Except for Viewers in Scotland by Ronnie McDevitt

Author:Ronnie McDevitt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: scottish, scotland, football, soccer, association, television, fan
ISBN: 9781909143609
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Published: 2012-09-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The Colour Revolution

“And for those of you watching in black and white, the Italian referee here has got a bright scarlet jumper on”

Brian Moore, ITV Sport Scotland V England, Hampden Park 1972

Although the BBC Annual Report at the end of 1954 had predicted ` colour television in two years’ this had proved wildly optimistic to say the least. They had begun gradually introducing colour broadcasts on BBC2 since July 1967(twelve months too late for their World Cup coverage) when a mere four hours a week were allotted to the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

By the middle of 1968 however almost all of BBC2s programmes were in colour although BBC1 remained almost exclusively black and white at that point.

The first colour edition of `Match of the Day’ on BBC1 went out on 15 November 1969 although the March 29 edition had also been in colour on BBC2 - courtesy of the Eurovision Song Contest which dominated the main channels schedule. This necessitated a change therefore allowing colour football highlights as the show returned to its BBC2 roots (where it had began in 1964) for one night only.

It is worth pointing out that not all viewers would be able to appreciate this new phenomenon as many still possessed black and white receivers and would do so for a few years to come. It was estimated that by the end of the `sixties close to ninety five percent of the population were able to watch television in one form or another.

Whilst the BBC had been the pioneers when it came to television in Scotland it was undoubtedly STV who led the colour revolution north of the border. STVs first colour broadcasts took place on 13 December 1969 from their Gateway studios in Edinburgh with a news bulletin at 12.55 followed by `World of Sport’at 13.00.

That evenings edition of Scotsport also went out in colour whilst BBC1s `Sportsreel’ was still in monochrome.

Almost all editions of Scotsport from then on would be presented in colour - although many of their matches were still shot on black and white film - save for a few midweek broadcasts and a lengthy period from November 1970 into 1971 when industrial action meant the entire ITN networks output was in monochrome. One of the last black and white Scotsports to go out had been the 1500 th edition on 10 th December and in an article in TV Times Arthur Montford estimated some 300,000 feet of film had been used during the programmes twelve year history.

An STV spokesman explained to the Glasgow Herald they would not be advertising colour programmes as “ something special,” adding “ everything will be in colour unless we specifically say it will be in black and white so that colour can be regarded as the normal order of things.” The Scottish edition of TV Times contained the following announcement - `Scottish Television welcomes viewers to the new 625-line service in colour. colour programmes can be seen on the new channel 49.’ That opening weekend a good eighty percent of the programmes STV had to offer were available in colour.

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