The Colorful History of UK Television: When Did Color Arrive?

After years of experimentation, the BBC began public transmissions of color television. Initial broadcasts included coverage of the 1966 elections sent to viewers in America via the Early Bird satellite. However, viewers in the UK still only received black and white coverage at that time. The United Kingdom finally launched color television broadcasting on July 1, 1967, with BBC2’s coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championships, presented by David Vine. This broadcast utilized the Phase Alternating Line (PAL) system, developed by German television engineer Walter Bruch. BBC2 had initially launched in black and white in 1964 with a high resolution of 625 lines, specifically in anticipation of the PAL color system.

The PAL system signaled to the British television industry that a public color television service was finally feasible. PAL offered a significant improvement over the American NTSC system, which was often jokingly referred to as “never twice the same color” due to its instability, in contrast to the more reliable PAL system.

While color television had arrived, the transition wasn’t immediate. Not all programs were equipped for color broadcasting, and the shift to color programming was a gradual process. Following BBC2’s lead in 1967, the remaining two channels, BBC1 and ITV, began broadcasting in color on November 15, 1969.

Initially, color broadcasts only reached about half of the UK population, covering the London, Midlands, North-West, and Yorkshire television regions. ITV’s first color programs in Scotland aired on December 13, 1969, followed by Wales on April 6, 1970, and Northern Ireland on September 14, 1970.

To fund this new technology, color TV licenses were introduced on January 1, 1968, priced at £10, double the cost of the standard £5 black and white TV license.