Marconi-EMI system on VHF. This became the standard for all British TV broadcasts until the 1960s. It soon became apparent that television reception was also possible well outside the original intended service area. In February 1938, engineers at the RCA Research Station, Riverhead, Long Island, New York, in the US, were able to receive the BBC signal away, due to the signal being "bounced" back to earth from the ionosphere. A few minutes of programming were recorded on 16mm movie film. This is now considered to be the only surviving example of pre-war live British television. The images recorded included two of the original three BBC announcers, Jasmine Bligh and (in a brief shot) Elizabeth Cowell, an excerpt from an unknown period costume drama, and the BBC's station identification transmitted at the beginning and end of the day's programmes. The BBC temporarily ceased transmissions on 1 September 1939, the day of the German invasion of Poland, for the outbreak of World War II was imminent. After the BBC Television Service recommenced in 1946, distant reception reports were received from various parts of the world, including Italy, South Africa, India, the Middle East, North America and the Caribbean. The BBC lost its monopoly of the British television market in 1954, and the following year the commercial network ITV, comprising a consortium of regional companies, was launched. In 1964, the BBC launched its BBC2 service on UHF using only a 625-line system, which older sets could not receive. For several years BBC1 and ITV transmitted using the 405-line and BBC2 with the 625-line standard; the only way to receive them all was to use a complex "dual-standard" 405- and 625-line, VHF and UHF, receiver. The introduction of colour on BBC2 in 1967 necessitated an even more complex dual-standard set to receive all three channels. In November 1969 BBC1 and ITV also started broadcasting in 625-line PAL colour on UHF. Their programming was now entirely produced using the new standard, and thus the 405-line broadcasts served only as a rebroadcast in monochrome for people who did not have the newer receivers. Thereafter, receivers were of a simpler single standard design which could not receive the legacy 405-line transmissions. One reason for the long switchover period was the difficulty in matching the coverage level of the new UHF 625-line service with the very high level of geographic coverage achieved with the 405-line VHF service.