Web Page No 2596

16^th July 2019

1st Picture. Rentaset Advert

 2nd Picture. Boy watching Pay TV

3^rd Picture. Pay TV slot meter

4^th Picture. Cooper Ali World Champion Fight

Watching TV

At home we did not own our first television set it came and was fitted by Radio Rentals from their shop in Cosham High Street.

Radio Rentals was formed by Percy Perring-Thoms in 1930 in Boyces Street  in  Brighton with the intension of renting out radio sets giving him a turnover in the first year of £780. The company later moved into televisions and ultimately video recorders. The growth of a public TV service after the war encouraged more people to want TV sets but they were expensive, leaving an opportunity for companies like RR to offer them at a monthly rental price which was much more affordable In 1964 Radio Rentals merged with a similar company RentaSet which was founded by Joseph Robinson. Then in 1968 this new company was acquired by Thorn Electrical Industries and joined with Thorn's DER chain (founded 1938) as part of Thorn Television Rentals (TTR) though the two companies were run completely separately with different staff and vehicles etc. With the coming of colour services, initially on BBC2 only, a further opportunity for renting was created. On 15^th  November 1969, colour broadcasts on both BBC channels and the ITV network became available from the main transmitter sites around the UK. This led to a boom in rental of the sets.

In 1980 TTR and thus Radio Rentals became part of the merged Thorn EMI, and in 2000 it merged with Granada Limited to form Boxclever. The company still trades as Radio Rentals in Australia.

At its peak, Radio Rentals claimed it had more than 2 million customers, over 500 shops and employed 3,600 technicians, 2,700 skilled installers plus a large ancillary staff. They had sales and service locations across the UK, the Radio Rental logo being a common sight on many High Streets. They also offered a small range of white goods, mainly from Philips/Whirlpool.

The urge to rent instead of buy reduced as domestic electronics became cheaper and more reliable, with greater use of integrated circuits and better design methods. But in the end reliability saw the death knell of rented televisions

However, there was also another way of watching television and that was Pay TV

In the 1960s, a company called Pay Television Limited started broadcasting via cable in London and after a period of time, extended its operation to Sheffield.in fact the programme listing for Pay-TV was always published in the London Evening News. A feature film cost 7/6d, a documentary 3/6d and so on but the Election Results programme in 1966 was offered at no charge. When Pay-TV was extended to Sheffield, the service supplied by British  Relay

Most subscribers were sent a monthly magazine with listings each month but householder soon learnt that if they put their money in at the scheduled start time for a programme by the time the money had worked its way through the metre you missed the start. The highlight for many people was exclusive viewing rights of the Henry Cooper v Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight boxing title. This prestigious fight cost was expensive, 21 shillings to watch, so many people invited their friends in to watch it and share the cost.

The whole pay tv system did not last much longer after this big event and was totally gone within a very few years.

One junior television watcher remembers that their grandparents rented a coin operated black and white telly in the 1970s from a North East company called Telebank and the mother of a schoolfriends had the job of emptying the coin boxes in the Hartlepool area. At lunchtime Grandad would put 10p in the slot and the set would come on just in time for Rainbow, or Animal Kwackers or whatever Tyne Tees were showing for little kids that day until the racing came on.

I, myself have heard of these TV’s but never saw one.

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

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On this day 06/07/1960 - 1965

On 06/07/1960 the number one single was Good Timin' - Jimmy Jones and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

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On 06/07/1961 the number one single was Runaway - Del Shannon and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Harpers West One (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Mario Dubois born.

On 06/07/1962 the number one single was Come Outside - Mike Sarne with Wendy Richard and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was 94 die in Bombay air crash.

On 06/07/1963 the number one single was I Like It - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 06/07/1965 the number one single was I'm Alive - Hollies and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

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