HC Deb 06 July 1966 vol 731 cc629-38

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Ioan L. Evans.]

12.51 a.m.

Dr. M. P. Winstanley (Cheadle)

May I begin by offering my congratulations to the right hon. Gentleman the Postmaster General on his new appointment and wishing him all possible success in an office upon which every citizen in this country is deeply dependent in one way or another. It is a cause of some regret to me and, perhaps, to the right hon. Gentleman himself that all these citizens are not yet dependent upon him for colour television, but I believe, nevertheless, that the time will shortly come when they will be.

My reasons for bringing forward the matter of colour television at this stage are these. I believe that recent events and developments, technical and otherwise, suggest that there is a need for an urgent review of the Government's position regarding colour television and for a review of their plans as a whole. If such a review is not conducted, there will he a real danger that we shall slip so far behind in this field that we may find it difficult to catch up again.

The complex technical and social considerations involved in the introduction of colour television to Britain have been discussed and argued about in this country for upwards of ten years. During that time, America and Japan have been successful in introducing multi-channel colour television services, and several other countries are on the point of so doing. This country during that time has adopted a plan to introduce colour television on 625 lines only on the u.h.f. band.

In my view, recent developments have shown that this decision was mistaken. I do not say that it was a wrong decision in the light of the information available at the time, but events since suggest that we might well have made another decision and that, perhaps, the B.B.C.'s application in 1959 to be permitted to transmit in colour on 405 lines on v.h.f. should have been acceded to. I understand why it was not, and I sympathise with the reasons, but I believe that we should re-examine the matter now.

Briefly, the reasons for the decision to transmit colour in this country only on 625 lines were these. First, the quality of picture. It was sincerely believed that there would be a markedly improved quality of picture. Second, there was thought to be a need for a multiplicity of channels, and it was felt that this would be possible on 625 lines, but would not be possible without interference to other transmitting countries on 405. Third, an important consideration, it was felt that we should get into the main stream of European development, and that this would be assisted by our adoption of scanning standards similar to those of other European countries.

In the light of later developments, these considerations, though right at the time, have been proved to be wrong. First, picture quality. We have now had two years' experience of transmission on 625 lines, and I think that the general view is that the quality of picture is not superior to that on 405 lines. Indeed, a Gallup poll conducted in the London area very recently has shown that 80 per cent. of viewers receiving both channels are of the opinion that pictures on 405 lines are every bit as good as 625, if not actually better. The I.T.A. survey which has been made, and whose results will shortly be published will, I believe, confirm those figures.

Experience has shown that we do not need the multiplicity of wavebands which once was thought to be required. We have discovered that colour can be added to 405-line transmission with v.h.f. without increasing interference at all. So far as Europe is concerned, once again the reasons have been proved to be ill-founded. We all know that European transmissions are now being made by five different transmission systems. Therefore we are not, in fact, using identical scanning standards.

The final factor in relation to Europe is that it has now been shown that electronic conversion from 625 to 405 lines and vice versa is perfectly feasible. This was not understood at the time of the original decision, and is another factor which ought now to be considered. We have also discovered, in two years' experience, that we get very much inferior coverage with 625 lines than was originally expected. I know that extra gap filling transmitters are being introduced and that a large number of gap filling boosters are being considered, but I do not believe that even these will be adequate to achieve a wide coverage with 625 lines.

Television engineers are saying that 625-line transmission requires a transmitter up every lamp-post. This may be an exaggeration, but I think that the right hon. Gentleman will be already aware of the difficulties and that they have resulted in the fact that we shall not, for a measurable period of time, get universal coverage in this country with 625-line transmission without incurring enormous expense. He knows that already the expense has been doubled. The original estimate for conversion to 625-line transmission was £25 million. That figure has now been doubled to a cost of £50 million; and we still have not got anything like universal coverage.

It has been reliably estimated by people in the business who have no vested interest in either form of transmission that to supply 625-line coverage to every part of Britain will cost £1,000 million in the next 10 years. These, of course, are considerations which were not available at the time of the original decision. For all these reasons very many interested people, as the I.T.A. has stated publicly, now believe that the decision to transmit colour on 625 lines only and to convert entirely to 625 lines was a wrong decision, and that, although there may have been good reasons for it at the time it should now be reconsidered.

I now turn very briefly to what were the objections to 405-line transmission. Largely, they were negative. There was the consideration of integration with Europe. That has now been overcome and it has been shown that v.h.f. 625 lines would not assist in this way. There was the question of interference. That, too, has been overcome. There was the question of electronic conversion. This has now been found perfectly possible.

Now to concentrate on what I think would be the outstanding advantages of a decision, even at this late date, to allow colour transmission on 405 lines with v.h.f. First, I believe it would make a colour service available to everybody virtually immediately. The cost of modification of transmitters, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, would be negligible. Programmes are, in fact, already avail- able, and many of them are being exported to overseas countries and are being seen in this country in black and white only. It would merely be the matter of modification of the sets.

It would make colour television available on a number of services, with a choice, so that colour television would not become the monopoly of one service. It would have the conspicuous advantage that foreign programmes which are being shown in this country now in black and white could be shown here in the colour in which they have been recorded.

A further advantage of allowing colour on 405 lines would be that it would be of immense help to our industries who would like to export television equipment. Regrettably, there is no demand for our present dual standard black and white sets, and I believe that this type of conversion would increase the possibilities for the export market.

These advantages may very well commend themselves to the right hon. Gentleman. No doubt he has already been made aware of these factors. I do not criticise the original decision, but at the time when it was made there was no real unanimity amongst the various experts who gave evidence. That is clear from the Report of the Royal Commission, which shows that there was a wide diversity of opinion among the various independent companies, between the manufacturers and even within the B.B.C. itself about what should be the decision. There was no unanimity then, and although they probably came to the right decision in the light of the information then available it is surely necessary that this decision should now be reviewed.

If the right hon. Gentleman and his advisers will review it without prejudice, and look again at their former decision, they will come to the conclusion, I believe, that the wisest thing to do now would be to allow colour transmission on 405 lines. If that decision were made, it would give us a real possibility of having universal colour television in this country almost immediately. It would assist the television companies. It would assist the companies which manufacture television equipment. And, very rapidly, it would place us near the top of the world's television league table once again.

1.3 a.m.

The Postmaster-General (Mr. Edward Short)

I am very grateful to the hon. Member for Cheadle (Dr. Winstanley) for raising the subject of colour television and giving me the opportunity, once again, to explain the Government's decision about it.

The decision was announced on 3rd March of this year. It was that colour television should be introduced on the 625-line definition standard. The hon. Gentleman's theme is that the decision is welcome, so far as it goes, but that the service should not be confined to transmission on the 625-line definition standard and so to B.B.C. 2, which is at present the one service transmitted on that standard.

Let me make it clear at once that the Government's decision did not represent a change of policy. It represented a reaffirmation of the policy decided upon by the previous Government. That in itself does not make it right, of course, but it did not represent a change of policy.

The previous Government announced its policy in this respect in its first White Paper on Broadcasting (Command 1770), published in July, 1962. That accepted the Pilkington Committee's recommendation, which was unanimous, that colour television should start on 625 lines on and, meanwhile, no public colour service on 405 lines should be authorised.

The view that it should be confined to 625 lines was not new, even then. It was the view expressed in 1960 by the Television Advisory Committee. In a report recommending the use of the 625 line standard, the T.A.C. said of colour that it should only be introduced using the line standards which were ultimately to be adopted for monochrome transmission.

Again, as recently as last year, the T.A.C. reviewed the matter. It reexamined it, and, last December, only a few months ago—I agree, with the I.T.A.'s representative dissenting—it recommended, in effect, that the decision taken in 1962 by the Government of the day should be reaffirmed.

I should like to examine the considerations which led to this decision of the T.A.C. in December last. There were four main considerations. First, that given the decision to change the line standard from 405 to 625 lines it would be a step in the wrong direction to start colour on 405 lines. It seems to me that to do this would be to call into question the whole policy of making the change of standards. As I understood the hon. Gentleman's speech, I think that he was calling into question the whole of that policy.

Secondly, that dual standard colour sets would be more expensive to instal and to maintain, and would be so complex as to jeopardise the success of a colour service. In advocating a dual standard colour set, the hon. Gentleman is not asking for a marginal addition to the colour receivers now being designed and developed. He is asking for a kind of receiver against which the T.A.C. put a very big question mark indeed.

Thirdly, that sets designed to receive colour on both line standards would cost appreciably more—it is estimated from 7 per cent. to 10 per cent.—than sets designed for 625 line colour only.

Fourthly, that it is questionable whether a 405 line colour transmission would permit of an acceptable quality of colour reception for those with colour receivers, or of black and white reception for those without. There would be a prospect that the quality of reception would be degraded for the overwhelming majority, who will not for many years to come possess colour sets.

I should like to comment on the hon. Gentleman's argument about the size of B.B.C. 2's potential audience. There are two points here. It is, as the hon. Gentleman pointed out, quite true that the population coverage reached by transmissions of B.B.C. 2 has to be built up, and this is being done. At Question Time today I announced a further step forward. By the end of 1967 it is estimated that 65 per cent. of the total population will be able to receive B.B.C. 2, and that by the end of 1968, or very near to the end of 1968, B.B.C. 2 will be within the reach of three-quarters of the population.

Dr. Winstanley

I think that the right hon. Gentleman will agree that 65 per cent. of the population are concentrated in limited areas of the country. If he converts his figure of population to geographical areas, he will find that he will have to give a very different percentage.

Mr. Short

All I am saying is that 65 per cent. of the population live in an area covered by B.B.C. 2.

In the early years, a major factor determining the size of potential audiences for colour programmes will be the cost of colour sets, and not the size of present audiences for 405 line programmes. As my right hon. Friend my predecessor said during the debate in March, estimates of the cost of sets suggest that their price will start at about £250 each. On this footing, industry estimates that about 150,000 colour sets might be in use about two years after the service starts, and that in each of the next two-year periods about 250,000 might be sold. Therefore, at a point in time about five to six years ahead, one must think of less than 1 million colour sets in use.

Thus, though the reaffirmation of the decision to provide a colour service on 625 lines only means that it will start on B.B.C. 2, it does not mean that the population coverage of the service will, even in the early years, be too restricted. At the same time, given the expected rate of growth of colour set ownership, it will be several years before the audiences for colour programmes will be so large as to give B.B.C. 2 a real competitive advantage.

Next, there is the question of the quality of the 625 line picture, about which the hon. Gentleman spoke. The hon. Gentleman referred to the preliminary audience research which suggests that some viewers consider the picture to be inferior to the 405-line picture.

Here again, however, we must be very careful to avoid confusion. B.B.C. 2 is transmitted in u.h.f. and the transmission characteristics of u.h.f. differ from those of v.h.f., in which the two 405-line programmes are broadcast. This is true whatever the line definition standard used. It has always been recognised that because u.h.f. transmission conforms more nearly to the "line-of-sight" its range is shorter than that of v.h.f., and it is more easily impeded by intervening obstacles. Coverage, within the overall transmission area, is patchier.

So, although it would be wrong to minimise the task of securing, for a u.h.f. service, a population coverage comparable with that of the v.h.f. services, provided sets are really within the transmission area, and provided that they have a proper aerial, a thoroughly acceptable picture is provided by u.h.f. Certainly, to make the best of the transmission it will be found desirable to make more use of communal aerials. And, for filling in some of the "holes" in the transmission area, relay by wire will have a more important part to play than in the case of v.h.f., and, indeed, will have a more important part to play, in the future, in all our homes.

But let me make one thing quite clear: given proper reception of the signal, whether transmitted in u.h.f. or v.h.f., the 625-line standard provides a better picture than the 405-line standard. This is why it is important to pursue the objective of getting the existing 405-line service changed over on to the improved standard, so that in the longer term all services are transmitted on 625 lines. The Television Advisory Committee is studying the question of the method to be adopted, and the timing; and my right hon. Friend had already asked the Chairman, Sir Willis Jackson, when he expects to complete it. There have been some suggestions that the difficulties will prove insuperable. That there are difficulties has always been recognised. It would be quite wrong to try to minimise them. But it would be altogether premature to conclude that they cannot be surmounted.

The hon. Member for Cheadle drew attention to the export possibilities in television equipment. We would all agree with him that we ought to be in a position to export television equipment. But I do not see how the observation that there is little overseas demand for dual standard black-and-white sets helps his case, for he is asking for a dual standard black-and-white and colour receiver, and I cannot see what overseas demand for this there can be. I have made careful inquiries about the question of exports and I understand, on the best advice that I can get, that the potential is not so much in sets as in components and capital equipment.

My right hon. Friend my predecessor, in March, said: Given an early start there is a prospect of a net gain of £10 million exports …"—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 3rd March, 1966; Vol. 725, c. 1576.] To sum up, it would be wrong to take a step the effect of which would be to perpetuate dual-standard television broadcasting. The complexity of a dual-standard colour set would be such as to put the success of a colour service at risk, I am convinced. There is a doubt whether 405-line transmission of colour would permit of the satisfactory reception of the transmission as a black-and-white picture—and this is how, for years to come, the great majority of viewers will receive the transmission. Finally, the export opportunity stands the best chance of being realised if there is an early decision to make a start in colour.

I hope that the hon. Member for Cheadle will feel able to agree that, on these considerations, it was right to reaffirm the decision to start colour on the 625-line standard only.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at a quarter-past One o'clock.