| 1980 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
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| January 20 |
James Bond film Live and Let Die achieves
the highest ever audience for UK commercial television, 23.5m. |
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| June 1 |
Launch of Turner Broadcasting System’s CNN (Cable News Network) to 1.7m US cable homes. |
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| June |
Sony launches its pocket-sized audio cassette player in the UK with the brand name
Stowaway. It later adopts the Japanese brand name Walkman. |
ß 1979 November |
| June |
Japanese manufacturers agree to evaluate three approaches to digital
audio discs: mechanical, electrostatic and optical. |
à 1981 |
| June |
Rank Organisation in UK withdraws from film production. |
|
| July 17 |
Film Act receives the Royal Assent, extending the
life of the UK film exhibition quota, the Eady levy and the National Film Finance Corporation,
while writing off the NFFC’s accumulated debts and making it a £1m grant. |
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| July 18 |
Rohini 1B is the first satellite launched from India. |
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| September 15 |
First commercial 14/12 GHz Ku-band satellite relay is achieved by Telesat Canada’s
Anik-B satellite to transmit French-language television programmes to 22 towns
in Québec province. A daily 14-hour relay is inaugurated. |
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| September 24 |
Leading Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun
is produced 'untouched by human hands', using new print technology. |
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| October |
Philips and Sony announce the Compact Disc (CD) digital audio format at Japan Audio Fair. |
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| October |
UK government publishes a Telecommunications Bill to split the General Post Office
(GPO) into two units: the Post Office and British Telecommunications. |
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| October 31 |
London's evening newspapers the Evening News and
the Evening Standard merge, retaining the latter title. |
|
| l |
Pioneer introduces Laser Disc player in US. |
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| November 3 |
Broadcasting Act receives Royal Assent, authorising UK’s Independent Broadcasting Authority
to set up a fourth UK broadcasting service, Channel Four Television and a
separate Welsh service, Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C). |
|
| November 21 |
The 'Who Shot JR?' episode of drama series Dallas
achieves the highest US television rating to date (53.3) for the CBS network. |
à 1983 |
| November |
UK Home Secretary announces plans for a two-year pay TV trial on cable networks. |
ß 1968 |
| December 1 |
One-week trial of breakfast television begins in the
UK: BBC Scotland simultaneously televises its Good Morning Scotland radio show. |
ß 1954 |
| December 1 |
Vilnius TV Tower is completed in the Lithuanian capital. Standing 326.5m high, it is the
country's tallest structure. |
ß 1954 |
| l |
Interafrican Consortium of Cinematograph Distribution (CIDC) buys out near total
monopoly of film distribution in francophone black Africa from a subsidiary of French distributor UGC. |
|
| l |
First film produced in Burundi: Ni-ni, directed by Jean-Michel Hussi Nyamusimba. |
|
| l |
Australian federal government funds creation and running
of Channel 0-28 in Sydney and Melbourne, claimed as the world’s first multicultural television network. |
|
| l |
More channels start on US cable television: CNN (Cable
News Network), USA Network (entertainment), BET (Black Entertainment Television). |
|
| l |
MCA, Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures
and Twentieth Century-Fox form a US pay TV service called Premiere to compete
with Home Box Office (HBO). The Department of Justice antitrust
section intervenes, contending that the project is an 'unlawful combination and conspiracy'
intended to harm potential competitors, a view the federal courts upholds on appeal.
Premiere never goes on air. |
|
| l |
Technique for commercially viable mass production of good
quality printed holograms is developed by Steve Magrew at Light Impressions, Los Angeles. |
|
| l |
UK has 1.483m homes connected to cable and 1.109m on MATV systems;
cable penetration is 7.9 per cent. |
|
| l |
Tobacco company Philip Morris allegedly pays $42,000
for its Marlboro brand logo to appear 22 times in the feature film Superman II. |
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