Television is a
telecommunicationTelecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be
monochromeMonochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...
(
black-and-whiteBlack-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
) or colored, with accompanying sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a
television setA television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
,
television programA television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
ming,
television transmissionTransmission, in telecommunications, is the process of sending, propagating and receiving an analogue or digital information signal over a physical point-to-point or point-to-multipoint transmission medium, either wired, optical fiber or wireless...
.
The etymology of the word has a mixed Latin and Greek origin, meaning "far sight": Greek
tele , far, and Latin
visio, sight (from
video, vis- to see, or to view in the first person).
Commercially available since the late 1920s, the television set has become commonplace in homes, businesses and institutions, particularly as a vehicle for
advertisingAdvertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, a source of entertainment, and
newsNews is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
. Since the 1970s the availability of video cassettes,
laserdiscLaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
s,
DVDsDVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...
and now
Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
s, have resulted in the television set frequently being used for viewing recorded as well as broadcast material. In recent years
Internet televisionInternet television is the digital distribution of television content via the Internet...
has seen the rise of television available via the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, e.g. iPlayer and
HuluHulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
.
Although other forms such as
closed-circuit televisionClosed-circuit television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors....
(CCTV) are in use, the most common usage of the medium is for broadcast television, which was modeled on the existing radio broadcasting systems developed in the 1920s, and uses high-powered
radio-frequencyRadio frequency is a rate of oscillation in the range of about 3 kHz to 300 GHz, which corresponds to the frequency of radio waves, and the alternating currents which carry radio signals...
transmitters to
broadcastBroadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
the television signal to individual TV receivers.
The
broadcast television systemBroadcast television systems are encoding or formatting standards for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals. There are three main analog television systems in current use around the world: NTSC, PAL, and SECAM...
is typically disseminated via
radioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
transmissions on designated channels in the 54–890 MHz frequency band. Signals are now often transmitted with
stereoSTEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...
and/or
surround soundSurround sound encompasses a range of techniques such as for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with audio channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and...
in many countries. Until the 2000s broadcast TV programs were generally transmitted as an
analog televisionAnalog television is the analog transmission that involves the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal: one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal...
signal, but in 2008 the USA went almost exclusively digital.
A standard
television setA television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
comprises multiple internal
electronic circuitAn electronic circuit is composed of individual electronic components, such as resistors, transistors, capacitors, inductors and diodes, connected by conductive wires or traces through which electric current can flow...
s, including those for receiving and decoding broadcast signals. A visual
display deviceA display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form...
which lacks a tuner is properly called a
video monitorA video monitor also called a broadcast monitor, broadcast reference monitor or just reference monitor, is a display device similar to a television set, used to monitor the output of a video-generating device, such as playout from a video server, IRD, video camera, VCR, or DVD player. It may or...
, rather than a television. A television system may use different technical standards such as
digital televisionDigital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
(DTV) and
high-definition televisionHigh-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
(HDTV). Television systems are also used for surveillance, industrial process control, and guiding of weapons, in places where direct observation is difficult or dangerous.
Amateur televisionAmateur television is the transmission of Broadcast quality video and audio over the wide range of frequencies of allocated for Radio amateur use. ATV is used for non-commercial experimentation, pleasure and public service events...
(
ham TV or
ATV) is also used for
non-commercialNon-commercial refers to an activity or entity that does not in some sense involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis...
experimentation, pleasure and public service events by
amateur radioAmateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
operators. Ham TV stations were on the air in many cities before commercial TV stations came on the air.
History
In its early stages of development, television employed a combination of
opticalOptics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
, mechanical and
electronicElectronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
technologies to capture, transmit and display a visual image. By the late 1920s, however, those employing only optical and electronic technologies were being explored. All modern television systems rely on the latter, although the knowledge gained from the work on electromechanical systems was crucial in the development of fully electronic television.
The first images transmitted electrically were sent by early mechanical fax machines, including the
pantelegraphThe pantelegraph was an early form of facsimile machine transmitting over normal telegraph lines developed by Giovanni Caselli, used commercially in the 1860s, that was the first such device to enter practical service, It could transmit handwriting, signatures, or drawings within an area of up to...
, developed in the late nineteenth century. The concept of electrically powered transmission of television images in motion was first sketched in 1878 as the
telephonoscopeA telephonoscope was an early concept of videophone and television, conceptualized in the late 1870's through the 1890's. It was mentioned in various early science fiction works such as Le Vingtième siècle. La vie électrique and other works written by Albert Robida...
, shortly after the invention of the telephone. At the time, it was imagined by early science fiction authors, that someday that light could be transmitted over copper wires, as sounds were.
The idea of using
scanningIn computing, an image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object, and converts it to a digital image. Common examples found in offices are variations of the desktop scanner where the document is placed on a glass...
to transmit images was put to actual practical use in 1881 in the pantelegraph, through the use of a
pendulumA pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced from its resting equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the equilibrium position...
-based scanning mechanism. From this period forward, scanning in one form or another has been used in nearly every image transmission technology to date, including television. This is the concept of "rasterization", the process of converting a visual image into a stream of electrical pulses.
In 1884
Paul Gottlieb NipkowPaul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow was a German technician and inventor.-Beginnings:Nipkow was a German of born in Lauenburg in Pomerania. While at school in Neustadt , West Prussia, Nipkow experimented in telephony and the transmission of moving pictures. After graduation, he went to Berlin in order to...
, a 23-year-old university student in Germany, patented the first electromechanical television system which employed a
scanning diskA Nipkow disk , also known as scanning disk, is a mechanical, geometrically operating image scanning device, invented by Paul Gottlieb Nipkow...
, a spinning disk with a series of holes spiraling toward the center, for rasterization. The holes were spaced at equal
angularIn geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the angle.Angles are usually presumed to be in a Euclidean plane with the circle taken for standard with regard to direction. In fact, an angle is frequently viewed as a measure of an circular arc...
intervals such that in a single rotation the disk would allow light to pass through each hole and onto a light-sensitive
seleniumSelenium is a chemical element with atomic number 34, chemical symbol Se, and an atomic mass of 78.96. It is a nonmetal, whose properties are intermediate between those of adjacent chalcogen elements sulfur and tellurium...
sensor which produced the electrical pulses. As an image was focused on the rotating disk, each hole captured a horizontal "slice" of the whole image.
Nipkow's design would not be practical until advances in
amplifierGenerally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal.In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to...
tubeIn electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
technology became available. The device was only useful for transmitting still "
halftoneHalftone is the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size, in shape or in spacing...
" images—represented by equally spaced dots of varying size—over telegraph or
telephone lineA telephone line or telephone circuit is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system...
s. Later designs would use a rotating mirror-drum scanner to capture the image and a
cathode ray tubeThe cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
(CRT) as a display device, but moving images were still not possible, due to the poor sensitivity of the
seleniumSelenium is a chemical element with atomic number 34, chemical symbol Se, and an atomic mass of 78.96. It is a nonmetal, whose properties are intermediate between those of adjacent chalcogen elements sulfur and tellurium...
sensors. In 1907 Russian scientist
Boris RosingBoris Lvovich Rosing was a Russian scientist and inventor in the field of television.Born to a family of Swedish descent, Rosing first envisioned a Television system using the CRT on the receiving side in 1907. Rosing filed a patent application in Germany on November 26, 1907 and—on the improved...
became the first inventor to use a CRT in the receiver of an experimental television system. He used mirror-drum scanning to transmit simple geometric shapes to the CRT.
Using a Nipkow disk, Scottish inventor
John Logie BairdJohn Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...
succeeded in demonstrating the transmission of moving silhouette images in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1925, and of moving,
monochromaticMonochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...
images in 1926. Baird's scanning disk produced an image of 30 lines resolution, just enough to discern a human face, from a double spiral of
lenseA camera lens is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image chemically or electronically.While in principle a simple convex lens will suffice, in...
s. This demonstration by Baird is generally agreed to be the world's first true demonstration of television, albeit a mechanical form of television no longer in use. Remarkably, in 1927 Baird also invented the world's first video recording system, "
PhonovisionPhonovision is a proof of concept format and experiment for recording a mechanical television signal on phonograph records. The format was developed in the late 1920s in London by Scottish television pioneer John Logie Baird...
": by modulating the output signal of his
TV cameraA professional video camera is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images...
down to the audio range, he was able to capture the signal on a 10-inch wax audio disc using conventional audio recording technology. A handful of Baird's 'Phonovision' recordings survive and these were finally decoded and rendered into viewable images in the 1990s using modern digital signal-processing technology.
In 1926, Hungarian engineer
Kálmán TihanyiKálmán Tihanyi , was a Hungarian physicist, electrical engineer and inventor. One of the early pioneers of electronic television, he made significant contributions to the development of cathode ray tubes , which were bought and further developed by the Radio Corporation of America , and German...
designed a television system utilizing fully electronic scanning and display elements, and employing the principle of "charge storage" within the scanning (or "camera") tube.
By 1927, Russian inventor
Léon ThereminLéon Theremin was a Russian and Soviet inventor. He is most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments. He is also the inventor of interlace, a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal, widely used in video and television technology...
developed a mirror-drum-based television system which used interlacing to achieve an
image resolutionImage resolution is an umbrella term that describes the detail an image holds. The term applies to raster digital images, film images, and other types of images. Higher resolution means more image detail....
of 100 lines.
Also in 1927,
Herbert E. IvesHerbert Eugene Ives was a scientist and engineer who headed the development of facsimile and television systems at AT&T in the first half of the twentieth century. He was also a critic of the special theory of relativity, and attempted to disprove the theory by means of logical arguments and...
of
Bell LabsBell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
transmitted moving images from a 50-aperture disk producing 16 frames per minute over a cable from Washington, DC to New York City, and via radio from
Whippany, New JerseyWhippany is an unincorporated area located within Hanover Township in Morris County, New Jersey. Whippany's name is derived from the Whippanong Native Americans, a tribe that once inhabited the area...
. Ives used viewing screens as large as 24 by 30 inches (60 by 75 cm). His subjects included
Secretary of CommerceThe United States Secretary of Commerce is the head of the United States Department of Commerce concerned with business and industry; the Department states its mission to be "to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce"...
Herbert HooverHerbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
.
In 1927,
Philo FarnsworthPhilo Taylor Farnsworth was an American inventor and television pioneer. Although he made many contributions that were crucial to the early development of all-electronic television, he is perhaps best known for inventing the first fully functional all-electronic image pickup device , the "image...
made the world's first working television system with electronic scanning of both the pickup and display devices, which he first demonstrated to the press on 1 September 1928.
WRGBWRGB, channel 6, is a television station located in Schenectady, New York, USA. WRGB is owned by Freedom Communications, and is the CBS affiliate for the Albany-Schenectady-Troy television market...
claims to be the world's oldest
television stationA television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
, tracing its roots to an experimental station founded on January 13, 1928, broadcasting from the
General ElectricGeneral Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
factory in Schenectady, NY, under the call letters W2XB. It was popularly known as "WGY Television" after its sister radio station. Later in 1928,
General ElectricGeneral Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
started a second facility, this one in New York City, which had the call letters W2XBS, and which today is known as
WNBCWNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
. The two stations were experimental in nature and had no regular programming, as receivers were operated by engineers within the company. The image of a
Felix the CatFelix the Cat is a cartoon character created in the silent film era. His black body, white eyes, and giant grin, coupled with the surrealism of the situations in which his cartoons place him, combine to make Felix one of the most recognized cartoon characters in film history...
doll, rotating on a turntable, was broadcast for 2 hours every day for several years, as new technology was being tested by the engineers.
In 1936 the
Olympic GamesThe Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
in Berlin were carried by cable to television stations in Berlin and Leipzig where the public could view the games live.
In 1935 the German firm of
Fernseh A.G.The Fernseh AG television company was registered in Berlin on July 3, 1929 by John Logie Baird, Robert Bosch and other partners with an initial capital of 100,000 Reichsmark....
and the United States firm Farnsworth Television owned by
Philo FarnsworthPhilo Taylor Farnsworth was an American inventor and television pioneer. Although he made many contributions that were crucial to the early development of all-electronic television, he is perhaps best known for inventing the first fully functional all-electronic image pickup device , the "image...
signed an agreement to exchange their television patents and technology to speed development of television transmitters and stations in their respective countries.
On 2 November 1936 the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
began transmitting the world's first public regular high-definition service from the Victorian
Alexandra PalaceAlexandra Palace is a building in North London, England. It stands in Alexandra Park, in an area between Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green...
in north London. It therefore claims to be the birthplace of television broadcasting as we know it today.
In 1936,
Kálmán TihanyiKálmán Tihanyi , was a Hungarian physicist, electrical engineer and inventor. One of the early pioneers of electronic television, he made significant contributions to the development of cathode ray tubes , which were bought and further developed by the Radio Corporation of America , and German...
described the principle of
plasma displayA plasma display panel is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays or larger. They are called "plasma" displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent...
, the first
flat panel displayFlat panel displays encompass a growing number of electronic visual display technologies. They are far lighter and thinner than traditional television sets and video displays that use cathode ray tubes , and are usually less than thick...
system.
Mexican inventor
Guillermo González CamarenaGuillermo González Camarena , was a Mexican engineer who was the inventor of a color-wheel type of color television, and who also introduced color television to Mexico....
also played an important role in early television. His experiments with television (known as telectroescopía at first) began in 1931 and led to a patent for the "trichromatic field sequential system"
color televisionColor television is part of the history of television, the technology of television and practices associated with television's transmission of moving images in color video....
in 1940, as well as the remote control.
Although television became more familiar in the United States with the general public at the 1939 World's Fair, the outbreak of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
prevented it from being manufactured on a large scale until after the end of the war. True regular commercial
television networkA television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
programming did not begin in the U.S. until 1948. During that year, legendary conductor
Arturo ToscaniniArturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
made his first of ten TV appearances conducting the
NBC Symphony OrchestraThe NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra established by David Sarnoff of the National Broadcasting Company especially for conductor Arturo Toscanini...
, and
Texaco Star TheaterTexaco Star Theater is an American comedy-variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. It was one of the first successful examples of American television broadcasting, remembered as the show that gave Milton Berle the nickname "Mr...
, starring comedian
Milton BerleMilton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
, became television's first gigantic hit show.
Geographical usage
Programming
Getting TV programming shown to the public can happen in many different ways. After production the next step is to market and deliver the product to whatever markets are open to using it. This typically happens on two levels:
- Original Run or First Run: a producer creates a program of one or multiple episodes and shows it on a station or network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
which has either paid for the production itself or to which a license has been granted by the television producerThe primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
s to do the same.
- Broadcast syndication: this is the terminology rather broadly used to describe secondary programming usages (beyond original run). It includes secondary runs in the country of first issue, but also international usage which may not be managed by the originating producer. In many cases other companies, TV stations or individuals are engaged to do the syndication work, in other words to sell the product into the markets they are allowed to sell into by contract from the copyright holders, in most cases the producers.
First run programming is increasing on subscription services outside the U.S., but few domestically produced programs are syndicated on domestic
free-to-airFree-to-air describes television and radio services broadcast in clear form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription or one-off fee...
(FTA) elsewhere. This practice is increasing however, generally on digital-only FTA channels, or with subscriber-only first-run material appearing on FTA.
Unlike the U.S., repeat FTA screenings of a FTA network program almost only occur on that network. Also,
affiliateAn affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.- Corporate structure :A corporation may be referred to as an affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid...
s rarely buy or produce non-network programming that is not centred around
local programmingThe term Local Programme, Local Programming, Local Content or Local Television refers to a television programme made by a television station or independent television producer for broadcast only within the station's transmission area or television market...
.
Funding
Around the globe, broadcast television is financed by either government, advertising, licensing (a form of tax), subscription or any combination of these. To protect revenues, subscription TV channels are usually encrypted to ensure that only subscription payers receive the decryption codes to see the signal. Unencrypted channels are known as
free to air or
FTA.
In 2009 the global TV market represented 1,217.2 million TV households with at least one television, and total revenues of 268.9 billion EUR (declining 1.2% compared to 2008). North America had the biggest TV revenue market share with 39%, followed by Europe (31%), Asia-Pacific (21%), Latin America (8%) and Africa and the Middle East (2%).
Globally, the different TV revenue sources divide into 45 to 50% TV advertising revenues, 40 to 45% subscription fees and 10% public funding.
Advertising
Television's broad reach makes it a powerful and attractive medium for advertisers. Many television networks and stations sell blocks of broadcast time to advertisers ("sponsors") in order to fund their programming.
Market share
This is a Worldwide TV Shipments by Technology as of Q2 2011.
| Source |
Date |
LCD TV |
PDP TVA plasma display panel is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays or larger. They are called "plasma" displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent...
|
OLED TV |
CRT TV |
RPTV Rear-projection television or RPTV is a type of large-screen television display technology. Up until the mid-2000s, most of the relatively affordable consumer large screen TVs up to used rear-projection technology...
|
References |
| DisplaySearch.com |
Q2/2011 |
80.1% |
7.6% |
0.0% |
12.2% |
0.0% |
|
Worldwide
large-screen television technologyLarge-screen television technology developed rapidly in the late 1990s and 2000s. Various thin screen technologies are being developed, but only the liquid crystal display , plasma display and Digital Light Processing were released on the public market...
brand rankings by revenue share as of Q2 2011.
| Source |
Date |
SamsungSamsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul...
|
LG ElectronicsLG Electronics is a global electronics and telecommunications company headquartered in Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea. The company operates its business through five divisions: mobile communications, home entertainment, home appliance, air conditioning and business solution...
|
Sony, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
|
Panasonic |
Sharp is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...
|
Others |
References |
| DisplaySearch.com |
Q2/2011 |
22.6% |
14.4% |
11.7% |
9.4% |
7.0% |
34.8% |
|
United States
Since inception in the U.S. in 1940, television commercials have become one of the most effective, persuasive, and popular methods of selling products of many sorts, especially consumer goods. During the 1940s and into the 1950s, programs were hosted by single advertisers. This, in turn, gave great creative license to the advertisers over the content of the show. Due to the
quiz show scandalsThe American quiz show scandals of the 1950s were a series of revelations that contestants of several popular television quiz shows were secretly given assistance by the show's producers to arrange the outcome of a supposedly fair competition....
in the 1950s, networks shifted to the magazine concept introducing
advertisingAdvertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
breaks with multiple advertisers.
U.S. advertising rates are determined primarily by
Nielsen ratingsNielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. The time of the day and popularity of the channel determine how much a television commercial can cost. For example, the highly popular
American IdolAmerican Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
can cost approximately $750,000 for a 30-second block of commercial time; while the same amount of time for the
World CupThe FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
and the
Super BowlThe Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
can cost several million dollars. Conversely, lesser-viewed time slots, such as early mornings and weekday afternoons, are often sold in bulk to producers of infomercials which is less expensive.
In recent years, the paid program or
infomercialInfomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
has become common, usually in lengths of 30 minutes or one hour. Some
drug companiesThe pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets drugs licensed for use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to deal in generic and/or brand medications and medical devices...
and other businesses have even created "news" items for broadcast, known in the industry as
video news releaseA video news release is a video segment made to look like a news report, but is instead created by a PR firm, advertising agency, marketing firm, corporation, or government agency. They are provided to television newsrooms to shape public opinion, promote commercial products and services,...
s, paying
program directorIn service industries, such as education, a program director or programme director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services...
s to use them.
Some TV programs also weave advertisements into their shows, a practice begun in film and known as
product placementProduct placement, or embedded marketing, is a form of advertisement, where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. The product placement is often not disclosed at the time that the...
. For example, a character could be drinking a certain kind of soda, going to a particular chain restaurant, or driving a certain make of car. (This is sometimes very subtle, where shows have vehicles provided by manufacturers for low cost, rather than wrangling them.) Sometimes a specific brand or
trade markA trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
, or music from a certain artist or group, is used. (This excludes guest appearances by artists, who perform on the show.)
United Kingdom
The TV regulator oversees TV advertising in the United Kingdom. Its restrictions have applied since the early days of commercially funded TV. Despite this, an early TV mogul,
Roy ThomsonRoy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet GBE was a Canadian newspaper proprietor and media entrepreneur.-Career:...
, likened the broadcasting licence as being a "licence to print money". Restrictions mean that the big three national commercial TV channels:
ITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
,
Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, and Five can show an average of only seven minutes of advertising per hour (eight minutes in the peak period). Other broadcasters must average no more than nine minutes (twelve in the peak). This means that many imported TV shows from the US have unnatural breaks where the UK company has edited out the breaks intended for US advertising. Advertisements must not be inserted in the course of certain specific proscribed types of programs which last less than half an hour in scheduled duration; this list includes any news or current affairs program, documentaries, and programs for children. Nor may advertisements be carried in a program designed and broadcast for reception in schools or in any
religious broadcastingReligious broadcasting refers to broadcasting by religious organizations, usually with a religious message. Many religious organizations have long recorded content such as sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their Internet websites.While this article emphasises...
service or other devotional program, or during a formal Royal ceremony or occasion. There also must be clear demarcations in time between the programs and the advertisements.
The
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, being strictly
non-commercialNon-commercial refers to an activity or entity that does not in some sense involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis...
is not allowed to show advertisements on television in the UK, although it has many advertising-funded channels abroad. The majority of its budget comes from television license fees (see below) and broadcast syndication, the sale of content to other broadcasters.
Ireland
The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (
BCI) oversees advertising on television and radio within Ireland on both private and state owned broadcasters. Similar to other European countries, advertising is found on both private and state owned broadcasters. There are some restrictions based on advertising, especially in relation to the advertising of alcohol. Such advertisements are prohibited until after 7pm. Broadcasters in Ireland adhere to broadcasting legislation implemented by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
.
SponsorTo sponsor something is to support an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. A sponsor is the individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor.-Definition:...
ship of current affairs programming is prohibited at all times.
As of October 1, 2009 the responsibilities held by the BCI are gradually being transferred to the
Broadcasting Authority of IrelandThe Broadcasting Authority of Ireland was established on 1 October 2009 effectively replacing the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland ....
.
Taxation or license
Television services in some countries may be funded by a
television licenceA television licence is an official licence required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts...
or a form of taxation which means advertising plays a lesser role or no role at all. For example, some channels may carry no advertising at all and some very little, including:
- Australia (ABC
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
)
- Japan (NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
)
- Norway (NRK)
- Sweden (SVT
Sveriges Television AB , Sweden's Television, is a national television broadcaster based in Sweden, funded by a compulsory fee to be paid by all television owners...
)
- United Kingdom (BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
)
- United States (PBS)
The
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
carries no television advertising on its UK channels and is funded by an annual television license paid by all households owning a television. This television license fee is set by government, but the BBC is not answerable to or controlled by government.
The two main BBC TV channels are watched by almost 90 percent of the population each week and overall have 27 per cent share of total viewing. This in spite of the fact that 85% of homes are multichannel, with 42% of these having access to 200 free to air channels via satellite and another 43% having access to 30 or more channels via Freeview. The licence that funds the seven advertising-free BBC TV channels currently costs £139.50 a year (about US$215) irrespective of the number of TV sets owned. When the same sporting event has been presented on both BBC and commercial channels, the BBC always attracts the lion's share of the
audienceAn audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
, indicating viewers prefer to watch TV uninterrupted by advertising.
The
Australian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
(ABC) carries no advertising (except for internal promotional material) as it is banned under the
ABC Act 1983. The ABC receives its funding from the Australian Government every three years. In the 2008/09 Federal Budget the ABC received A$1.13 Billion. The funds assist in providing the ABC's Television, Radio, Online and International outputs. The ABC also receives funds from its many ABC Shops across Australia. However funded by the Australian Government the editorial independence of the ABC is ensured through law.
In France and Ireland government-funded channels carry advertisements yet those who own television sets have to pay an annual tax ("la redevance audiovisuelle").
In Japan,
NHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
is paid for by license fees (known in Japanese as ). The Broadcast Law which governs NHK's funding stipulates that any television equipped to receive NHK is required to pay. The fee is standardized, with discounts for office workers and students who commute, as well a general discount for residents of Okinawa prefecture.
Subscription
Some TV channels are partly funded from subscriptions therefore the signals are encrypted during broadcast to ensure that only the paying subscribers have access to the decryption codes to watch pay television or
specialty channelA specialty channel can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted television market at a specific demographic....
s. Most subscription services are also funded by
advertisingAdvertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
.
Genres
Television genres include a broad range of programming types that entertain, inform, and educate viewers. The most expensive entertainment genres to produce are usually drama and dramatic
miniseriesA miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
. However, other genres, such as historical Western genres, may also have high production costs.
Popular culturePopular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
entertainment genres include action-oriented shows such as police, crime, detective dramas, horror, or thriller shows. As well, there are also other variants of the drama genre, such as
medical dramaA medical drama is a television program, in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment.In the United States, most medical episodes are one hour long and, more often than not, are set in a hospital. Most current medical Dramatic programming go beyond the...
s and daytime
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s.
Science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
shows can fall into either the drama or action category, depending on whether they emphasize philosophical questions or high adventure. Comedy is a popular genre which includes
situation comedyA situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
(sitcom) and animated shows for the adult demographic such as
South ParkSouth Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
.
The least expensive forms of entertainment programming genres are
game showA game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
s,
talk showA talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
s,
variety showA variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
s, and
Reality televisionReality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
. Game shows show contestants answering questions and solving puzzles to win prizes. Talk shows feature interviews with film, television and music celebrities and public figures. Variety shows feature a range of musical performers and other entertainers such as comedians and magicians introduced by a host or
Master of CeremoniesA Master of Ceremonies , or compere, is the host of a staged event or similar performance.An MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving....
. There is some crossover between some talk shows and variety shows, because leading talk shows often feature performances by bands, singers, comedians, and other performers in between the interview segments.
Reality TV shows "regular" people (
i.e., not actors) who are facing unusual challenges or experiences, ranging from arrest by police officers (
COPSCops is an American documentary/reality television series that follows police officers, constables, and sheriff's deputies during patrols and other police activities...
) to weight loss (
The Biggest LoserThe Biggest Loser is an American reality game show that debuted on NBC October 19, 2004. The show features obese people competing to win a cash prize by losing the highest percentage of weight relative to their initial weight....
). A variant version of reality shows depicts celebrities doing mundane activities such as going about their everyday life (
The OsbournesThe Osbournes is an American reality television program featuring the domestic life of heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne and his family. The series premiered on MTV on March 5, 2002, and in its first season, was cited as the most-viewed series ever on MTV...
,
Snoop Dogg's Father HoodSnoop Dogg's Father Hood was an American television reality show starring rapper Snoop Dogg and his family. His family includes wife Shante, daughter Cori whom he calls "Choc", son Cordell whom he calls "Rook", and his oldest son Corde whom he calls "Spank". It premiered December 9, 2007 on E! and...
) or doing manual labor (
Simple Life).
Social aspects and effects on children
Television has played a pivotal role in the socialization of the 20th and 21st centuries. There are many aspects of television that can be addressed, including
media violence researchResearch into the media and violence examines whether links between consuming media violence and subsequent aggressive and violent behavior exists...
. In 2010 the iPlayer incorporated a
social mediaThe term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
aspect to its
internet televisionInternet television is the digital distribution of television content via the Internet...
service, including
FacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and
TwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
.
Environmental aspects
With high
leadLead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
content in
CRTsThe cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
, and the rapid diffusion of new, flat-panel display technologies, some of which (LCDs) use lamps which contain
mercuryMercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
, there is growing concern about
electronic wasteElectronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. There is a lack of consensus as to whether the term should apply to resale, reuse, and refurbishing industries, or only to product that cannot be used for its...
from discarded televisions. Related occupational health concerns exist, as well, for disassemblers removing
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
wiring and other materials from CRTs. Further environmental concerns related to television design and use relate to the devices' increasing electrical energy requirements.
See also
- Broadcast-safe
Broadcast-safe video is a term used in the broadcast industry to define video and audio compliant with the technical or regulatory broadcast requirements of the target area or region the feed might be broadcasting to...
- Content Discovery Platform
A Content Discovery Platform is an implemented software platform for consumers to search for television content online using recommender system tools such as recommendations or TV search engine...
- Handheld television
A Handheld television is a portable device that usually uses a TFT LCD or Organic light-emitting diode color display. Many of these devices resemble handheld transistor radios.-Hardware:...
- How television works
- Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
- Information-action ratio
The information–action ratio was a concept coined by cultural critic Neil Postman in his work Amusing Ourselves to Death. In short, Postman meant to indicate the relationship between a piece of information and what action, if any, a consumer of that information might reasonably be expected to...
- Internet television
Internet television is the digital distribution of television content via the Internet...
- List of countries by number of television broadcast stations
- List of television manufacturers
- List of years in television
- Media psychology
Media Psychology seeks an understanding of how people perceive, interpret, use, and respond to a media-rich world. In doing so, media psychologists can identify potential benefits and problems and promote the development of positive media ....
- Outdoor television
- Computer monitor/VDU units
- Sign language on television
Sign language on television is the use of a signer for a television programme. The signer usually appears in the bottom corner of the screen, with the programme being broadcast full size or slightly shrunk away from that corner....
- Technology of television
The technology of television has changed since its early days using a mechanical system invented by Paul Gottlieb Nipkow in 1884.-Elements of a television system:The elements of a simple broadcast television system are:* An image source...
Further reading
- Albert Abramson, The History of Television, 1942 to 2000, Jefferson, NC, and London, McFarland, 2003, ISBN 0786412208.
- Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher.Starting from the role of economic capital for social positioning, Bourdieu pioneered investigative frameworks and terminologies such as cultural, social, and symbolic capital, and the concepts of habitus, field or location,...
, On Television, The New Press, 2001.
- Tim Brooks and Earle March, The Complete Guide to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 8th ed., Ballantine, 2002.
- Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
and Bernard StieglerBernard Stiegler is a French philosopher at Goldsmiths, University of London and at the Université de Technologie de Compiègne. In addition, he is Director of the , founder in 2005 of the political and cultural group, , and founder in 2010 of the philosophy school,...
, Echographies of Television, Polity Press, 2002.
- David E. Fisher and Marshall J. Fisher, Tube: the Invention of Television, Counterpoint, Washington, DC, 1996, ISBN 1887178171.
- Steven Johnson
Steven Berlin Johnson is an American popular science author.-Education:Steven Johnson attended the prestigious St. Albans School as a youth. He completed his undergraduate degree at Brown University, where he studied semiotics, a part of Brown's modern culture and media department...
, Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, New York, Riverhead (Penguin), 2005, 2006, ISBN 1594481946.
- Jerry Mander
Jerold Irwin "Jerry" Mander is an American activist and author, best known for his 1977 book, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television...
, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, Perennial, 1978.
- Jerry Mander, In the Absence of the Sacred, Sierra Club Books, 1992, ISBN 0871565099.
- Neil Postman
Neil Postman was an American author, media theorist and cultural critic, who is best known by the general public for his 1985 book about television, Amusing Ourselves to Death. For more than forty years, he was associated with New York University...
, Amusing Ourselves to DeathAmusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business is a book by educator Neil Postman.The book's origins lie in a talk Postman gave to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1984. He was participating in a panel on Orwell's 1984 and the contemporary world...
: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, New York, Penguin US, 1985, ISBN 0670804541.
- Evan I. Schwartz, The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television, New York, Harper Paperbacks, 2003, ISBN 0060935596.
- Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, Shaded Lives: African-American Women and Television, Rutgers University Press, 2002.
- Alan Taylor, We, the Media: Pedagogic Intrusions into US Mainstream Film and Television News Broadcasting Rhetoric, Peter Lang, 2005, ISBN 3631518528.
External links
- A History of Television at the Canada Science and Technology Museum
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is located in Ottawa, Ontario, on St. Laurent Boulevard, to the south of the Queensway .-Mission:...
- The Encyclopedia of Television at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
The Museum of Broadcast Communications is an American museum that currently exists exclusively on the Internet and not in any physical capacity. Its stated mission is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain...
- The Evolution of TV, A Brief History of TV Technology in Japan NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
- Television's History – The First 75 Years
- Worldwide Television Standards
- Global TV Market Data
- Television in Color, April 1944 one of the earliest magazine articles detailing the new technology of color television
- Littleton, Cynthia. "Happy 70th Birthday, TV Commercial broadcasts bow on July 1, 1941; Variety calls it 'corney'", Variety
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, July 1, 2011. WebCitation archive.