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The period started with the birth of television for the masses. In 1951 there was 1 TV channel. On 22 September 1955, at 7.15pm, there were 2 TV channels to watch, except people like Richard's family who hadn't yet got a television. The new service was run by a company called ITV. Things were different as they showed advertisements at the beginning and end of programmes and in the middle. The BBC got its money from the licence fee. ITV had no share of this so they needed to attract companies to pay for adverts. There was no breakfast TV. TV would start around lunch time with some programmes aimed at women and a short kids programme. Then it would start again about 4.30pm with more children's programmes, then news, then some entertainment or quiz shows, a serious play, more news and weather and, on the BBC who followed a similar format, the epilogue, a very short religious piece at about 11.30pm. That was it. Gone till lunch time the next day. By 1971 there were 3 TV channels. On 1 July 1967 BBC2 became the first channel in Europe to begin regular programmes in colour. The first programme was from the Wimbledon tennis championships. However you needed a special set for this and some people still watched in black and white. Cinema audiences declined rapidly and many cinemas went out of business or became bingo halls, most often frequented by older women. Surprisingly attendance at live sporting events didn't really suffer. Live music festivals became popular, sometimes too popular. Away from live shows, popular music was readily available, first on a record and then on a small cassette tape.
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