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Two 20th-century cultural WIs for the evening. Here's the first.

Britain was one of the first countries to adopt television, the BBC beginning to broadcast from Alexandra Palace in 1936. However, only a small number of TV sets were bought, by the rich, and then when war came in 1939 service was suspended for the duration of the war. It came back on in 1945, but by that point everyone was dirt poor and luxuries like a TV set were not on the table, meaning that rich America soon surpassed us in number of TV sets (and broadcasters). TV didn't really catch on until the coronation of 1952 being televised resulted in a buying spree.

So, WI: WW2 is avoided. Doesn't matter how. Something like Weimar World or something. The Weimar state survives, or a military junta takes power in Germany instead of the Nazis, rapproaches with France, bullies Eastern Europe into being part of a German-led anti-Soviet alliance and then tries for territorial revisions later on, that kind of thing.

Anyway, the point is: What does British TV look like in this TL? The BBC will still have been broadcasting from 1939 to 45, more people will have bought tellies thanks to the lack of the war bankrupting everyone and the slow recovery from the Depression, etc.

On the flip side, I believe the BBC got a lot of its foreign language services originally due to broadcasting propaganda to occupied Europe during the war, so it might not be such a global information superpower as it is in OTL.

Thoughts?
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