Britain: An official handbook > 1977

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BBC Television
Independent
Television
BBC Radio
BRITAIN 1977: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
Radio attracts its largest audiences during the mornings. In the first three
months of 1976 radio listening averaged almost 8-5 hours a week per head of
population.
Apart from a break during the war years the BBC has been providing regular
television broadcasts since 1936. Since 1964 it has operated two services—
BBC-1 and BBC-2. All BBC-2 programmes and the majority of those on BBC-i
are broadcast on the national network. Although many nationally networked
programmes are produced in London, some originate from regional studios in
Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and eight regional centres in England. In
1974-75 some 4,997 hours were broadcast on the BBC-i national network
including 786 hours of programmes produced by regional organisations for
network transmission; similar figures for BBC-2 were 3,494 hours including
381 hours of regional productions. Regional studios also originate programmes
of news and local interest intended for regional transmission only; these varied
from 684 hours in Wales (of which 350 were in the Welsh language) to an
average of over 170 hours in each of the eight English regions.
Through co-ordinated planning of programmes on its two services the BBC
is able to cater simultaneously for people of differing interests. While both
services cover the whole range of television output, BBC-i presents a higher
proportion of programmes of general interest, such as light entertainment,
sport, children’s programmes and outside broadcasts, while BBC-2 places
greater emphasis on minority interests, providing a larger element of news,
documentaries, serious drama and music. Programmes successful on BBC-2
are frequently repeated on BBC-i. Both channels provide a wide range of
education programmes; in 1974-75 nearly 11 per cent of BBC-i transmissions
were devoted to schools and further education broadcasts and over 23 per cent
of BBC-2 transmissions to Open University programmes (see p. 154).
During 1974-75 BBC television programmes won ten international awards.
In the financial year 1975-76, some 9,000 hours of programmes were sold to
80 countries, the most popular being David Copperfield which was screened in
27 countries.
The first regular independent television broadcasts began in London in 1955.
ITV transmissions are provided on a regional basis by 15 programme com¬
panies. In 1974-75 over 9>300 hours of different programmes were shown over
the independent television network: 7,500 hours were produced in the com¬
panies’ own studios of which two-thirds were programmes designed for regional
audiences (including news and magazine programmes) and the remainder
were networked throughout the country.
ITV programmes cover the whole range of television output, and more than
one-third of viewing time is devoted to serious programmes such as news and
news magazines, current affairs and documentaries, religion and education.
The remainder includes a high proportion of drama (often in serial form), light
entertainment, music, sport and feature films. There are about three short
advertising intervals an hour, during and between programmes.
During 1974-75 programmes produced by independent television companies
won 16 international awards. Of the individual companies, ATV Network
Ltd., for instance, sold some £12 million worth of programmes overseas, and
London Weekend Television Ltd. gained over £750,000 from overseas sales.
BBC Radio provides listeners with four separate national channels, each of
which has a distinct character. Radio 1 provides a programme of ‘pop’ music,