Greenwich Cablevision
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Greenwich Cablevision was the first
community television Community television is a form of mass media in which a television station is owned, operated or programmed by a community group to provide television programs of local interest known as local programming. Community television stations are most c ...
station in Britain, broadcasting briefly in the
Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
area of
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
during the 1970s.


History

Greenwich Cablevision was half-owned by Canadian business interests and had Maurice Townsend as its managing director. By January 1972 it has 12,000 subscribing households, each of whom paid 15 pence per week to access its
cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
service. This had originated in response to difficulties in receiving a
terrestrial television Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an ante ...
signal in parts of the borough of Greenwich, notably some areas of Woolwich, most of Plumstead and Abbey Wood. These districts had poor reception caused by the location of the high point of
Shooters Hill Shooter's Hill (or Shooters Hill) is a district in South East London within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It borders the London Borough of Bexley. It lies north of Eltham and south of Woolwich. With a height of , it is the highest point in t ...
between them and the terrestrial transmitter at
Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
. The company placed a television mast on a recently constructed high-rise block nearby and relayed the received terrestrial signal by cable to many local homes. The system was known as the Woolwich and District Television Traders' Relay. The move from being a relay service to a local television station that broadcast content not provided by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
or
Independent Television Authority The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" ( ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA existed from 1954 un ...
(ITA) broadcasters came after it lobbied Christopher Chataway, the then Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. It was already providing cable access to ITA terrestrial channels that were otherwise not available in the London area, such as Southern Television and
Anglia Television ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated b ...
, but Townsend expressed a desire to develop "a video platform for local people". There was a commercial imperative to seek new markets because improvements in the coverage of terrestrial transmitters were boosting the quality of reception of such signals and thus reducing the demand from consumers for cable relay services. The revised terms were conditional upon it providing high-quality local, community-oriented programmes and continuing to operate without public funding. It had been and remained barred from showing advertisements or seeking sponsorships, and it was also prohibited from showing films. As with some similar early cable operators in the United Kingdom, Greenwich Cablevision was hoping that the incumbent
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government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...
would in due course provide a legislative environment that permitted
pay TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...
services to develop. Greenwich Cablevision was the first of five stations to commence locally-oriented cable broadcasts following the granting of the experimental licences, with the other awardees being based in
Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
,
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
, Swindon and
Wellingborough Wellingborough ( ) is a large market and commuter town in the unitary authority area of North Northamptonshire in the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, 65 miles from London and from Northampton on the north side of the River Nen ...
. These licences were intended to expire in 1976 but their span was extended to 1979 after the election of a
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
government in 1974. With a subscriber base now standing at 14,000 and a staff of seven, Greenwich began its revised operations in July 1972, working from a former shop in Plumstead High Street. Its chairman, Timothy Dudman, noted that "People like to see themselves and their friends on TV - it is natural and this, combined with a strong local interest, should make for good viewing." Initially, the in-house programming comprised a magazine-format current affairs show presented by Jillie Murphy, a local woman and former fashion writer. Called ''Cabletown'', it had similarities with the '' Nationwide'' terrestrial programme, was broadcast daily for an hour in the evening and then repeated the following morning. Later efforts included a Saturday night show called ''Greenwich Meantime'' that provided early career breaks for the comedians
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and
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, and a series called ''Your Song'' that featured a broadcast of community hymn-singing. The company had estimated in 1972 that it needed 17,000 subscribers from its 20,000 connected households in order to break even, and that it would then be able to consider adding a further 14,000 households to its cable network. Townsend's concerns regarding local programming were more inspired by a desire to increase the number of people taking up the company's service than by the spirit of localism and democratisation as embodied by Michael Shamberg and other media activists of the time. The services provided by Bristol Channel and Swindon Viewpoint favoured the latter emphasis and aimed to involve their viewers in production of their output. However, by 1975 only Greenwich Cablevision, Sheffield Cablevision and the Swindon broadcaster were still operating; the others among the initial five licensees had been unable to survive in the constrained financial framework, which had also prevented them from increasing the price of subscriptions. The various broadcasters had wanted permission to seek subsidies from local councils, to use their spare channel capacity to sell CCTV monitoring facilities and to show sponsored material. Instead came a government decision in 1975 to allow them to carry advertising. This concession followed pressure from the
Annan Committee The Annan Committee on the future of broadcasting was established in April 1974 to discuss the United Kingdom broadcasting industry, including new technologies and their funding, the role and funding of the BBC, Independent Broadcasting Authorit ...
which feared that the entire experiment might collapse before it had time to review evidence of their impact. At that time, the ''
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'' commented that the additional revenue would be insufficient to offset the operating costs especially since the small audiences and often "dull or amateurish" programming would deter advertisers. Earlier in that year, Greenwich had cut its locally-generated programming to two hours per week, while the Swindon operation refused to countenance advertising, believing that it was contrary to their public service ethos. Writing in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', columnist Peter Fiddick considered the decision to extend the licensing period from 1976 to 1979 as no more than governmental procrastination, putting off the time when politicians would determine the outcome of the experiment. He said that "the commercial decision the cable interests are having to take is whether continuing to shell out on the community experiments in the public interest will in the end, after Annan and all that, bring the multi-channel pay television, full-colour advertising backed, share of the mass audience business that is the real goal." A contemporary documentary produced for the BBC's '' Horizon'' programme portrayed the activities of the Greenwich and Swindon broadcasters.


See also

*
List of former TV channels in the United Kingdom This is a list of former TV channels in the United Kingdom. EPG numbers are displayed in the columns to the left under the relevant service names. Analogue Digital Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 ...
*
Television in the United Kingdom Regular television broadcasts in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection ...


References

Notes Citations


Further reading

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External links

* {{cite web , url=http://www.rewind.ac.uk/documents/Sue%20Hall,%20John%20Hopkins/SHJH031.pdf , title=Transcript excerpts from a video interview with Maurice Townsend , date=December 1974 , publisher=Rewind Community television channels in the United Kingdom Mass media in London Television channels and stations established in 1972 Defunct television channels in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations disestablished in 1976