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What's On The Other Side?

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on October 21, 2009 at 09:58

In Reply to: What's On The Other Side? posted by John on October 20, 2009 at 21:23:

: In the U.S.A in the Seventies we would "change the channel" on our TV set when we wanted to watch another program; "Go to channel 7, there's a game on," etc...
: In British television programs I always hear them asking "What's On The Other Side?" "There's a game on the other side," etc...

: "The Other Side" in this instance, is another TV channel.

: Can anyone explain the origin of "The Other Side" referring to another TV channel?

BBC TV re-started transmission (suspended entirely during WWII) in 1946, and was joined by the commercial channel ITV in 1955. Until 1964 These were only two channels on British television until BBC2 started transmission in 1964; and even then people in remoter parts of the country, or who had an old TV and couldn't afford a new one, couldn't get BBC2 for a few years more. So for the formative decade or so of the history of British TV there were just the two channels, and it just came naturally to speak of switching over to "the other side". The more so as there was an overt gulf, even hostility, between the patriotic, educational, "good-for-you" Reithian BBC and the "brash, commercial, "trashy" ITV. For decades they even published separate listings magazines, so any British household that wanted to see next week's TV in advance had to buy both. (VSD)

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