| 1967 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
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Cultural highlights | Predictions made this year |
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| January 1 |
British Film Producers’ Association and the Federation of British Filmmakers merge under the name of the former organisation. |
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| January 6 |
First American football Super Bowl is televised by CBS and NBC, creating a tradition of one of the highest rated US television programmes. |
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| January 12 |
Dragnet returns to US television. Off the air for the past eight years, it is now in colour. |
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| January 15 |
The Rolling Stones succumb to pressure to change the lyrics of their latest hit Let's Spend the Night Together as a condition of appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. They sing 'Let's spend some time together'. |
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| January |
The Spanish quota for dubbed imported American films, the baremo, is set at one day of Spanish films for every three days of imports. Original-language and subtitled imports are not included. |
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| January |
BBMS pirate radio station closes after the failure of its appeal against conviction. |
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| February 8 |
Radio City closes down at midnight. |
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| February 15 |
British Postmaster General authorises duplication of 405-line VHF television broadcasts on 625-line UHF and introduction of colour broadcasting on BBC1 and ITV. |
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| February 28 |
Independent Television Authority invites applications for UK television programme contracts. |
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| February |
Broadcasting Law passed in the Netherlands permits access by any group with 15,000 members to one hour a week on television and three hours a week on radio. |
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| March |
Radio Dolfijn pirate station becomes Radio 227 and starts broadcasting in English again. Britain Radio becomes Radio 355. |
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| March |
Merton Park Studios in south London closes for film and television production. |
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| April |
Television services start in two French colonies: St Pierre et Miquelon and in newly re-named French Territory of the Afars and Issas (later Djibouti). |
Television service starts |
| April |
Ampex introduces the first battery-powered portable quadruplex high-band colour tape recorder, VR3000. Weighing 35 lb, it can record for 20 minutes with an eight-inch reel of two-inch tape. The accompanying camera weighs 13 lb. |
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| April |
Vidtronics division of American Technicolor company announces colour videotape-to-film transfer process. |
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| April |
Ampex announces high-band colour video disc machine, HS-100, for instant replays. ABC uses it for slow-motion playback of downhill skiing at the World Series of Skiing in Vail, Colorado—an early, if not first, use of slow motion instant replay in sporting events. |
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Ampex sells its 1,000th high-band colour videotape recorder. |
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| May |
Specially designed Frontier Coverage Package (FCP) is installed at Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories. English television network programmes supplied on videotape are carried by local transmitters. |
> 1972 |
| May 31 |
 UK release of The Beatles’ album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. |
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| June 11 |
Independent Television Authority announces new UK programme contracts for 1968-74: winners include Thames Television formed to provide the London area weekday service and London Weekend Television (LWT) for 19:00 on Friday to Sunday closedown; Granada Television takes over the north-west of England and Associated Television the Midlands throughout the week, Yorkshire Television takes the Yorkshire area for the whole week. |
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| June 25 |
Early Bird, Lana Bird and ART-B satellites carry the first multi-way live global television programme—Our World—reaching an audience of 400m people. ‘For the first time ever, linking five continents and bringing man face to face with mankind,’ eulogises the BBC press release, ‘in places as far apart as Canberra and Cape Kennedy, Moscow and Montreal, Samarkand and Söderfors, Takamatsu and Tunis.’ [In fact, Moscow did not come face to face with anything as the USSR withdrew at the last moment.] The Beatles sing All You Need is Love as the six-minute British contribution. |
‘There’s nothing you can see that can’t be shown.’ |
| July 1 |
BBC2 starts first UK colour television transmissions from six main transmitters, initially dominated by coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament. Colour programming is limited during this introductory phase. |
> December 2 |
| July |
Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada makes use of many different and innovative presentation systems for film and slides. |
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| July 3 |
ITN’s News at Ten becomes the first regular half-hour television news programme in the UK; the newscasters are Alistair Burnett and Andrew Gardner. |
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| July 3 |
Fourth report from FCC’s subscription television committee proposes over-the-air pay TV services; rules are drawn up to preserve supply of ‘good’ programming for conventional broadcasting stations. |
> 1968 |
| July |
Acme Film and Videotape Labs of California announces colour videotape-to-film transfer process taking eight hours. |
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| July |
Newell Associates of California announces a high speed fixed-head videotape recorder using tape speeds of up to 1,000 ips. |
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| July 14 |
The Marine &c. Broadcasting (Offences) Act receives the Royal Assent in UK, making it an offence to broadcast from ships, aircraft and marine structures or to supply equipment or services to such broadcasters, effective from August 15. |
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| July 15 |
Warner Bros merges with Seven Arts, television production company; name changed to Warner Bros-Seven Arts. |
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| July 23 |
Radio 227 pirate station closes down. |
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| July 28 |
Radio 390 pirate station closes. |
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| August |
British government’s intention to extend the Marine &c. Broadcasting (Offences) Bill to cover the Isle of Man leads to protests by the Manx government, including a threat to become completely independent and to nationalise General Post Office facilities on the island. The Bill was extended and Man did not secede. |
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| August 6 |
Radio 355 pirate station closes. |
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| August 14 |
Radio London pirate station closes at 15:00;
Radio Scotland and Radio 270 close at midnight. Radio Swinging Holland also goes off the air |
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| August 15 |
The Marine &c. Broadcasting (Offences) Act comes into force, effectively banning pirate radio in UK. |
> September 20 |
| August 18 |
New York radio station WCBS changes to an all-news format. |
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| August 29 |
Final episode of the US drama series The Fugitive on the ABC network achieves a rating of 45.9—the highest ever. |
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| August 31 |
First programme use of a field-store recorder. |
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| September 1 |
Icelandic television increases its transmissions from three to six days a week. |
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| September 1 |
Lord Aylestone succeeds Lord Hill as ITA chairman. |
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| September 30 |
BBC radio services are re-organised into Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4. The Light Programme becomes Radio 2, the Third Programme becomes Radio 3 and the Home Service becomes Radio 4. Radio 1 is a pop music channel designed to exploit the popularity of the pirate stations closed by new legislation. |
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| September |
Belmont television transmitter, built by the ITA in Lincolnshire, is completed to become UK’s tallest structure at 387m. First used by Anglia Television, it is later assigned to carry Yorkshire Television programmes. |
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| October |
All American Engineering demonstrates a prototype fixed-head videotape recorder using quarter-inch tape running at 60 ips. |
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| October |
CBS announces Electronic Video Recording (EVR) using twin-track 8.75mm film onto which signals are transferred by electron beam recording, one track for luminance, the other for either chrominance (to produce colour images) or luminance (to produce a second monochrome track). The 750 ft film is on a seven-inch diameter spool in a plastic cartridge. It is thus barely electronic, not really video and certainly not intended for home recording. The development team is led by Dr Peter Goldmark (see 1940 August and 1948 June 21). CBS's partners are ICI and the Swiss chemicals company Ciby-Geigy. |
> 1968 |
| October |
Radio Luxembourg abandons sponsored programmes and introduces a continuous format with ‘personality’ disc jockeys. |
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| October 29 |
Expo 67 opens in Montreal, Canada with many innovative audio-visual displays. |
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| November 8 |
BBC Radio Leicester, first UK local radio station since the earliest days of broadcasting, goes on the air. |
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| November 19 |
Royal Variety Performance becomes the highest rated programme in UK television history (22.65m), which remains (at the time of publication) the highest ever audience for a commercial television transmission other than feature films. The star line-up includes singers Petula Clark, Kathy Kirby and The Seekers, with comedian compère Ken Dodd. |
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| November 26 |
First Australian satellite, Wresat, is launched. |
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| November |
Television service starts in Hong Kong. |
Television service start dates |
| November |
Australian Council of the Arts is established with federal funds; it includes a Film and Television Committee. |
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| November |
International Video Corporation (IVC) of America introduces low-cost one-inch helical scan videotape recorder, model 800, weighing 52 lb and giving 60 minutes’ recording. |
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| December 2 |
Full PAL colour television service begins on all BBC2 with all but 20 per cent of output now in colour. Other channels do not convert to colour for almost two more years. |
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BBC Television's Studio H at Lime Grove, which had been used to test colour systems, is converted into a music studio. |
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| December |
Television service starts in Madagascar. |
Television service start dates |
| • |
Research into holographic moving picture systems begins at Bell Laboratories, IBM, TRW and elsewhere. |
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United Artists is taken over by Transamerica Corporation, a company diversifying from insurance. |
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ABC reaches agreement with MGM for production of 90-minute made-for-TV feature films. |
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BLC Films marketing partnership between Columbia and British Lion is dissolved. |
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American Film Institute founded by National Endowment for the Arts. |
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NBC tries new styles of writing for television in Experiments in Television series. |
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Matsushita announces magnetic sheet concentric video recorder, VSR. |
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Experimental Television Workshop is set up at station KQED-TV, San Francisco. |
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British Bureau of Television Advertising (BBTA) is formed. |
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In a survey for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), 63 per cent of Americans say they would prefer to have television without advertising. |
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US Federal Communications Commission applies the Fairness Doctrine to tobacco advertising. The anti-smoking campaign leads to the first decline in cigarette sales for four consecutive years. |
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Second television channel opens in Spain. |
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Television service starts in Iran. |
Television service start datess |
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Around the World is India’s first 70mm Technicolor film with stereo sound. |
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Twentieth Century-Fox abandons CinemaScope in favour of Panavision for 35mm and Todd-AO for wide-screen film production. The first Fox feature film shot in Panavision is In Like Flint. |
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US Congress establishes the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) with state funding. |
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Film-making continues to spread in parts of Africa, short films to begin with:
• Congo: Kayako, directed by Sébastien Kamba;
• Gabon: M’Bolo Gabon. |
> 1973 |
| • |
The number of telephone operators in the UK reaches a peak of 57,000, despite the roll-out of subscriber trunk dialling. |
2008 equivalent: 550 at five call centres |
| • |
Co-operative Press closes Sunday Citizen newspaper in UK. |
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