DigitalTV.com

The biggest revolution in broadcasting history since the birth of commercial television began in the UK in 1997 with the launch of digital television.

More channels and more choice were promised to the viewer. Today, in 2001, we see that digital has brought us more channels to choose from, but they are not all successful.

The Money Channel has had some well-reported financial problems. Simply Money was simply losing money and relaunched itself as a shopping channel.

Some of the Asian-language services have gone from subscription to free to air and back again in order to tempt subscribers to their services.

Add to that the reports that some programmes on the major digital channels such as BBC Choice, E4 and ITV2 have had no viewers at all, and you can see that the digital channel revolution has suffered similar problems to the dot com revolution.

But why? Simply, there are so many channels and services out there fighting for your attention and viewing time but not enough hours in the week, never mind a day, to view them all.

Plus, the services are as diverse as they come with channels all about fashion, computer games, health, dance music and extreme sports, mixed in with the more traditional multi-channel fare of entertainment, news, movies, sports, pop music and classic television programmes.

With so many new channels coming on stream almost on a weekly basis, it is quite easy to forget that before the digital era, several analogue satellite and cable channels also found the going somewhat tough.

Country Music Television, The Weather Channel and The Family Channel, amongst others, all had difficulty getting their services accepted by enough viewers to make running a channel worthwhile. Even Sky with their deep pockets had troubles with The Comedy Channel, Sky 2 and Sky Sports Gold in the pre-digital era.

But these and other quite high profile difficulties haven't put off the television companies who have launched new channel after new channel or brought existing channels to Sky Digital.

Okay, you say, so satellite and digital channels have had some problems, but what's that got to do with dotcoms? Well, the parallels between the dotcom revolution of the late 1990s and the multi-channel revolution that began in 1997 are quite astounding.

The dotcom revolution saw a massive increase in the number of online shopping websites, a rise that was not supported by an equivalent rise in the number of online consumers.

In the same way, the expansion in the number of channels available to the viewing audience has not been reciprocated by a similar increase in the number of households able to view these digital channels.

Therefore, there will be a point when the number of channels will be so large that the viewing audience and the advertising market will be unable to support them all.

To a small extent we have seen that already, but with the continued expansion of channels, it will not be long before this particular bubble does what the dotcom bubble did and bursts, leading to a number of quite high profile channel failures right across the spectrum of digital channels

We all know that 2000 was the year when the dotcoms began meeting with their logical conclusion, leaving a lot of casualties in their wake. 2001 has seen the first few failures of the digital TV revolution.

Could the next year see the bursting of this bubble? The only people who can decide that are the ordinary people in the street.

Will you watch the programmes on these new channels, and buy the products advertised on them or will you just stick with the channels and programmes you know and love?

Now, for the first time since September 1955, the future of television is back in the hands of the viewers and advertisers.

The Avengers

The Avengers was produced from January 1961 to September 1969 and during its run it had two theme tunes, 5 main characters, countless strange villains and some very weird situations. But above everything else, it had some great chemistry. It was that chemistry between the main characters that made it the success it still is today.

The first season started out with two main characters, Patrick MacNee as John Steed and Ian Hendry as Dr David Keel. Johnny Dankworth, who would later write the music for Tomorrow’s World as well as much else, was commissioned to write the theme, and the music he wrote symbolized the more serious nature of the plots of the original few series.

The opening titles were striking - a series of clear black and white cards, sometimes mixed over the stage where the opening scene would take place. Ian Hendry was given top billing in the first season and the series firmly revolved around him ‘avenging’ the murder of his practice nurse girlfriend. Hendry had previously starred in a short series called “Police Surgeon” for ABC in 1959 and was playing a very similar character in the new series. The first two episodes, which served as a pilot, were filmed on videotape, while the next seven were transmitted live. The rest of the season was recorded on videotape.

After 26 episodes had been produced, a strike by British Actors Equity halted production temporarily. Still at the start of his career, Ian Hendry took the opportunity to leave the series to pursue film work. When production restarted, producers hired Honor Blackman to partner Steed in the role of Cathy Gale. This was reflected in the still-serious and stark title sequence.

Cathy Gale didn’t appear in every season 2 episode, with either Venus Smith (Julie Stevens) or Dr. Martin King (Jon Rollason) partnering John Steed to fill the gaps. The opening titles in these circumstances would just credit Macnee. The Dankworth theme music remained in place but the plots slowly started to develop towards the quirkiness that was to set the series apart.

By season three, the bit players had been removed and Cathy was the full-time partner. Importantly for ABC, the show was now being exported worldwide – except to the United States, where 405-line monochrome standard videotape had become unpopular with the networks as they moved to 525-line colour. ABC did export season three, but the US ABC network as buyers demanded in return that the next season was recorded on film, and that the show would become colour. But season four was to see the loss of the second lead actor: Honor Blackman had secured the role of Pussy Galore in the next James Bond film, Goldfinger and departed to begin filming at Pinewood.

ABC began searching for someone to take her place. The character was re-written in anticipation of a new actress, and even Howard Thomas, MD at ABC, was engaged in the casting process. A name was chosen on the basis of what they were looking for in the new character and the new actress: she must have Man Appeal – ‘M’ Appeal – Emma Peel. The ‘M’ appeal was found in actress Diana Rigg, and the show was on its way from being a success to being a classic.

Season four marked a relaunch for the series. The Dankworth theme no longer suited the mood of the stories, which were quirkier than ever before, and Laurie Johnson was commissioned to compose a new theme. The opening titles also changed to a series of still pictures of the two stars, Macnee & Rigg, in typical Avengers-like poses. Whilst season four was in black and white, the next season would see the programme being filmed in colour, despite ABC Weekend and the rest of ITV still being in monochrome themselves.
Season five also saw another change in the opening titles, with a filmed sequence involving the two stars.

During the season, the ABC endcap was significantly different. It would start “ABC Production” minus the famous triangle logo and end showing that ABC stood for Associated British Corporation – a name invented by ABPC to fill the letters and avoid confusion with US ABC.

Diana Rigg decided to leave the show at the end of the penultimate season and producers brought in Linda Thorson to play the role of trainee Tara King, a character she created and named herself. But NBC scheduled the popular ‘Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In’ against the new series on ABC-US and the ratings went into freefall.

The production team was replaced and the character of Tara King was toughened up but that didn’t help ABC-US’s ratings and the show was cancelled in 1969.

ABC Weekend had also moved on to become Thames Television, and the show was no longer networked in the UK, ABC’s parent company having chosen to hold on to the rights rather than deed them to the part-owned Thames.

Since coming to an end, the show has received many plays in syndication worldwide including showings in the UK on Channel 4 and Granada Plus. The show can be found playing in its Blackman, Rigg and Thorson variants in all Francophone countries where it has become a popular cult hit. The series has been released several times on sell-through video and is known for being the height of British style and eccentricity throughout the world and in its home country. The Avengers has become a continuing legacy of ABC and all it stood for.