British Electric Traction

British Electric Traction Company, PLC, was a leading manufacturer and operator of electric railway tram systems in England during the late 19th century and early 20th century. In the 1920s, they began using their network of urban and suburban power cables to deliver cable radio service to customers frustrated with the difficulties of tuning in weak radio broadcasts. Initially, their service consisted primarily of rebroadcasts of the BBC Radio service; this was reflected in the name they chose for their new business unit: "Broadcast Relay Service".

Brandwise the operation was known as "Rediffusion"; and much as the original British Electic Traction Company had branched out from making tramway power systems to making tramway cars to operating tramways, Rediffusion quickly branched out into making, renting, and selling radios. With the arrival of the first experimental television broadcasts in the 1930s, Rediffusion quickly began manufacturing TV sets and supplying "Pipe TV" service to their customers, until the cessation of television broadcasts during World War II.

After narrowly avoiding nationalization at the hands of the post-war Labour Party government, BET and Rediffusion were eager get back into the television business (especially because tram systems around the United Kingdom were being decommissioned by local governments with astonishing rapidity). With the passage of the Television Act 1954, BET and Rediffusion joined forces with Associated Newspapers, a subsidiary of Daily Mail and General Trust, to form Associated-Rediffusion, and won the coveted London weekday ITV broadcast franchise. They began broadcasting on September 22, 1955.

At the beginning, Associated-Rediffusion was losing money amazingly fast; so fast, in fact, that by the end of 1956, Associated Newspapers sold 80 per cent of its stake back to BET and Rediffusion at a severe loss. Around that same time, Associated-Rediffusion struck a very favorable deal with Granada Television, the franchise holder for weekday broadcasts in the North of England. Granada was also losing money hand over first, and lacked the financial resources of BET; the deal guaranteed Granada a certain level of financial security, at the cost of Associated-Rediffusion receiving the vast majority of future profits from their arrangement.

By 1964, when Associated-Rediffusion changed its name to Rediffusion London, their efforts had left them sitting on a veritable mountain of cash; and it is arguable that the attitude which that success spawned may have lead to the decision by the Independent Television Authority in 1967 to effectively unmake them. Rediffusion London was ordered to merge with Associated British Corporation, the holder of the weekend Midlands and North of England franchises, to form Thames Television, with ABC given the controlling interest (despite their generally weaker financial position). Thames Television was given the new weekday London franchise, with ABC's existing franchises awarded to other companies.

BET continued operation as owner of bus companies throughout this, until it was sold to the government to become part of the National Bus Company in 1968.