Getting Ready

Abstract

The staid language of the Authority’s second annual report for 1955/6 recorded that, ‘The vigour and enterprise of the programme companies in making themselves ready from scratch for the provision of up to fifty hours a week of television programmes in the extremely short time at their disposal deserve the highest praise.’¹ Each of the four had different tasks, different problems and different deadlines. The two London companies, with a starting date within a year of being offered contracts, had to perform miracles of improvisation, and so did Independent Television News. But all had studios to provide and equip, all needed outside broadcast resources, all had staff to find and recruit and all had programmes to plan and film to acquire. And they had to learn how to work together, not only in dealings with the ITA but in order to make a reality of the concept of a competitive optional network. From April 1955 a Television Programme Contractors Association was in being and even before that, from December 1954, the original companies had been holding informal meetings. From June 1955 they were also meeting formally with the ITA in the Standing Consultative Committee.