each weekday night. Another was an increasing public service commitment to cultural series such as 'Tempo' and a wide range of documentaries and dramas, notably 'This Week' and Granada's 'World in Action'.

TV in the 1970's and 1980's

The difficult but apparently successful balancing act British television negotiated between public service and commercial pressures continued through much of the 1970's and 80's with Britain granted the dubious distinction of having 'the least worst television in the world'. The idea of 'competition for audiences but not for revenue' became accepted as the driving force of British television and the best means of ensuring a healthy public service commitment.

'The BBC knew that as its audience share fell, the case for a compulsory fee would become weaker and that getting the fee raised at the regular three yearly review would be trickier...The popularity of programmes therefore did become a factor in BBC calculations in a qualitatively different way from previously.' ('The British Press and Broadcasting Since 1945' Colin Seymour Ure)

Another sensitive factor in both the BBC and ITV's relationship with government was coverage of political issues. This was particularly the case under the Thatcher administration with TV scrutinised in its treatment of union disputes, the Falklands War and the ongoing conflict in Northern Ireland. It is claimed by some analysts that "Death on the Rock' - an ITV documentary on the shooting of suspected IRA terrorists by the SAS on Gibralta - so enraged Mrs Thatcher that she began investigating means of breaking the BBC/ ITV 'duopoly' at this point. It is these investigations which, it is said, lead to the 1990 Broadcasting Act.

In 1982 Channel 4 began broadcasting, except in Wales which was given a corresponding service - Sianel Pedwar Cymra (S4C). Channel 4 was, and still is, required to present programmes that are complementary to those of ITV, appealing to tastes and interests not normally catered for by the original independent service. Initially this took the form of highly original 'offbeat' programming, much of which was aimed at cultural minorities.

TV in the 1990's

The 1990's have seen commercial pressures diluting much of Channel 4's original innovation and experimentation, with viewing figures being increasingly bolstered by American situation comedies and other more 'mainstream' fare. However, the greatest challenges to existing forms of television in Britain came in the aftermath of the 1990 Broadcasting Act. The Act overhauled the regulations of independent television replacing the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) with the Independent Television Commission (ITC) which implements new licensing arrangements. These are, in short, a blind auction with the broadcasting franchise given for a particular region to any company making the highest bid (delivered to the ITC in sealed envelopes). Despite assurances of quality tests, early experiences have shown that commercial pressures drive programme makers inexorably down market to make financial savings and boost ratings. (see Chapter Public Service Broadcasting)

Furthermore, mergers and takeovers by larger companies became commonplace following the Act, confiming fears of increased concentration of ownership. (Carlton/Central, Medidian/Anglia, Yorkshire/Tyne Tees, Granada/LWT) and in June 1993 the ITV companies announced a desire to move News at Ten out of its prime 10pm slot. The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom predicts that in five years time 'ITV will effectively be run by Carlton and one other company - possibly Granada - in the North.'

Despite the government's claim that it does not wish to reduce the role of public service broadcasting , the Broadcasting Act has had huge consequences for the BBC. One of many changes being their new obligation, along with the ITV network, to contract out 25% of their output to independent companies. The CPBF also argue in 'Selling the Beeb' that the current push towards market dominance in broadcasting 'would lead to the BBC being gradually dismantled'.

Granville Williams (1994) argues that, as a result of the 1990 Broadcasting Act, relatively secure public service broadcasting units committed to production values and often exploring issues and ideas in innovative ways have been replaced by small freelance production companies that are highly vulnerable to business and political pressure:

'Broadcasting control, rather than being in the hands of regulatory bodies with the requirement to ensure high quality, balanced and universally accessible output, is now falling into the hands of major corporations and conglomerates, the likes of News Corporation, Finivest, Time Warner and Sony. Competition for advertising revenue has also cut into the editorial and creative independence of programme makers. Sponsorship, bartering and product placement by a small number of corporations are shaping the information and entertainment which audiences receive.'

Powerful technological and institutional determinants are rapidly shaping a new broadcasting landscape in the final years of the decade. A more aggressive pursuit of audiences has been reflected in scheduling policies and programme making by the terrestrial stations in Britain who face increased competition from satellite and cable. In March 1997 Channel 5, a 'general interest' commercial station was launched, offering a mixture of entertainment and drama offered in a 'modern, fresh and energetic' way. Managers promised at its launch that at least 60 per cent of programmes would be new productions and that just 15 per cent of airtime would be taken up by the showing of old films. The channel broadcasts feature films every weekday at peak viewing times against its terrestrial competitors who are constrained by law to offer news programmes during their evening schedules.

Channel 5 is controlled by three media conglomerates, Pearson, United News and Media and CLT/UFA. Pearson owns the Financial Times, The Economist, Penguin and Longman publishers and has shares in BSKYB and Yorkshire/Tyne Tees TV. United News and Media owns the Express group, and CLT/UFA links the Luxembourg-based CLT television group with the German media-giant Bertelsmann. Channel 5 reached around 60 per cent of British homes at its launch and hoped to sustain an 8 per cent share of total viewing figures. Channel 5 was launched just a few months before the arrival of digital satellite broadcasts, which, analysts claim, may come to be the most potent force in tomorrow's broadcast media world. (see chapter New Technology)

Task

Research and prepare an essay plan for the following question with regard to the international history of the medium:

In what sense can pre-war television be described as experimental?

Essay

What are the major forces that have helped shape contemporary British television ?

Sources

Wyver, J. (1989) The Moving Image. An International History of Film, Television and Video. BFI publishing/ Basil Blackwell

Wheen, F. (1985) Television - A History. Guild Publishing

Lewis, P. (1986) Media and Power. Camden Press

O'Malley, T. and Treharne, J. (1993) Selling the Beeb. CFBT

Williams, G. (1994) Britain's Media - How They Are Related. CFBT

Semour Ure, C. (1991) The British Press and Broadcasting Since 1945. Blackwell