Britain’s Television Act of 1954: One Medium’s Effect on a Society Joshua Altman Professor Dane Kennedy 20 th Century Britain May 5, 2008 Joshua Altman Britain’s Television Act of 1954 May 5, 2008 INTRODUCTION When television came to the British masses it signaled the beginnings of a metamorphosis that was beyond suppression. Decades of a BBC monopoly provided a culturally unifying factor in both television and radio, but the Television Act of 1954 ended that monopoly, thus ending the unifying force 1. While debating the Act in Parliament, Ian Harvey MP said “Television is an instrument of communication and I am amongst those who believe that an instrument of such power of communication should not be vested in one single authority 2” The nature of British television changed with the Television Act of 1954. For the first time British broadcasting was open to competition and entities other than the BBC were able to produce content to air on channels other than the BBC 3. One condition of open broadcasting was that content had to be monitored, as it was no longer all created by the government. Created by the Television Act of 1954, the Independent Television Authority [ITA] took television one step further away from government regulation by functioning as an oversight body for Independent Television [ITV]. The ITA was responsible for licensing stations [franchises] and providing closer monitoring of content to ensure that it was appropriate for broadcast. Primarily, Members of Parliament concerned themselves with two major questions, the first being how television programming would be supported financially. Prior to the institution of independent television, government officials wanted the medium to be free of both government and corporate influences. In 1954, the United States provided the only model for independent television that the British could build upon. However, the British felt that American television relied too heavily on corporate sponsorship not only for commercial revenue, but for entertainment content as well. Fears abounded over what would be the result of moving television into the commercial realm. Elites saw the potential for a cultural manifestation of Gresham’s Law , a theory which anticipated the forcing out of something good by something bad. Sir Thomas Gresham (1519 – 1579) was an English financier whose theory applied specifically to different monetary commodities. However, application of the theory expanded to other fields as well, including British commercial broadcast media. The British intended to create a new form of commercial television, which forced the British populous to address their second greatest fear, and to look at the innards of their culture and the resulting shifts as to what commercialism meant in Britain. 2 Joshua Altman Britain’s Television Act of 1954 May 5, 2008 BACKGROUND British broadcasting originated centered on public service wrote Patty Scannell, a senior lecturer at the Polytechnic of Central London 4. The BBC broadcast high quality programming to the British public and although it was a commercial venture, Parliament vested the power to ensure public service in the ITA 5. Broadcasting began in Britain in the 1920s as a public service with the BBC charter for radio (wireless) and was funded by the government through license fees (a tax) which remained in effect beyond the inauguration of Independent television 6. How to best serve the public was debated since the beginning of British Broadcasting. The Crawford Committee which convened in 1925 to discuss future funding and privatization invited John Reith, the first Director-General of the B.B.C (1927-38) to testify regarding the future of British Broadcasting 7. Paddy Scannell summarized Reith’s argument in Public Service Broadcasting: The History of a Concept: The service [BBC] must not be used for entertainment purposes alone. Broadcasting had a responsibility to bring into the greatest possible department of human knowledge, endeavour, and achievement. The preservation of a high moral tone – the avoidance of the vulgar and the hurtful- was of paramount importance. 8 Thirty years before the introduction of ITV, Reith summarized the entire argument against commercial television when he wrote “He who prides himself on giving what he thinks the public wants is often creating a fictitious demand for lower standard which he himself will then satisfy.” 9 Reith further argued that the monopoly best served the public interest by most efficiently solving the emerging technical and financial challenges. In pursuit of a public service, and in the first move away from total government domination, Reith argued for the transference of the BBC from a private company to a public company under the control of the state. The Crawford Committee ultimately recommended that the BBC fit Reith’s ideal, and eventually the BBC became a corporation established by Royal Charter. The next major development in the progression towards independent television lay in the 1950 Beveridge Committee, the first major post-war look into the future of British Broadcasting, specifically radio. Findings of the committee held that a cultural Gresham’s Law would have the effect of ending the broadcasting monopoly 10 . “And because competition in broadcasting must in 3 Joshua Altman Britain’s Television Act of 1954 May 5, 2008 the long run descend to a fight for the greatest number of listeners, it would be the lower forms of mass appetite which would more and more be catered for in programmes” reported the committee, specifically citing Gresham’s Law 11 . Independent Television was a commercial medium, and to remain solvent stations and program contractors [producers] needed advertiser revenue. Advertisers needed to reach large audiences in order to best sell their products. To this end, ITV programs needed to reach the largest consumer base. Members of Parliament and other elites feared that the money and the viewers would move in tandem to reach the lowest segments of society, and to compete the remainder of television would follow suit. In the years following 1954, the BBC was forced to investigate expanding beyond a minority appeal. ITV and the breakup of the monopoly forced the BBC to give consideration to who would watch any given show, and if that ratings share [TVs tuned into that program] would warrant retention 12 . THE BEGINNINGS OF INDEPENDENT TELEVISION Prior to Thursday September 22, 1955, Independent Television was a mere academic exercise in both theory and political rhetoric. The launch of ITV was a watershed event in British history. In one night, the BBC no longer held a monopoly over British Broadcasting, wrote Bernard Sendall, a former executive member of the ITA, and what was initially a Parliamentary exercise became a reality and the challenges of regular, independent broadcast were about to begin 13 . “Thus will begin a new form of television entertainment” reported The Times, Royal Edition on September 22. Commercialism in British Television began after an opening gala broadcast on ITV. Initially, programming held to traditional genres, with dramas leading in number of broadcasts during the first weeks of ITV. However, the new network could not survive on dramas alone. Attention was played to the intangible concept of balance, since no definition of what constituted true balance of programming yet existed. In addition to dramatic broadcasts there were the giveaway types of programming, niche programming geared to children and women, and newscasts both in the form of bulletins and longer format news programs with film 14 . Independent Television not only appeared on the newspaper’s second page the morning before its inaugural broadcast, it also appeared with the letters to the editor. Randolph Churchill, a former Member of Parliament and son of Prime Minister of Winston Churchill wrote a letter on 4 Joshua Altman Britain’s Television Act of 1954 May 5, 2008 September 21 to the editor of The Times; Royal Edition which the newspaper published the next day. Randolph Churchill opposed Independent Television, which he described as “otiose.” 15 He questioned the effect of Gresham’s Law, but hoped that it would not have a significant effect. Opponents of ITV must be “objective” in how they viewed ITV; he wrote in the letter, these same people must hope that those who work in ITV “will produce something new in the field of entertainment which will tend to elevate rather than to degrade the public tastes.”16 The September 23, 1955 Arts section of the Times included two articles about television’s debut the night before. Column A’s headline (furthest to the right, and indicating the day’s most important news story) First Night of the I.T.A.; Emphasis on the “Stars” said that the broadcast did not set the stage for what ITV would broadcast in the future 17 . One column over BBC’s broadcast that evening garnered high praise from critics. Competition with ITV forced BBC to elevate their quality of broadcast from the first moments that ITV was on the air. The Times described the new program by calling it “as good as television has yet given us.”18 Initial stages of independent broadcasting brought fears over proper balance of programming. A clear definition of balance in programming never existed, however the term “balanced” referred to the distribution of equal time to all types of programming and to the proper proportions between different types of content. Responsibility to ensure a proper balance fell to the ITA and to this end the Authority utilized various means. Setting quotas, informal agreements, and official regulations all helped the ITA find the proper balance in programming 19 . COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING AND AVOIDING THE AMERICAN SYSTEM The ITA held the separation of content and advertising sacrosanct to collect funds the ITA needed to ensure that at no time Britain’s moral fabric faced corruption from advertisers and program contractors 20 .