The Pilkington Committee was set up on 13 July 1960 under the chairmanship of

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, ...

industrialist Sir Harry Pilkington to consider the future of broadcasting, cable and "the possibility of

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

for public showing". One of the Pilkington Report's main conclusions was that the British public did not want commercial radio broadcasting, and it offered criticism of the existing commercial television licensees.

Pilkington Committee

The members were: *Sir Harry Pilkington *

Harold Collison Harold Francis Collison, Baron Collison, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE, (10 May 1909 – 29 December 1995) was a British people, British trade unionist. Born in the East End of London, Collison grew up in Gloucester and attend ...

*Elwyn Davies * Joyce Grenfell *

Richard Hoggart Herbert Richard Hoggart (24 September 1918 – 10 April 2014) was a British academic whose career covered the fields of sociology, English literature and cultural studies, with emphasis on British popular culture. Early life Hoggart was bor ...

*E. P. Hudson *J. S. Shields *R. L. Smith-Rose *Elizabeth Whitley * W. A. Wright *Professor F. H. Newark (from March 1961) *

John Megaw Sir John Megaw, (16 September 1909 – 27 December 1997) was a British judge who eventually rose to Lord Justice of Appeal and Irish international rugby union player. Early life and career Born in Dublin, Megaw was the son of Irish (later ...

(resigned 5 January 1961) * Peter Hall (resigned 27 January 1961) * Sir Jock Campbell (resigned 2 February 1961)

Pilkington Report

For consideration

* renewal of the

BBC Charter The BBC Charter is a royal charter setting out the arrangements for the governance of the British Broadcasting Corporation. An accompanying agreement recognises its editorial independence and sets out its public obligations in detail. The ini ...

; *

licence fee A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts, or the possession of a television set where some broadcasts are funded in full or in part by the licence f ...

funding; * extending radio hours; * adult education broadcasting; * a third television channel; *

colour television Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white t ...

625 lines 625-lines is a standard-definition television resolution used mainly in the context of analog systems. It was first demonstrated by Mark Iosifovich Krivosheev in 1948. Analog broadcast television standards The following International Telecommun ...

; * local broadcasting; and * better commercial television regulation.

Television conclusions

The report, published on 27 June 1962, recommended the introduction of colour television licences and that Britain's third national television channel (after the

BBC Television Service BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 19 ...

and ITV) should be awarded to the BBC.

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

was launched two years later. It also criticised the populism of ITV by attacking its American-originated acquired programming such as

Westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

and crime series.

Radio conclusions

The report recommended that the BBC should extend its activities to the creation of local radio stations in order to prevent the introduction of commercial radio.

Consequences

In deciding that the British public did not want commercial radio, it rejected requests for licences that were being sought by over 100 British registered commercial radio companies. Its immediate result was historic in nature because it inspired both the creation of a trade lobby group for commercial radio, and the establishment of ship-based

pirate radio Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially ...

stations operating in international waters outside the jurisdiction of the British government. The best known of these was

Radio Caroline Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. ...

whose transmissions began in 1964.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilkington Committee On Broadcasting 1960 in British television 1960 in radio BBC history BBC Local Radio British committees on broadcasting Radio in the United Kingdom