World in Action output. For the first 35 years of its existence, ITV had a near-monopoly of television advertising revenue. Roy Thomson, who ran Scottish Television famously described ITV as a "licence to print money". In return for this income, the broadcasting regulator insisted that the ITV companies broadcast a proportion of their programmes as public service TV. Out of this was born the network's reputation for serious current affairs, eagerly grabbed by programme makers under Granada's founder Lord Sidney Bernstein. Some of the most prominent figures in 20th-century British broadcasting helped to create "World in Action", in particular Tim Hewat, "the maverick
Army Bureau of Current Affairs number. The British Way and Purpose Army Bureau of Current Affairs The Army Bureau of Current Affairs, or ABCA, was an organisation set up by William Emrys Williams to educate and raise morale amongst British servicemen and servicewomen during World War II. Williams insisted – despite some controversy – on the right to education, in particular in current affairs, for servicemen and women, and so in mid-1941 Williams established the ABCA and ran it for the duration of the war. For this role, he became known as "ABCA Bill". The ACBA was a programme of general education for citizenship for