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3 - Enter the BBC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2022

Jamie Medhurst
Affiliation:
Aberystwyth University
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Summary

The first mention of television in the BBC's official meetings came on 15 June 1927 in the form of a short (but prophetic) minute from the Corporation's Board of Governors meeting: ‘The Director-General referred to television experiments which, he said, had not so far been regarded as sufficiently satisfactory to justify the support of the Corporation. Developments were being carefully watched.’ In many ways these two sentences set the tone for the BBC's engagement with the new technology/medium over the next two years. In his report to the Board on 13 July 1927, Reith noted that the Baird Television Development Company (BTDC) had expressed a feeling that the BBC's attitude towards television had been ‘rather obstructive’, and added, ‘from one point of view perhaps it has’. By his own admission, the BBC, said Reith, did not want to be too closely associated with television at such an early or experimental phase. The Corporation did not want to give the impression that the process (television) was more advanced that it actually was. He was ‘afraid also that directly or indirectly B. B. C. co-operation might be made the means of raising more capital from the public’ on the part of the Baird Company. The BBC had agreed, he informed the Governors, to give facilities after programme hours on the understanding that these were experimental or scientific investigations only and that no publicity was to be given by the Baird Company to this co-operation. The BBC's station was used on three occasions for these experimental transmissions, and tests were made for reception and field strength. However, an intervention from the Postmaster-General had brought these transmissions to an abrupt end, much to the annoyance of Oliver Hutchinson, who met with F. W. Phillips from the GPO on 25 July. Once again, Hutchinson mentioned that BTDC had been approached by an American company, named this time as AT&T, and that it wanted the rights to the television equipment. The company had also been offered £100,000 for the option of picture rights on behalf of Wannamaker's broadcasting station in New York. Phillips was unimpressed by this. Firstly he noted that the BBC was not licensed to carry out experimental television broadcasts or to loan its stations for experimental purposes.

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Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Enter the BBC
  • Jamie Medhurst, Aberystwyth University
  • Book: The Early Years of Television and the BBC
  • Online publication: 18 November 2022
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  • Enter the BBC
  • Jamie Medhurst, Aberystwyth University
  • Book: The Early Years of Television and the BBC
  • Online publication: 18 November 2022
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Enter the BBC
  • Jamie Medhurst, Aberystwyth University
  • Book: The Early Years of Television and the BBC
  • Online publication: 18 November 2022
Available formats
×