British Broadcasting

A Study in Monopoly

R.H. Coase

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781135163457
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

First Published in 1969. Written in 1950, this book seeks to answer the three questions of how is it that broadcasting in Great Britain came to be organised on a monopolistic basis? What has been the effect of the monopoly on the development of, and policy towards, competitive services such as wire broadcasting and foreign commercial broadcasting intended for listeners in Great Britain ? Finally, what are the views which have been held on the monopoly of broadcasting in Great Britain?

PART I

THE ORIGINS

CHAPTER ONE

THE ORIGIN OF THE MONOPOLY

1. THE GENESIS OF BROADCASTING IN GREAT BRITAIN

SUCCESS in the transmission of speech and music by radio did not immediately lead to proposals for the establishment of a broadcasting service.¹ At first the transmission of sound by radio was regarded simply as a new means for sending messages and as its original name, wireless telephony, indicates, was considered to be a new kind of telephone. This point of view is well illustrated by the following quotation from what appears to be the first book published in Great Britain which was wholly devoted to wireless telephony. “The possible fields in which wireless telephony may be utilised are many and diverse, but those in which its commercial application is probable are relatively few. One reason at least for this statement is to be found in the competition of the old-established wire telephone, and in the much greater secrecy of wire communication over wireless. As a well-known writer has recently aptly put it: ‘A wireless telephone talk is a talk upon the house-tops with the whole world for an audience.’ The practical utilisation of wireless telephone methods is therefore confined almost entirely to cases where the wire telephone cannot be used, or is rendered unreliable from exterior causes. Wireless telephony’s most important field is consequently for long distance, and especially trans-ocean work, and for communication with ships.”² And this writer goes on to instance as especially important uses, amongst others, communication with moving railway trains and with aircraft.³

There were some who thought of other uses for wireless telephony. Mr. A. C. C. Swinton had drawn attention in November, 1918, to the possible distribution of news by this means. But what he had in mind was a service similar to that of the tape machine. He pointed out that it would be possible to receive and print news messages transmitted by special distributing stations. He also mentioned the possibility “in the near future” of a public speaker addressing “an audience of thousands, scattered, maybe, over half the globe.” But there is no suggestion here of a broadcasting service. And the report of Mr. Swinton’s talk in the Wireless World goes on to say: “But by far the most fascinating and important problem spoken of was that of wireless distribution of electrical energy in bulk.”⁴

The idea of a broadcasting service must have occurred to some workers in this field. We know that David Sarnoff, then of the American Marconi Company, in a memorandum to the Managing Director written at a much earlier date (about November, 1916) envisaged the possibility of a broadcasting service,⁵ and doubtless the same idea had occurred to others. But in general, even among the experts in the field, there seems to have been little, if any, awareness of the potentialities of the discovery of wireless telephony for use in transmitting news, talks, discussions, commentaries, plays and concerts to people in their own homes.⁶

The first major experiment in wireless telephony in Great Britain which had the character of broadcasting was that made by the Marconi Company early in 1920.⁷ A transmitting station of 15 kilowatts was built at Chelmsford, and from February 23rd to March 6th there were two daily transmissions of speech and music.⁸ The object was experimental—to obtain reports on the quality of reception from different places and with different types of receiving sets. ⁹ Although these transmissions had the character of broadcasting, the primary purpose was not to entertain or instruct the listeners.¹⁰ The next event, and one which attracted considerable attention, was the broadcast by Dame Nellie Melba on June 15th, 1920. This was sponsored by the Daily Mail and the broadcast was made from the Chelmsford station of the Marconi Company.¹¹ During the summer of 1920 some additional transmissions were made. One experiment which was made in co-operation with the Press Association was a test of the efficiency of wireless telephony in the sending of news to newspaper offices.¹² But after the summer of 1920 wireless telephony broadcasts ceased.¹³

Why did these experimental broadcasts stop? The reason appears to have been that the Post Office disapproved of them and refused to license further broadcasts. The Post Office derived this power to control wireless telephony in the early 1920’s from the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1904. In this Act it was provided that in order to operate apparatus either for transmitting or receiving wireless signals, it was necessary to have a licence and also that this licence might be in a form and with conditions determined by the Postmaster-General.¹⁴ According to Mr. P. P. Eckersley, the Post Office wrote to the Marconi Company “and said that the experimental broadcasting transmissions must cease because they were interfering with important communications.…”¹⁵ There is no official statement which is explicit about this matter. But in reply to a parliamentary question about experiments in the distribution of news by wireless telephony, after what appears to be a reference to the experiments carried out in collaboration with the Press Association, the Postmaster-General, Mr. A. H. (later Lord) Illingworth, added: “It was also found that the experiments caused considerable interference with other stations, and for the present the trials have been suspended.”¹⁶ This is presumably a reference to the Post Office’s communication to the Marconi Company.

But broadcasting did not altogether cease in Great Britain. There was still the work of the amateurs. “In London district there had been few evenings in the week since 1920 without entertainment of some kind—all this, however, on low power and in so far as it was broadcasting, technically against the law.”¹⁷ And Mr. A. R. Burrows remarks, “the number of tests requiring the assistance of gramophone records seemed somehow to increase week by week.”¹⁸ By the end of 1921 “it was possible any evening in all parts of Great Britain to listen-in to well-known amateur stations at work.” These included “frequent programmes of speech and music.”¹⁹ In addition, broadcast concerts from the Hague, which had started in May, 1920, and which continued throughout this period, were heard by the amateurs in Great Britain. And towards the end of 1921 concerts were broadcast from the Eiffel Tower which could also be heard in Britain.*

At the second conference of wireless societies called by the Wireless Society of London on March 1st, 1921,²⁰ one item on the agenda was “The possibility of regular telephone transmission from a high-power station to include all matters of interest to amateurs and to be on different definite wavelengths for calibration purposes.” Mr. E. Blake, who was the Marconi Company’s representative at the conference, said that the Marconi Company had applied to the Post Office for a temporary licence to carry out “a somewhat humbler programme for amateurs than was suggested on the agenda.” The Marconi Company’s application had not been refused but “the Post Office required some very good evidence that such a programme would really be welcomed by amateurs and had suggested that the views of the Institution of Electrical Engineers or of the Committee of the Wireless Society of London should be obtained.… The intention of the Marconi Company was to transmit for a mere half-hour or so once a week.” Mr. Blake said the Marconi Company did not feel justified in asking for more than that and explained that it was proposed that the transmissions should consist of both telegraphy and telephony.²¹ This proposal received general support, although the President of the Wireless Society of London (Major J. Erskine Murray) remarked that “C. W. and the rest of the programme is very much more important than telephony, although the latter, perhaps, is more amusing.”*

The attitude of the Post Office was made clear by Captain F. G. Loring, the Post Office representative at the conference. He said: “As to the possibility of regular telephone transmissions, that will be favourably considered by the Post Office when it is put forward, but we do not like it coming from the Marconi Company, as it puts us in rather an awkward position. It would come very much better from the Wireless Society. The Marconi Company’s representative will, I am sure, understand what I mean. The application will be much easier for us to deal with if it comes from an organisation like the Wireless Society than from a firm. We cannot give the Marconi Company preferential treatment over any other firm, so that if they asked for permission to send out for half an hour every week, half a dozen other companies could come along, and we should have to give them similar permission, whereas if the Wireless Society were to apply it would make it much easier for us. The question of wavelengths is a very difficult one because at the present time it is not easy to find wavelengths which do not interfere with genuine work.”²²

Following this conference, fruitless negotiations continued for nine months between the Wireless Society of London and the Post Office.²³ It needs to be emphasised that these negotiations were not concerned with the establishment of a broadcasting service. The licences granted to the amateurs (both for transmitting and receiving) were for experimental purposes. And the reason for setting up the proposed broadcasting station was to aid in their experimental work—although the motives of some, at least, of the amateurs were no doubt mixed. The Post Office agreed in August, 1921, to the transmission by the Marconi Company of signals by wireless telegraphy for amateurs but permission for wireless telephony was withheld.²⁴ While these negotiations were proceeding, amateurs (particularly those belonging to the provincial societies) became restive and letters began to appear in the Wireless World from September, 1921, onwards urging that telephony transmissions should be started in Britain. There was also at this time an appeal for subscriptions in order that the concerts from the Hague should not be discontinued. And this naturally strengthened the feeling that there ought to be telephony transmissions in Britain.

On December 29th, 1921, a petition signed on behalf of sixty-three wireless societies representing 3,300 members was handed to Post Office officials, asking for wireless telephony transmissions in Great Britain. It included the following passage: “We would point out that it is telephony in which the majority of our members are chiefly interested, this being the most recent achievement in wireless and that in which for moderate distances at all events, improvements such as avoidance of distortion, and the production of really articulate loudspeakers and such like, are most required.

It is therefore primarily to serve the scientific purpose of improving the receiving arrangements that we desire to have telephony included.…”²⁵

When the petition was handed in at the Post Office, the representatives of the wireless societies “voiced a national resentment that public services such as wireless Time and Telephony should be left to our neighbours to provide, and that permission to transmit Weather Reports, news and music by wireless telephony should be refused to Companies competent and willing to do so without interference with the defensive services of the country.”²⁶ This comment clearly refers to a service with aims wider than those mentioned in the petition.

As a result of the petition, the wireless societies were informed in a letter, dated January 13th, 1922, that the Postmaster-General “has now authorised the Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company to include a programme of 15 minutes telephony (speech and music) in the weekly transmission from their Chelmsford station for the benefit of wireless societies and amateurs.”²⁷ The first broadcast took place on February 14th, 1922. It was made from a station at Writtle (near Chelmsford) which was operated by the Marconi Scientific Instrument Company. Mr. P. P. Eckersley was in charge of the broadcasts and their character is well described in his book.²⁸ The station continued to give its weekly programme until January 9th, 1923. “This was to be the first broadcasting station in Great Britain to do regular and advertised transmissions.”²⁹

2. PROPOSALS FOR A BROADCASTING SERVICE

The first regular broadcasting station in Great Britain was that set up at Writtle. But its main purpose was to assist amateurs in their experiments; not to provide a broadcasting service. Furthermore, although the Writtle station preceded in point of time the establishment of a broadcasting service, it would probably not be true to say that the ultimate provision of such a service was made more likely or even brought forward to any considerable extent in time by the opening of the Writtle station. ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• PART I.—THE ORIGINS
• PART II.—COMPETITIVE SERVICES
• PART III.—PUBLIC DISCUSSION
• APPENDIX I
• APPENDIX II
• APPENDIX III
• INDEX