The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Commercial TV Comes to Britain DURING the debate preceding Britain's experiment in commercial television, the most dire prophecies were proclaimed in Parliament...
...The basic thing about the BBC is that there are no sponsors and no advertising...
...In fact, the excitement incident to the competition is having an excellent effect all around...
...It seems a small price to pay for the blessed relief from the eternal commercial...
...The commercials are not tied in with the programs and cannot be spoken by a performer...
...All programs are put on by groups working under the Authority...
...Many Americans will learn with something of a shock that the British have made a great contribution to this feature of our mechanized life...
...Paulu, "the Postmaster General promised that on the ITA Hamlet would never interrupt his soliloquy to tell us the favorite brand of toothpaste in Elsinore...
...The ITA is similar in its organization and in its degree of independence...
...And the effect of competition has so far not worked like Gresham's Law in reference to coinage...
...In the great debate to which I have referred, a group of Conservatives showed their determination to justify and exemplify the unfettered, competitive capitalist system...
...In 1926, English scientists, with an assist from an ingenious Scot, got a start on all the world by actually sending through the air "not only shadows, but the details of movement, and such things as the play of expressions on the face...
...Paulu's account is notably solid...
...Minnesota...
...The Independent Television Authority is the group responsible for the commercial television program of which we have heard so much...
...But their opponents managed to include in the enabling act so many limiting provisions that an American capitalist would hardly recognize the child of his system...
...But, despite the prophetic thunder and lightning, on September 22, 1955 the ITA, the commercial telecasting outfit, went on the air...
...As I read the latest book on the subject (British Broadcasting, by Burton Paulu...
...One of the things of which England has a right to be proud is the Third Program...
...The listener pays a pound a year for a license for his radio set and three pounds for a license covering both radio and television...
...And since then the sky has not collapsed, nor have the sturdy people of the old island notably deteriorated in manners or morals...
...Paulu writes at the beginning of Chapter 9. "The British are proud of their world leadership in television," he is thinking of history rather than of present performance...
...He covers finances, art, social service, politics, newscasting—everything...
...What pleases me most about it is that the artists are liberated from the tyranny of the studio clock...
...The total number of licenses, including both systems and all services, mounts up to more than 14 million today...
...Human reason and sensitivity have, for once, triumphed over tradition and convention...
...6), I feel more and more reassured...
...The plays of Shakespeare and the symphonies of Beethoven are performed to the end without interruption...
...The British were warned that, if they let this wicked camel get his nose into their well-regulated tent, they might in course of time become little better than Americans...
...Lord John Reith, who has had much to do with developing the entire system, has written: "The responsibility was to carry into the greatest number of homes everything that was best in every department of human knowledge, endeavor and achievement...
...But for the average American such bits of history are not the important feature of this book...
...Here is a radio project which gives its listeners the best in music, in drama, in discussion — even in poetry...
...In opening the service," reports Dr...
...It is to be reported that this "commercial" system—so modified and restrained—is gradually gaining popularity...
...THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Commercial TV Comes to Britain DURING the debate preceding Britain's experiment in commercial television, the most dire prophecies were proclaimed in Parliament and the press...
...The system sends out three radio programs, the Light, the Home and the Third...
...There are no sponsors...
...When Dr...
...After a brilliant exhibition of propaganda, they achieved their purpose...
...Paulu spent a good deal of time in England doing his on-the-spot research...
...What we want to know is how the present duplex television system is working out...
...When Parliament decided on an experiment in commercial television, it was taken for granted that the general setup would follow that of the BBC...
...When you have finished his exposition, you feel that you have acquired a comprehensive sketch of how the British make use of the air-waves...
...Though British broadcasting is under the general control of the Government, the BBC is, according to the British way of doing things, an independent entity...
...The transmitters are spotted over the country in such a way as to serve England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland— with some variation to suit the tastes and interests of the various regions...
...Trembling fingers of warning were pointed at America, where radio and television are notably commercial...
Vol. 40 • January 1957 • No. 2
