In OTL, during the early days of television, there had been cases throughout numerous countries in Europe and worldwide, where episodes of already broadcast programmes and series were routinely wiped from the tapes they were recorded on. The rationale was that these tapes were expensive. With reruns of older broadcasts still only becoming an established concept, it was generally believed that some recordings should be archived only temporarily, and their tapes should be wiped if spare tapes were needed. Many surviving recordings were also physically junked after spending a certain amount of time in the archives.

Even though this wasn't purely an issue related to period technology (questionable management practices and various lobbies also took their toll), it's interesting to think what the impact on television history and popular culture would be if things were a little different. Namely, what if the recording technology of the time was more mature ? What if, going hand in hand with that, there would be enough employees well aware that systematic archiving is the way of the future and neglecting television archives would be a bad idea ?

Any ideas on how we could advance the television recording tech to make the technology more mature by at least the early 1960s ? And, with it being more mature, better tested and more readily available, have it be also cheaper to purchase for regular filming purposes ?
 
Well in the UK there was commercial television from 1955 when the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) began it's broadcasts. In Finland Mainostelevisio started in 1957. And there was very shortlived Dutch commercial station called TV Noordzee in 1964. Unfortunately for TV Noordzee the Dutch government banned commercial tv. That ban excisted until 1995.
 
And of course I forgot RTL in Luxembourg and Télé Montecarlo in Monaco which were privatly owned stations and part of Eurovision.
 
I think we need help from @Dan1988
No you don't; I'm focused on other projects ATM. However - if you manage to find a way to make a link between Japan and the OP work, that should help suffice. (IIRC I read somewhere that before WW2 the NHK - then Japan's state broadcaster, as opposed to what it is now as a public broadcaster - had equipped some of their radio stations, notably in Taiwan, with tape machines, which for the 1930s was advanced technology. If the NHK could make that work with video earlier, then there would be a start. Of course that would mean most of the initial experiments with no wiping would be Japanese-language programming, which compared to its current OTL reputation would ITTL be rather boring in comparison, albeit probably experimental.) Of course, that's only one potential idea; anyone could make some sort of link between whatever industries/companies were using magnetic tape around the time of television or the Golden Age of Radio - heck, maybe even bring in the music industry on this, whether it be the major companies or local outfits like then-Czechoslovakia's Bonton label (it would be nice if Eastern Europe had more profile in innovation in TLs) - and broadcasting. It just depends on the whims of the writer.
 
Any ideas on how we could advance the television recording tech to make the technology more mature by at least the early 1960s ? And, with it being more mature, better tested and more readily available, have it be also cheaper to purchase for regular filming purposes ?

Joseph A. O‘Neill‘s Invention of Magnetic Tape

In 1926, American inventor Joseph A. O'Neill of New York, NY patented “a strip of paper or other cheap material on which is deposited a trail or line of magnetic material, such as metal particles, dust or fine shavings” for reproducing sound. He did not pursue it commercially.

O’Neill, Joseph A. “Record for reproducing sound tones and action” U.S. Patent 1,653,467 (Filed: Mar 22, 1926 Issued: Dec 20, 1927)


AC Bias and its (temporarily forgotten) discovery in 1921

The earliest magnetic recording systems simply applied the unadulterated (baseband) input signal to a recording head, resulting in recordings with poor low-frequency response and high distortion. Within short order, the addition of a suitable direct current to the signal, a DC bias, was found to reduce distortion by operating the tape substantially within its linear-response region. The principal disadvantage of DC bias was that it left the tape with a net magnetization, which generated significant noise on replay because of the grain of the tape particles.

Although the improvements are marked with such DC bias, even more dramatic improvement results if an alternating-current bias is used instead. While several people around the world rediscovered AC bias, it was the German developments that were widely used in practice and served as the model for future work.

The original patent for AC bias was filed by W. L. Carlson and Glenn L. Carpenter in 1921, eventually resulting in US 1640881. The value of AC bias was somewhat masked by the primitive state of other aspects of magnetic recording, however, and Carlson and Carpenter's achievement was largely ignored.

POD

Have someone at the Bell Labs get interested in these two recording technologies and things may reach commerical use in the USA before World War II. Since the Bell Labs were and are continously at the forefront of new technologies, including television they may make most of these ideas.
 

Insider

Banned
In OTL, during the early days of television, there had been cases throughout numerous countries in Europe and worldwide, where episodes of already broadcast programmes and series were routinely wiped from the tapes they were recorded on. The rationale was that these tapes were expensive. With reruns of older broadcasts still only becoming an established concept, it was generally believed that some recordings should be archived only temporarily, and their tapes should be wiped if spare tapes were needed. Many surviving recordings were also physically junked after spending a certain amount of time in the archives.

Even though this wasn't purely an issue related to period technology (questionable management practices and various lobbies also took their toll), it's interesting to think what the impact on television history and popular culture would be if things were a little different. Namely, what if the recording technology of the time was more mature ? What if, going hand in hand with that, there would be enough employees well aware that systematic archiving is the way of the future and neglecting television archives would be a bad idea ?

Any ideas on how we could advance the television recording tech to make the technology more mature by at least the early 1960s ? And, with it being more mature, better tested and more readily available, have it be also cheaper to purchase for regular filming purposes ?
There are many ways we could see them saved. One that wasn't mentioned is physically keep recordings in safe conditions. In USA many movies were lost because there was a fire in a magazine with them. The company I worked in was surveying archives beneath Polish National Television (TVP) in deep, spacious cellars which become leak prone and hence much of the archives were lost because of humidity. However I fail to see what might be the net gain here. The same Polish broadcaster is making the very tedious and expensive digitalisation program now, and despite being an open source it is almost untouched by anybody. It is simply that the quality of the material, except few rare gems isn't worth the attention. And no doubt in ten years these files would require three conventers to run, or might be unplayable at all. Just let it rot.
 
It goes without saying there will be a LOT of happy DR. WHO fans! But so many other shows were lost as well: THE TRONDHEIM TERROR and about half of the first season of THE AVENGERS among many others which I would love to have...
 
It goes without saying there will be a LOT of happy DR. WHO fans! But so many other shows were lost as well: THE TRONDHEIM TERROR and about half of the first season of THE AVENGERS among many others which I would love to have...

And not just them ! Besides The Avengers, fans of the Beeb's 60s Sherlock Holmes (with Wilmer, Cushing and Stock) or of Dad's Army and various more obscure television productions, will be very happy indeed. That's half the reason why I'm asking about this scenario. The other half are simply the values of an amateur archivist and museum fan, who's dismayed at the thought of even lower-quality productions permanently disappearing from the history of the medium. It's the equivalent of destroying any other past artefact that we can't easily reproduce. At least not convincingly.
 
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