TV IS DEAD?

PROGRAMME 1: STANDING OUT FROM THE CROWD

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Interviewees

• Shananne Lane, Producer, Channel 4 Promotions
• Cameron Saunders, Head of Marketing, C4 Digital Channels
• Rufus Radcliffe, Head of Marketing, C4
• Peter Offer, Continuity Announcer, BBC1
• Peter Bazalgette, Chief Creative Director, Endemol
• Jeff Conrad, Head of Design, Red Bee Media
• Boyd Hilton, TV Editor, Heat Magazine
• Phil Lind, Director, C4 Promotions
• Richard Woolfe, Director of Programming, Sky 1, 2 and 3
• Lisa Opie, Managing Director of Content, Five.

Key developments in TV

Television was not created by a single inventor; many people working together and alone over the years have contributed to the evolution of television. Developments often take several years before they become mainstream.

Timeline

1907: Campbell Swinton developed electronic scanning methods of reproducing images

1924: John Baird was first person to transmit moving silhouette images

1936: BBC1 launched

1950: colour television broadcasts in the USA

1955: Independent Television launched

1956: first practical video tape system of broadcast quality

1956: first practical remote control

1967: most broadcasts are in colour

1966: BBC2 launched

1979: cellular phones invented

1982: Channel 4 launched

1984: CD-ROM (Compact Disc read-only memory) invented

1989: Sky launched

1989: High-definition TV launched

1990: World Wide Web/internet protocol (http) and WWW language (html) created by Tim Berners-Lee

1995: Java computer language created; DVD invented

1996: web-TV invented

1997: Channel 5 launched

2005: YouTube (online video-sharing and -viewing community) invented.

Ofcom

UK television has one of the most regulated sytems in the world. Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the communication industries in the UK. It received its full authority in the Communications Act 2003, and inherited the duties that had previously been the responsibility of five regulatory bodies:

• The Broadcasting Standards Commission
• The Independent Television Commission
• The Office of Telecommunications
• The Radio Authority
• The Radio Communications Agency.

It has a statutory duty to further the interests of citizens and consumers by promoting competition and protecting consumers from harmful or offensive material. It deals with licensing, undertaking research, creating codes and policies, addressing complaints and looking into competition. It organises public consultations, holds public meetings and interviews individuals.

When Ofcom receives a complaint it asks the broadcaster for a copy of the programme and any response. It then examines the programme to see whether it is in breach of the Broadcasting Code, marking the complaint as either upheld, upheld in part, not upheld or already resolved (where an error has already been dealt with).