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3 May – The first of two series of groundbreaking youth television show Network 7 starts. The programme is shown live at Sunday lunchtime. 14 September – ITV Schools programmes transfer to Channel 4 resulting in an expansion of the channel's weekday broadcasting hours.
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26 January 1926:First public demonstration of television to members of the Royal Institution by John Logie Baird in his London laboratory. 24–27 May 1927:Baird demonstrates long distance transmission of television pictures over telephone lines from London to Glasgow (438 miles). 20 September 1927:Baird makes first electronic image recordings onto o...
14 March 1930:Simultaneous sound-and-vision 30-line television transmissions are made possible by a new transmitter (Brookman’s Park). 14 July 1930: First British television drama: Pirandello’s The Man with a Flower in his Mouth. March 1931:The Gramophone Company (HMV) and Columbia Graphophone Company merge to form a new company, Electrical and Mus...
23 December 1941:Baird gives first demonstration of 600-line electronic stereoscopic television in colour. 7 June 1946:BBC television reopens after the war. July–August 1948: London hosts the 1948 Summer Olympics, the first Olympic tournament to be broadcast to home television. 17 December 1949:BBC TV Midlands transmitter opens.
27 August 1950:First live link from the continent (Calais to London) lays the foundation for the later Eurovision network. 12 October 1951:BBC TV North transmitter opens, serving the North of England. 15 January 1952:BBC TV Scotland transmitter opens. 2 June 1953:Biggest outside broadcast to date: the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. 22 September ...
11 July 1962:First transatlantic satellite link via Telstar. 16 April 1964:First live link from Japan via Telstar II. 20 April 1964: BBC2 scheduled to open on 625 lines. Massive power failure in West London means gala opening night is cancelled. BBC2 opens the following morning, 21 April, with episode of Play School. 2 May 1965:First trans-Atlantic...
29 July 1981:Biggest outside broadcast to date: the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer (750 million viewers in 74 countries). 1 January 1982:New ITV contracts start. New companies include Central Television, TVS and TSW. 2 November 1982:Channel 4 television begins broadcasting. 17 January 1983:BBC Breakfast Time (breakfast television)...
29 April 1990:Launch of British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) (satellite television broadcaster). 2 November 1990:Sky and BSB merge to form BSkyB. 1 January 1993:New ITV contracts start. New companies include Carlton Television, Meridian Broadcasting, Westcountry Television and GMTV. Old companies lost in the franchise change include TV-AM, TVS, TSW...
22 October 2002:UK’s Freeview free-to-air digital terrestrial television (DTT) service officially begins. 2 February 2004:Merger of Granada Television and Carlton Television is completed. The new company is named ITV plc. 27 May 2006:The BBC begins broadcasting in high-definition (HDTV) on their new subscription channel BBC HD. 17 October 2007:The ...
30 March 2010:Freeview HD is launched across the UK, featuring the new Channel 4 HD. 1 October 2010:Sky launches Europe’s first stereoscopic (3DTV) television channel. 28 February 2011:Product placement is permitted on UK television for the first time. 2012–2013: The BBC sells Television Centre, and moves most of its operations from Television Cent...
Channel 4 starts broadcasting into the early hours every night, closing down between 2am and 3am. Previously, Channel 4 had closed down on Sundays to Wednesdays at between midnight and 1am. An early morning 60-minute news programme, ITN Early Morning News, is launched but it is only available in areas which have 24-hour broadcasting.
Before Channel 4 and S4C, Britain had three terrestrial television services: BBC1, BBC2, and ITV, with BBC2 the last to launch in 1964. The Broadcasting Act 1980 began the process of adding a fourth; Channel 4 was formally created, along with its Welsh counterpart, by an act of Parliament in 1982.
Channel 4 is free-to-air and freely available to all of the UK. We have the UK’s biggest free streaming service, plus a network of six television channels. Since Channel 4 was created in...
Channel 4: extending voices. The arrival of Channel 4 in 1982 was a milestone in the history of public broadcasting. In particular, the channel was a model of public broadcasting adapted to the complexities of a multi-ethnic society eager for programmes extending not just the number of choices available but the very range of choice.
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Nov 2, 2007 · Channel 4 was in talks about merging with rival network Five, but the plan was abandoned after its then-chief executive Mark Thompson left to run the BBC in 2004. This summer, it bought a...
