FIRST NATIONWIDE COLOR TV BROADCAST 61 YEARS AGO
Pasadena, California (JFK+50) 61 years ago today, January 1, 1954, the first nationwide coast-to-coast color television broadcast was made by the National Broadcasting Company of the Tournament of Roses Parade here in Pasadena.
The broadcast was carried by 21 stations and picked up by prototype color television sets as commercial color tvs were not yet available to the public.
Tournament of Roses Parade
The first RCA consumer color television sets went into production in March of 1954 and in October of that year, NBC-TV broadcast the World Series in color for the first time.
The first color models had 12 inch screens and sold for $1000 each and by 1960, there were 500,000 color sets in use in the United States.
Yet despite the fact that two-thirds of NBC's nightly broadcasts were in color during the 1962-63 viewing season, color television did not blossom overnight.
It would not be until 1965 when color tv sales took off. The reason was because half of ALL network prime-time programming was to be broadcast in color.
SOURCES
"The Land of Television," www.ushistory.org/
"The RCA Story," www.rca.com/
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015
Pasadena, California (JFK+50) 61 years ago today, January 1, 1954, the first nationwide coast-to-coast color television broadcast was made by the National Broadcasting Company of the Tournament of Roses Parade here in Pasadena.
The broadcast was carried by 21 stations and picked up by prototype color television sets as commercial color tvs were not yet available to the public.
Tournament of Roses Parade
New Orleans Float
Photo by erinbrace (2008)
The first RCA consumer color television sets went into production in March of 1954 and in October of that year, NBC-TV broadcast the World Series in color for the first time.
The first color models had 12 inch screens and sold for $1000 each and by 1960, there were 500,000 color sets in use in the United States.
Yet despite the fact that two-thirds of NBC's nightly broadcasts were in color during the 1962-63 viewing season, color television did not blossom overnight.
It would not be until 1965 when color tv sales took off. The reason was because half of ALL network prime-time programming was to be broadcast in color.
SOURCES
"The Land of Television," www.ushistory.org/
"The RCA Story," www.rca.com/
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015
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