Thousands shun colour television

Almost 30,000 people across the UK still tune into their favourite programmes on black and white TV sets.

The figures were released by TV Licensing to mark the 40th anniversary of the first colour transmissions on BBC1 and ITV.

The figures showed the black and white sets have not yet been consigned to history despite the rise of flat-screens and the iPlayer.

Detailed market research on what sort of person has a black and white licence is not easy to come by, but figures from TV Licensing - the BBC's collection contractors - suggest that less wealthy socioeconomic groups (D, E) are more heavily represented in black and white licence ownership.

Enterprising students

Of the monochrome licence holders, 20% are in the socioeconomic category D, compared with the 17% they constitute of colour licence holders. With people in the socioeconomic category E, the ratio is 22% black and white and 17% colour.

Black and white televisions are as rare as hen's teeth in the high street, but they are still available to buy new if one knows where to look. Go on eBay and you see them for sale, recommended as ideal for fishermen or caravanners.

One could hazard a guess that there could be some representation of the elderly in the 35,000 black and white licence holders, those who perhaps have never got round to replacing an old set.

Those under the age of 75 do not get a free licence, so that could be a factor. Students wanting to save money are also likely to be among the total. The caravanners and holiday homeowners do not need a second licence if the whole family is only ever in one residence or the other.

The numbers of black and white licences have been dwindling for decades. In 2007 the figure was 40,400, falling steadily from 117,000 in 2002.

"It is now very difficult to go out and buy a black and white set. It is as easy to buy a cheap colour one," says television historian John Trenouth.

It is a long time since the soft, poorly-focused picture of early colour televisions and other technical problems were solved.

"Early colour sets were very expensive and had a habit of a setting fire to people's curtains," says Trenouth. "They were often referred to as 'curtain burners' by the engineers who serviced them."

In the 1970s many people were still watching colour broadcasts in black and white, baffled by monochrome snooker and football and feeling the snob factor of not having a colour set.

Trenouth does not think those who are still watching in black and white are nostalgia buffs.

"I don't think there is the same nostalgia you get with black and white programmes."

And of course, the number of black and white licences does not tell the full picture. They belong to people who have no colour television, but there must be countless more black and white sets dumped, unloved, in box rooms, attics and garages all over the country.

These relics are doomed never to return to pride of place in the living room.