TELEVISION MYSTERY

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1936, Page 5

TELEVISION MYSTERY

THE BRITISH DELAYS. RADIO WORLD BAFFLED. PROGRAMMES WILL COST £1000 A BAY. (Special.—By Air Mail.) LONDON, August 8. Television has become a major mystery in England. Both the public and the radio trade are completely bewildered by the statements and counter-statements of the 8.8.C. The television advisory committee, appointed by tlje Government, ha 6 demanded a searching inquiry into the series of postponements. The situation has been dragged into the open by Radiolympia, the great annual radio exhibition, which is due to open at Olympia at the end of this month. As a result of all the prominence given by the 8.8.C. to the subject during the past few months the public and the trade expected television to be a prominent feature of the show. It is now very doubtful whether television will be available by the end of this month after all.

Meanwhile the manufacturers cannot proceed to produce any television set. It is impossible to devise a receiver until the circuits can be tested with actual transmissions. But the 8.8.C. officially states that it does not know when it will be able to start the service. To make matters worse it has spent all the £180,000 that the committer earmarked /ior the first year's television programmes. It is estimated that when the service is in operation the cost of programmes will work out at more than £1000 a day. As the television fund is exhausted the 8.8.C. will have to raid listeners' license fees if a programme service is to be commenced.