Tag: Test Cards
No trade test on Sundays
Occasionally an old clip of what was once unremarkable everyday television provides a gateway into another world. A piece of continuity which has surfaced from a Sunday morning in June 1974 does just that. A …
How did TCF become such an iconic BBC image?
It is an iconic BBC image – part of the brand heritage and as much a statement of the BBC of the 70s and 80s as the globe or the famous weather symbols. But the BBC …
The history of the BBC trade test transmission
First published in 2008. Last updated: 4th August 2020. This page contains examples of the various tuning signals and test cards used on BBC Television since the 1930s. The feature remains a work-in-progress and we’d …
The BBC test card and in-vision teletext
TV Presentation has a cousin – trade test transmissions and in-vision teletext pages.
Channel 4 pre-1993 oddities
For its first 10 years, Channel 4 was not a commercial broadcaster in the real sense. It was owned by the IBA and paid for by the ITV companies. They could help recoup the cost …
The history of test cards on Irish TV
Until the mid-1980s, the test card was a common sight on RTÉ TV during daytime hours. Prior to that, RTÉ never really embraced the idea of a morning or early afternoon programme schedule (with the …