Small external model of a TV set with Tammeter mounted above, made by Television Audience Management Limited, London, England, 1955-1965

Small external model of a TV set with Tammeter mounted above, made by Television Audience Management Limited, London, Enlgand, 1955-1965.

In 1955 ITV was launched. ITV was the first commercial television station in direct competition with the BBC. The competition this introduced made it important that broadcasters understood their audiences. The BBC had undertaken some audience monitoring before 1955, but it was infrequently carried out and not very detailed. Television Audience Management Limited were an important provider of audience data, and this object is a model of some of the equipment they used to monitor viewers’ habits. The ‘Tammeter’ could record which channel viewers were watching and when.