The BBC, as its adverts always tell us, answers only to the licence payer - the viewers and listeners of their services.

ITV, from even before the first company went on air, was accused of answering to the advertiser first, and having little or no allegiance to the viewer. This has to be seen as being very unfair on early ITV, as the first job they had was to get people to install new Band III aerials just to view the service. This meant developing a rapport with viewers and potential viewers. After that has been established, advertisers could then be attracted to the new channel, based on the viewer loyalty that would be there already. That loyalty (they thought) could then be transferred over to the products, making ITV a complete package for viewers and advertisers alike.

But, how do you market a new television service?

First, and most obviously, you get the existing viewers to appreciate the 'personality' of your station using presentation. You can style your company as being every-inch part of the region it serves (Granada); you can be bright, brash and showbusiness-driven (ATV); you can be warm, friendly and cosmopolitan (ABC); or you can be authoritative and paternal (Associated-Rediffusion). Whichever you chose, if you are consistent, you can have the viewers appreciative, entranced, impressed or certain of your power in a very short length of time.

Second, you need to reach the viewers without Band III, and the viewers that you didn't catch with the on-screen presentation. This means mailshots, brochures, answering letters and being generally ubiquitous (on the back of vans, buildings and books of matches).

With that done, you can now recruit advertisers to sell their wears to an instant (and huge) audience. That can be done by other advertisers seeing the existing service and jumping on-board. But many will not have thought of using this new medium. Many will be doubtful of its value. Some may even be afraid. A few may be unable to comprehend the market available or the power they could have.

You have to go out and get them. You can reach them by advertising on your own service, you can advertise in the cinemas you may also own. You can also take a step back, technology-wise, and write to them, enclosing a brochure and then giving them a call.

All of this is obvious to us now, but throughout the 1950s and 1960s, this was something revolutionary, and the companies took to it with gusto. Transdiffusion was there, writing letters and collecting brochures, and 30 years later, Photomusications are able to show you ITV For Sale...