<P> Closed - circuit television was used for professional boxing, as a form of pay - per - view theatre television . Boxing telecasts were broadcast live to a select number of venues, mostly theaters, where viewers paid for tickets to watch the fight live . The first fight with a closed - circuit telecast was Joe Louis vs. Joe Walcott in 1948 . Closed - circuit telecasts peaked in popularity with Muhammad Ali in the 1960s and 1970s, with "The Rumble in the Jungle" fight drawing 50 million CCTV viewers worldwide in 1974, and the "Thrilla in Manila" drawing 100 million CCTV viewers worldwide in 1975 . Closed - circuit television was gradually replaced by pay - per - view home cable television in the 1980s and 1990s . </P> <P> In September 1968, Olean, New York was the first city in the United States to install video cameras along its main business street in an effort to fight crime . Another early appearance was in 1973 in Times Square in New York City . The NYPD installed it in order to deter crime that was occurring in the area; however, crime rates did not appear to drop much due to the cameras . Nevertheless, during the 1980s video surveillance began to spread across the country specifically targeting public areas . It was seen as a cheaper way to deter crime compared to increasing the size of the police departments . Some businesses as well, especially those that were prone to theft, began to use video surveillance . From the mid-1990s on, police departments across the country installed an increasing number of cameras in various public spaces including housing projects, schools and public parks departments . CCTV later became common in banks and stores to discourage theft, by recording evidence of criminal activity . In 1998, 3,000 CCTV systems were in use in New York City . A study by Nieto in 2008 found many businesses in the United States had invested heavily in video surveillance technology to protect products and promote safe workplace and consumer environments . A nationwide survey of a wide variety of companies found that 75 percent utilize CCTV surveillance . In private sector CCTV surveillance technology is operated in a wide variety of establishments such as in industry / manufacturing, retailing, financial / insurance / banking, transportation and distribution, utilities / communications, health care, and hotels / motels, parking areas, jewelry shops . </P> <P> Experiments in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s, including outdoor CCTV in Bournemouth in 1985, led to several larger trial programs later that decade . The first use by local government was in King's Lynn, Norfolk, in 1987 . These were deemed successful in the government report "CCTV: Looking Out For You", issued by the Home Office in 1994, and paved the way for an increase in the number of CCTV systems installed . Today, systems cover most town and city centres, and many stations, car - parks and estates . </P> <P> A 2009 systematic review by researchers from Northeastern University and University of Cambridge used meta - analytic techniques to pool the average effect of CCTV on crime across 41 different studies . The results indicated that </P>

When was the first cctv camera used in the uk