Philo Farnsworth

1. Beginning, 2. Golden Age, 3.Competition

TV is basically divided into 'Network TV' and 'Cable TV'. Network TV, reaching about 80 percent of US households, is to broadcast programming over airwaves to affiliate stations across the US under a control agreement. Cable TV, beginning as community antenna TV (CATV) in the 1940s, has grown into a worldwide communications force, transmitting a wide range of programming to subscribe through wires rather than over airwaves. This paper covers network TV, rather than Cable TV, as an advertising media.

1. Beginning

Technology for TV was first developed in the 19th century, before commercial radio was conceived of, in 1897 when Ferdinand Braun invented the cathode ray tube to produce images. Later in 1927, Philo Farnsworth patented the dissector tube, an important component of all-electronic television. In 1929, Vladimir Zworykin demonstrated the first practical electronic system for both the transmission and reception of images (TV Milestones). By the 1920s, the United States had a total of fifteen experimental stations for mechanical television. RCA, the pioneer in broadcast development, did broadcasting experiments in the early 1930s (Ad*Access Project). Finally, commercial TV programmed began on 1, July 1941(The History of Film & Television).

On the eve of World War II, RCA was pushing for its television standards to be accepted for production. In response, the National Television System Committee(NTSC), created by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and composed of engineers, made recommendations for electronic television system standards. These were adopted in the spring of 1941. However, World War II delayed the commercial development of the television, although research and development targeted for the war effort resulted in the possibility of better products for consumers. At the close of World War II, the United States was the leader in television technology, primarily because advances were made directly before, during and after World War II, when America's major competitors in television development, Germany and England, halted their research programs (Ad*Access Project). At that time, in the US "there were fewer than 7,000 working TV sets in the country and only nine station on the air, three in New York, two each in Chicago and Los Angeles, and one each in Philadelphia and Schenectady, N.Y.. Even though they are still using old iconoscope and orthicon cameras, which were slowly replaced with a new "sharper image which RCA hold as its first public demonstration of a new TV camera" (The History of Film & Television).

The earliest television networks in the United States, NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont were actually part of the larger radio network systems, and many of the early television shows were simulcasts of popular radio shows. In 1951, ABC merged with United Paramount Theaters, gaining sizable financial resources with which to compete in a fierce television market. DuMont was unable to survive and by 1956 was no longer viable, with ABC picking up many of DuMont's affiliate stations. Networks offered centralized sales, distribution and production services, which lowered costs for individual affiliates. This system was geared towards generating advertising revenue as well, because advertisers were interested in the ability to reach nationwide audiences (Ad*Access Project).