The Opening of the BBC Television Service

BBC press releases from October and November 1936

BBC ANNOUNCEMENT

The B.B.C. regular television service will begin on November 2. It will be opened by the Postmaster General and Mr. R.C. Norman, the Chairman of the B.B.C., and Lord Selsdon, Chairman of the Television Advisory Committee will also take part in the ceremony, which will be televised.

Regular programmes will thereafter be given twice a day, from 3.0 to 4.0 p.m. and from 9.0 to 10.0 p.m. except on Sundays.

The choice of transmitting system to be used at the opening has been decided by the toss of a coin and has been won by Bairds.

With compliments from the British Broadcasting Corporation,
Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W.1.
9th October, 1936

The opening ceremony being broadcast from the Baird studio.
The camera in use appears to be a Farnsworth (see text)
(courtesy of Ray Herbert)

BBC ANNOUNCEMENT

Following the speeches by Mr R.C. Norman, Major Tyron and Lord Selsdon during the first inaugural television transmission this afternoon, by the Baird system, Sir Henry Greer, Chairman of the Baird Company, said:–

“To me the inauguration of this high-definition Television Broadcasting Service is an occasion for rejoicing.

“All of us who have been closely associated with this new field of endeavour are gratified that our judges, the Television Committee, have had sufficient faith in this new art to launch it upon the public.

“We now look forward with confidence to the development of the industry to which we have given so much anxious thought. We are proud of the part we have played, and above all we are glad that our pioneer work opens up new avenues for the skill and brains of our countrymen.

“Finally, I want to thank the Postmaster General, the Members of the Television Committee, and the B.B.C. for the encouragement and assistance they have given us in bringing our hopes to fruition.”

With compliments from the British Broadcasting Corporation,
Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W.1.
2nd November, 1936

The opening ceremony was broadcast for a second time immediately afterwards,
this time by the Marconi-EMI system (EMI)

While the plan was to transmit the opening solely via the Baird system, as described in the press releases printed above, the decision was taken at the last minute to repeat it using the Marconi-EMI system. As a result, the published programme given in the Radio Times (which was printed before the decision was taken) was incorrect.

The two photos show views of the respective studios during the opening ceremonies. Interestingly, the Baird camera on the tripod is too compact to be an Intermediate Film system (which was bulky due to its associated high-speed processing capability and therefore could not be placed out in the open in this way).

This, and the overall shape of the camera, suggests that we are looking at an almost unique and previously undocumented example of Bairds using an "Electron Camera", based around Philo T. Farnsworth's electronic Image Dissector tube, of which Bairds may have had only one after the fire at the Crystal Palace earlier in the year.

Marconi-EMI, on the other hand, are able to deploy three Emitron cameras (one of them is out of shot to the left of this picture), one covering the whole platform while another goes for a close-up on the speaker.

Richard G Elen