| 1970 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
| |
Cultural highlights | Predictions made this year |
|
| January 15 |
Bob Hope Christmas Show becomes the highest rated US television show to date (46.6) for the NBC network. |
|
| January 23 |
Radio Nordsee International pirate station, broadcasting from a ship off the Dutch coast, goes on the air. |
> June 13 |
| January 26 |
Relaunch of local Atlanta television station WTCG, bought by Ted Turner, as WTBS. It will form the basis of the first satellite-delivered superstation. |
See 1976 December 16 |
| February 4 |
Tele-Communications Inc (TCI) issues 450,000 shares at $16 in its first public offering. This values the 10th largest US cable operator at $7.2m. |
|
| February 11 |
First Japanese satellite, Ohsumi, is launched. |
|
| February |
JVC launches its first portable videotape recorder, model PKV-830. |
|
| March 10 |
Mika is the first satellite launched from the Kourou site in French Guyana. |
|
| March 31 |
Legislation banning US radio and television advertising of cigarettes is signed by President Nixon. It will come into effect on 1 January 1971. |
|
| March |
First demonstration by CBS of colour EVR. |
|
| March |
Sony introduces a new version of its colour videoplayer and mass printing system. |
|
| March |
MPAA Self-Regulatory Code for US film releases is modified: the age limit is raised from 16 to 17 and the M category is renamed GP (guidance by parents) |
See 1972 |
| April 3 |
UK telephone connection charge goes up from £20 to £25. |
|
| April |
Ampex announces ‘third generation’ videotape recorder, AVR-1, with time-base correction system and designed to be interfaced with computers for use in automated programming. |
|
| April 24 |
First Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong 01, is launched. |
|
| April 26 |
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) comes into being. |
|
| April |
Ampex displays its ADR-150 high-speed contact videotape printer. |
|
| May |
Committee of Inquiry into the future of UK broadcasting is set up under Lord Annan by the Labour government, which loses power at the general election on June 18. |
|
| May |
Memorex of California announces a thermal contact method for duplicating videotapes. |
|
| May-June |
A four-week strike by technicians blacks out Granada Television in the North-west of England during the general election campaign, costing the company £750,000 in lost revenue. |
|
| June 10-13 |
UK national newspapers are not published during a strike by the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (Sogat). Estimated loses: 60m copies and £1.5m in sales revenue. |
|
| June 13 |
Radio Nordsee International is renamed Radio Caroline International, but later reverts to its original name. |
|
| June 24 |
Teldec television disc (later known as TeD) is demonstrated in Berlin-the result of a joint venture between AEG-Telefunken and Teldec (the latter a joint venture of AEG-Telefunken and Britain's Decca Record Company). |
 The Quest for Home Video: TeD video disc |
| June |
Television service starts in Greece. |
Television service starts |
| June |
Philips announces and gives the first public demonstration of its Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) system using half-inch tape coaxially mounted in a cassette and running at 5.6 ips. At this stage VCR is Philips' name for its system rather than a generic term. |
The Quest for Home Video: Philips VCR |
| July 1 |
The British Board of Film Censors introduces a new classification: AA, barring children under the age of 14 from exhibitions of films carrying that certificate. U, A and X certificates remain in force, although the age limit for X films is raised from 16 to 18. |
|
| July 10 |
Broadcasting in the '70s, a report by management consultants McKinsey & Co into BBC financing and resourcing, is published. |
|
| July |
Annan Committee on the future of UK broadcasting is suspended by the new Conservative government. |
> 1974 |
| July |
Cartridge Television division of Avco Corporation announces its Cartrivision half-inch videotape, giving 100 minutes of record/playback from a cartridge recorder. |
|
| August |
Television service starts in Qatar. |
Television service start dates |
| September 7 |
Experimental television transmissions begin from Hanoi, Vietnam. |
|
| September 14, 21:00 |
BBC Television News, hitherto at 20:50, becomes The Nine O’Clock News. |
|
| September |
Ampex announces the Instavideo cartridge video system, using half-inch tape compatible with EIAJ standards designed in modular form so that the basic monochrome recorder could be portable with an optional camera. It is to be manufactured by Toamco, a joint venture with Toshiba, but Ampex later backs out of the arrangement. |
|
| October 1 |
Canadian content regulations imposed by Canadian Radio-Television Commission come in force for CBC-owned television stations, requiring a minimum 60 per cent Canadian content. Private stations must reach the same minimum by October 1972. |
|
| October 5 |
In the US, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) replaces National Educational Television. |
|
| October |
Australian cinema newsreels Cinesound Review and Movietone News merge. |
|
| October |
National Board for Prices and Incomes publishes a report on the finances of UK independent television (ITV) companies. Highlighting escalating costs and poor industrial relations (both of which need to be brought under control), the report recommends reducing the number of contractors through mergers, rationalising duplicated facilities and under-used studio space. It rejects the idea of allowing ITV a competitive second channel—a fourth set of frequencies being available—as a distraction from the financial problems facing the ITV companies but does not recommend a reduction in the Exchequer Levy on advertising income. [0063] |
|
| October |
Brian Young succeeds Sir Robert Fraser as director general of the Independent Television Authority (ITA). |
|
| October |
ACTT technicians working in ITV go on strike over a claim for increased pay for working in colour. |
|
| November 13 |
Du Pont describes a thermo-remanent process for high-speed duplication of chromium dioxide videotapes. |
|
| November 17 |
The computer mouse control is patented by Douglas Engelbart |
|
| November 17 |
In the UK, The Sun, now owned by Rupert Murdoch, publishes its first topless 'page three girl' photo. |
|
| November |
By now Rupert Murdoch has accumulated a substantial shareholding in London Weekend Television (LWT) and become a member of the board. [0063] |
|
| • |
Australian Film Development Corporation is established to act as a film investment bank. |
|
| • |
First feature film produced
• in Angola: Des fusils pour Banta, directed by Sarah Maldoror.
• in Guam: Noon Sunday, a US co-production directed by Terry Bourke. |
|
| • |
First Super 8 film camera with Pilotone sync generator—Cinéma Beaulieu 4008ZM2—is introduced. |
|
| • |
Imax large screen cinema technology is premiered in the Fuji Pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan. |
|
| • |
Massive withdrawal of American money from British film production. |
|
| • |
MGM closes its UK studio at Elstree and in partnership with EMI forms EMI-MGM Elstree Studios at the former ABPC studios. MGM guarantees an annual subsidy of £175,000. |
> 1973 |
| • |
French film cameramen Jean-Marie Levalon and Alain Masseron devise a camera mount for an intricate tracking shot by mounting a Caméflex camera on a gyroscopic pan-and-tilt head attached to a pole, connected to a tripod mounted on an Elemack dolly. It provides the prototype for the Louma crane [qv]. |
|
| • |
BBC Television closes Studio G at Lime Grove, Shepherds Bush and builds a film dubbing suite in the space. |
|
| • |
Experimental Film and Television Fund is established in Australia. The first production it backs is a documentary about anti-Vietnam demonstrations in Sydney. |
> 1978 |
| • |
Australian actors, writers and others start ‘Make it Australian’ campaign to increase national television production. Broadcasting Control Board introduces quotas of six hours of Australian drama and four hours of children’s programmes each month. |
> 1975 |
| • |
Demonstration in UK of sound-in-syncs system of encoding the audio part of the television signal in the vertical blanking interval (VBI), the portion of the television signal that is not seen on the screen. |
|
| • |
Ampex's ACR-25 cartridge-based video recording system allows automated recording and playback of television commercials. |
|
| • |
IVC introduces the 4101 time-base corrector to stabilise television signals. |
|
| • |
Sony announces a portable half-inch open-reel colour videotape recorder. |
|
| • |
Dolby Stereo System audio noise reduction is launched for cinemas. |
|
| • |
Losses at Twentieth Century-Fox soar to $77.4m. |
|
| • |
Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes (FEPACI) is founded. |
> 1975 |
| • |
Radio Monte Carlo leases airtime to Radio Geronimo, an English-language ‘commercial’ station broadcasting 00:00 to 03:00 on Sundays only. Its last until mid October. |
|
| • |
Radio service starts in Oman. |
|
| • |
IBM develops the floppy disc on which to store computer data. |
|
| • |
UK newspaper Daily Mirror closes its weekly colour magazine. |
|
