20 January – The largest ever British TV audience for a film is recorded when some 23,500,000 viewers tune in for the ITV showing of the James Bond film Live and Let Die, released in 1973 and starring Roger Moore, making his debut as Ian Fleming's secret agent 007.[2]
24 January – The Independent Broadcasting Authority announces that in the next ITV franchising round it will offer a national licence for breakfast television on ITV.
28 January – The first edition of Newsnight is broadcast on BBC2.[3] Its launch has been delayed for four months by the Association of Broadcasting Staff, at this time the main BBC trade union.[4]
10 February – London Weekend Television launches Gay Life, a late night regional series for gay viewers airing on Sundays. It is the first UK television series specifically aimed at a gay audience and is aired for two series in 1980 and 1981.[6]
19 February – Debut of the Scottish Television produced soap opera Take the High Road on ITV.
25 February – The political sitcom Yes Minister makes its debut on BBC2 with the episode "Open Government".[7]
March
12 March – The very first in-vision Ceefax transmissions is broadcast on BBC1[8] between 8:30am and 9am. In-vision teletext broadcasts on BBC2 start shortly after, airing between 10 and 10:30am and 3:30 and 4pm although if BBC2 were to be transmitting programmes at these times, the channel would broadcast Ceefax pages for the 30 minutes prior to the start of the first programme. These broadcasts are shown only on weekdays.
8 April – Decided by the IBA, weekly episodes of Crossroads are now reduced from four to three, Tuesday to Thursdays. Starting from that day, ATV had planned to replace the fourth episode with a spin-off series called A Family Affair but the idea was dropped.
9 April – ITV airs the critically acclaimed Death of a Princess, a drama documentary about a young princess from a fictitious Middle-Eastern Islamic nation and her lover who are publicly executed for adultery. The drama is believed to be based on the true story of Princess Misha'al bint Fahd al Saud and its showing causes a great deal of controversy, provoking an angry response from the Government of Saudi Arabia.
26 April – The Dallas spin-off series Knots Landing makes its debut on BBC1. It is shown on the same time slot where Dallas itself had been shown.
28 April – Thames launches its long-awaited late night Thames News bulletin to follow News at Ten, the launch having been postponed from September 1978 due to union problems.
May
5 May – Both the BBC and ITV interrupt their scheduled programming to live broadcast footage of the SAS assault which ends the Iranian Embassy siege in London. The coverage launches the careers of several journalists such as the BBC's Kate Adie, while ITN Director, David Goldsmith and his team receive a BAFTA for their coverage.
24 May – The fantasy game show The Adventure Game makes its debut on BBC1.
26 May – BBC1 airs the third-season finale of the US drama series Dallas two months after its US airing in which J. R. Ewing is shot by an unknown assailant in his office; this leads to the Who shot J.R.? phenomenon which lasts until November 1980 when the series returns for the fourth season.
4 September – The US science-fiction series Battlestar Galactica makes its debut on ITV.
6 September
BBC2 launches a computer generated clock, probably the first in the world,[9] although ATV has an electronic digital timepiece by this time, the digits are electronically superimposed onto a physical "ATV – COLOUR" caption.
The family comedy series Metal Mickey makes its debut on ITV in which a five foot silver robot becomes the member of a household. The show attracts an audience of 12 million viewers.
8 September – Watchdog is launched as a weekly consumer slot on BBC1's news magazine programme Nationwide. It becomes a series in its own right in 1985.[10]
17 September – The government reverses its position on the establishment of a separate Welsh language television service for Wales following opposition from the public and Welsh politicians and the idea is given the green light. This leads to the establishment of the Welsh Fourth Channel Authority and ultimately S4C.[11]
19 September – Regional peak time continuity on BBC1 ends and with it the weeknight closedown regional news bulletin.
September – Edmund Dell is appointed as the chairman of Channel 4, the UK's forthcoming fourth channel while Jeremy Isaacs becomes its chief executive.[12]
October
1 October – BBC1's lunchtime children's block is now called See Saw.[13]
2 October – Thames airs a 10-hour Telethon to raise money for good causes in the London area.
November
9 November – BBC1 starts airing season 4 of the US drama series Dallas.
13 November
The Broadcasting Act 1980 paves the way for a fourth UK television service, leading to creation of Channel 4 and S4C in Wales, beginning transmission in 1982. The IBA begins the process of creating Channel 4 as a subsidiary: a subscription will be levied on the ITV companies to pay for the channel and they will sell Channel 4's airtime in return.[12]
The Times reports that News International has sold its remaining 25% stake in London Weekend Television, bringing an end to LWT's connection with Australian businessman Rupert Murdoch.[14]
21 November – The first annual Children in Need charity appeal is broadcast on BBC1. Although it does not broadcast the full evening until 1984, it shows a series of short segments linking the evening's programmes.[15]
22 November – 21.5 million viewers tune in to watch the episode of Dallas which answers the question of Who shot J.R.? less than 18 hours after its showing in the United States, At this time the audience figures are a record for a soap in Britain.[16][17]
24 November – The US sitcom Diff'rent Strokes makes its UK debut on ITV, starring Gary Coleman with his catchphrase "What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?"
December
1 December – BBC Scotland carries out a one-week experiment in breakfast television. It is a simulcast of BBC Radio Scotland's breakfast show Good Morning Scotland.[18]
27 December – The network television premiere of the musical comedy film Bugsy Malone on BBC1.
28 December – The IBA announces the results of the 1980 franchise round. TSW will replace Westward and TVS will replace Southern. ATV must restructure the company to create a separate East and West Midlands service and reduce the shareholding of its parent body to 51% by February 1981.[20] Also announced is the winner of a national franchise to provide a breakfast television service on ITV. TV-am is awarded the contract to begin transmission in 1983.
30 December – The BBC announces their intention to launch their own breakfast television service to compete with TV-am which was announced two days earlier. Breakfast Time is launched on BBC1 on 17 January 1983, two weeks before TV-am.
The Independent Broadcasting Authority starts licensing terrestrial analogue relay stations which repeat TV signals to areas not covered by broadcaster-owned transmitters.