Political Television

Abstract

In 1963 the ita gave a formal assurance that the annual series of party political broadcasts would be transmitted by Independent Television, and so avoided a requirement being included in the new Television Bill. Wheeling and dealing between the political parties and the two broadcasting bodies about them proceeded wearily through the sixties without effecting any major changes in the established pattern. Arguments revolved around the total amount of time to be made available each year; the number and length of the individual broadcasts within this total; whether or not these should be delivered simultaneously by both services (including bbc 2); at what time of the evening they should be shown; and whether the broadcasts should be wholly or partially regionalised so that viewers, for example in Scotland, should not be addressed on subjects almost exclusively relevant to the English political scene. On the whole bbc and itv were more successful in holding a common front than were the political parties, whose views tended to vary according to whether or not they were in office and to the changing tactical situation in party conflict. In the formal meetings of the Committee on Party Political Broadcasting the parties could only find permanent common ground in regarding the broadcasters collectively as mean and grudging in their attitude and as lacking in proper awareness of the high importance of these party pronouncements in the political life of the community.