The Television Will Be Revolutionised
Written by Sunit Kotecha, Director of Delivery and Operations, YouView
2025 marks a century since the first demonstration of television. It’s a technology that has not only entertained us but also shaped who we are.
To adapt the words of poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron, who coined the phrase “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”: in our world, the television itself has been revolutionised.
From Baird’s Laboratory to Living Rooms
One hundred years ago, on 2nd October 1925, the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird achieved something extraordinary: he transmitted the first recognisable moving images using his mechanical televisor system.
A few months later, on 26th January 1926, Baird exhibited his invention to the Royal Institution of Science, transmitting the moving image of a ventriloquist’s dummy, Stookie Bill, from his Frith Street laboratory in London.
By 1930, a combined sound-and-picture broadcast had taken place. In 1931, the Epsom Derby was Baird’s first outside broadcast for the BBC, and in 1936 the BBC launched the world’s first regular public television service.
By the time of the Second World War, 20,000 television sets were in use across 11.3 million British homes — a penetration rate of less than 0.2%. What had begun as an eccentric experiment was already reshaping everyday life.
The Rise of a Cultural Megaphone
Television quickly became more than just a technology. It was a mirror and a megaphone.
It brought the world into our living rooms, from global news events to binge-worthy drama. It shaped fashion, family life, advertising, and democracy itself.
From the cathode-ray “tube” to flat-panel displays, the journey has been one of constant reinvention:
- The need for TV listings in newspapers and magazines
- The introduction of the TV licence in the UK
- The start of the 9pm watershed to protect children from unsuitable content
- The arrival of VCRs, DVDs, PVRs and home cinema systems
- The introduction of pay-TV and set-top-boxes
- The rise and fall of 3D TVs and curved TVs
- The partnership between UK PSBs and ISPs to launch YouView
- The measurement of audience and advertising reach and usage
- The shift from analogue to digital broadcast, and now the planned switch from digital to IP delivery
- The rise of streaming, binge-watching, and short-form video
- The widening of app choice and app subscription tiers
- New layers of content discovery through enriched metadata, personalised feeds, and immersive home screens
Baird’s flickering images have evolved into ultra-high-definition, on-demand, multi-device experiences that blur the boundaries between broadcast spectrum, cable, satellite, mobile data, and home internet delivery.
Today in the UK, the average viewer spends 4 hours and 30 minutes per day watching TV and video content, but habits differ across generations, with younger audiences increasingly turning to social platforms for news and entertainment.
And yet, the essence remains the same: moving images with the power to inform, entertain, inspire, connect, educate, and provoke debate.
How Television Changed Us
As we mark the centenary of television, it’s worth reflecting on some of the biggest societal shifts it has catalysed:
- Politics and Democracy: Television reshaped how politics works. Beginning with the Kennedy–Nixon debate in 1960, TV audiences began focusing on appearance and presentation as much as on policy detail. Televised debates, political advertising, soundbites, stagecraft, and 24-hour rolling news have transformed democratic processes and reinforced the need for verification and fact-checking.
- Globalisation of Culture: From the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and the Apollo 11 moon landing to the fall of the Berlin Wall and Live Aid, billions of people have shared and experienced historical moments simultaneously. This created a new kind of global village (to borrow Marshall McLuhan’s phrase) with instantaneous absorption and debate.
- Consumerism and Advertising: Television gave rise to mass advertising on an unprecedented scale. In the UK, the first TV advert was for Gibbs SR toothpaste, broadcast in 1955 during ITV’s launch. Since then, TV advertising has shaped marketing practices, lifestyles, and consumer desire, with iconic product straplines entering everyday language. Today, broad advertising is increasingly being replaced by addressable ads dynamically inserted into content streams for personalised targeting.
- Family and Social Life: Television altered the rhythms of family life. For decades, the living room TV was the household hearth, gathering families for shared moments and the inevitable “did you watch…?” conversations at school or work the next day. Dining table conversations were often replaced by TV dinners, and later, personal devices fractured that togetherness, shifting from collective rituals to individualised consumption, where parental controls can struggle to replace the TV watershed’s protective role.
- Representation and Identity: Television has both reflected and shaped social attitudes. Early portrayals of women and minorities often reinforced stereotypes, but over time TV became a platform for challenging norms. Groundbreaking programmes expanded awareness around race, gender, sexuality, social mobility, neurodiversity, disability, ethnicity, and class. Representation on television has often preceded or accelerated wider societal conversations. And awareness matters, because without it, we can never fully understand perspectives different from our own.
Looking Ahead
As we look to the next century, television is set to evolve again. AI, immersive formats such as AR and VR, and increasingly personalised interactive media will further blur the lines between viewer and participant. However, one thing remains constant: the moving image retains its extraordinary power to connect, reflect, and revolutionise society.
At YouView, we’re here to champion what matters most for viewers, and to help television continue its revolution.
Here’s to the next 100 years.
What will you watch?