Rainbow Broadcasting - The History of Colour TV.

Ah, the Coolsters at it again, this time with a great article on the history of that box we all marvel at in google eyed wonder, colour telly - not boring old black and white, but full, living, fantasmagorical (anyone care to tell me what it means please) colour. In fact we take colour TV for granted so much these days that we struggle to remember the fact we all had an old monochrome set. I'll bet there's not many Ciaoers under 30 who will even remember their parents having a Black and white box. (I find Black and white EVER so boring don't you?) If you thought colour TV was a recent invention, think again, colour Savalas (and if that's Greek to you I mean Telly - as in Kojak, geddit? No they don't make cameras) was actually invented before the first regular Black and white services were broadcast. And all you old Crossroads fans (I mean from when Amy Turtle was in it, not the recent remake) are in for a surprise. And if you know the Coolster by now, yes, this one's long. Very Long. I feel must give thanks to Martin ellen of the 'On Air' website ( http://homepage.ntlworld.com/martin.ellen/oa/Early%20colour%20TV.htm ) for an article on the BBc's 1950's trials of colour TV for which I'm very much indebted.

But TV proper didn't come in to being until the third decade of the twentienth century, and it was another Russian Vladimar Zworykin who took the credit. In 1923 he patented the 'Iconoscope' camera tube, and by the end of the year had produced the 'Kinescope' which was an early TV receiver tube. It was not until the following year that moving images were initially transmitted, and this time it was a British inventor, known as 'The father of television' John Logie Baird who was responsible, using a mechanical system based on the Nipkow system. (and before you say it its Nina Myshkow not Nipkow who's the TV critic, so don't think the two are related).

The 30's saw the introduction of commercial TV services around the world, with the BBC beginning broadcasts at the start of the decade. It was Baird who made the first sets, but other companies joined the bandwagon, mainly those who made radios like Murphy or Bush. But colour hadn't been forgotten. Although Baird had successfully pioneered the introduction of what was then a high definition system in 1936, he was preoccupied with developing a colour system, and in 1940 demonstrated this. But it was far from perfect. The same year CBS in New York displayed its 'Field Sequential' system which utilised spinning tri-colour discs in front of the camera. Round about the same time the rival NBC network (owned by RCA who made most of the TV cameras and sets) trialed its own system.

That same year, both CBS and NBC trialed their rival for the US government in a hope to be accepted as the TV standard. The NTSC standard of 525 lines had been accepted in the early 40's by the government as the standard. Interestingly, the early development was possible because America was then not at war, and colour development only really started again post war. However the American government wanted the adopted colour system to be a compatible system, i.e. That both colour and monochrome sets could pick up both signals. This led to a government commission being founded in 1948 to look into the mater. Both CBS and NBC were promoting their systems. CBS claimed that their system using spinning wheels was better because you could use monochrome tubes with spinning wheels inside to reduce costs. RCA had developed a colour CRT tube in 1946, and claimed this was better. Both companies trotted out successful displays to the committee between 1948 and 1950, yet the commission was loathe to commit itself to a standard. However, NBC had set up a studio with colour cameras in 1949. That year on 10th October, the 'Kukla, Fran, and Ollie' Show was broadcast to the NBC network using RCA color cameras, presumably to show the FCC commission that ordinary b/w receivers could receive their colour signals.

RCA had all but perfected it's system, and two years later in 1953 after petitioning the Fcc commission, the RCA/NBC system was adopted. As soon as it was, production of cameras and sets began. RCA built the cameras and sets, and RCA owned NBC broadcast the pictures. On 30th August of that year, the first publicly announced colour broadcast had been 'St. George and the Dragon' a segment of the aforementioned Kukla, Fran and Ollie show.
NBC also experimented with a colour broadcast of the opera 'Carmen' on October31st , and although they were only an in house broadcast, with the nation only able to receive b/w images. CBS had actually broadcast in colour that month, with a programme called 'Eye opener' on the 11th. The first official NTSC colour broadcast was on the 22nd of that month of 'The Colgate Comedy Hour' and special permission was gained for the colorcast.

The nations first receivable Compatible color(broad)cast was of the Rose day parade on Friday 1st January 1954, from Pasedena, and CBS broadcast in colour the same weekend, although the FCC had actually designated a mid January start date. The following day CBS broadcast 'The New Review" and although this used much cheaper cameras, the colour was almost as good as NBC's pervious day's output, NBC had the first NTSC colour series that year with 'The Marriage' and several shows experimented with colour. Studio shows were broadcast live as no commercial Videotaping equipment was available until 1956, though a few shows that were shot on film did film one off Technicolor versions. One such show was dragnet, and a single colour episode 'The big little Jesus' from December 1953 is still broadcast today, making it the worlds oldest surviving colour TV programme, and it was the first colour filmed piece of television broadcast. Colour output was by and large early evening/teatime, but this increased. The first colour set to sell in volume was the RCA 100 at S1,000, and though most of these were sold after its price halved. RCA claimed to have sold 5'000 of them, though many it is believed were sold to employees at a huge discount.

In 1958 sales of colour sets rocketed and the following year the whole country was able to receive colour TV. By 1962 colour sets were ousting monochrome models, and by 1966 NBC had started broadcasting 100% of its output in colour.

On the 10th Oct the following year a regular series of test broadcasts were made using the Alexandra palace transmitter, from Alexandra Palace. Initially only slides and films were broadcast. By the following year, Studio A there had been equipped with a single 3 tube colour camera from a Marconi design but made by the BBC as had all the colour studio equipment. This was fist used on 3rd, 4th, and 5th April 1956 for a special visiting delegation of the CCIR who were visiting Britain as Part of a world wide assessment on the state of colour television. This was also the first broadcast of a UK TV studio in colour.

But why did the introduction of colour TV in the UK take so long to begin? There were three reasons. Firstly the Marconi cameras ran hot and were prone to colour temperature changes. Secondly, there were two new rival systems to the NTSC one, German developed Pal on 625 lines (or 405 lines VHF), and France's 819 line SECAM system. But the biggest reason for the delay was purely down to economics. In 1952, the Coronation had been the first broadcast to generate a bigger television audience than it's radio counterpart, and many working class families had bought a set especially for the occasion. Indeed, the 1950's (as opposed to the late 40's in America) was the decade that television made it into most British peoples living rooms. It was felt in government circles of the mid 50's that as several million monochrome sets had recently been purchased, and that although monochrome TV was popular, the public wouldn't be able to afford the burden of paying for new colour sets on credit, as well as the problem of what to do with the no longer needed b/w tellies. (Obviously no one had thought of putting an extension cable for the aerial in the bedroom to watch TV in bed).

The first public demonstration of colour TV was in 1961 at the Earls Court National Radio Show. Live transmissions came from a glass sided studio, as well as films and slides. There were 6 21 inch colour monitors on display, each being shown alongside a b/w monitor to highlight the superiority of the system. Prior to this, very few members of the public had actually seen the earlier demonstrations. Both the viewing public at the exhibition as well as the dealers were reported to have been suitably impressed. The satellite Telstar, also broadcast in colour from London specially for the US in 1962.

In 1964 BBC2 launched transmitting in 625 lines of UHF frequency. The BBC had realised the need for a better standard than 405 line B/W and had been experimenting with the previous year with 625 line NTSC colour (whereas the us only used 525 lines) as well as PAL and SECAM colour systems. The 1964 state opening of parliament was an experimental recording by the BBC that still exists, as was the 3 nations Rugby in 1965 from Twickenham. These were transmitted from the Crystal Palace transmitter, which had taken over experimental colour transmission duties from Alexandra Palace on it's colour Decommission in 1958. In 1966 the BBC broadcast the UK general Election in colour to the USA. That same year the UK officially adopted the PAL system as its TV standard and by 1967 most of Europe had decided to adopt that system. Indeed today most of the world outside north America uses it, with France being the only other notable exception, using it's own SECAM standard.

The BBC at the time relied mainly on outside broadcasts or programmes on film in colour, because it had no proper colour studios. The BBC worked flat out to turn studios 6 and 8 into colour studios. On December 2nd of that year the BBC increased the channels output to 80% colour following the completion of studios 6 and 8. Amongst the increased output was Britain's first Colour period drama, Thackeray's Vanity Fayre. Only the news, a few regional programmes, and unsurprisingly 'Play School' (weren't us kids always kept away from 'Adult' things?), though the following year BBC2 news did eventually go colour.

At midnight Fri. 14th/Sat 15th, the BBC burst into colour with a spectacular Petula Clark concert live from the Royal Albert Hall. ITV's colour output began at 9-30 the Next morning with 'Road Report' followed by 'The growing summer' The mornings first BBC's programmes were monochrome language programmes from 10 until 11. At 11 am Thunderbirds became the first British show to feature a colour advert, for 'Birds eye peas (I can imagine that lovely green colour). In fact all of LWT's output that day was in colour, though some regions had their own b/w programmes. Shows included World of sport with Dickie Davies, Bonanza, a police show called Parkin's patch, Please Sir!, Frost on Saturday and the long running All our yesterdays, whilst Auntie Beeb had Grandstand (still running), Star Trek, Dixon of Dock Green, Harry Secombe, Match of the day, and the first colour weather forecast. (A year later in the Steptoe and Son episode 'The Colour Problem, - my favourite Steptoe sadly now only surviving in b/w, after Harold is forced to buy his old man a colour set after taking his car back for a refund Albert remarks 'Ooh, it's the weather, In colour.')

Most UK adverts were in colour from day one, whilst about ¾ of programmes were in colour, which is a stark contrast to America's gradual Roll out of colour. Also sales of sets were slow, with colour TV's only really taking off in 1973. In fact the first year that more colour licenses were sold than black and white ones was in 1976, 9 years after the first broadcasts. (Ironically we in the UK mirrored the yanks as it took them 9 years before more colour sets than b/w were sold, and sales had taken off in 1958, 5 years after start up where we had took 6 years).