Editing Color television (section)

====FCC color====
In the immediate post-war era, the [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC) was inundated with requests to set up new television stations. Worrying about congestion of the limited number of channels available, the FCC put a moratorium on all new licenses in 1948 while considering the problem. A solution was immediately forthcoming; rapid development of radio receiver electronics during the war had opened a wide band of higher frequencies to practical use, and the FCC set aside a large section of these new [[Ultra high frequency|UHF]] bands for television broadcast. At the time, black-and-white television broadcasting was still in its infancy in the U.S., and the FCC started to look at ways of using this newly available bandwidth for color broadcasts. Since no existing television would be able to tune in these stations, they were free to pick an incompatible system and allow the older [[Very high frequency|VHF]] channels to die off over time.

The FCC called for technical demonstrations of color systems in 1948, and the Joint Technical Advisory Committee (JTAC) was formed to study them. CBS displayed improved versions of its original design, now using a single 6&nbsp;MHz channel (like the existing black-and-white signals) at 144 fields per second and 405 lines of resolution. [[Color Television Inc.|Color Television Inc. (CTI)]] demonstrated its line-sequential system, while [[Philco]] demonstrated a dot-sequential system based on its [[beam-index tube]]-based "Apple" tube technology. Of the entrants, the CBS system was by far the best-developed, and won head-to-head testing every time.

While the meetings were taking place it was widely known within the industry that RCA was working on a dot-sequential system that was compatible with existing black-and-white broadcasts, but RCA declined to demonstrate it during the first series of meetings. Just before the JTAC presented its findings, on 25 August 1949, RCA broke its silence and introduced its system as well. The JTAC still recommended the CBS system, and after the resolution of an ensuing RCA lawsuit, color broadcasts using the CBS system started on 25 June 1951. By this point the market had changed dramatically; when color was first being considered in 1948 there were fewer than a million television sets in the U.S., but by 1951 there were well over 10&nbsp;million. The idea that the VHF band could be allowed to "die" was no longer practical.

During its campaign for FCC approval, CBS gave the first demonstrations of color television to the general public, showing an hour of color programs daily Mondays through Saturdays, beginning 12 January 1950, and running for the remainder of the month, over [[WUSA (TV)|WOIC]] in Washington, D.C., where the programs could be viewed on eight 16-inch color receivers in a public building.<ref>"Washington Chosen for First Color Showing; From Ages 4 to 90, Audience Amazed", ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 13 January 1950, p. B2.</ref> Due to high public demand, the broadcasts were resumed 13–21 February, with several evening programs added.<ref>"Color TV Tests To Be Resumed In Washington", ''The Washington Post'', 12 February 1950, p. M5.</ref> CBS initiated a limited schedule of color broadcasts from its New York station [[WCBS-TV]] Mondays to Saturdays beginning 14 November 1950, making ten color receivers available for the viewing public.<ref>"CBS Color Television To Make Public Debut In N.Y. Next Week", ''The Wall Street Journal'', 9 November 1950, p. 18.</ref><ref>[http://www.earlytelevision.org/images/TV0441-150dpi.jpg CBS Announces Color Television] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080804175847/http://www.earlytelevision.org/images/TV0441-150dpi.jpg |date=4 August 2008}} (advertisement), New York ''Daily News'', 13 November 1950.</ref> All were broadcast using the single color camera that CBS owned.<ref>"You Can See The Blood on Color Video", ''The Washington Post'', 15 January 1950, p. L1. "Video Color Test Begins on C.B.S.", ''The New York Times'', 14 November 1950, p. 44.</ref> The New York broadcasts were extended by [[coaxial cable]] to Philadelphia's [[WCAU|WCAU-TV]] beginning 13 December,<ref>"CBS Color Preview Seen By 2,000 in Philadelphia", ''The Wall Street Journal'', 16 December 1950, p. 10.</ref> and to Chicago on 10 January,<ref>"CBS to Display Color Video in City Next Week", ''Chicago Tribune'', 6 January 1951, television and radio section, p. C4.</ref><ref>"Preview of CBS Color TV Wins City's Acclaim", ''Chicago Tribune'', 10 January 1951, p. A8.</ref> making them the first network color broadcasts.

After a series of hearings beginning in September 1949, the FCC found the RCA and CTI systems fraught with technical problems, inaccurate color reproduction, and expensive equipment, and so formally approved the CBS system as the U.S. color broadcasting standard on 11 October 1950. An unsuccessful lawsuit by RCA delayed the first commercial network broadcast in color until 25 June 1951, when a musical variety special titled simply [[Premiere (TV program)|''Premiere'']] was shown over a network of five East Coast CBS affiliates.<ref>"C.B.S. Color Video Presents a 'First'", ''The New York Times'', 26 June 1951, p. 31.</ref> Viewing was again restricted: the program could not be seen on black-and-white sets, and ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' estimated that only thirty prototype color receivers were available in the New York area.<ref>Four-hundred guests watched the premiere commercial broadcast on eight color receivers at a CBS studio in New York, as no color receivers were available to the general public. "C.B.S. Color Video Presents a 'First'", ''The New York Times'', 26 June 1951, p. 31. A total of about 40 color receivers was available in the five cities on the color network. The CBS affiliate in Washington had three receivers and a monitor. "First Sponsored TV in Color Praised by WTOP Audience", ''The Washington Post'', 26 June 1951, p. 1. Most of the remainder of the prototype color receivers were given to advertisers sponsoring the color broadcasts. "Today, June 25, 1951, is a turning point in broadcasting history" (WTOP-TV advertisement), ''The Washington Post'', 25 June 1951, p. 10.</ref> Regular color broadcasts began that same week with the daytime series ''[[The World Is Yours (TV series)|The World Is Yours]]'' and ''[[Modern Homemakers]]''.

While the CBS color broadcasting schedule gradually expanded to twelve hours per week (but never into prime time),<ref>Ed Reitan, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20061206003312/http://www.novia.net/~ereitan/CBS_Color_Programming_rev_h.htm#ProgressColorcasting Progress of CBS Colorcasting]", ''Programming for the CBS Color System''.</ref> and the color network expanded to eleven affiliates as far west as Chicago,<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20061206003312/http://www.novia.net/~ereitan/CBS_Color_Programming_rev_h.htm#affiliates CBS Color System Network Affiliates]", ''Programming for the CBS Color System''.</ref> its commercial success was doomed by the lack of color receivers necessary to watch the programs, the refusal of television manufacturers to create adapter mechanisms for their existing black-and-white sets,<ref>"CBS Color System Makes Television Set Makers See Red", ''The Wall Street Journal'', 17 October 1950, p. 1. Three exceptions among the major television manufacturers were [[Philco]], which offered 11 models that could show CBS color broadcasts in black-and-white; and [[Westinghouse Electric Corporation (1886)|Westinghouse]] and [[Admiral (electrical appliances)|Admiral]], which offered adapters to receive color broadcasts in black and white. "Philco Offers 11 TV Sets To Receive CBS Color TV in Black and White", ''The Wall Street Journal'', 4 June 1951, p. 9. "Westinghouse to Sell Adapter for CBS Color TV Signals", ''The Wall Street Journal'', 7 August 1951, p. 18.</ref> and the unwillingness of advertisers to sponsor broadcasts seen by almost no one. CBS had bought a television manufacturer in April,<ref>"Hytron's Deal With CBS Seen TV Color Aid", ''The Washington Post'', 12 April 1951, p. 15.</ref> and in September 1951, production began on the only CBS-Columbia color television model, with the first color sets reaching retail stores on 28 September.<ref>"CBS Subsidiary Starts Mass Production of Color Television Sets", ''The Wall Street Journal'', 13 September 1951, p. 18.</ref><ref>"[https://books.google.com/books?id=oCEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8 Para-TV Color Sets To Go On Sale Soon]", ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'', 6 October 1951, p. 6.</ref> However, it was too little, too late. Only 200 sets had been shipped, and only 100 sold, when CBS discontinued its color television system on 20 October 1951, ostensibly by request of the [[National Production Authority]] for the duration of the [[Korean War]], and bought back all the CBS color sets it could to prevent lawsuits by disappointed customers.<ref>"[https://books.google.com/books?id=pCEEAAAAMBAJ&q=cbs+color Text of Note to CBS Asking Color Set Halt]", ''Billboard'', 27 October 1951, p. 5</ref><ref>"Color TV Shelved As a Defense Step", ''The New York Times'', 20 October 1951, p. 1. "Action of Defense Mobilizer in Postponing Color TV Poses Many Question for the Industry", ''The New York Times'', 22 October 1951, p. 23. Ed Reitan, [http://novia.net/~ereitan/Color_Sys_CBS.html CBS Field Sequential Color System] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105183213/http://novia.net/~ereitan/Color_Sys_CBS.html |date=5 January 2010}}, 1997</ref> RCA chairman [[David Sarnoff]] later charged that the NPA's order had come "out of a situation artificially created by one company to solve its own perplexing problems" because CBS had been unsuccessful in its color venture.