| 1974 |
 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 |
BBC appoints a full-time project manager for its planned Ceefax teletext service. |
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| January 8 |
  JVC announces its CR-4400 U-format portable videocassette recorder. |
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| January |
Committee of Inquiry into the future of Manx broadcasting set up by Tynwald, the Isle of Man government. |
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| January |
Television service begins in Tanzania. |
Television service start dates |
| February 14 |
Canadian Secretary of State, Hugh Faulkner announces an Accelerated Coverage Plan, to bring CBC television and radio in English and/or French to all unserved Canadian communities with a population of 500 or more. |
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| February 18 |
Wellingborough community cable television stations opens in UK. |
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| February 19 |
BMRB Radio begins commercial ILR service in Birmingham area, the first in England outside London. |
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| February |
Television service starts in Central African Republic. |
Television service start dates |
| March 18 |
Unified United Kingdom Teletext Standard is agreed by the BBC, Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and the British Radio Equipment Manufacturers Association (BREMA). |
> May 24 |
| March 29 |
CBC announce the gradual withdrawal of commercials on English and French AM radio, starting in September 1974, to be completed by 31 March 1975. |
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| March |
In Australia, the McLean Report recommends to the federal government the establishmentof FM radio services in Australia. Alternative Radio Association in Melbourne and the Sydney Public Broadcasting Association are set up to lobby for public access services. |
> April |
| April 2 |
Piccadilly Radio begins ILR service in Greater Manchester area of England. |
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| April 10 |
Committee of Inquiry into the future of UK broadcasting is re-established under Lord Annan. |
> July 12 |
| April |
Australian Cabinet approves the findings of the McLean Report. |
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| April |
Sony develops X-12DTC fixed-head digital audio tape recorder. |
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| May 23 |
Independent Broadcasting Authority Act 1974 changes the Exchequer levy on UK television advertising revenue to a levy on profits. |
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| May 24 |
BBC starts transmitting Ceefax service in the new unified UK teletext standard. |
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| May 27 |
First BBC simultaneous broadcast of pop music on television and stereo radio—a concert by Van Morrison. Two Promenade Concerts are similarly broadcast in August/September. |
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| May 30 |
First direct broadcasting satellite, ATS-6 is launched. |
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| May |
Vinton G Cerf and Robert E Kahn publish a paper entitled 'A protocol for Packet network intercommunication' in the journal IEEE Transactions on Communications (22,5). It describes a 'powerful and flexible protocol' to 'facilitate the sharing of computer resources ... in different packet switching networks—a blueprint for the Internet. |
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| May |
Warsawa Radio mast at Konstantynow, near Plock, Poland opens, the world’s tallest structure at 645m. |
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| July 5, 00:00 |
First quadraphonic experimental broadcast by BBC, the front pair of channels on Radio 2 stereo, the rear pair on Radio 3. |
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| July 12 |
Membership of the Annan Committee, to inquire into the future of UK broadcasting, is announced in the House of Commons. For the first time in such an inquiry, former television producers are included. |
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| July 15 |
First broadcast of Metro Radio, the ILR station for the Newcastle-upon-Tyne area of north-east England. |
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| July |
Number of UK Independent Local Radio stations is limited to 19, pending the report of the Annan Committee. |
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| July 31 |
BBC Charter and Independent Broadcasting Authority (No 2) Act extend the lives of their respective bodies to 30 July 1979. |
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| August 30 |
First Dutch satellite, ANS, is launched. |
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| September 1 |
Marine Offences Act comes into force in the Netherlands. |
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| September 18 |
British government gives formal approval for two-year trial period of teletext transmissions: the BBC’s Ceefax and ITV’s Oracle. |
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| September 23 |
 On the opening day of the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in London, the government sanctions and the BBC inaugurates a two-year experiment in Ceefax teletext of regular news and information bulletins, updated five times a day. The system has a capacity of only 30 pages initially. |
> 1975 July |
| September 23 |
Philips and MCA agree on a merger of their respective video disc systems, Philips to produce and sell VLP hardware, MCA to develop and market Disco-Vision software. Formally ratified by the companies’ boards of directors on October 7. |
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| September 23 |
Australian Cabinet franchises The University of Adelaide and the Music Broadcasting Societies of Victoria and New South Wales to establish new radio stations: Adelaide’s to be an educational service on an AM wavelength, the two MBS stations are to broadcast ‘fine music’ on FM. |
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| September 30 |
First transmission by Swansea Sound, the South Wales ILR station. |
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| October 1 |
Radio Hallam begins ILR transmissions for the Sheffield/Rotherham area of Yorkshire. |
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| October 21 |
First transmission of Radio City, the Liverpool and Merseyside area ILR station. |
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| November 15 |
First Spanish satellite, Intasat, is launched. |
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| November |
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) announces at an SMPTE technical conference in Toronto that it accepts Super 8 film as suitable for broadcasting purposes in Canada. |
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| November |
Television service starts in Oman. |
Television service start dates |
| December 15 |
The first Australian ‘community radio’ station, 2MBS FM, is inaugurated in Sydney, New South Wales. |
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| December 31 |
French broadcasting organisation ORTF is disbanded and replaced by seven autonomous bodies: three television broadcasters (TF1, Antenne 2 and France Régions 3), radio broadcaster Radio France, partly-privatised production company Société Française de Production (SFP) and
two state organisations, Télédiffusion de France and the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) for
research, training and archives. |
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| • |
Paul Newman is paid $1m plus 10 per cent of the gross (15 per cent after breakeven) for The Towering Inferno. |
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| • |
First feature-length film made
• in Afghanistan is Rabhi Balkhie, directed by Abdul Khaliq Halil, Toryali Shafaq, Abdullah Shadan, Mohamed Nazir and Daoud Farani.
• in Dahomey (=Benin) is Sous le Signe du Vaudoun (Under the Sign of the Voodoo), directed by Pascal Abikanlou. |
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| • |
First film produced in the Central African Republic: Josepha, directed by Joseph Akouissone. |
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| • |
Largest US audience to date for a made-for-TV movie: A Case of Rape. |
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| • |
 A short film, Hunger, made by Peter Foldes for the National Film Board of Canada, uses computer-generated imagery (CGI) throughout. |
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| • |
In South Africa, a new Publications Act replaces the Publications & Entertainments Act 1963. A Directorate of Publications succeeds the Publications Control Board charged with appointing regional censorship committees of government-approved persons. Production and distribution of undesirable works becomes a criminal offence, as may also be possession. The author's intention is deemed irrelevant. A Publications Appeals Board can hear appeals on the basis of its assessment of 'a general average of community thinking'. |
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| • |
Philips acquires American consumer electronics company Magnavox. |
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| • |
In UK government restructuring, responsibility for broadcasting is placed with the Broadcasting Department of the Home Office and the Posts and Telecommunications Division of the Department of Industry, replacing the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. |
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| • |
Japanese games and playing card manufacturer Nintendo develops am amusement arcade game using 16mm film back projection. |
> 1975 |
| • |
Daily Express newspaper (3,226,936 copies) slips to third place among UK circulations, overtaken by The Sun (3,302,990). |
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