Texts to be studied for presentation at the oral

exam (translation and oral comment)

1)Tabloids versus broadsheets
Before Easter we began to read the article on tabloids
You will be asked to comment on aspects of UK culture in the oral exam. Here
we take a look at UK newspapers. Until about 10 years ago there were two
types of format, the tabloid and the broadsheet, which had different
reputations. Now the situation is a little more complicated. We read the first
paragraph and I generally commented on the characteristic features of
tabloids, compared with broadsheets. We continued reading this lesson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabloid_%28newspaper_format%29

Circulation

2,213,659 daily (as of March

2014)

The Sun is a daily tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland, founded
in 1964
A tabloid is a newspaper with compact page size smaller than broadsheet, although there is no
standard for the precise dimensions of the tabloid newspaper format. The term tabloid journalism,
along with the use of large pictures, tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories,
astrology, celebrity gossip and television. However, some newspapers, such as The Independent and
The Times, are in tabloid format, and this size is used in the United Kingdom by nearly all local
newspapers. There, its page dimensions are roughly 430 mm 280 mm (16.9 in 11.0 in). In the
United States, it is commonly the format employed by alternative newspapers. Some small-format
papers which claim a higher standard of journalism refer to themselves as compact newspapers
instead.
Larger newspapers, traditionally associated with higher-quality journalism, are often called
broadsheets, and this designation often remains in common usage even if the newspaper moves to
printing on smaller pages, as many have in recent years. Thus the terms tabloid and broadsheet are,
in non-technical usage, today more descriptive of a newspaper's market position than its physical
size.
The Berliner format used by many prominent European newspapers is sized between the tabloid and
the broadsheet. In a newspaper context, the term Berliner is generally used only to describe size, not
to refer to other qualities of the publication.
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6)

Give a definition of the term tabloid

What is meant by tabloid journalism?
Why are some tabloids known as compact newspapers?
In the past, what was a broadsheet?
How has the term changed in recent years?
What does the word Berliner refer to?

History
The word "tabloid" comes from the name given by the London based pharmaceutical company
Burroughs Wellcome & Co. to the compressed tablets they marketed as "Tabloid" pills in the late
1880s.[2] The connotation of tabloid was soon applied to other small compressed items. A 1902 item
in London's Westminister Gazette boasted, "The proprietor intends to give in tabloid form all the
news printed by other journals." Thus "tabloid journalism" in 1901 originally meant a paper that
condensed stories into a simplified, easily absorbed format. The term preceded the 1918 reference
to smaller sheet newspapers that contained the condensed stories.
1) Trace the four steps in the history of the word tabloid
Dimensions
A tabloid is defined as "roughly 17 by 11 inches (432 by 279 mm)" and commonly "half the size of
a broadsheet".
Types
Tabloid newspapers, especially in the United Kingdom, boast a very high degree of variation as far
as target market, political alignment, editorial style, and circulation are concerned. Thus, various
terms have been coined to describe the subtypes of this versatile paper format. There are, broadly,
two main types of tabloid newspaper: red top and compact. The distinction is largely of editorial
style; both red top and compact tabloids span the width of the political spectrum from socialism to
capitalist conservatism. Red top tabloids are so named due to their tendency, in British and
Commonwealth usage, to have their mastheads printed in red ink; the term compact was coined to
avoid the connotation of the word tabloid, which implies a red top tabloid, and has lent its name to
tabloid journalism, which is journalism after the fashion of red top reporters.
There are two distinct types of tabloid the red top and the compact.
1) What do they have in common?
2) What differences are there?
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Red top tabloids

The red top tabloid is, for many, the prototypical example of the format; the ubiquity of this
editorial style among newspapers of the tabloid format has made it persist in the minds of the
public.
Red top tabloids, named after their distinguishing red mastheads, employ a form of writing
known as tabloid journalism; this style emphasizes features such as sensational crime
stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and
junk food news. Celebrity gossip columns which appear in red top tabloids and focus on
their sexual practices, misuse of narcotics, and the private aspects of their lives often border
on, and sometimes cross the line of, defamation.
Another feature is the banner headline: words printed in very large letters across the top of
the first page of a newspaper
Red tops tend to be written with a simplistic, straightforward vocabulary and grammar; their
layout, more often than not, gives greater prominence to the picture than to the word.
The writing style of red top tabloids is, often, accused of sensationalism; in other words, red
tops have been accused of deliberately igniting controversy and selectively reporting on
attention-grabbing stories, or those with shock value. In the extreme case, red top tabloids
have been accused of lying or misrepresenting the truth to increase circulation.
Irrespective of such criticism, it is undeniably true that red tops have more openly political
leanings; stories can, and do, include calls for the resignation of a particular politician, or
include political comment inside of an article. Poll results are often predicted by red top
papers.
Examples of British red top newspapers include The Sun, the Daily Star, the Daily Mirror and the
Daily Sport.
1) What are the characteristic features of the red top tabloid?
(content, headlines, layout, legality and truthfulness, political
reporting)
2) Look at the example of The Sun on page 1. Point out these
features.
Compact tabloids
In contrast to red top tabloids, compacts use an editorial style more closely associated with
broadsheet newspapers. In fact, most compact tabloids formerly used the broadsheet paper size, but
changed to accommodate reading in tight spaces, such as on a crowded commuter bus or train. The
term compact was coined in the 1970s by the Daily Mail, one of the earlier newspapers to make the
change, although it now once again calls itself a tabloid. The purpose behind this was to avoid the
association of the word tabloid with the flamboyant, salacious editorial style of the red top
newspaper.
1) Trace the history of compact newspapers
2) Why was the term coined?
The early converts from broadsheet format made the change in the 1970s; two notable British
papers that took this step at the time were the Daily Mail and the Daily Express. In 2003, The
Independent also made the change for the same reasons, quickly followed by The Scotsman and The
Times. On the other hand, The Morning Star had always used the tabloid size, but stands in contrast
to both the red top papers and the former broadsheets; although The Morning Star emphasises hard
news, it embraces socialism and is circulated mostly among blue-collar labourers.
Compact tabloids, just like broadsheet- and Berliner-format newspapers, span the political spectrum
from progressive to conservative and from capitalist to socialist. The readership also differs greatly;
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one of Britain's most well-known tabloids, the Daily Mail, boasts a mostly female readership,
whereas that of The Morning Star, in keeping with its political leanings, is of trade unionists.
1) When did the broadsheets begin to change their format?
2) In what ways is The Morning Star exceptional?
3) Read the list of UK newspapers below what can you summarise
about their political alignment?
List of British tabloids
Red tops
Daily Star - Populist
Daily Mirror[4] - Labour
Daily Record - Labour
The Sun[4] - Conservative
Compacts/Broadsheets
Daily Mail- conservative
Daily Express - middle-market conservative
The Independent - Left wing
The Morning Star - middle-market socialist (in the tradition of Karl Marx)
The Scotsman - upmarket centrist
The Times - upmarket centrist
In Britain, three previously broadsheet daily newspapersThe Independent, The Times, and The
Scotsmanhave switched to tabloid size in recent years, and twoDaily Express and Daily Mail
in former years, although all of the above call the format "compact" to avoid the down-market
connotation of the word tabloid. Similarly, when referring to the down-market tabloid newspapers
the alternative term "red-top" (referring to their traditionally red-coloured mastheads) is
increasingly used, to distinguish them from the up- and middle-market compact newspapers. The
Morning Star also comes in tabloid format; however, it avoids celebrity stories, and instead favours
issues relating to labour unions.
1) What do the terms down-market, middle- and up-market refer to?

Broadsheets

History Historically, broadsheets developed after the British in 1712 placed a

tax on newspapers based on the number of their pages. Larger formats,
however, had long been signs of status in printed objects, and still are in many
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places, and outside Britain the broadsheet developed for other reasons,
including style and authority, unrelated to the British tax structure.
The original purpose of the broadsheet, or broadside, was for the purpose of
posting royal proclamations, acts, and official notices. Eventually the people
began using the broadsheet as a source for political activism by reprinting
speeches, ballads or narrative songs originally performed by bards. With the
early mechanization of the 19th century came an increase in production of
printed materials including the broadside as well as the competing penny
dreadful*. In this period newspapers all over Europe began to print their issues
on broadsheets.
However, in the United Kingdom, the main competition for the broadside was
the gradual reduction of the newspaper tax, beginning in the 1830s, and
eventually its dismissal in 1855. With the increased production of newspapers
and literacy, the demand for visual reporting and journalists led to the blending
of broadsides and newspapers, creating the modern broadsheet newspaper.
Recently, with profit margins narrowing for newspapers in the wake of
competition from broadcast, cable television, and the internet, newspapers
have looked to standardize the size of the newsprint roll. The smaller
newspaper formats adopted also have the advantage of being easier to handle,
particularly among commuters.
1) Give two reasons for the birth of broadsheets
2) Describe their early history and purposes
3) What happened to make the broadside become the modern
broadsheet newspaper?
4) What has recently caused broadsheets to adopt a smaller format?
Connotations In some countries, especially Australia, Canada, the UK, and the
US, broadsheet newspapers are commonly perceived to be more intellectual in
content than their tabloid counterparts, using their greater size to examine
stories in more depth, while carrying less sensationalist and celebrity material.
This distinction is most obvious on the front page: whereas tabloids tend to
have a single story dominated by a headline, broadsheets allow two or more
stories to be displayed, the most important at the top of the page.
1) Describe the characteristic content of broadsheets
2) Look at the example of a (former, now compact) broadsheet on
page 6.
What are the usual features of a broadsheet?
* Penny dreadful is a pejorative term used to refer to cheap popular serial
literature produced during the nineteenth century and it typically referred to a
story published in weekly parts, each costing one (old) penny. The stories were
usually sensational, focusing on the exploits of detectives, criminals, or
supernatural entities. The term later encompassed a variety of publications
that featured cheap sensational fiction, They were printed on cheap pulp paper
and were aimed at young working class males. In some respects they were the
precursors of tabloid journalism

2)

http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_today.html

English as a Lingua Franca

On almost any basis, English is the nearest thing there has ever been to a global language. Its worldwide
reach is much greater than anything achieved historically by Latin or French, and there has never been a
language as widely spoken as English. Many would reasonably claim that, in the fields of business,
academics, science, computing, education, transportation, politics and entertainment, English is already
established as the de facto lingua franca.
1) Why is English being compared to Latin and French?
2) What suggests that English is already a lingua franca?
The UN, the nearest thing we have, or have ever had, to a global community, currently uses five official
languages: English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese, and an estimated 85% of international
organizations have English as at least one of their official languages (French comes next with less than
50%). Even more starkly, though, about one third of international organizations (including OPEC, EFTA and
ASEAN) use English only, and this figure rises to almost 90% among Asian international organizations.
3) Why does the text mention several international organisations and companies?
A global language arises mainly due to the political and economic power of its native speakers. It was British
imperial and industrial power that sent English around the globe between the 17th and 20th Century. The
legacy of British imperialism has left many counties with the language thoroughly institutionalized in their
courts, parliament, civil service, schools and higher education establishments. In other counties, English
provides a neutral means of communication between different ethnic groups.
4) What factors lead to the rise of a lingua franca in general?
5) What reasons does the text give for the rise of English and its continued use today?
But it has been largely American economic and cultural supremacy - in music, film and television; business
and finance; computing, information technology and the Internet; even drugs and pornography - that has
consolidated the position of the English language and continues to maintain it today. American dominance
and influence worldwide makes English crucially important for developing international markets, especially in
the areas of tourism and advertising, and mastery of English also provides access to scientific, technological
and academic resources which would otherwise be denied developing countries.
6) What influence does the United States have on English?
7) Why are developing countries particularly interested in this language?
Although English currently appears to be in an unassailable position in the modern world, its future as a
global language is not necessarily assured. In the Middle Ages, Latin seemed forever set as the language of
education and culture, as did French in the 18th Century. But circumstances change, and there are several
factors which might precipitate such a change once again.
8) Will the supremacy of English continue in future?
There are two competing drives to take into account: the pressure for international intelligibility, and the
pressure to preserve national identity. It is possible that a natural balance may be achieved between the two,
but it should also be recognized that the historical loyalties of British ex-colonies have been largely replaced
by pragmatic utilitarian reasoning.
9) What two contrasting pressures must be taken into account when considering the future of
English (and any dominant language)?
The very dominance of an outside language or culture can lead to a backlash or reaction against it. People
do not take kindly to having a language imposed on them, whatever advantage and value that language may

bring to them. As long ago as 1908, Mahatma Gandhi said, in the context of colonial India: To give millions a
knowledge of English is to enslave them. Although most former British colonies retained English as an
official language after independence, some (e.g. Tanzania, Kenya, Malaysia) later deliberately rejected the
old colonial language as a legacy of oppression and subjugation, disestablishing English as even a joint
official language. Even today, there is a certain amount of resentment in some countries towards the cultural
dominance of English, and particularly of the USA.
10) What are the negative aspects connected to a global language?
11) How have some countries reacted to the adoption of English as their official language?

We also mentioned the Commonwealth:

Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nationsformerly the British Commonwealthis a voluntary association
of 53 independent sovereign states, most of which were once part of the British Empire. The
Commonwealth's membership includes both republics and monarchies. The head of the
Commonwealth of Nations is Queen Elizabeth II, who reigns as monarch directly in 16 member
states known as Commonwealth realms.

Braj Kachru's Three Circles of English

Today, English is the second or third most popular mother tongue in the world, with an estimated 350-400
million native speakers. But, crucially, it is also the common tongue for many non-English speakers the world
over, and almost a quarter of the globes population - maybe 1-2 billion people - can understand it and
have at least some basic competence in its use, whether written or spoken.
1) What does the diagram above describe?
2) How many non-English English users are there?
Any number of other statistics may be quoted, none of them definitive, but all shining some light on the
situation. However, absolute numbers aside, it is incontrovertible that English has become the lingua franca
of the world in the fields of business, science, aviation, computing, education, politics and entertainment (and
arguably many others).

3) Are the figures quoted for the use of English reliable?

Over 90% of international airlines use English as their language of choice (known as Airspeak), and an
Italian pilot flying an Italian plane into an Italian airport, for example, contacts ground control in English. The
same applies in international maritime communications (Seaspeak). Two-thirds of all scientific papers are
published in English, and the Science Citation Index reports that as many as 95% of its articles were written
in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. Up to half of all
business deals throughout the world are conducted in English. Popular music worldwide is overwhelmingly
dominated by English (estimates of up to 95% have been suggested), and American television is available
almost everywhere. Half of the world newspapers are in English, and some 75% of the world mail
correspondence is in English (the USA alone accounts for 50%). At least 35% of Internet users are English
speakers, and estimated 70-80% of the content on the Internet is in English (although reliable figures on this
are hard to establish.
4) What is Airspeak?
5) What is Seaspeak?
7) How many researchers who publish in English are actually English?
8) What does the text say about English in the media?
Many international joint business ventures use English as their working language, even if none of the
members are officially English-speaking. For example, it is the working language of the Asian trade group
ASEAN and the oil exporting organization OPEC, and it is the official language of the European Central
Bank, even though the bank is located in Germany and Britain is not even a member of the Eurozone.
Switzerland has three official languages (German, French and Italian and also, in some limited
circumstances, Romansh), but it routinely markets itself in English in order to avoid arguments between
different areas. Wherever one travels in the word one see sees English signs and advertisements.
9) What is ironical about the fact the European central bank uses English as its official language?
10) What languages are spoken in Switzerland and why does this multilingual country use English
internationally?
Reverse loanwords
Although a huge number of words have been imported into English from other languages over the history of
its development, many English words have been incorporated (particularly in the last century) into foreign
languages in a kind of reverse adoption process. Anglicisms such as stop, sport, tennis, golf, weekend,
jeans, bar, airport, hotel, etc. are among the most universally used in the world.
11) What are reverse loan words?
But a more amusing exercise is to piece together the English derivations of foreign words where phonetic
spelling are used. To give a few random examples, herkot is Ukrainian for haircut; muving pikceris is
Lithuanian for movie or moving pictures; ajskrym is Polish for ice-cream; schiacchenze is Italian for
shake hands; etc. Japanese has as many as 20,000 anglicisms in regular use (Japlish), including
apputodeito (up-to-date), erebata (elevator), raiba intenshibu (labour-intensive), nekutai (neck-tie), biiru
(beer), isukrimu (ice-cream), esukareta (escalator), remon (lemon), mai-kaa (my car) and shyanpu setto
(shampoo and set), the meanings of which are difficult to fathom until spoken out phonetically. Russlish
uses phonetic spellings such as seksapil (sex appeal), jeansi (jeans), striptiz (strip-tease), kompyuter
(computer), chempion (champion) and shusi (shoes), as well as many exact spellings like rockmusic,
discjockey, hooligan, supermarket, etc. German has invented, by analogy, anglicisms that do not even exist
in English, such as Pullunder (from pullover), Twens (from teens), Dressman (a word for a male model) and
handy (a word for a cellphone).
12) What do the above examples demonstrate?
After many centuries of one-way traffic of words from French to English, the flow finally reversed in the
middle of the 20th Century, and now anywhere between 1% and 5% of French words are anglicisms,
according to some recent estimates. Rosbif (roast beef) has been in the French language for over 350 years,
and ouest (west) for 700 years, but popular recent Franglais adoptions like le gadget, le weekend, le bluejeans, le self-service, le cash-flow, le sandwich, le babysitter, le meeting, le basketball, le manager, le

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parking, le shopping, le snaque-barre, le sweat, le marketing, cool, etc. are now firmly engrained in the
language.
13) How many English words are used in French? Is this a recent phenomenon?
There is a strong movement within France, under the stern leadership of the venerable Acadmie Franaise,
to reclaim French from this onslaught of anglicisms, and the country has even passed laws to discourage the
use of anglicisms and to protect its own language and culture. New French replacements for English words
are being encouraged, such as le logiciel instead of le soft (software), le disc audio-numrique instead of le
compact disc (CD), le baladeur instead of le walkman (portable music player), etc. In Qubec, the neologism
le clavardage (a portmanteau word combining clavier - keyboard - and bavardage - verbal chat) is becoming
popular as a replacement for the common anglicism le chat (in the sense of online chat rooms). Norway and
Brazil have recently adopted similar measure to keep English out, and this kind of lexical invasion in the form
of loanwords is seen by some as the thin end of the wedge, to be strenuously avoided in the interests of
national pride and cultural independence
14) In what ways have some countries reacted to the predominance of English?

Further links: http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/sources.html

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3) The History of Radio and TV in the UK

http://www.mediauk.com/article/20411/the-history-and-development-of-radioin-the-uk
The UK radio market today is a product of over 80 years of radio broadcasting in the UK and 30
years of commercial radio broadcasting.
The launch of the BBC
The BBC was formed in 1922 as a number of radio manufacturers came together to promote the
new medium. The government of the day worried that broadcasting was too important to be left to
the market and set up an enquiry. In giving evidence to the 1926 Crawford Committee, John Reith
then Managing Director of the British Broadcasting Company stated that Broadcasting must be
conducted in the future as it has been in the past, as a Public Service with definite standards.
The government accepted the findings of the committee and, in 1927 the BBC became a public
corporation under a new Royal Charter, which set out its remit and governance structure.
BBC Radio started as local radio, partly for technical reasons, as it was not at first possible to
retransmit the same programme to different areas. The local programmes were appreciated but, by
the early 1930s, as the airwaves became more crowded and interference increased, the BBC
abandoned local radio and the first national and regional services were born.
This situation continued until 1967, when the three BBC networks Home (with regional
programmes), Light and Third were renamed Radio 4, Radio 2 and Radio 3 respectively and were
joined by the new national Radio 1, designed to counter the loss of listening to the pirate stations,
which were taking many listeners away from the BBC. At the same time, the BBC re-started local
radio, beginning with BBC Radio Leicester. A further 19 stations followed over the next six years.
In 1964 a series of pirate radio stations (starting with Radio Caroline) came on the air, and
forced the British government finally to regulate radio services to permit nationally-based
advertising-financed services. To counter the loss of listening to the pirate stations, which were
taking many listeners away, in 1967 the BBC reorganised and renamed their radio channels. The
Light Programme was split into the new national Radio 1 offering continuous "Popular" music and
Radio 2 more "Easy Listening". The "Third" programme became Radio 3 offering classical music
and cultural programming. The Home Service became Radio 4 offering news, and non-musical
content such as quiz shows, readings, dramas and plays. As well as the four national channels, a
series of local BBC radio stations was established..
In 1973, some 18 years after the BBC faced its first commercial competition in television,
commercial radio launched (then known as Independent Local Radio or ILR). Stations were
licensed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and were local, generally covering cities
or counties. There was only one station per area, except in London, where there were two with
different remits: Capital, broadcasting entertainment, and LBC, broadcasting news and information.
The rest of the commercial local stations around the country offered a broad range of programming
from news and chat, through pop music to classical music and religion - and were all locally
owned and run. Localness has, therefore, been an important feature of commercial radio since its
inception.
By 1988, there were 69 local commercial stations, each broadcasting on both MW (AM) and VHF
(FM) (a situation known as simulcasting). In that year, the Government permitted local commercial
stations to offer different services on their MW and VHF frequencies. Following this liberalisation,
a number of different formats were experimented with on MW by the commercial radio companies,
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but by far the most commonly adopted was the Gold format, majoring on chart hits from the 1960s
and 70s. The overall number of stations increased dramatically as a result.
The 1990 Broadcasting Act decreed that all local VHF and MW services should be individually
licensed, replacing the single VHF / MW contract that had previously existed under the auspices
of the Independent Broadcasting Authority. Furthermore, the broadening choice criterion
contained in Section 105 of the Act meant that any company providing the same programming on
both wavebands in the same licence area would be vulnerable to challenges to their licences when
they came up for re-advertisement. This meant that, by 1995, there was virtually no simulcasting
still occurring in UK commercial radio.
In 1990, the IBA began to award licences for stations in areas already served by an existing
commercial station. The aim was to increase the range of programming available to listeners. Early
examples included Jazz FM and Kiss in London, designed to appeal to a different audience from
Capital or LBC.
In 1991, the Radio Authority replaced the IBA as the commercial radio regulator and followed a
policy of licensing stations to fill in the gaps in existing coverage, to offer smaller stations in areas
already covered by large commercial stations and to offer regional stations, which could extend the
range of programming available to audiences.
National commercial radio
National commercial radio began in 1992. Three stations were licensed, and their formats were, to
some extent, decreed by Parliament one had to offer music other than pop music, one had to have
at least 50% speech content. These stations were Classic FM, Talk Radio (now talkSPORT) and
Virgin Radio.
The general trend in regulation of commercial radio has been gradually to lessen the regulatory
burden on radio stations as the competition for revenues and the choice for listeners increases.
BBC expansion
Meanwhile BBC Radio has continued to expand since 1967: A fifth national network, BBC Radio 5
(now BBC Radio Five Live) was launched and BBC Local Radio continued to expand, together
with new stations for each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
DAB Digital Radio
The BBC launched DAB digital radio in 1995, and now offers eleven UK-wide digital radio stations
(including five only available nationally on digital, and the World Service).
Since then, commercial operators have also made significant investments in digital radio. A national
commercial multiplex licence was awarded to Digital One in 1998. Digital One launched its first
national commercial services in 1999 and now offers eight services, including five available only on
digital. Local DAB commercial services are now available from 46 local DAB digital radio
multiplexes around the UK. Digital versions of the relevant BBC Local Radio or nations services
are also carried on the appropriate local commercial multiplex.
Source: Ofcom
http://www.mediastudentsbook.com/content/case-study-outline-history-tv-uk

Case study: an outline history of TV in the UK

Television broadcasting in the UK, as in most of Europe, was introduced as an extension of radio
broadcasting. The UK was unusual in developing a television service before 1939. Its development
was the responsibility of the BBC.
The BBC was set up as the British Broadcasting Company in 1922 by a group of manufacturers of
wireless equipment an early attempt by hardware manufacturers to create software and a
distribution system. This private sector organisation was the worlds first national broadcaster but
during the General Strike of 1926, independence of the company was called into question in a
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dispute that saw both government and trade unions attempting to influence communications. On 1st
January 1927, the British Broadcasting Corporation was founded with a Royal Charter and granted
a licence to broadcast. The new corporation had a measure of independence from the state.
An experimental television service began in 1936. In the trial period two different technologies
were used but John Logie Bairds mechanical system was quickly dropped and an electronic 405
line system became standard. .

The early years 193655

In the beginning, the new television service was constrained, in terms of both geographical and
social reach. Initially a limited service for the metropolitan middle class, it was a long time
(including close-down from 193946, because of the disruption of the Second World War) before
the single BBC channel was widely available. It was 1952 before the signal could be received by 81
per cent of the population. The television service required a viewing licence on top of the existing
radio licence, and by 1955 the number of television licence payers had risen to four and a half
million (out of around fourteen million households).
A universal public service 195582
The highly controversial introduction of commercial or independent television (ITV) in 1955, in
London and then around the country (set up partly with public service rather than simply
commercial principles), did much to fire up the BBC, which was allowed to introduce a second
channel with colour and a higher resolution picture in 1964. Colour transmissions began in 1967 but
the switchover to the new 625 lines of UHF from the original 405 lines of VHF took over twenty
years. It was 1985 before the old system was finally switched off an interesting comparison with
the current timetable for switching to digital broadcasting in a very different television environment.
In this period, ITV companies were obliged to operate on a purely regional basis, serving a
distinctive community and abiding by tight regulatory controls laid down by the franchising
authority, the IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority at first the ITA or Independent Television
Authority).
Filmed American series became commonplace on UK television during this period and live links
via satellite introduced overseas news and joint broadcasting events. ITV was first known as
commercial television and was depicted as vulgar by some middle-class audiences. It was some
time before the quality of ITV programming was recognised in drama productions such as
Armchair Theatre (1956-74).
The beginnings of pluralism 198290
Channel 4 went on air in 1982 with a new remit, to widen the range of programming and to serve a
diverse range of audiences not served by the BBC and ITV. Channel 4 was innovative in several
different ways. It was a public sector organisation that was funded via advertising revenue, initially
sold by the ITV companies. It didnt make its own programmes, but commissioned independent
companies as a broadcaster-publisher and created a new form of television channel. Channel 4
promised a wider spread of viewpoints and a third source of news and current affairs during a
period of great social unrest in the UK.
In Wales, S4C was also set up as a public service broadcaster-publisher. This period saw the UK
introduction of satellite broadcasting (two companies, Sky and BSB began broadcasting, but Sky
soon took over BSB to form BSkyB) and the re-emergence of cable television (it had previously
been used to relay terrestrial signals and some local services) offering a variety of channels on
broadband cable.
The multi-channel environment, 1990 onwards
The Broadcasting Acts of 1990 and 1996 legislated for a new television environment in which
regulation of independent television was loosened, Channel 4 gained control over its own
advertising revenue from ITV, and digital broadcasting promised to provide even more channels
than analogue cable and satellite, as well as interactivity and computer services. Channel 5 was
launched as a final terrestrial channel (i.e. analogue bandwidth was now used up). Throughout the
previous thirty-five years, the BBC and independent television (i.e. ITV and later Channel 4) had
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shared the audience on a roughly equal basis. From now on, the audience share of other
broadcasters would grow steadily, undermining the settled terrestrial broadcasting environment.
Analysing television history
Various commentators have found ways to analyse this history. John Ellis, one of the foremost
academic analysts of UK television (who has also worked within the industry), has represented the
history like this: the era of scarcity; the era of availability; the era of plenty.
Scarcity refers in most countries to the restricted number of channels available up to the late 1970s
(terrestrial broadcasts are limited by the availability of suitable bandwidths of radio waves). New
technologies such as broadband cable, DBS (direct broadcasting by satellite) and now digital freeto-air or DTT (digital terrestrial television) allowed the move to the era of availability by creating
space for many extra channels. In 2000 Ellis suggested television was moving towards a future that
was being promoted by producers and distributors, but which audiences were only coming to terms
with quite slowly.
In Elliss terms the producers and audiences have actually been working through an age of
uncertainty as television begins to redefine itself. We can see this in the refusal by a significant
section of the UK audience to buy in to the new world of plenty after a decade of promotion,
multi-channel television had penetrated, to use the market jargon, just over two-thirds of UK
households (TV International Database, reported in The Times 22/4/05). To the surprise of many
industry pundits, much of that growth had been via the Freeview service for terrestrial digital
channels. In other words, some of the new audiences for digital television had still to be convinced
that they need to pay extra for more channels. In the digital switchover currently underway in the
UK, the state has subsidised the move to digital for the minority not yet able to receive signals.
Freeview Created as a joint project between BBC, BSkyB and Crown Castle (the privatised exBBC transmitter group now Arqiva), Freeview was set up as a free DTT service when ITVs
ONDigital service failed in 2002. In June 2005 it had some 30 per cent of the digital market,
growing faster than BSkyB or cable by recruiting the refuseniks who wouldnt pay for digital
services. ITV had to buy extra channel space on the platform and in 2006, ITV and Channel 4
joined as equal shareholders. The Freeview model has since been exported to other countries. In
2008, BBC and ITV set up Freesat as an alternative platform for free digital television services.

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