| 1976 |
 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 2 |
Sheffield Cablevision community television experiment in UK ends. |
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| January 5 |
Television service is introduced in South Africa, the first in the world to be in colour from the start. |
Television service start dates |
| January 5 |
France promulgates a law, tabled by Pierre Bas, a Gaullist deputy for Paris, making use of the French language compulsory in radio and television programmes and in the instructions and guarantees for consumer products. Advertisements that use foreign words and phrases without justification can be prosecuted under a 1905 law against fraud. |
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| February |
First UK ‘quintuple’ cinema—Nottingham Odeon—is opened. |
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| March 8 |
BBC Nine O’Clock News drops its second newsreader. |
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| March 8 |
Thames Valley Radio begins transmissions as ILR station for the Reading district. |
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| March 16 |
House of Commons votes in favour of sound broadcasting of its proceedings by 299 votes to 124. [On the same day, prime minister Harold Wilson announces his intention to resign.] |
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| March 29 |
UK government announces its intention to take action to ‘strengthen the [film] industry’s financial position’ and work towards setting up a British Film Authority. |
> July 22 |
| March 30 |
CBC simulcasts a concert by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on television and stereo radio. |
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| April 1 |
CRTC became the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. |
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| April 30 |
IBA opens its 300th broadcasting transmitter at Beecroft Hill, Leeds, Yorkshire. |
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| July 8 |
First Indonesian satellite, Palapa A1, is launched. |
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| July 22 |
Interim Action Committee is set up to pave the way for a British Film Authority; Sir Harold Wilson, who resigned as prime minister on 5 April, is appointed chairman. |
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Seven-screen cinema opened on George Street, Sydney, Australia by Hoyts. |
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| September 9 |
 JVC unveils its VHS (Video Home System) half-inch videocassette recorder format at the Hotel Okura, Tokyo. |
> 1977 March 20
 The Quest for home video: VHS |
| September |
Sony develops a laser-read digital audio disc system based on the Laservision video disc format giving 30 mins playing time per side at 1,800rpm. |
The Quest for home video |
| October 14 |
Last manual telephone exchange in UK, at Portree on the Isle of Skye, closes. |
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| October 16 |
First ‘community radio’ station in Western Australia, 6NR (New Radio), begins regular transmissions from studios at the West Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT). Programming includes educational and ethnic programmes, children's stories, Christian evangelism and local issues. |
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| October 26 |
Ekran-1 direct broadcasting satellite launched by Soviet Union. |
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| October |
Sony announces development of digital audio processor for use with videotape recorder for 12-bit quantised two-channel recording and playback. |
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| November 7/8 |
Two-part television screening of Gone With the Wind on NBC network achieves the highest rating to date of any US television programme (47.7 and 47.4 respectively for the two nights). |
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| November 9 |
Home Office authorises permanent continuation of UK teletext transmissions for the duration of existing broadcasting legislation and the BBC’s Charter, subject only to recommendations of the Annan Committee. |
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| December 16 |
WTBS local independent television station in Atlanta, Georgia—recently acquired by Ted Turner—achieves nationwide reach via Satcom 3-R satellite, becoming the first ‘superstation’. |
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Steadicam camera mount, devised by Garrett Brown, is introduced. |
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Museum of Holography is established in New York; its travelling show goes to Stockholm, Sweden. |
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Marlon Brando is paid $1.25m plus 11.3 per cent of the gross above $8.85m for The Missouri Breaks. By the end of 1983 the film has taken $7m in North American gross rentals. |
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 World’s largest sound stage, known as the 007 stage, is built at Pinewood Studios, England. |
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US broadcast television excess of revenue over expenditure passes $1,000m for the first time: revenue of $5,198.5m and expenditure $3,948.3m. |
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UK has 1.621m homes connected to cable and 959,000 on MATV systems; cable penetration is 8.9 per cent. |
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Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules that all new cable television systems must have a minimum of 20 channels and all those with more than 3,500 subscribers must provide capacity and origination facilities for public, educational and governmental (PEG) access. |
< 1969 |
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India's television service is separated from radio and Doordarshan is created as the state television broadcasting organisation. Separate services are now operated in seven cities. |
> 1982 |
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Australian federal government bans television advertising of tobacco products. |
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Technology used for the Joan-Eleanor ground-to-air radio communications system is declassified by the US military. It leads eventually to cellular telephone systems. |
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Pop group Abba becomes Sweden's second largest export earner, after Volvo. |
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