The Destruction Of British Television

For me, programming is better nowadays purely because of the amount of channels available. Have a look at the TV schedules for an evening prior to 1990 compared with the multi channels schedules of today. The schedules from those days look very poor, at least now there is at least normally something on one of the many channels that you might want to watch, in the 80's there wasn't that choice.

Presentation in those days was very diffrent, the lack of competition and the diffrent technology means that everything was much slower. Things are much slicker these days and in that respect pres has improved a lot.

I'm sorry but quantity does not equal quality.

There is a much greater range of TV that qualifies as "watchable", for sure, but comparatively very little that is of genuinely high quality.

I don't know which 1987 you're living in but here's a scan from September 1987 of BBC One and BBC Two programming:
http://www.knightmare.com/series/citv/87/070987bbc1.jpg
http://www.knightmare.com/series/citv/87/070987bbc2.jpg

Both show BBC programming running for 18hrs straight.



Aside from the fact Ofcom didn't exist until 2003 (its then equivalent was the IBA), Channel 4's remit has always been to provide an alternate to ITV, be creative and with its own character and go where ITV rarely went before.



With all due respect, one has to question how much research you've actually done.

ITV was conceived originally as a regional broadcaster, 16 different regions, 16 different broadcasters. Indeed it was only on in the London area from September 1955 until February 1956 when ATV launched in The Midlands. As more services came on air, became consolidated and eventually became part of the same umbrella, only three remain independent.



ITV did not step in anything, it had been there since 1955.
The Hearts were introduced in 1999, not 2003. Regional identity was starting to disappear - when Carlton introduced their heart idents, only Wales had its own identity - Central and London used generic ones. The Granada owned stations were regional.



The balloons were introduced in 1997 before the ITV hearts. They were dropped in 2002 to be replaced by the dancers (and *that* incident of not having a suitable ident to link into a news report of the death of the Queen Mother).



ITV went fully 24hrs a couple of years after TV-AM went on the air. Prior to 1972 nobody was allowed to broadcast more than 60hrs a week or 8hrs a day, period and prior to 1983 there was no programming between 6am and 9:15am on ITV anyway.



It might be me but News 24 filling up the overnights on BBC One is relatively new, perhaps no more than five years. The Open University on BBC Two had been running for a fair while.

I have to say your post hasn't been very well researched and kind of goes against the points you are trying to make.

I wouldn't really know what TV was like 20 years ago (as i'm 14) but, what's the point Broadcasting 24-hour a day?! How many people watch BBC News 24 at 2 in the morning and Make your Play or Glitter Ball.

For the benefit of our young friend in the south west a few posts back.... I know this will be teaching grannies to suck eggs for most of you.

BBC1 introduced Breakfast Time in January 1983 and completely filled daytime gaps in October 1986. So, broadly speaking, from then on the channel was on the air from 6.30am until midnight on weekdays. Around 1994 closedown on weekdays started to get later and later - around 1.30am became the norm. In November 97 News 24 began and BBC1 became a 24 hour broadcaster.

BBC2 started to fill the afternoons regularly from October 1986 - with schools programmes filling the morning and early afternoon. However during the school holidays, BBC2 was still regularly showing Ceefax until lunchtime until Easter 1989. The Learning Zone took over most of the overnight gap in 1995.

The ITA/IBA was the regulator of ITV. It laid down the law and made quite strong demands on the ITV companies on the range, quality and quantity of programmes. But - as long as professional and regulatory standards were met - it had far more important things to consider than idents, continuity and the like. It would only step in if either programme codes were being breached or if standards were at an unacceptable level (eg ABC in the late 50s.)

The ITA/IBA had to approve ITV's schedule but did not commission, produce or schedule programmes - except in the broader sense of ensuring that particular slots in the schedule were used for particular types of programming, eg religion at 6.40pm on Sundays, children's programmes in the late afternoon. (And making Engineering Announcements on Tuesday mornings to keep us lot happy. lol)

The ITA/IBA's power has to be seen in the light of the fact that ITV franchises were then a very powerful business opportunity - the only legal chance to operate a commercial television station. Part of the ITA/IBA's job was to ensure that the viewing public did not suffer from the fact that the companies enjoyed a commercial monopoly and could have made a fortune by simply showing cheap imports and easy-to-make gameshows.

Hope this helps. (Good grief, I'm feeling old pointing this out.)

Looking at some old schedules though there is often lots of quality, but nothing watchable!

There is lots of very good stuff tucked around the various channels if you search it out. But that's only because of the quantity of telly available

Well I think the Debate need to look at the Down word sprial of the Public Viewing Guild lines

* KIDS TV
* Regional programmes
* Church services
*

Which are all on the Way out! WHY there are the main reasons why the IBA, ofcom operate!

Of course you are right, but it would have been better if we could see older programmes, programmes like what Granada Plus used to show, or a channel which has full access to all of ITV's vast archives, there are so many gems sitting in the archives and probably never see the light again!

Whenever a survey is done on television and what viewers want, Religion and Regional programmes always come bottom in terms of appreciation.

Childrens is diffrent, but has its own reasons why it's in decline

Many people work overnight (such as security guards), they need to watch something (yes, it should be the CCTV, but who can help flick the TV on). And of course, there are many people like me who stay up to the early hours for no reason. Also, the useage of PVR's is repidly increasing, so the channels might as well put something on overnight so PVR owners can record it.

Of course, theres a strong argument that the BBC, in particular, should be broadcasting otherwise uncommissioned indie material during the small hours rather than N24, especially with the threat of t'interweb.

there could make an effect!

like put on a Film or a us import or even a classic gameshow

but I take it News 24 is the cheapest idea