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ABC National TV Service: Opening night, 1956

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ABC National TV Service: Opening night, 1956

SUBJECTS:  Arts, History

YEARS:  9–10


Can you imagine life before television?

How different would it have been?

This clip is taken from the opening moments of the first ABC television broadcast in 1956. As you watch it, see how the presenter describes the event and try to imagine the impact such first broadcasts would have had on Australians more than half a century ago.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Has any form of mass media been as influential as television in establishing and reinforcing popular culture? Television arrived in Australia on 15 September 1956, when Australia's first commercial TV network, TCN-9, made its opening broadcast. By the opening of the Melbourne Olympic Games on 22 November, TCN-9 had been joined by the ABC's ABN-2 and Melbourne's HSV-7.
  2. 2.How does Michael Charlton, the presenter of this opening night of ABC television, describe the occasion? Do you agree that it really was that significant? Suggest why or why not. Why would the producers of this opening program have thought it necessary to explain about such things as TV cameras and signal transmitters?
  3. 3.In his opening address, ABC presenter Michael Charlton comments that many people would be viewing this first broadcast through shop windows. What does that tell us about the level of ownership of television sets in Australia in1956 and the level of public fascination with what was for Australians a completely new form of mass media?
  4. 4.Prepare a set of questions and use them to interview at least two people who are old enough to remember the beginning of television in Australia. Your questions should address the types of programs they viewed, the number of hours they spent watching TV, whether they watched mainly commercial channels or the ABC and whether they believe that television increased American cultural influences in Australia.



Date of broadcast: 5 Nov 1956


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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