It may seem curious that British Electric Traction, a company that had
started life in the 19th century supplying cabling systems for electric trams,
was to be the main parent of Britain's first commercial television company. But
BET, having run tram cabling along many streets in urban areas across the
country, had branched out in March 1928 with the formation of Broadcast Relay
Service Ltd, using that distribution network to carry radio broadcasts by wire
into homes, avoiding the need for complex and hard-to-operate early radio
sets.
BRSL soon became known as 'Rediffusion' - a name meaning simply 'broadcasting
again'. With the advent of the BBC Television Service in 1936, Rediffusion was
well placed to rent TV receivers and to provide a basic form of cable TV service
to subscribers.
After the war, BET and Rediffusion diversified into providing wired
distribution and ultimately wireless broadcasting, including commercial radio,
in the former and remaining British Colonies. With the announcement of
commercial television in the UK, Rediffusion was quickly on the scene with a
bid. Just in case things were not as rosy as expected, BET brought in a partner
in the form of Associated Newspapers, owners of the Daily Mail, with a 50%
stake.
The first contracts were awarded on October 26, 1954, just three months after
the Independent Television Association had been formed, and the new company, Associated Rediffusion, was given the franchise for Monday to Friday in the London area - the jewel in the ITV
crown.
With only 11 months to get on the air, Associated Rediffusion installed
itself in the former RAF headquarters on Kingsway. The building, previously
Adastral House, was renamed 'Television House' but a ghost of the former name
persisted with the station's logo, a rotating 16-pointed star, becoming known as
the 'adastral' by members of staff. In charge of operations at Kingsway was
A-R's General Manager, Captain Tom Brownrigg, RN, retired. With military
precision, building conversion went ahead at top speed. The Kingsway building
housed four small continuity and news studios, but the main production facility
was a five-studio complex at Wembley, originally the British home of 20th
Century Fox.
The new service was to be transmitted on Band III, rather than the
lower-frequency Band I used by the BBC Television Service, and viewers needed a
new aerial, and had either to buy new sets or install a converter to watch the
programmes.
Following a series of test transmissions, commercial television in the UK
began on Thursday, 22 September 1955, with an evening jointly programmed by A-R
and 'ABC', Lew Grade's consortium that held the London weekend contract and was
soon to become known as ATV after a disagreement with ABPC. Leslie Mitchell, the
former voice of the BBC Television Service, announced for the first time, "This
is London." The station clock reached 7:15 pm, and Independent Television was on
the air, taking a live feed from the opening ceremony in the Guildhall. A
variety performance from the Wood Green Empire, courtesy of Lew Grade, followed,
along with the first commercial on British television, an ad for Gibb's SR
toothpaste at ten past eight, for which Elida Gibbs paid 50% over ratecard (the
scale of standard charges for buying broadcast advertising time). Drama, a
boxing match, Chris Chataway reading the news from ITN and live coverage of the opening night party took the evening up to a closedown prayer at 11:05pm.
There was only one problem: the evening had made a dramatic financial loss.
Programme costs had been larger than expected, and instead of giving the
evening's advertising proceeds to the Lord Mayor's nominated charities, the two
companies stumped up a token £100 each. With just two companies responsible for
all the programming for several months after the opening, income continued to
lag behind costs, and, by the first anniversary, Associated Rediffusion had lost
£3 Million. Associated Newspapers wanted to back out, and Rediffusion bought 80%
of its shares. But with the major players in the network by now in place, 1959
saw A-R's annual profits reach £2.7 million. By the end of ITV's first decade
they were twice that of the entire Rediffusion operation in 1955.
As far as programming was concerned, A-R had a dilemma. On the one hand, the
company ethos - as well as public expectation - dictated that the company should
produce high-quality, 'serious' programming, and this it did, with long-running
factual series such as This Week (1956-78; 1986-92) and drama from the likes of
Harold Pinter and other leading playwrights - even including a performance of
Elektra in Greek. A-R led the field with the introduction of broadcasting to
schools, and provided a strong strand of children's programming. Indeed, it was
sometimes referred to as 'the BBC with adverts'. On the other hand, the 13 years
of Rediffusion are remembered more today for game shows like Double Your Money
and Take Your Pick (both 1955-68). The fact is that the latter,
lowest-common-denominator programming essentially paid for the highbrow output,
and one would not have been economically viable without the other. In addition,
there were solid drama series such as No Hiding Place (1959-67) and Crane
(1963-67), pop music show Ready, Steady, Go! (1963-66) and comedy, in the form
of the innovative At Last the 1948 Show (1967-68), A Show Called Fred (1956) and
children's comedy Do Not Adjust Your Set (1968), not to mention The Frost
Programme (1966-73). The company also left an indelible mark on the psyche of
Londoners, if not those further afield, separating commercials with its
'adastral' symbol zooming rapidly towards the viewer, still today the very
incarnation of the 'commercial break'.
The 1964 franchise round saw no changes in the fortunes of existing ITV
companies. However, Associated Newspapers finally withdrew completely from A-R,
apparently somewhat unwillingly, as a requirement to maintain a one-third stake
in Southern Television. The 'Associated' was thus dropped from the name, and the
station relaunched itself as 'Rediffusion, London's Television', with a new and
memorable theme tune by John Dankworth and a 'swinging sixties' on-screen look.
The station remained extremely profitable for another four years.
When it came to the 1968 renewal process, however, things were different.
Rediffusion had a very high opinion of itself, and according to David Frost, the
interview with Rediffusion chairman John Spencer Wills included some heated
exchanges concerning the entire process of franchise review. Charles Hill, who
had been present at the opening of ITV a dozen years earlier as head of the
ITA, had been considering obliging applicants to
merge - an idea not without precedent - as a way of allowing new blood into the
network. He proposed that ABC Television, weekend contractors in the Midlands
and the North, and Rediffusion should set up a joint company in which ABC, upon
whom the regulator looked favourably, would own 51%, and thus have control.
Rediffusion was able to negotiate an equal split of profits, but not equal
power. As a result, the new company formed by the parent company of each, to be
called Thames Television, was to owe a great deal more to the style of ABC than
it did to Rediffusion, and as a television company, Rediffusion disappeared from
London's screens on 29 July 1968.
Richard Elen
Sources:
Sendall, Bernard, Independent Television in Britain, Vol 1 (Macmillan, 1982)
Independent Teleweb (http://www.itw.org.uk/)
Television House (http://www.rediffusion.tv/)
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