When a lot younger, I used to have this weird vision that the TV stations would “close” for the night and the place would be locked up by someone walking around switching everything off, the last member of staff on duty. I pictured them fumbling with keys in the dark, locking things up, walking past darkened deserted studios, locking the big outside door, and slowly making their way to their car in a creepy, almost dark car park, where their car was the only one left. Or perhaps there was a nightwatchman that stayed all night who they said goodnight to.
Then it was opened up again in the morning by someone else, who then proceeded to walk around the place turning everything on again.
Of course, now I gather there was always someone, probably a few someones, that were there all night, even when not broadcasting, at least in the big city TV stations. Rural and regional stations may have been similar to what I described.
I’ve never really understood what changed with television networks when they decided to go 24-hours. Why for instance weren’t they broadcasting 24 hours in the 70s and into the 80s*, but were by-and-large by the 90s? What changed? Did the population just reach a point where 24-hour broadcasting was now warranted and cost effective? After all, there have always been shift workers and night owls, and radio broadcasted around the clock long before TV did. I assume, like everything, it came down to money.
* In Australia, or Sydney at least, Channel 9 started 24-hour broadcasting in 1976, and Channel 7 in 1985, who basically just ran the NBC Today Show from America from midnight to dawn. The other networks followed sometime after. Although from the early-70s, Channel 10 occasionally ran movies all night on Friday nights, often of the horror variety, but that eventually petered out. The ABC (sort of the Australian equivalent of the BBC) didn’t go 24-hour until sometime in the 90s, they were still closing down in at least 1992, except Friday and Saturday nights when they just ran an all-night music clip show, but of course they couldn’t make any money through advertising.
In the UK what hastened the change was ITV companies becoming territorial about their broadcasting hours and the threat that night time hours could be given to another franchise responsible for overnight, which was what happened when the IBA advertised for a separate breakfast franchise.
Broadcasting hours were restricted by law in until 1972. Daytime services launched that autumn, but breakfast tv didn’t start until 1983. With the 1990 Broadcasting Act looming, ITV companies took that decision away from the IBA, its successor and the government by launching their own night time services.
I see. I'm sure there were some laws and red-tape reasons in Australia too, but I'm not sure what they were, but there would've been some regulations pertaining to broadcasting times and hours, I'd imagine.
Re: Television closedowns.
When a lot younger, I used to have this weird vision that the TV stations would “close” for the night and the place would be locked up by someone walking around switching everything off, the last member of staff on duty. I pictured them fumbling with keys in the dark, locking things up, walking past darkened deserted studios, locking the big outside door, and slowly making their way to their car in a creepy, almost dark car park, where their car was the only one left. Or perhaps there was a nightwatchman that stayed all night who they said goodnight to.
Then it was opened up again in the morning by someone else, who then proceeded to walk around the place turning everything on again.
Of course, now I gather there was always someone, probably a few someones, that were there all night, even when not broadcasting, at least in the big city TV stations. Rural and regional stations may have been similar to what I described.
I’ve never really understood what changed with television networks when they decided to go 24-hours. Why for instance weren’t they broadcasting 24 hours in the 70s and into the 80s*, but were by-and-large by the 90s? What changed? Did the population just reach a point where 24-hour broadcasting was now warranted and cost effective? After all, there have always been shift workers and night owls, and radio broadcasted around the clock long before TV did. I assume, like everything, it came down to money.
* In Australia, or Sydney at least, Channel 9 started 24-hour broadcasting in 1976, and Channel 7 in 1985, who basically just ran the NBC Today Show from America from midnight to dawn. The other networks followed sometime after. Although from the early-70s, Channel 10 occasionally ran movies all night on Friday nights, often of the horror variety, but that eventually petered out. The ABC (sort of the Australian equivalent of the BBC) didn’t go 24-hour until sometime in the 90s, they were still closing down in at least 1992, except Friday and Saturday nights when they just ran an all-night music clip show, but of course they couldn’t make any money through advertising.
In the UK what hastened the change was ITV companies becoming territorial about their broadcasting hours and the threat that night time hours could be given to another franchise responsible for overnight, which was what happened when the IBA advertised for a separate breakfast franchise.
Broadcasting hours were restricted by law in until 1972. Daytime services launched that autumn, but breakfast tv didn’t start until 1983. With the 1990 Broadcasting Act looming, ITV companies took that decision away from the IBA, its successor and the government by launching their own night time services.
I see. I'm sure there were some laws and red-tape reasons in Australia too, but I'm not sure what they were, but there would've been some regulations pertaining to broadcasting times and hours, I'd imagine.