Needle time was created in the United Kingdom by the Musicians' Union and Phonographic Performance Limited to restrict the amount of recorded music that could be transmitted by the BBC during any 24-hour period.
Until 1967[citation needed] the BBC was allowed to play only five hours per day of commercial gramophone records on the air.
These prerecorded programmes resembled what later became known as infomercials, because they normally only featured a little over half of the record, with heavy plugging for title, artist and label.
Because all the hours of transmission were booked up by the major record companies (EMI, Decca, Pye, Philips etc.)
This was one of the driving forces for Ronan O'Rahilly and others to start the first pirate radio station to get exposure for artists he represented.