Editing Color television (section)

===Europe===
The first two color television broadcasts in Europe were made by early tests in France ([[SECAM]]) between 1963 and 1966, then officially launched in October 1967 and by the [[United Kingdom|UK]]'s [[BBC Two|BBC2]] beginning on 1 July 1967 and [[West Germany]]'s [[Das Erste]] and [[ZDF]] in August, both using the [[PAL]] system. They were followed by the Netherlands in September (PAL). On 1 October 1968, the first scheduled television program in color was broadcast in Switzerland. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Austria, [[East Germany]], [[Czechoslovakia]], and Hungary all started regular color broadcasts around 1969–1970. Ireland's national TV station [[RTÉ]] began using color in 1968 for recorded programs; the first [[outside broadcasting|outside broadcast]] made in color for RTÉ Television was when Ireland hosted the [[Eurovision Song Contest]] [[Eurovision Song Contest 1971|in Dublin in 1971]].<ref name="RTÉ Archives">{{cite news|url=http://www.rte.ie/laweb/brc/brc_1970s.html|title=The Advent of Colour Television: 1971|publisher=RTÉ Archives|access-date=30 April 2013|date=18 April 2006|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204210214/http://www.rte.ie/laweb/brc/brc_1970s.html|archive-date=4 February 2012}}</ref> The PAL system spread through most of Western Europe.

More European countries introduced color television using the PAL system in the 1970s and early 1980s; examples include [[Spain]] (1969, but not fully implemented until 1977), [[Belgium]] (1971), [[Bulgaria]] (1971, but not fully implemented until 1972), [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|SFR Yugoslavia]] (1971), [[Iceland]] (1973, but not fully implemented until 1976), [[Portugal]] (1975, but not fully implemented until 1980), [[Albania]] (1981), [[Turkey]] (1981) and [[Romania]] (1983, but not fully implemented until 1985–1991). In Italy there were debates to adopt a national color television system, the ''ISA'', developed by [[Indesit]], but that idea was scrapped. As a result, and after a test during the [[1972 Summer Olympics]], Italy was one of the last European countries to officially adopt the PAL system in the 1976–1977 season.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.at-hotels.com/it/pagine70.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229212545/http://www.pagine70.com/vmnews/wmview.php?ArtID=650|url-status=dead|title=PAGINE 70 - anni 70 - anni settanta, 70's, investigatori privati.Confronta i prezzi degli hotel.|archivedate=29 February 2012|website=www.at-hotels.com}}</ref>

[[French colonial empires|France]], Luxembourg, and most of the [[Warsaw Pact|Eastern Bloc]] along with their overseas territories opted for [[SECAM]]. SECAM was a popular choice in countries with much hilly terrain, and countries with a very large installed base of older monochrome equipment, which could cope much better with the greater ruggedness of the SECAM signal. However, for many countries the decision was more down to politics than technical merit.

A drawback of SECAM for production is that, unlike PAL or NTSC, certain post-production operations of encoded SECAM signals are not really possible without a significant drop in quality. As an example, a simple fade to black is trivial in NTSC and PAL: one merely reduces the signal level until it is zero. However, in SECAM the color difference signals, which are frequency modulated, need first to be decoded to e.g. RGB, then the fade-to-black is applied, and finally the resulting signal is re-encoded into SECAM. Because of this, much SECAM video editing was actually done using PAL equipment, then the resultant signal was converted to SECAM. Another drawback of SECAM is that [[comb filter]]ing, allowing better color separation, is of limited use in SECAM receivers. This was not, however, much of a drawback in the early days of SECAM as such filters were not readily available in high-end TV sets before the 1990s.

The first regular color broadcasts in SECAM were started on 1 October 1967, on [[France 2|France's Second Channel (ORTF 2e chaîne)]].
In France and the UK color broadcasts were made on [[576i|625-line]] [[Ultra high frequency|UHF]] frequencies, the [[Very high frequency|VHF]] band being used for black and white, [[405-line television system|405 lines]] in UK or [[Analog high-definition television system|819 lines]] in France, until the beginning of the 1980s. Countries elsewhere that were already broadcasting 625-line monochrome on VHF and UHF, simply transmitted color programs on the same channels.

Some British television programs, particularly those made by or for [[ITC Entertainment]], were shot on color film before the introduction of color television to the UK, for the purpose of sales to US networks. The first British show to be made in color was the drama series ''[[The Adventures of Sir Lancelot]]'' (1956–57), which was initially made in black and white but later shot in color for sale to the [[NBC]] network in the United States. Other British color television programs made before the introduction of color television in the UK include ''[[Stingray (1964 TV series)|Stingray]]'' (1964–1965), which was claimed to be the first British TV show to be filmed entirely in color, although when this claim was made in the 1960s it was protested by Francis Coudrill who said his series ''The Stoopendus Adventures of Hank'' had been shot entirely in color some years previously;<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=3 September 1964 |title=Hank Says He Was The First |work=[[The Stage]]|page=13 |location=London }}</ref> ''[[Thunderbirds (TV series)|Thunderbirds]]'' (1965–1966), ''[[The Baron (TV series)|The Baron]]'' (1966–1967), ''[[The Saint (TV series)|The Saint]]'' (from 1966 to 1969), ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' (from 1967 to 1969), ''[[Man in a Suitcase]]'' (1967–1968), ''[[The Prisoner]]'' (1967–1968) and ''[[Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons]]'' (1967–1968). However, most UK series predominantly made using videotape, such as ''[[Doctor Who]]'' (1963–89; 2005–present) did not begin color production until later, with the first color ''Doctor Who'' episodes not airing until 1970. (The first four, comprising the story ''[[Spearhead from Space]]'', were shot on film owing to a technician's strike, with videotape being used thereafter). Although marginal, some UK viewers are still using black and white tv sets. The number of black and white [[Television licensing in the United Kingdom|licenses]] issued was 212000 in 2000 and 6586 in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thousands of black and white TVs still in use as BBC One in colour hits 50 - TV Licensing ™ |url=https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/cs/media-centre/news/view.app?id=1369787209230 |access-date=11 January 2023 |website=www.tvlicensing.co.uk}}</ref>

The last country in [[Europe]] to introduce color television was [[Romania]] in 1983.<ref>{{cite web |title=TVR a scris istorie: 30 de ani de la prima transmisie tv color din România |url=http://stiri.tvr.ro/tvr-a-scris-istorie-30-de-ani-de-la-prima-transmisie-tv-color-din-romania_34079.html |website=Știrile TVR |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130824012104/http://stiri.tvr.ro/tvr-a-scris-istorie-30-de-ani-de-la-prima-transmisie-tv-color-din-romania_34079.html |access-date=11 November 2023|archive-date=24 August 2013 }}</ref>