Industry: Ownership, Scheduling, Regulation and Funding in the 1960s

♡ Industry: Ownership, Scheduling, Regulation and Funding in the 1960s ♡

The BBC began in 1936

ITV began in 1955 as direct competition to the BBC

Industry

• TV during the mid 1960s only had three channels available: BBC1, BBC2, and ITV
• Televisions were small, expensive and only available in black and white
• Programmes were limited and only available during certain times of the day. When nothing was being broadcast, the national anthem played
• 'Channel surfing' didn't exist like it does today 

• BBC had completely monopoly over the television industry. This means that the BBC's unique broadcaster had complete ownership over the industry and therefore faced zero competition
• When ITV began, it was the first time products were advertised and quickly grew in popularity

Funding

1) How were (are) ITV funded? 

Small companies that belonged to ITV and were funded by America

2) What issues did ITV face with their commercial TV funding?

They had to stick to certain guidelines and rules that belonged to the ITA rules. These rules are a) you cannot have sponsored programs, b) there are strict guidelines to follow when and how often they advertised.

3) How did this impact the content broadcasted by ITV?

They can't have that many adverts - production value was lower 

4) How did the popularity of The Avengers impact its production value?

As it got more popular and the views went up, ABC, an american company, invested money into season 4 so they could afford better cameras, better sets, wider cast etc...

Regulation

• British television production was protected by the rules of public service broadcasting that limited the proportion of foreign content. This was different to world television who were dominated by American programmes.
• Due to ITV being 'the channel of the moment' it faced no competition for advertisements, which meant that the commercial television channel could be highly regulated. Of course the ASA standards and society have changed since then...
• ASA: advertising standards authority 
• ITV opened it's channel at 4:20pm with a daytime soap and then showed a range of children's shows. Adult programmes then followed this.
• In 1964, the watershed was introduced at 9pm. This allowed for more adult programming, such as The Avengers. ITV shut down at about midnight, by which time it was assumed that audiences would be in bed.

1. What is the watershed? Ofcom also define the watershed – the period before 9pm and after 5.30am when programmes containing material unsuitable for children cannot be shown – this includes sexual content, violence, graphic or disturbing imagery and swearing. This means that programmes such as Cuffs have to be very careful about their content, which might be seen to reduce the realism of the programme as, for example, the criminals avoid swearing. 
2. Why was the watershed introduced in 1960? There were new programmes being released that had violent or promiscuous content in it, which was not appropriate for kids.
3. How might watershed have impacted the themes and content within The Avengers? If it was before the watershed, the content would not have been as violent and aggressive. They can have more adult themes after.

Scheduling & Figures

• The Avengers was scheduled at 9:05pm on Saturday on ITV. This was prime-time. By the fourth series it had attracted over 7 million homes and episodes often appeared in the top 10 television programmes.
• The invention of remote controls weren't invented, so viewers had to get up and change the channel on the TV set.

1. Why did the time slot for The Avengers impact the large viewing figures? Because it was on a Saturday night, people did not mind staying up late to watch it as they don't have work the next day.