Timeline

TELEVISION TIMELINE

1927 Philo Farnsworth demonstrates electronic TV system.

http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/farnsworth.html

1928 Vladimir Zworykin patents the iconoscope tube.

1932 NBC builds experimental TV station in Empire State Building in New York.

1939 First public demonstration of electronic TV at New York World's Fair.

1941 NBC starts commercial TV station.

1942 TV shuts down because of World War II.

1945 TV resumes as war ends.

1948 First televised election coverage.

FCC institutes a "freeze" on the building of new TV stations.

1949 Cable broadcasting (called Community Antenna TV) started in Oregon.

1952 FCC lifts freeze and creates UHF channels.

1955 DuMont TV network goes out of business.

1956 Ampex introduces video tape.

1959 Quiz show scandals.

1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates.

1963 Coverage of Kennedy assassination increases prestige of TV news.

Networks expand evening news broadcasts to 30 minutes.

1965 Most network prime time shows now broadcast in color.

1967 Corporation for Public Broadcasting is established.

http://pbskids.org/teletubbies

1969 Neil Armstrong's first step on moon is televised.

1972 FCC begins to relax regulations that have slowed the growth of cable.

1973 Watergate hearings, which lead to Nixon's resignation, are televised.

1975 HBO uses satellite transmission to send programs to cable systems.

http://www.hbo.com

More households begin to subscribe to cable.

1976 Home video tape recording using ½" tape is introduced.

1980-1982 MTV, CNN and other cable-only networks begin broadcasting.

http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/TV/, http://www.mtv.com/

1986 Fox Broadcasting debuts as fourth network.

Prime time broadcast network audience share decreases as viewers watch more cable and pre-recorded tapes.

1991 Beginning of Persian Gulf War carried live on CNN.

1994 Direct Broadcast Satellites using small, 18-inch dishes, provide an alternative to cable.

1995 UPN and The WB, two new broadcast networks, debut.

First TV program carried over the Internet.

1996 Zenith introduces projection screen HDTV.

1996 Telecommunications Act opens up competition between cable TV companies and telephone companies.

1997 FCC sets guidelines for a changeover to digital television.

2000 Cable TV is available in about 70 percent of all U.S. homes.

America Online introduces AOLTV.