English TV Abroad

Interesting they didn't record from Channel 4 for the BFBS Network considering this 'short documentary' is from 1983...

Of course the film might have been made around or before the launch of Ch4. Even so that early on every probably didn't have anything worth BFBS showing, they had no established popular programs

I wonder if blockbusters and bullseye was broadcast?

Back from Majorca the amount of dishes pointing to Sky was crazy, I was watching BBC One even I didn't think that was possible! I really should move my motorised setup there one day

According to a YouTube comment posted by the person who uploaded the clip, "Channel 4 was simply totally ignored by BFBS Television until the early 90s."

I can't even believe the aerials back then WORKED and the channels able to TRANSMIT! It really is amazing they could do that - even back in the 40s when BBC TV started!

Do you know anything about television at all? :

Did no one mention the clip of Stephen Mulhern's screen test for the SSVC (or whatever daft acronym it had) kid's show that was shown on You Saw Them Here First on ITV last week? Pretty coincidental that something as rare as footage from forces TV being aired in the UK happened to be shown around the time that we were talking about it on here!



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So do BFBS still use the South Bank Studios?

For anyone just joining the thread, here's Part 2 of the above documentary (the link got separated when the post was quoted):

Here's more SSVC continuity, this time a closedown from 1988:

As I appear in the 'behind the scenes of BFBS video' linked to above perhaps I can clarify some of the queries about BFBS.

The MOD entered into a 10year contract with LWT to produce a TV service for the troops (BAOR) starting in 1975. The BBC were hopping mad as they thought it was a done deal with them. Initially the programmes were recorded at the South Bank TV centre in a truck parked outside the building, as were all the continuity links using LWT's continuity suite during week days. At the same time, an area within LWT's Wycombe Road studio site was constructed and converted to house the operation. So eventually the LWT/BFBS service moved to Wycombe Road. The Wycombe Road studios, and to some extent the BFBS television service, are covered on Martin Kempton's excellent website that many here are familiar with.

The intention was to provide a 'live' service to the troops via a microwave link. This took some years to get going as it passed through several European countries some of whom dragged their feet when it came to approving planning applications for microwave towers etc for what was to become the longest line of sight microwave link in the world - built to military standards.

Eventually it was built and you can see what is left of the first microwave tower on the roof of the Wycombe Road studios on MK's website. But of course it was still necessary to transport tapes to and from Germany.

Why not Channel Four? Blame Channel Four. BBC and ITV agreed to the recording and re-transmission of their programming on the basis that it was an extension of the UK audience but tapes had to be wiped immediately after transmission - they always were. Channel Four buggered BFBS around for years and never granted permission during the length of the MOD/LWT contract. The Wycombe site even had 4 incoming video circuits from BT tower installed for ITV/BBC1/BBC2 and .. well you get the picture.

In the early 80's the MOD got itchy feet over how much LWT was charging for the contract. They decided to merge BFBS with the 'SKC' the 'Services Kinematograph Corporation' if I remember the initials correctly (they showed films to the troops in cinemas) and form a new organisation called 'SSVC', the 'Services Sound and Vision Corporation' headed up by a bloke called John Grist who was ex-retired from the BBC. And so it came to pass that although BFBS was under the umbrella of the SSVC the service was still called BFBS television on air.

So what happened next? In1984 (ish) the MOD/SSVC put the contract out to open tender but had it firmly in the back of their minds that LWT was never, ever in a million years going to get the contract back. They trailed around The old Limehouse studios, the BBC, some other facility house in central London, and surprise surprise the ex-BBC man now in charge of it all decided to award the contract to ... the BBC. But only for a short while.

And so it was towards the end of 1985 that the microwave kit on the top of the Wycombe Road studios was taken out (I strongly suspect it was re-commissioned on the roof of TVC centre) But SSVC had already decided they would do it all in house and after while it all ended back at SSVC's headquarters at Chalfont. Of course the MOD even sold that off eventually to Kingston Communications, and they sold it on to Arquiva or is that NTL as I get confused by all these companies nowadays. Of course it's now the Lottery HQ.

LWT weren't daft. They had it written into the original contract that if the MOD did not renew the contract after the initial 10 year period then the MOD would have to pay LWT for the costs of re-instating the BFBS area at Wycombe Road back to how it was. They duly did just that and charged the MOD. Then they sold the whole site off to Joe Dunton cameras. Pure spite. It's all a pile of rubble now.