Industry, Ownership, Scheduling, Regulation and Funding in the 1960s

In the 1960s

Ownership - the way in which the business part of a TV company is run

Funding - The sources a media company uses to get money for producing their shows

Regulation - The setting and enforcing of rules in a media 

sector

Industry

- The BBC began in 1936

- ITV began in 1955 as direct competition to BBC

TV during the mid 60s only had 3 channels available: 

• BBC1
• BBC2
• ITV

Televisions were small, expensive and only in black and white. Programmes were limited and only available during certain times of the day. When nothing was being broadcasted, the national anthem played. "Channel surfing" did not exist like it does today. 

BBC had complete 'monopoly' over the television industry - meaning they had all of the power. This means that BBC's unique broadcaster had complete ownership over the industry and therefore faced zero competition as it was the only company. 

When ITV began, it was the first time that products were advertised and quickly grew in popularity. This created a duopoly - meaning that the two companies dominated the TV industry. 

Funding

How was ITV funded?

ITV's primary income was by advertisements and their financially secure state meant that it was the only channel to broadcast moving -image ads. This advertisement revenue resulted in higher production values than the BBC. 

What issues did ITV face with their commercial TV funding?

The ITA set a lot of rules such as sponsorship which was not allowed and the number of adverts were controlled. Also, because ads were brand new it took a while for advertisers to want to advertise on TV.

What did the ITA do and how did this impact the content broadcasted by ITV?

The ITA controlled and regulated the TV shows and adverts. It was a company that was set up to regulate ITV. This restricted ITV from certain things it was showing. 

How did the popularity of 'The Avengers' impact its production values?

The ABC in America gave $2,000,000 to 'The Avengers' production which was a lot of money at the time. This then results in paying for better cameras, bigger sets and funded a lot of production.

Regulation

British television production was protected by the rules of public service broadcasting that minted the proportion of foreign content. This was different to world television who were dominated by American programs.

Due  to ITV being 'the channel of the moment' it faced no competition for advertisements, which meant that the commercial television channel could be highly regulated. Of course the ASA standards and society have changed since then.

Advertising
Standards
Authority

The national anthem would be playing until ITV opened its channel at 4.20pm with a daytime soap and then showed a range of television shows. Adult programmes then followed this.



Watershed - In 1964, the watershed was introduced at 9pm. This allowed for more adult programming such as 'The Avengers'. ITV shut down at about midnight, by which time it was assumed that audiences would be in bed. 

The watershed is the cut off time from programmes that are for appropriate ages to be more adult shows. This time starts at 9pm. It was introduced so that children would be watching shows that are appropriate for their age and the adults get to watch more graphic, violent and more without their children watching it too. This would have impacted 'The Avengers' because it was shown after 9pm meaning it could be more mature or graphic/violent.

Scheduling and figures

'The Avengers' was scheduled at 9.05pm on Saturday on ITV. This was prime-time. By the fourth series it had attracted over 7 million homes and episodes often appeared in the top 10 television programmes. The remote control had not yet been invented, so viewers had to get up and go to the TV to change the channel (eww).

'The Avengers' time slot impacted their viewing figures because it is Saturday meaning they do not have work the next day and it is during the watershed period meaning the adults finally get their time to watch programmes that they enjoy. It is on at prime-time. 

It was also one of the only crime-dramas at the time meaning it was more exciting and scarce for adults.


'The Avengers' audience questions

Who is the target audience for 'The Avengers'?
The target audience is adults because the show was on during watershed on a Saturday when not many people had work the next morning. 

How does 'The Avengers' appeal to them?
It appeals to them because it was more daring, sexy and irreverent than anything else on TV. It was well suited to a channel-loyal audience with no recording facilities. There was also a lack of competition at the time meaning it was a show people would loyally watch. 

How did the social, cultural and historical contexts of the time affect the audience?
Emma Peel, the main character, was a strong woman who was very different to a woman you would have seen in the 1960s. She was savage in a way that she had physical fights, she was intelligent and solved the mystery and she wore leather - which was seen as very sexy but also very different to the norms of the 60s society. This is all social, historical and cultural. 

How were audiences able to have access to 'The Avengers'?
'The Avengers' was on ITV. It allowed tent pole scheduling, where the evenings viewing was held up by popular TV shows.