The Broadcasting and Entertainment Trades Alliance (BETA) was a short-lived

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

. It was founded in 1984 with the merger of the

Association of Broadcasting Staff The Association of Broadcasting and Allied Staffs (ABS) was a British broadcasting trade union. The organisation was founded in 1945 with the merger of the BBC Staff (Wartime) Association and the Association of BBC Engineers to form the BBC St ...

and the

National Association of Theatrical Television and Kine Employees The National Association of Theatrical Television and Kine Employees (NATTKE) was a trade union in the United Kingdom which existed between 1890 and 1984. It represented employees who worked in theatres, cinemas and television. History The u ...

. The union appointed two General Secretaries,

Tony Hearn David Anthony Hearn (born 4 March 1929), known as Tony Hearn, is a former British trade union leader. Hearn attended Trinity College, Oxford. He began working for the Association of Broadcasting Staff (ABS) in 1955, as assistant to the General ...

and John Wilson; Wilson standing down in 1987. In 1991, BETA merged with the

Association of Cinematograph Television and Allied Technicians The Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians (ACTT) was a trade union in the United Kingdom which existed between 1933 and 1991. History The union was founded by technicians at the Gaumont British Studios in 1933 as th ...

to form the

Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union (BECTU), formerly the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union, became a sector of the Prospect trade union in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2017 following the ...

References

BECTU History: 1979 OnwardsCatalogue of the BETA BBC archives
held at the

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...

Broadcasting in the United Kingdom Communications and media organisations based in the United Kingdom Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom Entertainment industry unions 1984 establishments in the United Kingdom Trade unions based in London Trade unions established in 1984 Trade unions disestablished in 1991 {{UK-trade-union-stub