HC Deb 09 July 1963 vol 680 cc124-5W
Sir C. Osborne

asked the Postmaster-General if he will now make a statement about the use of Band III to improve and extend the coverage of the existing British Broadcasting Corporation and Independent Television Authority programmes.

Mr. Bevins

Yes. I have now given my approval in principle to—

1. Proposals made by the B.B.C. to build additional 405-line stations in Band III to serve the following areas:—

  • North-East Wales.
  • South-West Scotland.
  • East Lincolnshire.
  • Mid-Lancashire.
  • South-West Lancashire.

The North-East Wales station will complete the main network of stations transmitting the B.B.C.'s distinctively Welsh programmes. (I have already authorised the B.B.C. to provide an extra Band III transmitter at Wenvoe to serve South Wales.) The additional station to serve South-West Scotland will enable this area to receive the programme transmitted in Scotland while continuing to receive those available on the B.B.C. English network. The remaining three stations are designed to bring much-needed improvement in reception in Lincolnshire and Lancashire, which is at present spoilt by periodic interference from Continental stations operating on the same channels. The low-power Band I satellite stations to serve Grimsby and Blackpool, which I announced to the House on 24th May, 1962, will no longer be necessary.

Proposals made by the I.T.A. to build additional stations in Band III to serve the following areas:—

  • Bedford/Peterborough.
  • Central Berkshire.
  • East Lincolnshire.
  • Scarborough.
  • Dundee.
  • Caithness/Orkney.

ese six stations will bring the programmes of independent television to nearly a million new viewers and will improve reception for 600,000 others.

The B.B.C. stations for North-East Wales and South-West Scotland and the I.T.A. station for the Bedford/Peterborough area will need to use Channel 6. The Milliard Observatory at Cambridge is conducting a sky survey of the Northern Hemisphere using frequencies within Channel 6. This survey is of fundamental importance. When the three stations start broadcasting on Channel 6, it will be necessary, as a general rule, in order to avoid interference with the radio-astronomy survey, to restrict their transmissions each day to the twelve-hour period noon to midnight until the survey is completed at the end of 1967.

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