The journey towards Channels 1, 2 3 etc

RJ

RJG 16 August 2017 1:13pm

As said 405 lines had very few viewers by 1985. 405 line only sets were not made or sold after the mid 60s, so the chance of a 20 year TV still working by 1985 was slim (but there were of course some)

RJG posted:

The UHF network of transmitters continued to be expanded into the early 90s.

It slowed in the early 90s, but didn't stop. The final UHF (analogue) relay to open was Portbury, near Bristol in summer 1998, two months before DTT roll out started.

Presumably if you were in one of the few VHF 405-only areas which didn't have UHF coverage (at least of BBC One/ITV) you had a strong incentive to keep your VHF 405-compatible set (which may also have been 625-compatible) running though.

Indeed. Dual standard sets, with both VHF and UHF tuners, were available from the early sixties to around the mid 70s. There were even dual standard colour sets which allowed viewers to watch the VHF channels (in black and white) as well as BBC 2 colour programmes. Interestingly the Scottish Borders had a strange anomaly....Border TV was available in colour from Selkirk from March 1972. It wasn't until May 1973 that BBC 1 and BBC 2 colour transmissions began.

NG

noggin Founding member 16 August 2017 1:49pm

RJG posted:

noggin posted:

Markymark posted:

As said 405 lines had very few viewers by 1985. 405 line only sets were not made or sold after the mid 60s, so the chance of a 20 year TV still working by 1985 was slim (but there were of course some)

It slowed in the early 90s, but didn't stop. The final UHF (analogue) relay to open was Portbury, near Bristol in summer 1998, two months before DTT roll out started.

Presumably if you were in one of the few VHF 405-only areas which didn't have UHF coverage (at least of BBC One/ITV) you had a strong incentive to keep your VHF 405-compatible set (which may also have been 625-compatible) running though.

Indeed. Dual standard sets, with both VHF and UHF tuners, were available from the early sixties to around the mid 70s. There were even dual standard colour sets which allowed viewers to watch the VHF channels (in black and white) as well as BBC 2 colour programmes. Interestingly the Scottish Borders had a strange anomaly....Border TV was available in colour from Selkirk from March 1972. It wasn't until May 1973 that BBC 1 and BBC 2 colour transmissions began.

Can you imagine the dual-standard nightmare we'd have had if ITV had been allowed to stay 405 VHF and introduce NTSC or PAL colour on that standard, whilst 625 BBC Two went with conventional PAL 4.43?

SC

Si-Co 16 August 2017 6:29pm

ttt posted:

JAS84 posted:

So what would Ten be? Zero?

Ten, of course was originally the Zero-Ten network, so putting it on Zero would have a certain logic to it.

True - though to the average viewer it was known as either Channel O in Melbourne until 1980, then Channel Ten; or TVO in Brisbane until 1988, then Channel Ten. It was always Channel Ten in Sydney and Adelaide. On screen you rarely saw any O-TEN branding.

Although there was some shared programming, the capital city stations were very much regionally branded and scheduled and it wasn't until the late 80s/early 90s that their schedules and branding became truly aligned with each other.

Because the flagship stations had different owners in different cities, you occasionally had the anomaly of, for example, Channel Seven produced content airing on Channel Nine or Ten in different markets!

SP

Steve in Pudsey 16 August 2017 6:32pm

Markymark posted:

RJG posted:

The UHF network of transmitters continued to be expanded into the early 90s.

It slowed in the early 90s, but didn't stop. The final UHF (analogue) relay to open was Portbury, near Bristol in summer 1998, two months before DTT roll out started.

By that stage the new relays being built were generally to provide different regional choices rather than fill in black holes in coverage. Portbury serves an area that got a decent service from Wenvoe but was provided to allow access to English language programming. There were several sites built just carrying ITV to provide for the sub regions the 1993 franchisees wanted - notably Westcountry (have any of these been removed now that the subregional opts have ended - or do adverts continue to be split?)

If I was being pedantic I would argue that Whitby Business Park, which opened in 2007, was the last analogue relay, but it was built to replace the original Whitby site before it fell into the sea rather than being totally new.

MA

Markymark 16 August 2017 8:14pm

Steve in Pudsey posted:

Markymark posted:

RJG posted:

The UHF network of transmitters continued to be expanded into the early 90s.

It slowed in the early 90s, but didn't stop. The final UHF (analogue) relay to open was Portbury, near Bristol in summer 1998, two months before DTT roll out started.

By that stage the new relays being built were generally to provide different regional choices rather than fill in black holes in coverage. Portbury serves an area that got a decent service from Wenvoe but was provided to allow access to English language programming. There were several sites built just carrying ITV to provide for the sub regions the 1993 franchisees wanted - notably Westcountry (have any of these been removed now that the subregional opts have ended - or do adverts continue to be split?)

If I was being pedantic I would argue that Whitby Business Park, which opened in 2007, was the last analogue relay, but it was built to replace the original Whitby site before it fell into the sea rather than being totally new.

There were three single channel ITV only relays commissioned by Meridian in 1993 to restore the south coast sub region to parts of mid and south Hampshire, after Hannington was split off for Meridian North ( or west as they called it!)

There was also a BBC 1 and ITV only relay for Derby, to give folk there East Midlands progs. In the 80s two channel relays were built in North West Norfolk to bring Anglia region programmes back ( a hangover from Belmont's move from Anglia to YTV in 74)

The Derby and Norfolk relays were all converted to three mux DTT at DSO, the three Meridian relays closed at DSO, though I did see an early draft plan that showed them as three mux DTT too

(August 2017)