Editing SECAM (section)

== History ==
[[File:Chromat-2062 Farbfernseher 6400dpi 1979.jpg|thumb|''Chromat 2062'', East German–produced dual standard PAL/SECAM TV set]]

=== Invention ===
Development of SECAM predates PAL, and began in 1956 by a team led by [[Henri de France]] working at ''Compagnie Française de Télévision'' (later bought by Thomson, now [[Vantiva|Technicolor]]). NTSC was considered undesirable in Europe because of its tint problem, requiring an additional [[tint control|control]], which SECAM (and PAL) solved.

Some have argued that the primary motivation for the development of SECAM in France was to protect French television equipment manufacturers.<ref>Crane, R. J. (1979). The Politics of International Standards: France and the Color TV War, Ablex Publishing Corporation.</ref> However, incompatibility had started with the earlier unusual decision to adopt positive [[video modulation]] for 819-line French broadcast signals (only the UK's [[405-line television system|405-line]] was similar; widely adopted [[525 lines|525-]] and [[625 lines|625-line]] systems used negative video).

The first proposed system was called SECAM I in 1961, followed by other studies to improve compatibility and image quality,<ref name="auto4"/> but it was too soon for a wide introduction. A version of SECAM for the French [[819 line|819-line television standard]] was devised and tested, but never introduced.<ref>{{cite web |title=France had a national HD TV system as far back as 1949 |url=https://www.redsharknews.com/business/item/471-france-had-a-national-hd-tv-system-in-1949 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211213082818/https://www.redsharknews.com/business/item/471-france-had-a-national-hd-tv-system-in-1949 |archive-date=13 December 2021 |access-date=13 December 2021}}</ref>

Following a pan-European agreement to introduce color TV only on 625-line broadcasts, France had to switch to that system, which happened in 1963 with the introduction of "la deuxième chaîne ORTF" [[France 2]], the second national TV network.

Further improvements during 1963 and 1964 to the standard were called SECAM II<ref name="auto4"/> and SECAM III, with the latter being presented at the 1965 [[ITU-R|CCIR]] General Assembly in [[Vienna]], and adopted by France and the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="auto4"/><ref name="auto2">{{cite news |date=15 July 1966 |title=Londres et Bonn repoussent une suggestion franco-soviétique en faveur du procédé S.E.C.A.M.-IV |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1966/07/15/londres-et-bonn-repoussent-une-suggestion-franco-sovietique-en-faveur-du-procede-s-e-c-a-m-iv_2691879_1819218.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220515005816/https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1966/07/15/londres-et-bonn-repoussent-une-suggestion-franco-sovietique-en-faveur-du-procede-s-e-c-a-m-iv_2691879_1819218.html |archive-date=15 May 2022 |access-date=15 May 2022 |newspaper=Le Monde}}</ref>

Soviet technicians were involved in a separate development of the standard, creating an incompatible variant called NIIR or SECAM IV,<ref name="auto4">{{cite web |title=Bloomsbury Collections – History of Technology – Volume Twenty, 1998 |url=https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/history-of-technology-volume-20-volume-twenty-1998/the-pal-secam-colour-television-controversy?from=search |website=bloomsburycollections.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180604052032/https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/history-of-technology-volume-20-volume-twenty-1998/the-pal-secam-colour-television-controversy |archive-date=4 June 2018}}</ref> which was not deployed. The team was working in [[Moscow]]'s [[Telecentrum]]. The NIIR designation comes from the name of the ''[[Nautchno-Issledovatelskiy Institut Radio]]'' (''NIIR'', ''rus.'' Научно-Исследовательский Институт Радио), a Soviet research institute involved in the studies.<ref name="auto2"/> Two standards were developed: ''Non-linear NIIR'',<ref name="auto3">{{cite web |title=Sowjetisch Russisches Farbfernsehen SECAM IV Linear NIR NIIR-Farbfernsehsystem NIR 4 |url=http://www.scheida.at/scheida/Televisionen_CCCP_II_UdSSRII.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127055943/http://www.scheida.at/scheida/Televisionen_CCCP_II_UdSSRII.htm |archive-date=27 November 2021 |access-date=15 May 2022 |website=scheida.at}}</ref> in which a process analogous to [[gamma correction]] is used, and ''Linear NIIR''<ref name="auto3"/> or ''SECAM IV'' that omits this process.<ref>[http://www.pembers.freeserve.co.uk/World-TV-Standards/Colour-Standards.html#SECAM-IV SECAM-IV] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221112432/http://www.pembers.freeserve.co.uk/World-TV-Standards/Colour-Standards.html |date=21 February 2014}}</ref> SECAM IV was proposed by France and USSR at the 1966 Oslo CCIR conference<ref name="auto4"/><ref name="auto2"/> and demonstrated in London.<ref>{{cite web |author=Jack Gould |date=17 March 1966 |title=TV: Soviet Union Offers Color System; B.B.C. Tests Secam IV, Amplitude Modulator Moscow and Paris Balk at Favored FM Device |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/03/17/archives/tv-soviet-union-offers-color-system-bbc-tests-secam-iv-amplitude.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220515005816/https://www.nytimes.com/1966/03/17/archives/tv-soviet-union-offers-color-system-bbc-tests-secam-iv-amplitude.html |archive-date=15 May 2022 |access-date=15 May 2022 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

Further improvements were SECAM III A, followed by SECAM III B,<ref name="auto4"/> the system adopted for general use in 1967.

=== Implementation ===
Tested until 1963 on the second French national network "la deuxième chaîne ORTF", the SECAM standard was adopted in [[France]] and launched on 1 October 1967, now called France 2. A group of four suited men—a presenter ([[Georges Gorse]], Minister of Information) and three contributors to the system's development—were shown standing in a studio. Following a count from 10, at 2:15&nbsp;pm the black-and-white image switched to color; the presenter then declared "''Et voici la couleur !''" (fr: And here is color!)<ref>{{cite web |title=INA: Présentation officielle de la télévision couleur |url=http://www.ina.fr/video/CPF86633716/presentation-officielle-de-la-television-couleur.fr.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520171238/http://www.ina.fr/video/CPF86633716/presentation-officielle-de-la-television-couleur.fr.html |archive-date=20 May 2011 |access-date=4 August 2014}}</ref> In the same year of 1967, CLT of [[Lebanon]] became the third television station in the world, after [[France 2]] in [[France]] and the [[Soviet Central Television]] in the [[Soviet Union]], to broadcast in color utilizing the French SECAM technology.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harb |first1=Zahera |title=Channels of resistance in Lebanon: liberation propaganda, Hezbollah and the media |date=2011 |publisher=Tauris |isbn=978-1-84885-120-7 |location=London [etc.] |page=95}}</ref>

The first color television sets cost 5000 [[French franc|francs]]. Color TV was not very popular initially; only about 1500 people watched the inaugural program in color. A year later in 1968, only 200,000 sets had been sold of an expected million. This pattern was similar to the earlier slow build-up of color television popularity in the US.{{Synthesis inline|date=May 2024}}

In March 1969, [[East Germany]] decided to adopt SECAM III B.<ref name="auto4" /> The adoption of SECAM in Eastern Europe has been attributed to [[Cold War]] political machinations.  According to this explanation, East German political authorities were well aware of West German television's popularity and adopted SECAM rather than the PAL encoding used in [[West Germany]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Glaubitz |first=Gerald |title=Die PAL-SECAM-Kontroverse in der DDR: Die politisch-ideologische Instrumentalisierung der Farbfernsehfrage durch den ostdeutschen Staat zwischen 1965 und 1969 |publisher=GNT-Verlag |year=2004 |isbn=978-3928186735 |location=Diepholz}}</ref> This did not hinder mutual reception in black and white, because the underlying TV standards remained essentially the same in both parts of Germany. However, [[East Germany|East Germans]] responded by buying PAL decoders for their SECAM sets. Eventually, the government in East Berlin stopped paying attention to so-called "[[Republikflucht]] via Fernsehen", or "defection via television". Later East German–produced TV sets, such as the [[:de:Chromat (Fernsehgerät)|RFT Chromat]], even included a dual standard PAL/SECAM decoder as an option.

Another explanation for the Eastern European adoption of SECAM, led by the Soviet Union, is that the Russians had extremely long distribution lines between broadcasting stations and transmitters.<ref>{{cite web |date=25 July 1963 |title=Colour Television for Europe, New Scientist, 23 July 1963 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bmtByFnNCOQC&pg=PA197}}</ref> Long co-axial cables or microwave links can cause amplitude and phase variations, which do not affect SECAM signals.

Other countries, notably the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Italy]], briefly experimented with SECAM before opting for PAL. SECAM was adopted by former French and [[Belgium|Belgian]] colonies in [[Africa]], as well as [[Greece]], [[Cyprus]], and [[Eastern Bloc]] countries (except for [[Romania]]) and some [[Middle East]]ern countries.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

European efforts during the 1980–90s towards the creation of a unified analog standard, resulting in the [[Multiplexed Analogue Components|MAC standards]], still used the sequential color transmission idea of SECAM, with only one of time-compressed [[Y′UV|U and V components]] being transmitted on a given line. The [[D2-MAC]] standard enjoyed some short real market deployment, particularly in northern European countries. To some extent, this idea is still present in [[Chroma subsampling|4:2:0]] digital sampling format, which is used by most [[digital video]] media available to the public. In this case, however, color resolution is halved in both horizontal and vertical directions thus yielding a more symmetrical behavior.

=== Decline ===
With the [[Revolutions of 1989|fall of communism]] and following a period when multi-standard TV sets became a [[commodity]] in the early 2000s, many Central and Eastern European countries decided to switch to the West German-developed PAL system. Yet SECAM remained in use in [[Russia]], [[Belarus]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Samsung TV – PAL / NTSC / SECAM Countries List {{!}} Samsung Support CA |url=https://www.samsung.com/ca/support/tv-audio-video/can-i-use-my-tv-in-another-country/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022043856/https://www.samsung.com/ca/support/tv-audio-video/can-i-use-my-tv-in-another-country/ |archive-date=22 October 2020 |access-date=2020-10-18 |website=Samsung ca |language=en-CA}}</ref> and the French-speaking African countries. In the late 2000s, SECAM started a process of being phased out and replaced by [[DVB]].

Unlike some other manufacturers, the company where SECAM was invented, [[Vantiva|Technicolor]] (known as Thomson until 2010), still sold television sets worldwide under different brands until the company sold its Trademark Licensing operations in 2022; this may be due in part to the legacy of SECAM. Thomson bought the company that developed PAL, Telefunken, and even co-owned the [[RCA]] brand – RCA being the creator of NTSC. Thomson also co-authored the [[ATSC standards]] which are used for American [[high-definition television]].