| 1970 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
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| January 15 |
Bob Hope Christmas Show becomes the
highest rated US television show to date (46.6) for the NBC network. |
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| January 23 |
Radio Nordsee International pirate station, broadcasting from a ship off the Dutch coast,
goes on the air. |
â 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. |
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| February 11 |
First Japanese satellite, Ohsumi, is launched. |
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| February |
JVC launches its first portable videotape recorder, model PKV-830. |
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| March 10 |
Mika is the first satellite launched from the Kourou site in French Guyana. |
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| 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. |
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| March |
First demonstration by CBS of colour EVR. |
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| March |
Sony introduces a new version of its colour videoplayer and mass printing system. |
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| 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 |
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. |
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| April 24 |
First Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong 01, is launched. |
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| April 26 |
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) comes into being. |
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| April |
Ampex displays its ADR-150 high-speed contact videotape printer. |
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| 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. |
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| May |
Memorex of California announces a thermal contact method for duplicating videotapes. |
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| June 13 |
Radio Nordsee International is renamed Radio Caroline
International, but later reverts to its original name. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| July |
Annan Committee on the future of UK broadcasting
is suspended by the new Conservative government. |
à 1974 |
| July |
Cartridge Television division of Avco Corporation announces its Cartrivision half-inch
videotape, giving 100 minutes of record/play from a continuous loop cartridge recorder. |
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| August |
Television service starts in Qatar. |
Television service starts |
| September 7 |
Experimental television transmissions begin from Hanoi, Vietnam. |
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| September 14, 21:00 |
BBC Television News, hitherto at 20:50, becomes The Nine O’Clock News. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| October |
Australian cinema newsreels Cinesound Review
and Movietone News merge. |
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| October |
Brian Young succeeds Sir Robert Fraser as director
general of the Independent Television Authority. |
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| October |
Du Pont describes a thermo-remanent process for
high-speed duplication of chromium dioxide videotapes. |
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| l |
Australian Film Development Corporation is established to act as a film investment bank. |
|
| l |
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. |
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| l |
First Super 8 film camera with Pilotone sync generator—Cinéma Beaulieu 4008ZM2—is introduced. |
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| l |
Massive withdrawal of American money from British film production. |
|
| l |
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. |
à 1973 |
| l |
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]. |
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| l |
BBC Television closes Studio G at Lime Grove, Shepherds
Bush and builds a film dubbing suite in the space. |
|
| l |
Experimental Film and Television Fund is established in Australia. The first production
it backs is a documentary about anti-Vietnam demonstrations in Sydney. |
à 1978 |
| l |
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. |
à 1975 |
| l |
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. |
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| l |
Ampex's ACR-25 cartridge-based video recording system
allows automated recording and playback of television commercials. |
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| l |
IVC introduces the 4101 time-base corrector to stabilise television signals. |
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| l |
Sony announces a portable half-inch open-reel colour videotape recorder. |
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| l |
Dolby Stereo System audio noise reduction is launched for cinemas. |
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| l |
Losses at Twentieth Century-Fox soar to $77.4m. |
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| l |
Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes (FEPACI) is founded. |
à 1975 |
| l |
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. |
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| l |
Radio service starts in Oman. |
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| l |
IBM develops the floppy disc on which to store computer data. |
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| l |
UK newspaper Daily Mirror closes its weekly colour magazine. |
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