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Decode BRC/Thorn Numbers
Ever wondered what the numbers actually meant? Well BRC/Thorn gave the sets numbers to identify the manufacturer and model. The first digit assigned decodes to the manufacturer. For example a BRC 2000 with a model number 2700 is HMV, the same set but badged as Ferguson would be designated 3700.
1= Philco
2= HMV
3= Ferguson
4= Marconi
5= DER
6= Ultra
7= Multibroadcast
8= Radio rentals
I’m sure Vista sets also had numbers beginning with 1. There were Granada versions of some, notably 2000 chassis – what numbers if any did they have?
I’m not 100% sure but I think Multibroadcast and Vista shared 7.
Thorn was only a supplier to Granada who had their own model numbering system. I believe the year the set was produced could be decoded from their system.
I’m familiar with a Granada type number system which used “M” for black and white sets, “C” for colour, each followed by the tube size in inches, or “VHS” for video recorders (of that format, anyway), then (usually) two letters and a digit, with similar sets having the last three characters similar, and that it was in use before we were customers, so presumably that’s the system you refer to. I don’t think we’ll ever find an easy way to make full sense of that, though.
When I was at college in the late 1990s there was a CPC catalogue which had a page or 2 of Granada model codes.
IIRC there were different codes systems for rental and retail products, just to make things confusing.
There are some partial lists of Granada TV and VCRs in the TV mag July 1991
Hmmm… the big clue is if the penultimate character of the Granada code was a T, it seems. I know they had 1400, 1500 and 2000 chassis sets and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear of others.
The list mentioned by Baz is in the Blog knowledge database. Go to the blog homepage, you will see the blog search box (example below), type in Granada.