Fifield said licence fees were being abolished because they were from an era when television had a mass audience.
This was an era when television hadn't yet settled into the pattern of silly sitcoms and not-too-taxing dramas that would define it for decades.
From a modern perspective, the passage feels prissy and laughable, the residue of an era when television was considered a public utility: it was in everyone's best interest to keep it pure, and then add fluoride.
How many magazines still have two million subscribers?" The biggest problem for TV Guide has been remaining a must-read in an era when television listings can be accessed by the push of a button on a remote control.
In an era when television has become slick and shiny, Live from Television Centre – a collaboration between the BBC, Battersea Arts Centre, the Arts Council and five independent theatre companies and makers, broadcast on Sunday night and now available on iPlayer – was a breath of fresh air.
He asked: "In an era when television is constantly accused of dumbing down, why is it wrong for us to clever up?" Strong consolidated ratings for the show in the US and UK – which include viewers watching on catch-up – underlined that its audience wasn't lagging behind, said the writer and producer.
In an era when television ratings for live sport are falling, the NBA has been trialing new ways of bringing action to the fans, tailoring it for social media and mobile.
In an era when television personalities, especially women, were expected to bubble, Francis did just that.
In many ways, "A History of Britain" is a throwback to an earlier era, when television documentaries were often built around the personality of a narrator-host, an academic adventurer cloaked in the glamour of exotic locales.
Directed by SIDNEY LUMET from a seething script by Paddy Chayefsky, "NETWORK" belongs to a bygone era, when television broadcasting was in every way a narrower enterprise and when movie satires were more likely to express indignation than irony.
The death of David Coleman at the age of 87 signs off an already distant era when television broadcasts of Britain's national sporting events – the so-called "crown jewels" – were almost the sole and exclusive preserve of the BBC.
