Fascinating video. I had no idea that so many countries had fledgling TV services prior to World War 2. I hadn't thought the infrastructure would have been in place then, as radio was still a relatively primitive medium for a lot of poorer and politically regimented countries.
The infrastructure was limited in transmission and the prevalence of television sets very limited. Radio was far more commonly available and used for propaganda in the war; the BBC suspended their TV transmissions for the duration. The big take-up of TV in the UK was after the war, with the Coronation of Elizabeth II resulting in a lot of people buying or renting sets for the first time.
Meanwhile In Asia Japan - 1 Feb 1953 Philippines - 23 Oct 1953 Thailand - 24 Jun 1955 South Korea - 12 May 1956 Hong Kong - 29 May 1957 China - 1 May 1958 India - 15 Sep 1959 Taiwan - 28 Apr 1962 Singapore - 15 Feb 1963 North Korea - 3 Mar 1963
Thanks for the information. If/when I update the video, I will factor that in. It is often difficult to be precise about dates when lengthy tests and irregular broadcasts take place so I decided to use the date of the launch of the first regular national channel which began airing on January 20, 1965.
It's interesting how quickly the Dutch and the Finns went from launching their own TV channels to having full colour transmissions and yet other countries launched in the 50s or 60s did not gain colour broadcasts until the late 70s, 80s or mid 90s
On the other hand, the Dutch stayed long behind in cable television. Belgium had a lot more tv cable and a lot faster than the Netherlands ;-) I guess the same with Finland. What concern colour transmissions, I think Belgium had it about the same time.
In Spain, the first TV broadcast was made by Philips Spain during an exhibition at Barcelona in 1948. There was a camera connected to a TV, the distance between them was 30 metres.
Thank you - that is really interesting. You might find this article of interest too: blog.donquijote.org/2019/11/world-television-day-a-brief-history-of-spanish-tv
The BBC started the world's first regular high definition (for the time, 405 lines Marconi all electronic system together with briefly Baird's partly mechanical 240 lines system) television service. By regular service, I mean this was an ongoing rather than an experimental service meant to be viewed by people in their own homes on TV sets they had purchased. A full range of programmes were produced in studio, plus outside broadcasts covering news, sports and events, with a programme schedule published in the Radio Times and some newspapers. The service originally covered the area in and around London only and closed down in 1939 for the duration of World War 2 reopening in 1946. From 1949 the service was extended to cover the English midlands and expanded during the 1950's to cover most of the UK. Experimental TV broadcasts in the UK actually began in the late 1920's and continued through to the mid 1930's using crude mechanical broadcasting systems, with TV pioneer John Logie Baird being allowed to use the BBC's radio transmitters to broadcast this experimental service to the public. Many of those interested in these early tv broadcasts had an interest in radio in general as a hobby and often built their own primitive tv receiving sets themselves.
Really fascinating video. I'm sure there will have been regions that first got TV, and colour, far later than these dates of course. For example, although BBC2 started colour transmissions first in 1967, several of the smaller ITV companies around the country were still black-and-white until well into the 1970s, with Channel TV finally going colour in 1975.
You are absolutely correct. I tried to date the availability of the first publicly available transmissions in each country - and even that was far from easy for some! As far as ITV is concerned, you might like the companion video at studio.ru-vid.comKdwCx-utQv4/edit
16:26 There’s a slight goof here, Armenia turned coloured on the previous slide before reverting to grey on that slide. It would become colored again on the next slide.
Thanks for this - much appreciated! I suspect I may have based this on the availability of colour transmissions from France. If/when I do an update, I will certainly amend this!
2:08 Because of one time when I tried to watch German TV, when they said "Hier ist das deutsches Fernsehen" my brain immediately thought "mit den Tagesschau"
Apparently so - partly due to "political turmoil"! The first colour tests were in 1965 and the 1972 Summer Olympic Games were transmitted in colour. The Sanremo Music Festival and Jeux Sans Frontières began to be broadcast in colour in 1973. Even by 1977, colour transmissions did not cover the entire schedule and full-time could be argued to have been achieved only by 1979.
@@koa1464 I honestly, have no idea - when I was authoring the video, it did not seem particularly bad, but now listening to it. I know exactly what you mean!
17:23 The Kazakhs are so superhuman that they invented color television in 198 before their own television appeared. And they found out about him only in 1981
In Italy 🇮🇹 until 1977 the colour broadcasts from abroad were available only in the border areas: from 🇫🇷 in Aosta Valley, Piedmont and West Liguria; from 🇨🇭 in Lombardy; from 🇦🇹 in Alto Adige/Südtirol and from Yugoslavia in Friuli-Venezia Giulia
In case of Poland, the Experimental TV Station of Ministry of Telecommunications (predecessor of TVP) launched their broadcast on 25th October 1952. However, the real date of launch of TVP was on January 23, 1953, when they began to broadcast regularly. It firstly broadcasted only on Fridays, later also on Tuesdays, later (since 1955), Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, later (since 1956) on Sundays and, since 1961 (eight years after the launch), everyday. During 1960s, lesser known colour TV tests were broadcasted. But, in 1969, they made a first official broadcast in colour (they aired a "Colonel Wołodyjowski" movie), later, they began to broadcast the SECAM system (that was the TV colouriser, from France) in 1971 (year earlier, they began to broadcast TVP2).
@@tvradiotimelines Why I said, about it? Because of that, tomorrow, TVP has a 70th birthday this year! So, you should watch the "Jubilee Festivity - 70 years of Polish Television", which will air at 17.00 of Central European Time on "The One" ( "Jedynka" in polish, which is a nickname of TVP1) or join a party led by workers of TVP (including PNŚ (TVP's morning program, which is commonly reffered as "Pytanie na Śniadanie" (meaning "A Question for Breakfast"), which runs on TVP2 since 2002) hosts) in Warsaw, at 17 Woronicz St (where the TVP's current HQ is located in).
Thanks for the information. Are you able to provide any additional details? According to the research I undertook in preparation for this video, 1 FL TV was Liechtenstein's first public service television broadcaster and launched on 15 August 2008. Before that, viewers were reliant on Austrian and Swiss TV channels.
La première démonstration publique de télévision mécanique à 30 lignes a lieu le 14 avril 1931. Le rendu d'image est meilleur que celui de Baird grâce à la mise au point du système du « point lumineux mobile » et l'utilisation d'une caméra à tambour à miroirs de Weiller par l'ingénieur René Barthélemy, responsable du laboratoire radioélectrique de la Compagnie des compteurs (CdC) de Montrouge. Chargée de la radiodiffusion française, l'administration des PTT mène quelques expériences rudimentaires de télévision dès décembre 1931 en diffusant des émissions expérimentales de 30 à 45 minutes à horaires variables du lundi au samedi avec du matériel Baird depuis l'émetteur en ondes moyennes de Radio PTT. Le système Barthélemy est officiellement préféré à celui de Baird, de par la plus grande stabilité des images, pour la poursuite des émissions expérimentales en 1932. Le ministre des PTT, Henri Queuille, autorise alors la CdC à poursuivre ses expériences en utilisant l'émetteur de l'école supérieure des PTT situé au 103 rue de Grenelle et attribue à la compagnie un studio rudimentaire au 93 de la même rue. Barthélemy y poursuit ses expériences avec une nouvelle caméra à disque de Nipkow qui offre des possibilités de prise de vue bien meilleures qu'avec le système précédent. Les émissions sont diffusées en 30 lignes le mardi et le vendredi à 17h00 par deux émetteurs, les images par l'émetteur en ondes moyennes de l'école supérieure des PTT sur la longueur d'onde de 431 mètres et le son par l'émetteur de la CdC à Montrouge relié au studio par une ligne téléphonique. Ces émissions expérimentales ne touchent qu'un public d'amateurs d'innovation technique très restreint qui bricolent des postes récepteurs connectés à un poste de radio, se constituant ainsi un récepteur de radiovision[N 1]. Parallèlement, BBC Television Service diffuse un programme expérimental mais régulier de télévision depuis le 22 août 1932, les émissions ayant lieu du lundi au vendredi de 11h00 à 11h30, puis la nuit en ondes moyennes sur 205 mètres aux heures où les programmes radiophoniques de la BBC sont terminés. Le nouveau ministre français des PTT du Gouvernement Flandin, Georges Mandel, assiste, lors d'une visite chez le directeur général de la British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) fin 1934, à une retransmission en direct du Derby d'Epsom sur un Televisor[1] mis au point par John Logie Baird.
Mistakes: For Czech Republic you should have put Československá televize instead of Československá televízia. The latter is Slovak. You could have played the Croatian anthem for Croatia, the Serbian anthem for Serbia and the Bosnian anthem in 1992 for Bosnia.
I can’t understand how in Spain we received colour signal from France before 1972 if we had different color systems, Secam and Pal. Perhaps near the borders and having a secam tv set. By the way, the first transmission in color in TVE was in 1969 broadcasting the color signal all over the continent for the Eurovision Song Contest, here wasn’t possible, it’s true, but I suppose like in 1971 in Ireland.
I am working at present on a timeline for EBU membership and that is taking far longer than I had anticipated but I will bear all other suggestions in mind. Thanks for getting in touch!
Didn't Hungary have a television back in the 1930s? I've watched Hungarian TV news intros from 1938 to 1945. What criteria does this video specifically have?
All of the reference works that I consulted state that TV was introduced in Hungary in 1957. I have tried wherever possible to use the dates on which a publicly available service began. It is entirely possible that TV experiments and test transmissions took place well before the date quoted.
You did a timeline when different European nations started their own TV broadcasting network/services and one when these first started colour broadcasts. *Now* have a *timeline* when these national broadcasters started services in *stereo!*
I was thinking a video about when digital switchover was achieved in each country might also be interesting, although for all I know some countries might still be fully analogue to this day.
@@MrDannyDetail I'm compiling a list of suggested topics and this is an interesting one. Next, though, will be EBU evolution then maybe UK commercial radio then.....
@@tvradiotimelines EBU evolution sounds interesting. As I'm a fan of the EBU's most famous Europe-wide show/event, the Eurovision Song Contest, I hope it will get a mention somewhere, even if just a passing mention of it's initial broadcast in 1956.
About Austria… the introduction date of tv is correct. Regarding color introduction I‘ve done a lot of researches in the past years, but most likely most of color tv by ORF was introduced at November 2nd 1972 as it was the date the main news „Zeit im Bild“ broadcasted in Color the first time. From that date newspaper listed most of the programs with F (Farbe). Some singular programs (mostly documentations, parliament live sessions and some other monthly programs) until 1974 remained in black and white, that’s true. The date in 1975 is referred to the program „Aktenzeichen XY ungelöst“ when it was broadcasted for the first time in color, it was probably the very last program in West Germany, Austria and Switzerland (it was a Eurovision program between those 3 countries) broadcasted in black and white.
Thanks for the feedback - it is really interesting! It is often difficult to pinpoint an exact date for the start of colour TV (and sometimes even the start of TV overall) but if/when I update this video I will certainly take all of this into account. Much appreciated!
@@tvradiotimelines it was an animated short film made in Czechoslovakia in 1976, it once aired on nickelodeon in the US some years before it launched in the UK (1993) it was lost for a while but was soon found.
@@ArchdukeJake You are correct andI apologies for confusing things. I went back to the master project to check. This is called "Naprej, zastava slave" and was - according to Wikipedia- a regional anthem of Slovenia from 1919 until 1989. You can read more here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naprej,_zastava_slave
Thanks for the feedback. According to Wikipedia - which I accept is not always accurate - Trei culori - the anthem I have used - was the national anthem of the Socialist Republic of Romania from 1977 to 1990
San Marino and Andorra only in the mid-90s? And Liechtenstein only in the late-2000s?? Geez... why so late? 🤔 I mean, I'm not one to talk, I'm from Portugal lol. Our first colour transmission was in 1975 (with the help of some French and German friends who let us experiment with their Secam and PAL systems) and we fully-converted in 1980. Although, in all fairness, this only happened after the downfall of the dictatorship in 1974 (which they couldn't care less about colour transmissions when they were in office). And if that wasn't enough, we were going through an economic crisis at that time. So yeah, I hope that explains the lateness lol
Some of these dates were VERY hard to verify but I have tried to be consistent. San Marino, Andorra and Liechtenstein were only "late" to the colour party because they had no dedicated national service until the dates quoted. As I indicated in the text, prior to that they did receive broadcasts from their much larger neighbours.
@@tvradiotimelines Ohh, I get it now! That makes sense. So probably the last to convert from monochromatic to colour TV was actually Turkey, in 1984. By the way, congrats on the video and on the channel as well! 👏
Thanks for the feedback which is really appreciated. I'm sure this is not the only example and my intention was never to suggest that all video or audio was from the start-up broadcast period in every case. I believe that this particular ident was sued between 1980 and1992 but it is so emotive, I thought it should be used. The alternative would have been a pretty boring static caption.
For Montenegro, North Macedonia and Slovenia, you played their own national anthems, but for Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia you played the Yugoslav anthem "Hej, Sloveni". Why is that?
11:08 Swedish åland silands? Last time i cheked they were finlands since our independence. They speak swedish there so i do understand the misinterpretation. As a finn, just a little bit annoyed. But great work anyways
My apologies! A misunderstanding of the Wikipedia entry that states "Color broadcasts have been available from the Åland Islands since 1969 where there is a Sveriges Television AB (Sweden Television) transmitter...". I will amend it when I do an update! I fully understand your irritation,
@@tvradiotimelines Mate, in Wikipedia here's have a junky information, Wikipedia is plaged by errors, a little bit grammatical mistakes, I don't truth Wikipedia
@@AkiruWT I agree - which is why I always try to verify the info from a second source (which in turn is why it takes so long to produce these videos) but sometimes that's just not possible so you just have to go with what you have.....
There's another Finland-related error - regular Finnish television broadcasts began already on March 21, 1956, through the privately-owned TES-TV network.
@@koa1464 I really have no additional information. Maybe it was simply a question of economics/finances? There was a revolution in 1974 so maybe that delayed things?
8:50 Colour TV started in Germany, not Britain. Without the Germans inventing and perfecting it, the PAL colour system would not be available to *ANY* country's TV broadcasters, state-owned or private commercial.
According to most reference books and official sources, Germany introduced colour on two television channels simultaneously, at 9:30am on Friday, August 25, 1967 with a symbolic launch button pressed by Willy Brandt at the International Radio and Television Fair in West Berlin. A full-time colour service began in 1970. The BBC began its colour service on Saturday, July 1 a967 although its all service did not start until Saturday, December 2, 1967.
@@tvradiotimelines Two German *STATIONS* launched colour broadcasting on 25th *August,* 1967. Which *still* means that Germany had colour TV first, even if they didn't start *regular* broadcasts in colour until 1970. Algemeine Rundfunk Deutschland and Zweiter Deutsche Fernsehen were still *first out of the gate* in colour broadcasting. And was *STATIONS,* not channels!
@@neilforbes416 in the United States they had colour TV since the 1950s and the first colour TV was the RCA CTC100 from the 50s only available in America.
@@pyeltd.5457 The American NTSC was only *marginally* superior to the *UTTERLY ABOMINABLE* French SECAM system. Germany had given the world the *PAL* system, which was by far the *SUPERIOR* method for transmission of colour TV. America may be the first to have colour, but was never to have the *BEST* colour system.
Thanks for the information. It is sometimes difficult to ascertain exactly when a "regular" or "full time" service began - which is why I mentioned the start of test transmissions in 1939. If/when I update this video, I will add some additional detail.
Bulgaria color since 1972 very true. Romania and Turkei were black and white up to 1983 and 1984 more than 10 years later than Bulgaria. Lichtenstein had no color up to 2008???
1FLTV was Liechtenstein's first television broadcaster. It began operation on 15 August 2008 but before that the principality was able to receive broadcasts from both Austria and Switzerland.
If you mean the one from 1956, I understand that it was the anthem of the Armenian SSR at the time, The vocal version is featured on this Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Soviet_Socialist_Republic
@@cerionerwarriorgamer1754 I am not sure which "second one" you mean. Mostly. The music is usually the national anthem of the territory/country on the date in question although some are the idents of the specific TV service
Convaincu par cette démonstration et de l'intérêt de cette invention pour l'avenir, mais aussi très conscient que l'instabilité ministérielle doit l'amener à rapidement imprimer sa marque sur la lourde administration des PTT dont il a la charge en la modernisant, Georges Mandel décide d'inaugurer au plus tôt un service public régulier et expérimental de télévision en France. Il se rend en mars 1935 à la CdC afin de mesurer l'état d'avancée des recherches[2]. René Barthélemy lui fait une démonstration de sa nouvelle caméra mécanique à disque de 60 lignes de définition (25 images par seconde), de son nouveau télécinéma (dont il est l'inventeur) en 180 lignes, ainsi que d'un poste récepteur en 60 lignes à tube cathodique, tube dont la CdC vient de lancer la fabrication. Il l'informe également de ses travaux en cours sur une caméra en 180 lignes. Pressé de réaliser son projet, le ministre accorde à Barthélemy les moyens réclamés pour sa réussite. L'amphithéâtre de l'école supérieure des PTT, situé dans les locaux du ministère des Postes et télécommunications au 103 rue de Grenelle, est aménagé en studio de télévision dès le 17 avril 1935 et ses gradins sont démontés pour l'agrandir. La caméra mécanique à 60 lignes de la CdC est placée dans la pièce adjacente, derrière une vitre isolante à double épaisseur destinée à masquer le bruit du moteur qui fait tourner le disque de la caméra. Cette même pièce abrite également l'émetteur 60 lignes de 500 watts conçu par la Compagnie des compteurs. Le projet prévoit un émetteur ondes courtes sur la tour Eiffel et une définition de 180 lignes à terme, dès que Barthélemy aura finalisé ses travaux. Mille invités du ministre, personnalités, journalistes, et industriels, se pressent dans le studio du 103 rue de Grenelle le vendredi 26 avril 1935 pour assister à la première émission officielle de télévision française régulière transmise par radio avec une définition de 60 lignes[3]. Il est 20 h 15 quand, sur le petit écran verdâtre, apparaît le visage de la comédienne et amie du ministre, Béatrice Bretty, sociétaire de la Comédie-Française, avec à ses côtés, Jean Toscane, la voix la plus célèbre de Radio PTT, et René Barthélemy. Lèvres et yeux maquillés en noir pour les besoins de la télédiffusion, Mlle Bretty raconte sa dernière tournée en Italie avec la troupe[4] : « Nous avons fait un beau voyage... ». Ce sont les premiers mots diffusés à la télévision française. Cette première émission de télévision est diffusée en direct jusqu'à 20 h 30 sur la fréquence de 175 mètres en ondes moyennes dans un rayon de 100 km. Radiovision-PTT, première chaîne de télévision française, vient de naître[5] ,[6].
At the time of the introduction of TV (and the subsequent introduction of colour TV) in those states, Bosnia &Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia were still constituent parts of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - so it is, in fact, the Yugoslav anthem that is used.
@@rlnarayanan72 I cannot honestly remember where I found the footage featured in my video but there is some here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1gCEoQw_0fk.html
I DO get a lot of requests like this and will bear it in mind although my main interest is obviously partially based on my own nostalgia and therefore tends to be UK-centric.
As I have said elsewhere, part of the attraction of doing these videos is to recall my own youth and so the emphasis tends to be UK-centric, I WILL give it some thought, though!
@@koa1464 I am currently ploughing though the UK commercial radio sector which is VERY complex. This sounds interesting, though, o I will add it to the list!
It is often difficult to be precise about the dates, For example, according to this article (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_Ukraine), the "first official broadcast took place in Kyiv on 1 February 1939" but I have used the date on which the first regular national channel began airing.
