User:BlakeIsHere458/sandbox/ITV Colour Strike

The Colour Strike was a period of industrial action by technicians at all ITV companies from 13 November 1970 to 8 February 1971 (although some shows made during this period in black-and-white were having their first transmission as late as December 1971) who, due to a pay dispute with their leadership, denied to operate with colour television equipment.

During that time, ITV had recently switched to colour transmissions, requiring the individual companies to finance heavily on new equipment. Early colour television studio cameras consisted of four tubes to relay the picture: three were receptive to colour (red, green and blue – the chrominance signal) with the fourth providing a high-resolution monochromatic image (the luminance signal) which was still needed as many viewers still watched on monochromatic receivers. The conclusive colour image was created by fusing the chrominance and luminance signals, but the technicians just turned off the colour tubes during this dispute. This meant that even though colour equipment was available, all shows were recorded and broadcast in black-and-white, therefore, restricting the ITV companies' ability to sell airtime at the higher value that colour transmissions dictated.

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