The British Government and Television

The British Government has always played a key role in the development of broadcasting policy, which has direct implications for the production of television programmes, in the United Kingdom. No significant structural changes have taken place without the report of a major Government committee followed by a parliamentary act. Some of the more significant reports and acts are:

- the Selsdon Committee Report (1935) on the development of television and the relative merits of the different technical systems then available;
- The Hankey Committee Report (1945) on post-war television in Britain;
- the Beveridge Committee (1949-51) the result of which was the Broadcasting Act of 1954 which recommended the creation of commercial TV;
- the Pilkington Committee (1960-62) which led to the Broadcasting Act of 1964 and the creation of BBC2;
- the Annan Committee (1974-77) which led to the Broadcasting Act of 1980 and the creation of Channel 4;
- The Hunt Report (1982) which led to Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 setting up the new Cable Authority to oversee the selection and monitoring of the operations of the new cable operators;
- the Peacock Report published in July 1986 which reinterpreted the role of the market in broadcasting, argued against introducing advertising on the BBC system but recommended a quota for independent production;
- the Broadcasting Act of 1990 which re-structured the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) as the Independent Television Commission (ITC) incorporating the Cable Authority and also restructured the ITV franchise system;
- 1995 BBC Charter Renewal.

The BBC History

By far the largest and still in many ways the most interesting producer of television in the United Kingdom is the British Broadcasting Corporation itself. The BBC is a public corporation which operates under a Royal Charter of Incorporation (first granted on 1 January 1927 when the BBC was a purely radio organisation) and funded through a license fee system. The Corporation now supplements this income from foreign sales and cable and satellite contracts. It is a national broadcaster based in London but it also has eight regional TV studios in England and further studios in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The government appoints, on a five year rolling basis, a board of 12 governors to oversee the running of the corporation.

John (later Lord) Reith was the first Managing Director of the BBC when it was founded in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, and was eventually named director general. In his 16 years at the BB he exerted the greatest direct influence on attitudes about broadcasting in the United Kingdom, and, indirectly influenced the development of public service broadcasting in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Reith gave rise to the original conception of the principle of public service broadcasting "to inform, educate and entertain." Public Service Broadcasting is a much debated principle and includes attitudes about the responsibility to be objective and balanced when reporting events in news, current affairs and documentary programmes.

The issues surrounding Public Service Broadcasting have had a direct relationship to program production in the UNITED KINGDOM Following World War II BBC Television resumed transmissions on 7 June 1946 and enjoyed a monopoly of TV broadcasting until Associated Rediffusion made the first commercially funded transmission at 7:15 P.M. on 22 September 1955. A second BBC TV service, called BBC2, was launched in April 1964. The channel had a more specialist and cultural focus.

There have been 11 Director General's since John Reith and perhaps the most famous has been Hugh (later Sir Hugh) Carleton Greene, brother of novelist and film critic Graham Greene. He defended the BBC against criticism of some of the most exciting and daringly satirical productions (That Was The Week That Was) that reflected the shifting moral and political climate of the "permissive" and "swinging" 1960s. Director General John Birt (January 1993- ) is noted for his role in re-structuring the BBC and it practices in the mid-1990s in order to make the Corporation more financially and administratively efficient and smaller in scale. Whilst not responsible for having invented the concept of "Producer Choice", John Birt developed a notoriety for implementing a more wide-ranging version of the controversial system whereby all producers have total control over an individual programme budget and don't have to use the internal technical facilities. Instead they are encouraged to hire outside technical facilities with the lowest bid on a project.

The BBC World Service is one of the oldest and most respected services globally, a reputation which was established during World War II. It is the only section of the BBC not funded from the license fee--the bulk of the income comes from the Foreign Office--and it launched BBC World Service TV in October 1991.

The BBC has also established significant operations which lie outside mainstream broadcasting. These include BBC Enterprises which was set up to market BBC programmes internationally and has become one of the key wings of the whole operation, and the BBC's Open University operation which has transmitted OU television and radio programmes since 1971.

Commericial Television History

In the mid-1950s commercial television began in the United Kingdom. A new group of broadcasters emerged, who were also to be heavily involved in the production of original programming for television. In setting up commercial television in the UNITED KINGDOM, the government of the day created the Independent Television Authority (ITA) on 30 July 1954 by an act of parliament. The ITA later became the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) when commercial radio was introduced to the UK in 1972. The ITA/IBA fulfilled four functions:
(1) to build, operate and own the transmitters;
(2) appoint the independent programme companies; (3) supervise programmes;
(4) controll advertising.

The purpose of the ITA/IBA was the ensure that the commercial companies observed a broad public service broadcasting policy, and as balanced a diet of programmes as the BBC. Independent television broadcasters were also required to provide fair, objective and balanced reporting in news, current affairs and documentary programmes. Similarly to the BBC, the ITA/IBA had a board of 12 governors appointed by the government. The first chair was Sir Kenneth Clarke and the first director general Sir Robert Fraser, both appointmented on 3 August 1954.

The 1990-restructured organization, now named the Independent Television Commission (ITC), periodically organises the re-allocation of commercial television franchises as a way of encouraging the companies to maintain and improve standards. After the founding companies were established in 1955, franchise reallocations took place in 1968, 1982 and 1990. Most of the companies maintain their franchises but over the years there were notable surprises.

Commercial TV is funded by advertising, overseas sales and, more recently, through sponsorship and cable and satellite deals. Until 1990 the commercial companies paid an annual fee to the ITA/IBA to finance that operation and also a levy to the Exchequer which, for many years, amounted to 66.6% of all profits.

Commercial TV is structured regionally with two companies serving London (one on weekdays and the other at weekends) and 13 others serving the rest of the United Kingdom. The companies jointly owned a company which was a national news provider, Independent Television News (ITN). The commercial companies therefore did not compete with each other for advertising revenue but instead worked in consort to compete with the BBC for audience share. After a financially disastrous first year of operation the commercial companies established the "Network" where the five largest companies met regularly to organise the schedule for peak time viewing (i.e. 7:30-10:30 P.M.). Between these hours programming across the country is identical. For the rest of the schedule there are regional variations and "opt-outs".

Traditionally the companies fell into three groups.
(1) The "Big Five" covered the four most densely populated parts of the England--London (two companies), the Midlands, the northwest and Yorkshire. These companies provided the bulk of the domestically produced programmes for the network. The companies have changed over the years but the most influential have been, in London: Thames Television and London Weekend Television; in the Midlands: Central TV; in the northwest: Granada TV; in Yorkshire: Yorkshire TV.
(2) The middle five (sometimes called the "mini-majors") covered the less populated areas and produced perhaps two hours of networked programming a week plus a range of regional programmes. The regions are: south and southeast England; east of England; northeast England; central Scotland; and Wales and the west of England.
(3) The smallest five cover the remote and least populous areas of the United Kingdom. They make an average of one hour a day of local programming. The regions are: southwest England; The Borders (south Scotland and the Isle of Man); north Scotland; northern Ireland; and the Channel Islands.

Channel 4

A second commercial channel--Channel Four--began transmission on 2 November 1982. This national channel, a wholly owned subsidiary of the ITC, is also funded by advertising but has a specialist, minority interest. Channel 4 has a radically different structure to the other TV organisation in the United Kingdom. and was set up as a result of the Annan Commission Report. Published in March 1977 the report recommended that a fourth channel be run by an Open Broadcasting Authority on a publishing model.

In addition to mainstream programming it encourages programmes which reflect the concerns of minority groups (blacks, the disabled), disadvantaged groups (women, the working class), and political parties broadcasting partisan programs. Individual programmes are allowed to display bias and offer controversial views as long as the overall schedule reflects a balanced range of positions.

Channel 4 does not make its own programmes but commissions independent producers and production companies (including commercial ITV companies) to make programmes and is therefore considered to function more like a book publisher. This structure encouraged the development of small independent television production companies in the early 1980s.

Wales has its own Channel 4 called Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) which began transmission on 1 November 1982 and transmits a significant percentage of its programmes in Welsh. It also transmits BBC Welsh language programmes making it the only commercial channel to schedule BBC programmes.

Breakfast Television

Breakfast TV was not introduced until 1983. The IBA created a franchise for a national station to run for three hours each morning. It was awarded to TV-AM, a new TV company which featured on screen the Famous Five: David Frost, Michael Parkinson, Robert Kee, Anna Ford, and Angela Rippon. TV-AM promised to offer a dynamic and exciting news service and took to the air with a self-declared "mission to explain." The BBC decided to establish its own five-days-a-week breakfast news service (Breakfast Time, renamed Breakfast News in 1989) which went on air two weeks earlier (17 January 1983) thereby making the competition tough for the fledgling commercial station which began transmission on 1 February 1983.

Viewer ratings for TV-AM's Good Morning Britain were disastrous and in less than three months, four of the "Five," plus the chairman and chief executive Peter Jay, resigned. Timothy Aitkin and, eventually, Bruce Gyngell took over, making a commercial success of the station. During the 1991 franchise renewals TV-AM lost its license due to being outbid by Sunrise Television (later renamed GMTV).

Shortly afterwards Channel 4 started its own breakfast service which provided a high-powered news and business information service. Since 1982 it has gone down market to offer essentially a kid's show produced by Bob Geldorf's Planet 24.

The Main Commercial Television Companies

Thames Television won the London weekday franchise on 29 July 1968, and was formed by the merger of ABC and Associated Rediffusion, the very first company to begin commercial TV transmissions in 1955. For many years Thames was the largest and wealthiest of the ITV companies and built a high reputation for producing a wide range of high quality programmes with a particular emphasis on contemporary drama. Jeremy Isaacs, director of programmes in the 1970s, became the first chief executive of Channel 4 and was dubbed "the finest Director General the BBC never had." Thames TV also owned the highly successful film production company Euston Films which produced many of its major drama successes including The Sweeney, Minder, Out, FoxWidows and Reilly - Ace of Spies. Surprisingly, given the success of the company, it lost its franchise in 1991 when it was outbid by Carlton Communications. Since then Thames has concentrated on programme production and has also helped to establish the satellite channel U. K. Gold which broadcasts archive Thames material alongside old BBC favourites.

London Weekend Television (LWT) obtained the franchise for weekend transmissions in London in 1967 and went on air on 2 August 1968, replacing Associated Television (ATV-- the only company which held franchises in two regions). The company is well-known for its Light Entertainment productions, Current Affairs coverage with Weekend World and Walden, and the longest running Arts programme, Melvyn Bragg's The South Bank Show (launched in 1978).

Central Independent Television went on air on 1 January 1982, and covers the East and West Midlands region. Lord Grade of Elstree (Lew Grade) was, for many years, Chief Executive of ATV and the most powerful personality in British TV. He was also chairman of Associated Communications Corporation which was Britain's only fully-fledged entertainment conglomerate. He was also, from the 1950s the most successful exporter of British TV programmes to the United States including series such as The Saint, The Persuaders, The Julie Andrews Show and The Muppets. In 1991 Central retained its franchise with a bid of just #2,000 (there were no competitors) and was subsequently taken over by Carlton Communications.

Granada Television Network covers the North West of England and began transmission on 5 May 1956. One of the most influential people in the early days of British television was Granada's chair Sidney Bernstein, who The Observer described in 1959 as "...the celebrated Socialist millionaire, Sidney Bernstein, the Mr. Culture of TV". Granada TV Network Ltd was born out of the 22 year old Granada Group which ran a chain of cinemas and theatres. Granada TV built a solid reputation as one of the most important contributors to the ITV Network particularly in current affairs, drama and regional programming. Its two most famous and longest running shows are the current affairs programme World in Action (from January 1963 to present day) and the first British television soap opera Coronation Street (from December 1960 to present day). Granada is the longest surviving ITV company and in the 1990s took over LWT and also bought shares in Rupert Murdoch's satellite channel, BSkyB.

Independent Television News (ITN), established as a specialist news company in 1955 is a wholly owned subsidiary of the ITV companies. Its first bulletin was transmitted on 22 September 1955. Following the new regulations of the 1990 Broadcasting Act ITN was re-founded as a profit-making news business with commercial contracts to the ITV companies and other broadcasters. It is owned by a consortium of Carlton, Central, Granada, LWT, Reuters (all 18%) and Anglia and STV (both 5%).

Until the creation of Channel 4 virtually all domestic television was produced by either the BBC or the ITV companies. Furthermore, strict controls were placed on the importation of foreign programming. Basically 84% of all television transmitted had to be domestically produced. There was a proliferation of new small independent production companies, fuelled by the Channel Four commissions, and the 1990 Broadcasting Bill that required both the BBC and ITV companies to commission at least 25% of their programmes from independent producers by 1993.

Alternate Delivery Systems

Cable television (using coaxial cable) began in the late 1940s as a master antenna system for communities that had poor reception signals due to buildings, topographical problems or distance from relay antenna. In 1972 Britain's first local cable station was inaugurated by Greenwich Cablevision on 3 July with a programme entitled Cable Town. This station was followed by five others: Bristol Channel, Sheffield Cablevision, Swindon Viewpoint, Cablevision (Wellingborough) Ltd and Milton Keynes' Channel 40 with two experiments taking place in Scotland.

Five Direct Broadcasting by Satellite (DBS) channels were allocated to Britain at the World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) in 1977. Two of these channels were allocated exclusively to the BBC in 1982 which was the year that Rupert Murdoch's Sky Channel in Europe was launched. Sky used existing telecommunication satellites to broadcast to cable stations and by the time the Astra satellites went into orbit, Sky was able to launch four satellite channels direct into peoples' homes.

Also in 1982 the British Government accepted the Home Office recommendation that the new D-MAC technical format be adopted. Thus committed to this format British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) won the DBS contract in 1986 and, after many financial and technical setbacks the service was officially launched in April 1990. However Sky had already launched service using conventional television standards. Both companies experienced serious financial difficulties,Sky announcing operating losses of #95,000,000 with #121,000,000 start-up costs. However, BSB's problems were the greater. On 2 November 1990 the merger of the two companies was formally announced. The new company was called BskyB, trading as Sky. Sky offered nine of its own channels and marketed a range of other channels in its Sky Multi-Channel package.

Both cable and satellite have been slow to develop in the United Kingdom. A number of reasons have been suggested for this seeming lack of interest in these "new" delivery systems, including the generally perceived high quality and wide variety of terrestrial television--despite the limit of four channels--resulting in overall audience satisfaction. In the 1990s cable was finally beginning to take off, and satellite "sports wars" go more people to subscribe to satellite channels.

However, a significant reason for the slow development of cable and satellite has been the undoubted success of video in the United Kingdom market, one of the highest levels of video penetration in the world. The technology is used extensively for time-shift viewing--another example of audience satisfaction with British TV--but also for video rental which is particularly strong among the large ethnic communities, such as those from the Indian sub-continent, where video is used to maintain cultural cohesion through the viewing of Asian films and TV programmes.

-Manuel Alvarado