A Changing Society (1964–79)

Abstract

In terms of audience share, during the 1960s and 1970s the duopoly consolidated and the BBC and ITV each attracted about half of the audience. With Till Death Us Do Part, Steptoe and Son, Up the Junction and the War of the Roses series the BBC produced some of its most popular and sophisticated programmes (Freedman 2001: 30). Leys (2001: 110), therefore, frames the 1960s and 1970s as the heyday of public service television, and ITV was an important part of it, largely due to the companies’ regional commitments as decreed by the ITA. Since 1957, the Authority had not changed the concessions of the first four companies. In the third contract period, running from 1968 to 1974, however, Harlech Television (HTV), headquartered in Cardiff and Bristol, replaced London-based TWW as contractor for Wales and the West of England region. Furthermore, the Authority divided the Northern Region into two seven-day contracts for Yorkshire and Lancashire. According to Barrie MacDonald: ‘that was originally done to try to create some competition in the supply of programmes to the network’.¹