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Came across an article in a mid-60’s magazine talking about Pay TV which was linked to Kempton Park. The idea seemingly involved sticking a couple of shillings in a slot to watch a race.
Did this ever come to fruition? If so did anyone actually subscribe and what was it like?
This idea certainly did come to fruition and meant that very irritatingly, the BBC were unable to broadcast the King George on Boxing Days, to the consternation of the racing public. I think this was in the immediate post Arkle era and lasted a few years. The pay TV uptake was probably miniscule, no one I knew took part and I think Kempton(!) was the only track where the public were asked to pay to view.
Yes we had pay TV’s in the 60’s, people could not afford television sets
so you had a pay box on the back of the television to put money in to watch.You have to remember that in the 60’s this country only had 3 television channels, BBC1, ITV and BBC2 which started in 1964, we certainly didn’t have a channel to watch racing from Kempton, mind you there was an old saying "If you can remember the 60’s you weren’t there".
Modern television viewing did not start here in Swindon until 1985, when my street was the first to have Swindon Cable.
My first job leaving school in 1968 was in the accounts office at Radio Rentals, and if there was a horse racing channel available I would have had it.
Fast forward to today and I have available to me on my television set 100+ channels.
Mike.
There are two paragraphs in Lord Oaksey’ book "Mince pie for starters" which cover this subject.
He worked on a service called Pay TV which covered all races at Kempton which meant that the 1965 and 1966 king George’s were pay per view and not on terrestrial. It ended some time in 1967. This meant that Arkle’s last race was on Pay TV.
in HK, the first TV was a subscription cable service that began in 1957 – Rediffusion TV, the company based in London. the sets had no tuners. it was the ancestor of today’s ATV (Asia TV).
broadcasting-to-air only came 10 years later in 1967 with the TVB channel.
We were amongst those that had Pay Tv in the 60’s, but as mentioned above, I don’t remember it lasting very long either, but was annoyed on occasions as we had no money to put in the box and I couldn’t see the race I wanted.
This might have been the Kempton meetings at Christmas… I don’t remember that exactly, but my father was really annoyed by not having the money, so I think it may have been when Salmon Spray won [?] what is now the Christmas Hurdle in 1965 [?]… guessing here a bit… as Salmon Spray was his favourite horse of the time… all a bit vague..
Alternatively, I just might have wanted to watch ‘I Love Lucy’..I remember David Robinson, who later became a rich racehorse owner, was very much involved with rental t.v. and it might have been one of his initiatives, but I’m speculating there. He made millions. Had lots of horses with Michael Jarvis in the late 60’s…. in the Horses in Training annual I remember him as being one of the foremost owners at the time.
3 Channels then were better than over 100 today,… in my opinion… it was quality, not quantity, apart from the awful summer interference, where the reception was almost unwatchable…
Thanks, I wasn’t too sure how many ‘oldies’ we had on here.
Did you actually have to pay for all channels or was it just if you wanted the racing from Kempton? I know it was much more popular in those days but I am assuming racing wasn’t the only pay per view sport? Did the racing coverage give you anything other than the race itself?
Agree about the general quality of programming. Less was definitely better than more, bit like the racing really.
..this is what I can’t remember Stilvi, whether it was Kempton or racing specific or not, but according to Patriots post above and others, it seems to have been so, but that doesn’t lodge in my memory… I always thought that we couldn’t watch the t.v. without putting money in…but very possibly I misunderstood the whole thing…. we couldn’t have had this for long, perhaps only a few months, which might explain my confusion… sorry can’t help you any better here..
TBB,
Good grief, Swindon Cable, that brings back memories. I moved into my current home, a new build then, in March 1985 and was hooked up to the cable service as soon as it was available.
If you google 1960s pay TV there are a few articles on this service. To summarise you paid to watch individual programmes. Kempton was the only track signed up and it appears it was only available in certain areas. If that’s true then large parts of the uk would have missed out on seeing Arkle’s last ever run.
Ps, I’m no oldie. Monksfield and Sea Pigeon are my earliest memories.
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