The politics of monochrome - why did the UK take so long to authorize color TV?

[ixnay]

Britain waited until the late '60s to "legalize" color television, I've read, 15-20 years after the US did the same thing. What took the Motherland so long? Were there technological issues involved? Maybe someone like BML can edify us?

ixnay

 

[mjlarochelle]

Canada was the same - it was 1967 before it was legal to broadcast in colo(u)r there. Why that was, I have no idea.

 

[ajc_trw]

Britain waited until the late '60s to "legalize" color television, I've read, 15-20 years after the US did the same thing. What took the Motherland so long? Were there technological issues involved? Maybe someone like BML can edify us?

ixnay

American color, NTSC, was a color carrier added to the existing monochrome TV standard. IIRC the BBC tried this with 405 line but rejected it as being not good enough. They then went to the drawing board and designed the 8MHz channel 605 line PAL standard.

 

[azumanga]

Canada was the same - it was 1967 before it was legal to broadcast in colo(u)r there. Why that was, I have no idea.

Actually, it was 1966 when color TV was introduced in Canada.

Furthermore, color TV did not come to Australia until 1975. I think Italy also got into the color game late, also around 1975.

That being said, which country was the last to go from B&W only to color?

 

[Bluenoser]

Canada was the same - it was 1967 before it was legal to broadcast in colo(u)r there. Why that was, I have no idea.

Furthermore, color TV did not come to Australia until 1975. I think Italy also got into the color game late, also around 1975.

That being said, which country was the last to go from B&W only to color?

In Australia's case, the Vietnam War played a role as the then-Prime Minister felt that the war effort took priority over color TV...

 

[BMR]

Britain waited until the late '60s to "legalize" color television, I've read, 15-20 years after the US did the same thing. What took the Motherland so long? Were there technological issues involved? Maybe someone like BML can edify us?

ixnay

American color, NTSC, was a color carrier added to the existing monochrome TV standard. IIRC the BBC tried this with 405 line but rejected it as being not good enough. They then went to the drawing board and designed the 8MHz channel 605 line PAL standard.

This, basically. The BBC experimented with NTSC and weren't happy. I'm not sure what more I can add. Until the 1990s British broadcasting was a fairly conservative beast, that took it's time over changes. The 1960s were actually quite a period of change, by British standards.

Except I think it was a 625 line system, not 605. Still broadcasting for a few more months in some areas.

 

[BMR]

That being said, which country was the last to go from B&W only to color?

If you believe Wikipedia, Cambodia (1985) was the last.

Other late comers- Communist Romania (1983) was the last European country

Portugal (1979) the last 'western' country, although Portugal was (is?) fairly poor by western standards...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_introduction_of_color_television_in_countries

The last major country to get TV, South Africa went colour from day one.

 

[BMR]

Sorry to triple post, but the 15 min editing window isn't long enough for me....and I think this is still worth sharing as I find it funny


In Ireland colour was technically possible from 1969, but the government banned it on the grounds that the sale of colour TV sets would destabilise the economy. http://www.irish-tv.com/hist70s.asp

Could you imagine a modern government banning a technology on similar grounds? Say blocking the latest Iphone or the newest digital cameras?

But then broadcasting in pre Celtic-tiger Ireland was even more conservative than the UK. There was no music radio in Ireland until 1979, and no commercial radio until 1990, by which time the country was overun with pirate radio.....

 

[FreddyE1977]

Canada was the same - it was 1967 before it was legal to broadcast in colo(u)r there. Why that was, I have no idea.

Actually, it was 1966 when color TV was introduced in Canada.

Furthermore, color TV did not come to Australia until 1975. I think Italy also got into the color game late, also around 1975.

That being said, which country was the last to go from B&W only to color?

I believe that India went to color in the early 80's sometime.

In developing countries, the balance of trade was an issue. If they did not have a domestic
color television industry countries were reluctant to have their consumers start streaming cash
out of the country by rushing to buy imported color TV's. Many small countries held on to
black and white for this reason.

 

[TVWorldwide]

PAL was developed in Germany, not the UK.

 

[TVWorldwide]

I believe that India went to color in the early 80's sometime.

In developing countries, the balance of trade was an issue. If they did not have a domestic
color television industry countries were reluctant to have their consumers start streaming cash
out of the country by rushing to buy imported color TV's. Many small countries held on to
black and white for this reason.

The balance of trade was an issue not just in developing countries, but also some Western European ones. Despite the postwar recovery, the UK and other European countries had a significantly lower standards of living -- and smaller domestic markets -- than the U.S. in the 1960s. Even when color television was introduced, it took quite a few years for the number of color sets to surpass the number of black-and-white sets. Adding to the expenses was the fact that the TV license fee was, in several countries, higher for color sets.

Also, most countries outside of the Americas had television monopolies, where one or two broadcasting organizations operated all TV services. These corporations had no competitive reason to introduce color early on -- and tended to see color primarily as an added expense.

 

[BMR]

The balance of trade was an issue not just in developing countries, but also some Western European ones. Despite the postwar recovery, the UK and other European countries had a significantly lower standards of living -- and smaller domestic markets -- than the U.S. in the 1960s. Even when color television was introduced, it took quite a few years for the number of color sets to surpass the number of black-and-white sets. Adding to the expenses was the fact that the TV license fee was, in several countries, higher for color sets.

Also, most countries outside of the Americas had television monopolies, where one or two broadcasting organizations operated all TV services. These corporations had no competitive reason to introduce color early on -- and tended to see color primarily as an added expense.

I agree with your first and third points, but not your second. The balance of trade was something our politicans used to get into a flap about, but don't seem to bother about anymore. Also you are correct in that the BBC/ITV duopoly had nothing to gain from colour TV

However I'm not so sure about your standard of living point. Off topic but arguably real standards of living were higher in the UK in the 1960s and even the 1950s than now. Reasons? (Much) lower housing costs back then and more secure jobs, particularly manufacturing jobs. However Ireland, Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal did have significantly lower standards of living than the UK (the latter two still do). The 1950s and 60s saw migration into the UK from all those countries, but especially Ireland.

 

[rgseark2009]

Heck color TV did not really take off in this country until 1965-67 when CBS got over their sour grapes over rival NBC's owner (RCA) developing the NTSC color standard over the proposed CBS color system. ABC was still a secondary network in smaller markets.

Public TV in Arkansas (KETS Little Rock) did not convert to color until 1972 well after NET gave way to PBS.

 

[TVWorldwide]

However I'm not so sure about your standard of living point. Off topic but arguably real standards of living were higher in the UK in the 1960s and even the 1950s than now. Reasons? (Much) lower housing costs back then and more secure jobs, particularly manufacturing jobs. However Ireland, Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal did have significantly lower standards of living than the UK (the latter two still do).

True, but those countries were all very poor in the 1960s. On the other hand, the UK was lagging behind the United States as well as several other, more developed European countries. According to Postwar by Tony Judt,

"[...] by the early 1960s, the Federal Republic [of Germany] was the booming prosperous powerhouse of Europe, while Great Britain was an underperforming laggard, its growth rate far behind that of the rest of Western Europe. Already by 1958 the West German economy was larger than that of Britain. In the eyes of many observers, the UK was well on its way to becoming the sick man of Europe."

In any case, I would argue that the standard of living and the level of disposable income enjoyed by residents of an average European country is closer to the American average now than it was in the 1960s. (And we should exclude both very poor countries, such as Greece and the nations of "Eastern Europe," and very rich ones, such as Switzerland.) To a 1960s European, the U.S. was an entirely different -- richer, more futuristic -- world. That is far less the case nowadays.

 

[BMR]

However I'm not so sure about your standard of living point. Off topic but arguably real standards of living were higher in the UK in the 1960s and even the 1950s than now. Reasons? (Much) lower housing costs back then and more secure jobs, particularly manufacturing jobs. However Ireland, Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal did have significantly lower standards of living than the UK (the latter two still do).

True, but those countries were all very poor in the 1960s. On the other hand, the UK was lagging behind the United States as well as several other, more developed European countries. According to Postwar by Tony Judt,

"[...] by the early 1960s, the Federal Republic [of Germany] was the booming prosperous powerhouse of Europe, while Great Britain was an underperforming laggard, its growth rate far behind that of the rest of Western Europe. Already by 1958 the West German economy was larger than that of Britain. In the eyes of many observers, the UK was well on its way to becoming the sick man of Europe."

The seeds of our 70s decline were probably being sown even then. I'm still not convinced poverty was the reason Britain was so late to introduce colour TV though.

In any case, I would argue that the standard of living and the level of disposable income enjoyed by residents of an average European country is closer to the American average now than it was in the 1960s.

The standards of living of Ireland and Italy in particular have improved a lot- no doubt.

But I'm not so sure real UK living standards have risen, once you take into account housing costs. Even ignoring the current recession, inequality has grown, employment has become less secure, rents have soared and landlords have become rich, crime and gang culture now wrack many of the estates built in the 'boom' years of the 1960s to provide cheap housing - forcing people to pay higher rents elsewhere if they want to escape .............

..................and now I'm ranting and about a billion miles off topic, for which I apologise

 

[Bob1370]

Everyone has hit on part of the story of why color TV took so long to catch on worldwide. Economics played a role in so many ways, fromv cost of entry for broadcasters to the cost to the consumer. That even kept color in the US a small factor until solid state electronics in the 60s made color equipment cheaper for broadcasters, color sets cheaper for home use, and the signals generated by solid state equipment more stable and reliable for everyone. (The joke worldwide was that NTSC stood for "Never Twice the Same Color".) Remember, a majority of US homes didn't have color until the 70s.

Canada, for example, had color TV sets installed well before the 1966 formal opening of color service because so much of Canada (especially the Toronto, Montreal, Windsor and Vancouver areals) were getting color signals from Buffalo, upper New England, Detroit and Seattle. The Canadian regulators held back on clearing their own stations until the color they saw from American stations started looking stable.

The same advances in color technology made it more attractive (and less costly) to other countries as well.

 

[ixnay]

(A) majority of US homes didn't have color until the 70s.

Including my paternal grandparents' home in a small industrial city, until they moved to my cousin's out in the suburbs in 1975. Shortly afterward, grandpop died at 84 (grandmom was almost 79 and lived to be 91. My maternal grandparents were both dead by the time I was born).

Canada ... had color TV sets installed well before the 1966 formal opening of color service because so much of Canada (especially the Toronto, Montreal, Windsor and Vancouver areals) were getting color signals from Buffalo, upper New England, Detroit and Seattle. The Canadian regulators held back on clearing their own stations until the color they saw from American stations started looking stable.

Was celebratory politics (for lack of a better phrase) involved as well, what with Canada's centennial coming up in 1967?

The following question probably belongs on R-I's Canada TV board but I think it fits here. When did Hockey Night in Canada go color? 1966-67 (when appropriately enough, there was an all-Canadian SC final [Leafs over Habs])?

The responses to my OP have been good in quantity and quality. Thanks.

ixnay

 

[desertv]

It is rumored that early British TVs had a propensity to catch fire, requiring that they be unplugged when not in use One of the brands sold was Bush, occasionally referred to as the "Burning Bush" :

 

[azumanga]

It is rumored that early British TVs had a propensity to catch fire, requiring that they be unplugged when not in use One of the brands sold was Bush, occasionally referred to as the "Burning Bush" :

During the 1970s, there was a high demand for color TVs, to a point that many unknown brands popped up overnight to supply the market with cheap color sets. A consequence to this is the parts tended to overheat and catch fire.

As a result, the TV networks reminded viewers to switch off their sets after the stations closed down for the night. An episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus", featuring "A Story at Bedtime", featured such a reminder at the very end of the episode, following a string of promos.

 

[ajc_trw]

Except I think it was a 625 line system, not 605. Still broadcasting for a few more months in some areas.

My bad, it was 625 line. Thanks.