Abstract

Soapsuds Over England. The New TV Set-Up

This article presents the author's views on British television programs. Until September, 1955, the British Broadcasting Corporation had enjoyed a monopoly of television as of radio though in recent years its monopoly in sound has been increasingly eaten away by the light, mainly disc-jockey-type programs broadcast by Radio Luxembourg to which many sets in British pubs, cafes and homes are kept more or less permanently timed. For technical reasons, monopoly television was able at first to transmit only one program. Political pressure for the establishment of commercial television coincided, naturally, with the imminent availability of a second channel; and the independent TV propagandists were able to confuse public opinion by suggesting a close relation between the possibility of a choice of program.