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The origins and development of the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture and the Edinburgh International Television Festival are typically, and in some ways appropriately, regarded as inextricably connected. The first lecture, delivered in Edinburgh by radical playwright and director John McGrath on August 25, 1976, formed part of a retrospective celebrating the work of the recently deceased, Scottish television producer and director, James MacTaggart. The MacTaggart Lectures provide insights into the policy and programming ambitions of key individuals in the world of television. Across almost thirty years, the MacTaggart Lectures have created a unique and authoritative forum for the significant debates which have helped to shape the major developments in television policy and programming in Britain since 1976. There is a broad scholarly consensus that the history and development of British television can be divided into five distinctive, if at times overlapping, periods, with each period or phase characterised by a distinctive policy mood and broadcasting developments: monopoly (1936–1954), creative competition (1955–1962), stable competition (1963–1970), broadcasting under cultural attack (1970–1983), and deregulation and markets (1984 to the present).

This chapter provides an analysis of race and BBC television policy with a discussion of early Black images on BBC television, and the decisions that led to their appearances. This includes icons such as African-Americans Elisabeth Welch and Adelaide Hall, as compared to West Indian performers Edric Connor, Boscoe Holder and others. Efforts undertaken by the service to educate further audiences on racial issues as a social concern included the first television talks regarding the scientific origins of race, and subsequent audience surveys. Heading the effort were former radio producers Grace Wyndham Goldie and Mary Adams. In turn, Goldie, serving as Assistant Head of Talks, helped to develop the first television programme of its kind, race and colour. The teleplay examined the experiences of newly arrived West Indian immigrants from ‘their’ perspectives but was transmitted to mixed reviews, this time from West Indian audiences. As the BBC continued to consider how television could assist West Indian communities in their efforts to assimilate, the service began to document the appearance of African-Caribbeans within BBC programming, a response to criticisms about stereotyping and limited portrayals.

This chapter discusses how television changed college sports. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the NCAA pursued deals worth millions of dollars with commercial, for-profit networks instead of with nonprofit, public radio and television, where the link between athletics and higher education might have been maintained and the commercialism of intercollegiate athletics restrained. The college sports establishment chose an economic playbook that promised direct benefit to athletics and to the institutions in which they operated. Televised football increased the visibility of a few privileged schools, but the bulk of money an institution derived from TV appearances went to support athletics. The schools themselves willingly complied with television policy so they could use television revenues and booster contributions inspired by TV exposure to pay for sports rather than to fund them from the educational budget. Thus, the commercial route was the one taken. While the NCAA may have exerted control over who played football on television, the networks found ways to use dollar appeal and flex their muscle to stretch television policy in their favor.

This chapter explores the extent to which ‘territorial inequalities’ in the UK are relevant to the television system and discusses the kinds of action that broadcasters have taken to address the situation. Given that television policy remains a ‘reserved’ matter for the Westminster parliament, with devolved administrations having little control over the shape and content of television, the chapter also seeks to consider whether the present arrangements are fit for purpose or whether, in the light of changing constitutional arrangements, they need to be updated and a new approach developed that more adequately serves all the population of the UK.