The Authority and the Programmes

Abstract

By the early summer of 1955 the Authority felt that it could no longer refrain from considering in broad terms its own future role in regard to the programmes of ITV. It was possible to adopt, and find reasons for justifying, two quite different points of view. On the one hand the very existence of the ITA as a public authority with the function under Section 1 of the Act of providing television services ‘additional to those of the British Broadcasting Corporation and of high quality’ could be taken as implying a positive programme responsibility which would not be abrogated. On the other hand it could be said that commercial television was founded on a belief in free enterprise which could only find expression if the contractors were allowed the utmost freedom within the law; the provisions of the Act did not really go further than make the Authority the landlord and the companies the tenants. As Clark put it, ‘The Act, on this point, is as ambiguous as the Elizabethan prayer-book, and it is really for the Authority to interpret its rulings bearing in mind (a) the intentions of Parliament as expressed in the debates and negotiations which preceded the Act and (b) the practical working of the system.’¹