Toddlers' Truce

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The Toddlers' Truce was a piece of early British television scheduling policy. It required that transmission be halted for an hour each weekday between 6.00pm and 7.00pm (ie, between the close of children's TV and the evening schedule) in order that very young children could be put to bed.

Contents

[edit] Background

The Truce probably originated when the BBC resumed television broadcasting after the Second World War in 1946. As a policy, it remained fairly uncontroversial until ITV began transmission in 1955. At that time the Truce was accepted as policy by the Postmaster General, Earl De La Warr, in the interests of smoothing relations between ITV and the fledgling Independent Television Authority (ITA). The problem became apparent in 1956 when the ITV franchise-holders under the ITA's jurisdiction were struggling to stay in business. Since the BBC were (and still are) funded by a television licence fee, their budget was not related to the number of hours of transmission and indeed the Truce actually saved them money. ITV, on the other hand, were funded entirely by advertising; the Truce caused a loss of much-needed revenue during the hour's closedown. Supporters of ITV, which had faced strong political opposition, argued that the Truce had little to do with social responsibility and was simply a way to give the BBC an unfair advantage.

[edit] Abolition

The ITA had encouraged the ITV companies (Granada Television, ABC Television, ATV and Associated-Rediffusion) to seek the abolition of the Truce since transmission began in 1955, but it was only in July 1956 that action was finally taken. This was probably the result of a lack of effective cooperation between the companies rather than any political objection. Indeed, the Postmaster General, at this point Charles Hill, had always disliked the policy as an example of the BBC's paternalism toward its audience:-

“ This restriction seemed to me absurd and I said so. It was the responsibility of parents, not the state, to put their children to bed at the right time... I invited the BBC and the ITA to agree to its abolition... ”

The BBC could not, however, be persuaded to accept the abolition of the Truce or even to a compromise (reducing the period to 30 minutes). Hill, whose decision it ultimately was, eventually tired of the disagreement and asked Parliament for the abolition of the Truce which they agreed to by 31 October 1956. However, the BBC and ITA could not even agree on an acceptable date for the abolition to take place, so Hill decided on Saturday 16 February 1957.

[edit] Subsequent use of the time

The BBC filled in the missing hour with a music programme, Six-Five Special from the first Saturday and with the Tonight news magazine from Monday to Friday. The BBC however continued to close down from 6.15-7.00 pm on Sundays, the time of evening church services, until Songs of Praise was launched at that time on 1 October 1961.Until the 80s this time on Sundays was used for religious programmes on BBC and ITV. Generally, the 6.00pm-7.00pm has ever since been devoted to news, especially regional news, in the weekday schedules of both BBC1 and ITV, though Crossroads was also shown at this time in most ITV regions.

[edit] Source

  • Sendall, Bernard Independent Television in Britain: Volume 1 - Origin and Foundation 1946-62 London: The Macmillan Press Ltd 1982 ISBN 0-333-30941-3, Chapter 30ii: "The End of the Toddlers' Truce"