Television

can moving images and radio broadcasting be brought together?

 

 

1843 - Alexander Bain (British)

theorized a system for sending pictures by wire

 

 

1862- Abbe Caselli (Italian)

developed a transmission system that could send handwriting and simple pictures over telegraph wires

 

 

1907- Scientific American uses the term "television"

 

 

1923 - John Baird (British)

develops the first mechanical television

obtained a license from the BBC in 1926 to do experimental broadcasting

 

 

Electronic Television
1923 - Vladymir Zworykin (Russian)

Westinghouse employee

develops a cathode ray tube - an "iconoscope"

Westinghouse isn't interested

why?

Zworykin ends up at RCA

 

 

1922 - Philo Farnsworth

sketches a plan for an electronic television

1927 - develops a working electronic TV

1930 - wins a patent

60 lines of resolution

RCA tries to block the patents and fails

RCA tries to buy the patents and fails

 

 

1930 - RCA puts W2XBS on the air as an experimental station
1932 - Farnsworth sues RCA
1934 - Suit settled in Farnsworth's favor

Farnsworth licenses patents to RCA

 

 

1935 - RCA commits heavily to television
1937 - RCA gets experimental frequencies from the FCC
Note: Germany begins regular broadcasting (180 lines of resolution)

 

 

1939 - RCA displays TV for the general public at the World's Fair

441 lines of resolution

CBS and DuMont get involved with TV

by 1940 - 23 experimental stations on the air

1941 - FCC licenses commercial television

(VHF - very high frequency)

standards are set

National Television Systems Committee (NTSC)

- B/W, 525 lines of resolution, 4:3 aspect ratio, FM sound

Note: 1953 - NTSC approves a color standard

 

 

World War II interupts

 

 

Television Networks
NBC and CBS move in
Dumont 1946-1955
ABC in 1948

 

 

1948 - 48 stations in 23 cities

set sales increase 500% over 1947

TV set to boom

 

 

1948 - 1952 - The Freeze Years

why?

part of the country has TV, part doesn't

sets in use climb from 250,000 to 17 million

Note: in 1951 TV sets outsell radio sets
In 1949 - 2% of American households had a TV
by 1955 - 64%
by 1959 - 90%!

the fastest diffusion of any media technology - why?

 

 

1951 - first intercontinental television transmission

 

 

1952 - Sixth Report and Order

adds 70 UHF channels (ultra high frequency)

should a market get all VHF, all UHF, or a mix?

intermixture

average market got 2-3 VHF, 5-6 UHF

UHF at a disadvantage

higher costs, poor signal, smaller coverage area, lack of affiliation

and, a standard TV needed a converter to tune in UHF

VHF licenses get snapped up, UHF mostly unclaimed
implications for national television networks?

 

 

UHF lags behind
1962 All Channels Receiver Act
by 1990 - 550 UHF, 549 VHF

why?

 

 

Impact on Radio

AM - after 1948 advertisers and programming shift to TV

programming?

1947 - Bell Labs invents the transistor

impact?

 

 

FM- 1945 frequency shift kills momentum
1950s - FM struggles
1961- FM stereo approved
1970s - FM listenership passes AM listenership

 

 

AM loses programming for a second time

is this the end?

mid-1980s, AM finds a new format

 

 

Impact on Film

we'll pick this up when we look at film in the 1900s

 

 

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