The Commercial Imperative

Abstract

Revenue from advertising is the lifeblood of any commercial television system. When the UK’s first commercial channel opened up in 1955 as ITV its blood was pretty thin. The print mass media had over half a century’s start and a firm grip on the market and Parliament, though anxious to see competition for the licence fee-funded BBC had legislated more checks than balances for the new channel. Partly this was to do with maintaining the values of what Americans told MPs was ‘the best television in the world’, partly it was to ease in the new medium without too much damage to the old. No politician wants to be blamed for a newspaper going out of business. Even the least-read paper is some voters’ favourite. Ultimately two national newspapers, the News Chronicle and the Daily Sketch did die but there were many factors involved other than simply the arrival of the opportunity for the newspapers’ advertising to move over to television. And many advertisers themselves were cautious about making such a move.