Raising finance to buy a colour TV in 1967

[Michael Maurice]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

I read somewhere that rentals had a boom in the mid 1970s due to VAT being increased on new sets, which would have been a hefty mark up on a colour one.

VAT was introduced in 1973 at 10% replacing purchase tax at 25%.

In 1974 it was split into two rates 8% and 12½% for luxury goods. later in 1974 it went up to 25% for luxury goods, due to the impending general election, the luxury goods VAT rate was reduced to 12½%. It was then increased to 15% by the Thatcher Government for nearly all products, then to 17½% in 1991, then 20% in 2010 where it still is.

You can read all about it here.

[Graham G3ZVT]

The first colour set I saw was through the window of the Granada showroom in Cheetham Hill. (I would be an employee at the company a few years later.
The set was in a sort of "Punch & Judy" style booth to shade the screen from daylight.

The first colour set I got to play with was at the home of a college friend, this must have been 1968, it was a dual standard Baird M708.
Only BBC2 was in colour, so consequently most of the time it was displaying a black and white picture that was inferior to a black & white set.

My friends parents had recently secured a considerable win on the football pools!

[PWH]

Also, if you rented, when 'your' set went wrong, you got a loan set so you weren't without a telly.
We often got much better loan sets than our renter. perhaps they were trying to upsell??

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by Michael Maurice

VAT was introduced in 1973 at 10% replacing purchase tax at 25%.

In 1974 it was split into two rates 8% and 12½% for luxury goods. later in 1974 it went up to 25% for luxury goods, due to the impending general election, the luxury goods VAT rate was reduced to 12½%. It was then increased to 15% by the Thatcher Government for nearly all products, then to 17½% in 1991, then 20% in 2010 where it still is.

You can read all about it here.

Thanks I know the rates were frequently adjusted before settling on 15%.

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by PWH

Also, if you rented, when 'your' set went wrong, you got a loan set so you weren't without a telly.
We often got much better loan sets than our renter. perhaps they were trying to upsell??

I remember reading about someone who's family rented a black & white set until 1975 & were reluctant to switch to colour due to the cost.

When their usual set needed to go back to the workshop for a repair the rental company gave them a colour loan set for no extra cost on a monthly trial.

At the end of the period his parents didn't want to go back to monochrome viewing so the company offered them to take on their loan set permanently as it was a decontrolled colour set, and the rate not much more than the B&W set they were renting before.

Often rental companies would rent out reconditioned sets a few years old because they could charge a lower rental rate.

[Nuvistor]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

Often rental companies would rent out reconditioned sets a few years old because they could charge a lower rental rate.

The big rental companies would have had their outlay back after a couple of years, after that only upkeep were repairs and the rest profit. Decontrolled sets only required a month’s deposit so it made them popular.

Has for loan sets, they were required for customers who had bought their set. Well at least we supplied loan sets to all customers if they wanted one.

[broadgage]

Originally Posted by PWH

Also, if you rented, when 'your' set went wrong, you got a loan set so you weren't without a telly.
We often got much better loan sets than our renter. perhaps they were trying to upsell??

I recall loan sets being provided if the faulty rented TV could not be mended on site.
A loaned colour set persuaded my parents to rent a colour set for the first time.

Affluent friends had a large colour projection set. This used a small but very bright CRT and a large lens to project the picture. The picture was large and bright but had a restricted viewing angle.

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by PWH

Also, if you rented, when 'your' set went wrong, you got a loan set so you weren't without a telly.
We often got much better loan sets than our renter. perhaps they were trying to upsell??

It worked the other way too: in the 405-line days when our good-condition 8-month-old rented telly failed, Radio Rentals tried to swap it out and give us a rather sad example of the same model: water-rings on the top of the cabinet, it stank of coal/nicotine-smoke and the area round the concentric channel-selector/fine-tune knob was rather obviously scuffed and worn.

There was a calm-but-insistent conversation between my father and the local RR manager - and the "Council-house castoff" telly was removed the following day, under threat of terminating the rental agreement.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

I remember reading about someone who's family rented a black & white set until 1975 & were reluctant to switch to colour due to the cost.

When their usual set needed to go back to the workshop for a repair the rental company gave them a colour loan set for no extra cost on a monthly trial.

At the end of the period his parents didn't want to go back to monochrome viewing so the company offered them to take on their loan set permanently as it was a decontrolled colour set, and the rate not much more than the B&W set they were renting before.

I remember we were encouraged to loan colour sets after making a judgement that the set wouldn't "walk". All loan sets were technically "on appro" (approval) anyway.

What I can't remember is what the subscriber's legal position was with TV licencing. An exception for "free trials" seems unlikely; perhaps it was one of those "grey areas" people talk about.

[Jonster]

The first set I remember as a child in the late 60s was a rented B/W Thorn 1400 of some sort, it was replaced by a rented Thorn 3500 colour set in about 1973. This stayed for many years and eventually when my parents wanted to terminate the rental agreement in 1980 as they had inherited a Sony KV1820 from my grandmother they told us to keep it! The first colour set I owned was a Decca Bradford 30 series, I was given this by a local TV engineer also around 1980, it was the 18" version with a Toshiba tube that had an intermittent short in the red gun which I could cure for a while by tapping the neck of the tube with a screwdriver! It lasted me for a good 5 years before it was replaced with a new Sony KV21XRTU.

[red16v]

I had just started work as a student apprentice and managed to save up for the rental deposit for a set that we installed at my parents house and then they took over the monthly rental charge. I think the deposit was around £75 in 1970. It was supplied by Rediffusion and was one of those in-house (re)badged efforts - a 25"inch push through tube in a lovely wooden cabinet with folding front doors. I think it was also sold as a Baird Colour Master. It was certainly all transistor. Gave a lovely picture and only failed once in about the 10 years we had it it, it was then traded in for something else but there was nothing wrong with it when it left us.

I used to spend hours with the back off adjusting it on Test Card F. Looks like this model (which says it had 26" crt but as I recall it was 25").

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/hismas..._brc_3500.html

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by Jonster

The first set I remember as a child in the late 60s was a rented B/W Thorn 1400 of some sort, it was replaced by a rented Thorn 3500 colour set in about 1973. This stayed for many years and eventually when my parents wanted to terminate the rental agreement in 1980 as they had inherited a Sony KV1820 from my grandmother they told us to keep it! The first colour set I owned was a Decca Bradford 30 series, I was given this by a local TV engineer also around 1980, it was the 18" version with a Toshiba tube that had an intermittent short in the red gun which I could cure for a while by tapping the neck of the tube with a screwdriver! It lasted me for a good 5 years before it was replaced with a new Sony KV21XRTU.

I guess after seven years the 3500 had paid for itself & too old to be rented out again.

Some companies would offer customers the chance to buy a set outright after a few years, normally on the understanding all repairs were the customer's responsibility to pay for.

[Graham G3ZVT]

From birth in 1953 to about 1960 an HMV 2805

I think this set was originally at my grandparents house and would have been four years old when we got it.
I doubt it was on rental. Perhaps it was on HP. I imagine it was "taken away" when its replacement was delivered.

The next set arrived in 1960 and was an HMV 1871. ITV at last.

Eventually it became a second set in the kitchen, and ended up in my grandmothers house in her bedroom. That set was particularly reliable, I was old enough and knowledgeable enough to replace its Fireball tuner at one point. The tube was perfect to the end.
Again the set was purchased not rented, perhaps on the never-never, who knows.

Our next main set was a dual-standard Bush TV135 and was rented from a local firm called Whites. I would guess 1966


When I had finished my C&G Radio & TV course at Salford Tech I was offered job with that outfit, by that time it had been acquired by British Relay Wireless. I stuck it for three days then decided there must be something better in the trade. I discovered recently that Mike Phelan worked there, I wonder if that coincided with my short time?

I fairly quickly secured a job as Junior Improver at Granada TV Rental Langworthy Road Seedley (Salford) and I was with that company for the next twenty-something years.

About a year later, when I became a fully fledged field engineer I drove my new Vauxhall Viva estate to Homes Chapel where I had seen a colour TV advertised, The story that the seller told was he is a lumberjack who was temporarily out of work until his back got better. The set was a 22 inch Decca Bradford

That one's a 2230 but I think mine was an earlier one, 2213?
The decoder was different with WW highlight pots
That must have been about 1972 and mum & dad could send the Bush back to BRW.

That Decca really was a labour of love. When the tube showed the slightest sign of going soft I would pop a new one in, and a set of valves for good measure.

This one too ended up at Grandma's after she moved into a flat.

Somehow these four sets seem important to me, the others that came later don't seem to count.

[Dai Corner]

Those colour loan sets in lieu of B&W ones away for repair would obviously have needed a UHF aerial. Was there a big switch from VHF to dual standard B&W sets as BBC2 was rolled out across the country

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by Dai Corner

Those colour loan sets in lieu of B&W ones away for repair would obviously have needed a UHF aerial. Was there a big switch from VHF to dual standard B&W sets as BBC2 was rolled out across the country

I imagine this would have been done after single standard B&W sets were common. Did any rental companies make an effort to get customers to switch to single standards?