I recently ordered a new television, as mine decided that switching on each morning was too much like hard work. When I went online to select my new window on the world, I was struck by how much things have changed over the years.
I’m 33 years old and I remember when the choices were basically big bulky TV or small, portable TV. As CRT gave way to flatscreen technology, suddenly we were bombarded with LCD, LED, plasma, then HD, 1080p, 4k, it’s a never-ending stream of acronyms and technobabble. Ultimately, though, it all boils down to “the two Ps”. Price and picture.
When you choose a new TV, you want to get the best possible image for the right price. Despite all of the whirl of jargon, that’s all there is to it. There was a time, though, when television really did present the world with an incredible choice. In 1967, UK telly addicts had to ask themselves… black and white? Or colour?
That’s a clip from the 1967 Wimbledon championship coverage on BBC2, which was the first official colour broadcast in the United Kingdom and marked the beginning of regularly scheduled colour programming. By 1968, the majority of BBC2 programming was broadcast in colour. In 1969 BBC1 caught up, aiming to rival ITV1.
50 years on, the world has changed considerably and colour is, of course, the norm. These days, people are generally more concerned with whether or not their brand new 72 inch Panagoodvision has sufficient definition to portray the individual water droplets within a rainbow, but they don’t often stop to think that it’s not so long ago that the just being able to see the damn rainbow on the small screen was wonder enough.
Oddly, it seems that the UK still hasn’t fully embraced colour. According to the Telegraph, as of 2015 there were still around 9000 UK homes with black and white television licenses. I’m willing to bet that a few of those are people who have colour televisions but would be willing to swear that they only watch reruns of The Addams Family, but it’s still a surprising number. Maybe it’s a “vinyl is better than MP3” kind of thing. More likely it’s because the black and white license is nearly £100 cheaper than the colour. Who can say?
I, for one, will stick with my colour license. I really can’t imagine living in a world without T.A.R.D.I.S blue.
Happy birthday colour television! Here’s to the next big thing!
