In the mid-1970s there were three professional television channels in Britain. BBC1 and BBC2 served up centralised public service broadcasting, television that was entertaining but also educational and informative.The third channel (STV, Border, Grampian, or even Ulster, depending on where you got your signal from in Scotland) was commercial, and focused on entertainment and local news.
Television had been broadcast in Scotland via the Kirk O’Shotts transmitter since 1952, but in areas where reception was poor, or where it was felt image quality could be improved, cable television emerged, often sited around housing developments. Cable TV providers saw an opportunity to diversify programming on a pay-television basis and lobbied for greater freedom to be able to do this. In England, the Conservative government offered cable providers a three-year licence (1972-75) to
