Britain: An official handbook > 1966

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17
SOUND AND TELEVISION
BROADCASTING
Broadcasting of sound and of television in the United Kingdom is regulated
under powers conferred on the Postmaster General by the Wireless Tele¬
graphy Acts 1949-1955, which prohibit the sending or receiving of radio
communications, except under licence. Users of sound and television receiving
sets must obtain an annual licence, which can be purchased from most post
offices.
Sound broadcasting services are provided solely by the British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC), which was established as a public corporation by Royal
Charter in 1927. Two television services are provided by the British Broad¬
casting Corporation (BBC 1 and BBC 2) and one by the Independent Television
Authority (ITA), which was established by the Television Act 1954 and is
continued by the Television Act 1964.
There were 16,124,870 receiving licences current in the United Kingdom
in June 1965, of which 13,358,000 were for sound and television combined
and 2,766,870 (including 638,640 for sets fitted in cars) for sound only. A
combined sound and television licence costs ^5; a licence for sound only
costs j£i 5s. Registered blind people are entitled to free sound licences or to
combined licences for £3 15s. One licence covers all receiving sets in a house¬
hold, but a separate licence is required for a set fitted in a car.
Development of When sound broadcasting began in the United Kingdom in 1922, it was
the Services decided in Parliament that the Postmaster General should grant only one
licence for that purpose at any one time, and the first licence was granted
exclusively to a limited company (the British Broadcasting Company). The
decision to grant only one licence for broadcasting was maintained when the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was formed to take over the functions
of the limited company in 1927; it was reaffirmed in 1937 when the BBC’s
second charter was granted to cover the sound services and the television
service which the BBC had inaugurated during the previous year; and it was
upheld throughout the second world war and during the post-war period
until 1952.
During the second world war television broadcasting was suspended and
transmissions were not resumed until 1946. After resumption the television
service gained rapidly both in technical efficiency and in popularity; and
between 1949 and 1952 the Government instituted a major review of sound
and television broadcasting. After prolonged parliamentary and general
discussion it was decided by the Government that the potential power of
television was so great that it would be undesirable to leave transmission
services in this medium in the hands of a single authority, however excellent.
The ITA was therefore established in 1954, as a public body, to provide
services additional to those of the BBC for an initial period of ten years.
Independent television (ITV) transmissions began in September 1955—the
BBC’s monopoly in the provision of sound broadcasting services remaining
undisturbed.