Hi there,
I'm a telly addict based in the UK, and love nothing better than to discover old television programmes from across the decades, whether they be the obvious favourites like Coronation Street and Eastenders, or more obscure shows that were either short-lived or aimed at a niche audience. Thankfully we now live in the broadband age, where it is possible to find and view video clips, and other information, related to a whole host of old shows, without having to leave our armchair.
We can now revisit, or enjoy for the first time, thousands upon thousands of hours of archive television from all over the globe, but given that many many more hours of television have now been made than can be viewed in an average lifetime how can we hope to someday have watched the very best of whats to offer, whether that be the most popular shows or the most notorious for whatever reason? One way of doing this is by studying the viewing figures at the time to see what was picking up the largest audiences over the weeks, months and years, but this is difficult, as prior to 1998 there isn't a huge amount of data readily available for us to refer to, or rather there wasn't.
I have recently obtained a good source of viewing data for the 60s, 70s and 80s, which I have been able to supplement with a few online sources to get a fairly comprehensive picture of the televisual landscape over the years and now intend to post a regular blog detailing the most watched TV programmes week-by-week, and where possible providing links to online videos of the actual episodes that topped the weekly charts.
I have chosen to begin with 1970, partly as that roughly marked the introduction of colour to UK television, and partly as I'm slightly more familiar with the programmes of that age than of a decade before. It is also more likely that programmes survive in the archive from 1970 than from 1960, making it more likely that at least some of them have been snuck onto youtube at some stage.
Before I move onto the blog proper though, it's worth exploring the history and make-up of the UK's television industry at the end of the 60s.
UK television was made up at this time of three channels, BBC1, BBC2 and the IBA (more commonly referred to these days as ITV, although that name was seldom used in the 60s).
BBC1 and BBC2 belonged to the British Broadcasting Corporation, who had begun the first British televisual service in 1936, before having to shut down for the second world war. After the war they picked up where they left off as the nation's public service broadcaster, and in 1964 they launched a second channel for more niche programming. The BBC where, and still are, funded by a licence fee (a form of tax), and had to adhere to a public service broadcasting remit laid out in a royal charter.
The Independent Broadcasting Authority on the other hand were the organisation in charge of a network of commercial television companies, each with an IBA franchise to broadcast in a particular region of the country, and in some cases only on weekdays or weekends. Every few years the IBA would review the franchisees output and future plans, and either choose to keep the franchisee or offer the franchise to an alternative company.
The IBA franchisees by the end of 1969 were of various sizes and levels of network participation. There were the 5 'majors' who had the largest regional areas, and were also the producers of most of the major networked programmes, as well as producing regional news and programming for their own regions. These were: Thames Television [London Weekday franchise]
London Weekend Television (LWT) [London Weekend franchise]
Granada Telvision [The North West franchise]
Yorkshire Television (YTV) [Yorkshire franchise]
and Associated Television (ATV) [Midlands franchise].
There were also five slightly smaller companies who provided some network programming, usually in niche areas such as Childrens, Religion etc, whilst also providing their region's local news and programming. These were: Southern Televison [South Of England franchise]
Harlech Television (HTV) [Wales And West Of England Franchise]
Anglia Television [East Of England franchise]
Scottish Television (STV) [Scotland franchise]
and Tyne Tees Television [North East Of England franchise].
Finally there were the five 'minors' who usually made only regional news and programmes for their own regions. These were: Westward Television [South West of England franchise]
Grampian Television [Highlands Of Scotland franchise]
Border Television [Scottish Borders franchise]
Ulster Television (UTV) [Northern Ireland franchise]
and Channel Television [Channel Islands franchise].
In summary the UK television audience at the end of 1969, at any given time, had 3 choices (4 if you count switching off altogether), watching either BBC1, BBC2 or their regional IBA franchisee. BBC2 was always focused on niche programming so generally speaking BBC1 and the IBA picked up the week's largest audiences, particularly in what we now know as primetime, the period after most evening meals had been eaten and before a large portion of the audience started heading to bed, typically about 7-9pm. IBA programmes in that timeslot where either regional, and therefore could only attract a smaller audience limited, to a greater or lesser degree, by the size of their region, or else were networked programmes made mostly by the five majors, although in practice the majority of network programming was being made by the two franchises, Thames and Granada, who, along with the BBC, are the three companies who will shall be hearing about in the majority of these blogs. Thames, the largest of all, would go on to think of themselves as being practically synonymous with ITV, but would be left horrified when they lost their franchise in the 1990 franchise round, ceasing broadcasting at the end of 1992, but instantly becoming the countries biggest truly independent television producers, and the holders of a very lucrative archive of some of ITVs most watched and most loved programming from its first 35+ years. Granada continued into the current millenium, by which point they had bought up, or merged with, the franchisees of all but 3 of the original franchises (the Scottish and Northern Irish franchisees remaining separate to this day) and had become the foundations of the present day ITV plc.
But enough of looking at where UK television is in the present day, let's now turn the clock back a little over 45 years to a time when TV had only just begun broadcasting in colour. To a time when the only way to watch a programme was to watch it on the day, and at the time, it went out, and when a schedule clash between popular programmes on the BBC1 and the IBA meant you had to choose which side to watch and which side to never be able to watch, or else flick between channels to see what you were missing, and thereby not be able to properly enjoy either programme. Let's travel through the mists of time to January 1970, where I'll meet you on a vaguely familiar, but strangely different, terraced street somewhere in the Greater Manchester area................
No comments:
Post a Comment