HOW TV CHANGED FOREVER | The Pilkington Report | An AMTV Documentary

[@macra_]

Another great doc Adam, informative as always! Super interesting hearing about the history behind pirate radios too!

[@AdamMartyn]

Thanks very much pal! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@MrDannyDetail]

The other really important thing for the development of Broadcasting was the Broadcasting Act 1990, which took the Broadcasting landscape that resulted from the Pilkington report's changes and set it on the path to where we are today, so would make a godd follow-up documentary to this.

[@flairandscurr3063]

Had no idea it was the same pilkington that was in charge of pilks glass in st. helens great work on this adam lovely to know that one of my towns favourite sons had such an impact beyond it lovely stuff!

[@AdamMartyn]

An absolute pleasure! Glad it shone some light on one of your famous townsmen! 😊

[@ginaweaver4119]

As an American, I always thought it was strange how in the UK they started out with just one channel and then the others were added one by one, meanwhile during that time US television regions already had the 3 networks (NBC, CBS, & ABC), a public television station (NET then PBS), and usually a handful of independent (ie unaffiliated to a network) stations. I can't imagine spending most of my life with literally only 3 channels but I only know what I know & I'm sure the UK public got used to it. Anyway, great documentary as always, I never even heard about this & I read about UK TV history a lot (though mostly focused on idents 😅). Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[@alanfox691]

Here in The U.K. we have always had strange mentality towards T.V. I am 41 born in 1981 so I can only talk from that point forward the only knowledge I have about T.V here in The U.K before then is from older members of my family. From what I understand from family & from reading up T.V was very , very slow in gaining popularity here in The U.K as few could afford the price of a T.V set very few indeed. My understanding of why The B.B.C have has such a stranglehold over T.V programming here in The U.K for so long is because The Government wanted ,everyone to have the same quality of programming in my view it was more about controlling what people where watching & money. The good thing growing up In 80's & 90's Britain was T.V. wise is we had Telietext that was a wonderful service before we had such a thing as The Internet. I know here in The U.K we where the only country to have Teletext. Growing up I remember only having 4 Channels but that did not seem that bad you where just grateful to have 4 Channels as my parents could remember when you only had B.B.C 1 & 2. We first got cable in 1996 the priceing as far as I know was sensible at that time you had a few foreign language channels why I do not know the only time they came in handy was if they where showing football ( Soccer) & they did at times. I also remember the days of chipped cable boxes Christ I remember we had one for donkeys years & it worked perfectly well gave you all the Channel for the cost of the basic package. I would say personally I have always had a very American attitude towards T.V I would rather pay a Subscription charge than have to pay a T.V Licence that is a redicles price in this day in age even if it ment more adds as a result. When I am watching The N.F.L. games my Dad used to say I dont know how you can sit through all they adds brakes they have & what I would always say to him is I would rather be forced to watch all they adds than need to pay for a T.V licence. Now we are in the streaming age I personally think it's wonderful now all we need to do in The U.K is abolish The T.V Licence hopefully things will change in 2027 when The T.V Liccene charter is up here in The U.K the fear is that they add it to your tax deductions from your wages as so could stealth tax. Keep Safe U.S.A , U.S.A.

[@martinhughes2549]

Britain was poorerthan the USA, geographically more compact and closer to other European countries which restricts how much VHF space could be allocated to TV networks. It took 8 years to establish the complete ITV NETWORK. BBC2 was established to push minority interests and establish 625 broadcasts on UHF. The complete UHF network was planned for 4 networks and the original idea was to end the 405 system on VHF after simulcasting BBC1& ITV for 10 years on 625 / UHF. Then launch 2 more networks on Band I and Band III in the 625 system. That never happened of course. UHF was slow to develop as it required a new transmitter network. The move to Colour after 1967 was quite rapid and was expensive, that slowed the launch of an "ITV2".

[@stickytapenrust6869]

@@alanfox691 TV take up took off in the mid to late 50s because of an improving economy and the increased availability of TV sets to rent (and that’s the clue, most people rented TVs until the mid-80s as the price of buying and maintenance was too costly, so rental companies made that their problem by charging rates people could afford). Teletext was used in many countries around the world. And still is!

[@stickytapenrust6869]

@@alanfox691 The UK will never abolish it, the Government might make the BBC self-funding but the Government would never give up a revenue stream like a TV licence.

[@stickytapenrust6869]

@@martinhughes2549 UHF was also slow to develop as the new transmitters also required the GPO to install new linking lines between different regional studios for programme routing and also new lines to the transmitters as well, as the cables installed for 405 didn’t have the bandwidth to handle the vision frequency of 6.5MHz used for 625, 405 only ever needing 3.5MHz. 625 shoved down cable designed for 405 would result in a very smeary picture.

[@brucedanton3669]

Thank you of course for this Adam; which as usual is most interesting, as others have put so then too. Well done there too!

[@fusionsub]

A part of me dies inside when you say 'Independent Transmission Authority'.

[@e.2452]

The bit about Pilkingtons is really intresting. I live in the town that Pilkingtons is based in, and we've always been told about the history of the company, but never the pilkington report.

[@johnking5174]

Hi Adam, BBC Radio would have liked to have provided a full proper pop music based radio station, offering at least 18 hours of music for the younger population. They could never do that due to the needle time restrictions on pop music played. The music unions restricted the BBC until 1967 to just 5 hours of records per day, later increased to around 7 hours per day come 1967. Needle time would gradually be increased during the 70s and finally abolished in the late 80s.

[@rogerdarthwell5393]

Cor blimey! Never expected a doc about the Pilkington Report! You are really outdoing yourself for the better Adam!

[@AdamMartyn]

Thanks Roger! I know it can be seen as a proper 'dry' topic but I hope I've been able to make it interesting!

[@rogerdarthwell5393]

@@AdamMartyn And you nailed it!

[@jasonmatthews5173]

There was talk about a 4th channel, which took debates in Westminster circles for 15 years after BBC 2 was launched. The problem was a) content, b) availability c) diversity of programmes . It was problematic for different countries within the UK, for example Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland because off their different beliefs, languages, and ideals. One thing that emerged was that Channel 4 was to have programmes made by Independent Production companies, which were Independent to both ITV & BBC. The Pilikington Report made getting the Fourth Channel, was that there was to going to be based on the Conservative Party gaining a large majority, which they failed to get until 1979.

[@JamieTubeUK]

A very interesting documentary! Outstanding work, as always, Adam!

[@AdamMartyn]

thank you very much! Glad it was an interesting watch!

[@johnking5174]

Hi Adam, to me the Pilkington Report was a campaign to rein in ITV. Commercial television was hated by a lot of people, usually middle to upper classes. I am amazed that it was a conservative government who actually gave the go ahead to the creation of commercial TV. They hated that ITV was airing popular programming, both UK produced and US imports. They had a phrase "chewing gum for the eyes". Total snobbery in my view. I always have an American attitude towards television.

[@anonUK]

Everyone has got an American attitude towards television now- and we get 100+ channels of crap as a result.

[@johnking5174]

@@anonUK My attitude was offering better choice and quantity back then. Back in the 60s for example, the government controlled the amount of television hours on BBC and ITV which was pathetic. Allowing just 7 hours a day for general entertainment programming. I have always believed there was an unserved part of the population back then, who worked shifts, and never got to see proper television. Also retired people, people looking after children, unemployed, students etc were all unserved by BBC and ITV back then. In America, they had proper television on air each day from at least 7am, offering proper programming. This is why I was pro American in style.

[@anonUK]

@johnking5174 I definitely think we should have brought in Channel 4 much earlier, maybe in the early 70s. We should also have ditched 405 line TV by the mid 60s, or at least offered 625 line UHF for all channels before colour was introduced. However, ITV in particular wanted to keep the 405 line VHF system in colour, as many viewers couldn't afford to rent or buy new sets capable of getting 625 line UHF. TV Rental was another reason- there were hundreds of thousands of old sets floating about that people were still happy to rent. That's why we didn't have 4 channels of TV with a good quality picture until 1982. I don't think we'd have been able to export any TV shows recorded on videotape during the 70s if we'd stayed with 405. We would have been bounced into full NTSC, with its tint and hue issues and sub-PAL performance, by the mid 70s. Home videotape and SCART also helped to accelerate TV technology by the 1980s. In this country, we never do things until they're at least 20 years overdue. I'm amazed we had colour TV available so early- but I think it was something to do with beating West Germany, which obviously was more important back then. After Sky TV (and BSB) came in, more should have been done to provide a wide range of channels on terrestrial and cable to counter it- but Murdoch was all powerful back then.

[@stickytapenrust6869]

17:40 - Independent *Television* Authority, not Transmission.

[@tedrobinson372]

Two comments: With the launch of BBC2 in 1964, the intending colour standard planned was NTSC. The BBC only made a change to PAL at the last moment in early '67. And the second commercial channel, Channel 4, was launched in 1982.

[@matthewpayton]

Great documentary Adam

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you Matthew!

[@officiallynats7044]

I normally don’t mind adverts as I have a short attention span but can we all agree that Britain’s Got Talent does not need adverts every 5 minutes 😅

[@garrysimpson1395]

The one thing they could not predict was themed T.V. channels.

[@cerionerwarriorgamer1754]

How did the British TV set channel button for BBC or ITV worked vs the tuner knob in the USA?

[@GLOBEREVIEWS]

I had never heard of this report before very interesting and informative as always hence my support

[@GGYT.]

Your "Posh" accent in the read-over sections sounds like a person trying to speak scottish for the first time 😅. Anyways, nice documentary! Hope to see more of them at some time.

[@MrDannyDetail]

I wondered why I pictured Victor Meldrew at that point! Sort of a 'posh' scottish accent. Although I was embarassingly old before I realised Victor and Margaret actually were Scottish though, so theirs isn't the most blatant Scottish accent.

[@garrysimpson1395]

I can just about remember this.

[@MeiinUK]

Pirate Radio was broadcasting on a ship off the shores of the British Isle ? 😆 It is really fascinating to read realise how the BBC was actually such an Upper Class organisation.

[@jfwfreo]

I am not 100% on this but I remember reading something about how the British government didn't want commercial radio because they were concerned about what would happen if there was another war or similar national crisis.

[@MrJohnSeager1]

Hi Adam really informative documentary will you do a follow up - ie lord hill on ITV regions or the peacock committee?

[@rocon86]

Hi Adam, great documentary. Maybe you can help me with this. Was Channel 4 not the 2nd independent commercial TV channel to broadcast in the UK? I remember seeing those tv sets with ITV2 on it.

[@AdamMartyn]

Channel 4 was the 2nd independent commercial TV channel here in the UK, or S4C which launched a day prior! ITV2 was intended to come well before but it just never happened until '98!

[@stickytapenrust6869]

C4 was the second commercial TV station to broadcast to the UK. Satellite Television (later rebranded to Sky Channel then Sky One) launched some months ahead of C4 from studios in the UK broadcasting to mainland Europe but its reception in the UK was illegal at first (for reasons I forget) so that was the second commercial station in the UK but not the second to broadcast to it.

[@stickytapenrust6869]

@@AdamMartyn TV set manufacturers knew that a fourth channel was coming as it was outlined in the plan for UHF TV frequencies, though they didn’t know what it would be called, so they assumed they would follow the BBC’s numbering pattern with ITV1/2, ITA1/2 or IBA1/2. The extra button also served as a preset for an extra ITV region in an overlap area, due to the varying nature of ITV regional schedules.

[@tedrobinson372]

At 08:00 that is not the voice of Alistair Cooke.

[@TheLWTMan]

Do The History Of TTTE/T&F!

[@JonosBtheMC]

0:30 Did you mean stalwart?

[@jaxking904]

I got an interesting idea history of British kids shows.

[@stevenjlovelace]

I'm hardly a super-patriotic American or a free-market capitalist, but I find it funny that a lot of these fuddie-duddies' worst fears were basically the norm on this side of the pond: radio stations playing rock music, TV stations playing Dragnet, and gasp, commercials!

[@ArchdukeJake]

Hey there Adam, I have a suggestion for the next ident review episode, I have looked through the playlist and it doesn’t appear to be there. Could you do an ident review on Pick? It would be great to see some other great channels featured in the series.

[@AdamMartyn]

Thanks for the suggestion! I believe I briefly mentioned Pick during the Ident Review Episode 100! But I can have a look at the ident sets and see if any would make a good episode!

[@ArchdukeJake]

@@AdamMartyn Thanks! 👍

[@Sarahbryson321]

I’ve never heard of this

[@RebeccaPhythian]

A fantastic, informative doc 👏🏻😊❤️

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank my lovely 🥰❤️

[@toshibafansandmore]

hey adam can you do an ident review on the bbc2 idents from 1964 and 1986

[@ozorna9401]

Watched this at a weird time and was confused at first trying to think how karl pilkington changed tv

[@heggy_69]

Karl?

[@hibbiea8841]

Hi Amtv Ad! What will the next clip be?

[@MostlyPennyCat]

Without commercial television, be it ITV or whatever, in the UK, we wouldn't have _Ridley Scott_ as a film director. No Alien No Blade Runner Gladiator Black Hawk Down Kingdom of Heaven The Martian He learnt his craft making tv adverts. Yeah.

[@bobrew461]

He was making shorts at the BBC. He went to the US and worked with the Mad Men in New York He would've become famous over there as a director anyway.

[@garrysimpson1395]

How do I join and what do I do?

[@doomlord574]

Damn who knew Karl was so interested in broadcasting

[@LostsTVandRadio]

Doesn't look much like Joyce Grenfell in the first photo ....

[@richardwitt3121]

"Bit weird, innit?"

[@jenniferbookless]

I CAN'T BE BECOMING BBC IS GOING TO 1 BBC THREE THEN BBC ONE

[@duncan-rmi]

I liked "stale-wart" of the BBC. 😂