ARCHIVE: The Teletext Archive
A recovered Ceefax page sheds some light on how tight BBC budgets restricted BBC Two’s transmission time for many years.
From 1st October 1982, BBC Two’s four-hour transmitter shutdown after Play School was suspended for four months.
The channel’s trade test transmissions were sharply curtailed in January 1975 to help the corporation deal with a cash crisis and support a wider drive across the country to conserve fuel.
Generally BBC Two transmitters were only on the air from 10.30am to 11.30am and from 4pm onwards. In 1980 there was a slight extension when Ceefax In-Vision was introduced.
The Ceefax page from September 1982 explains the rationale for the planned temporary lifting of the restriction.
The extra hours of BBC Two trade test transmissions were to help aerial riggers support the launch of Channel 4.
I suspect the decision to do this was taken some time in advance.
The clue is in the wording of the page – contrary to what it says, C4 and the IBA were actually running trade tests from the start of August.
So why were BBC Two’s trade tests briefly extended?
Generally, aerials did not need to be adjusted for C4. Sets simply needed tuned in.
The UHF transmission system was designed to allow for national coverage by four channels.
An aerial properly set up for the three existing channels could be presumed to be set up for good C4 reception.
But there were specific exceptions.
Occasionally C4 was on an unusual frequency because of the risk of interfering with continental transmissions.
In these localities, existing aerials may have needed replaced.
There was another factor to consider.
By 1982, some relays existed merely to provide improved reception – unlike the first relays which extended coverage into areas with no usable UHF signal.
In these cases, some may have contemplated two aerials- one for excellent reception of the three existing channels, another turned to the main transmitter for a usable (if ghosty or grainy) C4 signal.
I suspect though that very few people would actually have gone to the trouble of getting a new aerial just to get C4.
Either way, it Is telling that the BBC didn’t make the extension to BBC Two’s transmission time permanent straight away.
On 7th February 1983, the 11.30am shutdown returned. It was finally abandoned by stealth when schools programmes moved to BBC Two seven months later.
The BBC – and the country – were in a very difficult situation in 1975 when the cut was made.
But it’s telling that the BBC did not reverse this decision – it was simply superseded by events years later.
Even the experiment in late afternoon TV from November 1981 to April 1982 didn’t extend the time transmitters were on air for. They merely curtailed the afternoon trade test.
The first evidence of a permanent extension to BBC Two airtime came in December 1983. Ceefax was shown from 9am onwards when there were no schools programmes. This started to be acknowledged in Radio Times a few weeks later.
Was this to help the trade? Was this because a shutdown during school holidays alone was pointless? Was it part of the drive to promote Ceefax during otherwise empty airtime? Or was it to allow viewers with teletext sets to access the full BBC Two Ceefax magazine all day?
EXTERNAL LINK: Ceefax Engineering page courtesy of The Teletext Archive.
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: BBC Two test card. COPYRIGHT: BBC.
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