[1][3] There was a commercial imperative to seek new markets because improvements in the coverage of terrestrial transmitters were boosting the quality of reception of such signals and thus reducing the demand from consumers for cable relay services.
As with some similar early cable operators in the United Kingdom, Greenwich Cablevision was hoping that the incumbent Conservative Party government would in due course provide a legislative environment that permitted pay TV services to develop.
[1][3] Greenwich Cablevision was the first[5][6] of five stations to commence locally oriented cable broadcasts following the granting of the experimental licences, with the other awardees being based in Bristol, Sheffield, Swindon and Wellingborough.
[11][a] The various broadcasters had wanted permission to seek subsidies from local councils, to use their spare channel capacity to sell CCTV monitoring facilities and to show sponsored material.
Earlier in that year,[13] Greenwich had cut its locally generated programming to two hours per week, while the Swindon operation refused to countenance advertising, believing that it was contrary to their public service ethos.
[8] Writing in The Guardian, columnist Peter Fiddick considered the decision to extend the licensing period from 1976 to 1979 as no more than governmental procrastination, putting off the time when politicians would determine the outcome of the experiment.