Renting Televisions

[Twocky61]

Re: Renting Televisions

(two shillings would be about 10p?)

Yes Mulletino you got it; two shillings is 10p

[80sChav]

Re: Renting Televisions

I was wondering what people's memories of renting TVs, back in the day when sets were expensive & often went wrong.

It seemed that until the early 1980s the companies were helped by new TV innovations, then when sets became cheaper & more reliable they started to rent video recorders or home computers.

After VCRs became cheaper & reliable some companies switched to installing satellite dishes, which kept them going for another decade or so.

In the last 20 years most innovations haven't had such a high price & with many retailers offering credit deals the need to rent has more or less gone.

Over the years the likes of Redeffusion, Granada, Radio Rentals, British Relay, Visionshire, DER etc. seemed to all merge into Box Clever, which only exists online.

Most of the electrical suppliers also rented sets, as did many retailers like the Co-op & Rumbelows when it was cost effective.

My family rented a basic colour largish TV until 1984 from Granada. I only once remember an engineer coming round to have a look inside, who looked like a younger Jim Royle.

It went back when my parents bought a Philips TV with remote from Comet, which seemed a lot more advanced then the one we rented, with it's grey plastic case & electronic tuning.

Good call/thread idea you have had here, Richard mate. This is something I'd allmost forgotan about - as my Grandparents rented from the Co-op, never nobody else (though they never rented a Video Machine or had one until their last days). I remember the first Telly that I recall in the 80s - it was as heavy as heavy metal (but still modern, minus a remote if this makes sense), with the 1, 2, 3 and 4 buttons

Everyone in my Town - if you rented or was on the "never, never" went to the Co-op and even I went in the mid to late 90s to purchase a Video Player when first got my own place ("went" though being the operative word) as had never met such a bg fuss-pot trying to sell what was blatant rubbish (or at least v other plkaces of the day, like Dixons/Currys) etc!!

80schav

[OptimusPrime1980]

Re: Renting Televisions

I was reading a bit about BSB recently, the system was very over-engineered compared to Sky's, which meant better picture quality but the equipment was much more expensive. Supposedly it was designed to be forward compatible for digital when it arrived.

If you watched The Power Station you might have seen Chris Evans before his mainstream breakthrough on The Big Breakfast.

We were never allowed to watch the Power Station. The other 4 yes, Now being a favourite, especially the carpentry show they had on.

[George 1978]

Re: Renting Televisions

I cannot see that picture, but two shillings was 10p.

I used to think that it worked similar to payphones did.

[CrystalBall]

Re: Renting Televisions

I can remember my grandparents renting a wood-effect HMV colour TV on a stand from a firm called Telstar but my parents bought their TVs. Always Sanyo, excellent TVs and 100% reliable. In 1980 my grandparents stopped renting and bought a new ITT followed by a Hitachi in 1987. DER and Radio Rentals (also Rumbelows) were part of Thorn EMI. They used Ferguson TVs and VCRs (sometimes badged as Baird, DER, Thorn etc.) because Ferguson was the consumer electronics division of the same company. All very convenient! As others have said, TV rental seemed to die out in the 1980s as sets became cheaper, better and far more reliable - largely thanks to the Japanese.

[escorteclipse1990]

Re: Renting Televisions

Telebank now that is a blast from the past. I remember a friend from school whose parents had a Telebank TV back in the early 90s, a pound would last 2 hours. Telebank would put ads on the local papers i think until 2001.

[escorteclipse1990]

Re: Renting Televisions

Telebank is called Box Clever, and yes it seems that people still rent TV's

[George 1978]

Re: Renting Televisions

I thought that renting televisions disappeared at some point in the 1990s when the cost of sets went down, or were consolidated at least.

I believe that Granada (the TV rental arm, not the ITV company) became part of Box Clever in the 1990s.

[Richard1978]

Re: Renting Televisions

I thought that renting televisions disappeared at some point in the 1990s when the cost of sets went down, or were consolidated at least.

I believe that Granada (the TV rental arm, not the ITV company) became part of Box Clever in the 1990s.

In the end most of the rental companies seemed to merge together.