Talk:Timeline of the introduction of television in countries

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Venezuela Blue map[edit]

Remember that Venezuela introduce the TV in 1952. Please change the blue color in the map. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 186.93.36.6 (talk) 15:47, 5 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Definitions[edit]

How should "first television" be defined? First public demonstration of (mechanically scanned) television? First broadcast? First regular broadcasting schedule? First electronic television demonstration? First electronic broadcast? First regularly scheduled electronic television? -- Walloon 21:00, 27 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No country had a regular service prior to about 1936. While commercial service ostensibly began in the USA in 1941 subsequent US involvment in WW2 limited the development of services and availibility of sets until the late 1940's

Read the Wikipedia article on the history of television. The CBS owned television station in New York City was on the air seven days a week, in the afternoon and the evening, from 1931 to 1933. Also, see this history of BBC television. — Walloon 22:54, 2 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I made the decision. Now at least it has a definition of what this article entails, instead of it remaining in limbo any longer. If people want something different or change it, they are welcome to announce their suggestions. Also this article name is not correct. How about Timeline of the introduction of television in countries ? - The DJ 20:05, 29 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think a better article title is a good idea. We could have Summary of the first countries that introduced TV (my suggestion) or The DJ's suggestion of Timeline of the introduction of television in countries, which, in my opinion, is better. Any other ideas? How about Timeline of the first regular television broadcasts by country? Andrew 10:49, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Flags[edit]

Shouldn't this page use the flags and/or names of the countries that were in use when broadcasting began? --Xanthar 16:56, 6 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The flags are on there already (as of the 22nd May, 2006). Andrew 10:49, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The question was whether we shouldn't be using the historically precise flags. —Nightstallion (?) 09:11, 27 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Refering to Germany's flag from 1929 it was, historically, digonally red, white and blck. There is also a rather obscene flag from the same nation put in at 1935. I would advice it to be edited out. It is, as stated, rather obscene. — 212.17.144.230 05:08, 12 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That is rather the correct flag for Germany in those years. — Walloon 05:08, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed. I don't like the Nazi flag any more than you do, but that's what was in use at the time. Quiensabe (talk) 21:19, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Iran[edit]

 Iran is listed twice, once in 1958 and once in 1966. According to the page history, it was originally listed in 1958, and then [Denelson83 added it] to 1966. -- Anonymous reader, 03 July 2006

1936 RCA broadcasts[edit]

The introductory text to this table gives the criteria for inclusion or non-inclusion: "Non-public field tests and closed circuit demonstrations are not included." The demonstration of electronic television by RCA in New York in November 1936, whether you call it a field test or not, was definitely public, with numerous members of the press covering it. And it was a broadcast, not a close circuit demonstration. The criteria for the table do not include "regularly scheduled broadcasts." Likewise, RCA/NBC announced numerous special broadcasts between 1936 and 1939, which the press was also invited to watch, and which any television hobbyist in the NYC area could watch on a home-made set. Commercially manufactured sets from DuMont and others became available in 1938. If necessary, I can provide exact cites for the prior announcements of the 1936-1939 broadcasts in NYC newspapers. — Walloon 21:55, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, better put Britain back to 1934, then, the year the Marconi system was first tested. But c'mon, the US was a laggard in electronic TV, as engineers and programmers said at the time (and it has nothing to do with the "experimental" designation being lifted in 1941; regular broadcasts comparable to the BBC's began in 1939). Part of this was a rather sensible wait-and-see approach, but there's little doubt Germany was most advanced (its own wait-and-see involved public presentation rooms rather than private set ownership, which allowed it to improve standards as this became possible), but the BBC was the first both to establish a modern television standard and to implement not just test broadcasts but a fairly sophisticated studio with the accompanying broadcast infrastructure. If we start applying criteria too loosely, then it's easy to push one's favorite country forward; I'm already uncomfortable with the claim made on Early television stations that the U.S. was "broadcasting television" in 1928, when said broadcasts involved a total of four television sets, all of them owned by the company doing the tests.  ProhibitOnions  (T) 23:01, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Not true. At least four different television stations were licensed and on the air in 1928, in Boston (on air in October); Washington (on air in July); Hugo Gernsback's W2XAL in New York City (on air in August); and Schenectady, NY (the one you're thinking of, run by General Electric) (on air in January, regularly in May). Read the footnotes to the table. — Walloon 05:02, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I'm already quite familiar with this subject, and did read the footnotes, thanks. I've added an NPOV tag for the reasons I've mentioned above.  ProhibitOnions  (T) 09:22, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Colonies?[edit]

How do I change the flags of countries under colonial administration (e.g. changing Algerian flag with French flag because Algeria's flag wasn't adopted by time TV was introduced) without changing the name of the country? RJL 16:53, 16 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Experimental[edit]

I have removed the tag "experimental" after the Japan and Italy records in 1939 because the term is vague to the point of meaninglessness. If "experimental" means "non-commercial," then BBC and PBS are experimental television too. If "experimental" means "not part of a regular broadcast schedule," this table is not about the beginnings of regular broadcast schedules. As the introduction says, it is about the very first publicly announced broadcasts. If "experimental" means "part of an ongoing technological developement," then television has been continously "experimental" since its beginning, and will always be "experimental." There was no arbitrary point at which television stopped developing. If "experimental" means "had not yet adopted the NTSC standards of 1941," then most of the world's television is still "experimental."

There is no satisfactory definition of "experimental" television. — Walloon 03:42, 21 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]


I would say experimental means the following:

  • A television service broadcasted usually trough a low power antenna,
  • not necessarily following a regular schedule
  • the programs don't necessarily have a regular pattern
  • there wasn't an institution specially-created for the purpose of tv broadcasting, but rather a radio broadcasting company, an university or something else.
  • the program could be received and was destined for private homes, public tv showrooms or tv "theaters".
  • the purpose of this broadcasts was to accustom the public with the idea of television, attract customers for tv sets; besides that, for technicians to gather experience and face with possible problems that might occur during a tv broadcast.

Experimental would not mean:

  • An experimental broadcast made in laboratories for research purposes, not destined for public reception.
  • Public demonstration: a local broadcast made by various manufacturers in their showrooms or during public conferences held by universities or science men who were not meant to be received outside that building.

The establishment of a regular service would mean:

  • A more powerful antenna
  • An institution or section of an institution specially-created for tv broadcast purposes
  • A regular schedule, with well defined programs.

--Alex:D (talk) 20:00, 18 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

NPOV tag[edit]

I have removed the NPOV tag from the article. It was added to the article as a result of the above discussion concerning criteria ("1936 RCA broadcasts"). It does not appear that the discussion escalated to a true POV issue -- it is an issue of how to properly apply the criteria for inclusion. The question is what early U.S. broadcasts should be recognized in the table. If anything, specific entries might better be tagged with Template:Dubious or Template:Disputed-inline if more concrete efforts to resolve the issue on the talk page do not go anywhere. Skeezix1000 (talk) 17:37, 19 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Antigua and Barbuda/Montserrat/Panama Canal Zone/Western Sahara[edit]

Does anybody know when these countries adopted television broadcasting? 71.212.249.68 (talk) 02:50, 25 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

CMATT Communications began providing cable television to Antigua and Barbuda in 1983, but I'm not sure when the Antigua and Barbuda Broadcasting System adopted television. So the date will be set at 1983. There is some country data to prove that A&B had television service as early as 1974, but that was probably received from other islands. 71.212.249.68 (talk) 02:50, 18 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Territories without television[edit]

Shouldn't there be a list of territies that do not have television? Otherwise, they just look like omissions. I know that Pitcairn and Tristan da Cunha don't (although as the latter is a dependency of Tristan da Cunha, it may not count), for example. Salopian (talk) 16:21, 18 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Map glitches[edit]

Surely it's misleading to cover half of Asia in red when pre-war tv in Soviet Union was restricted to the centre of Moscow and Leningrad? And tv in Alaska pre-1940? I think not! Macdonald-ross (talk) 08:32, 30 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, but at the same time the map is clearly labeled as showing when each COUNTRY started regular broadcasts. Should we then break it up further and show when New York started (1928) and color Wyoming as getting tv much later? But, I do believe however that someone needs to find out when Greenland first got tv, I assume it does...and I do think it should be colored separate from its home country of Denmark. And on the issue of Denmark, Sweden, Norway...first commercial tv in 1987 seems awfully late...what is the definition of commercial tv? Did they really have no tv's for people to watch in their homes before 1987? 24.182.142.254 (talk) 12:12, 11 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Alaska was 1953, according to History_of_television#United_States_and_Canada, but I'm assuming that they'd put up infinitely-large antennas and try to pick up WNBC, no? After all, it is in the same country. North America would be easy to break up (as the info already exists in the other article), Russia likely less so - it's a federation nominally like the others, but would just end up looking like a huge Russia surrounded by other states or provinces within the same federation. --66.102.80.212 (talk) 22:22, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Notes and citations[edit]

There is a big problem with the notes !

First : they don't correspond !

Second : there are more invocation numbers than the numbers of notes !

~~Mario 6 April 2008 at 17 h 09 CET ~~

Canada, eh?[edit]

I see 1946 listed for Canada; what is the source for this? History_of_television#United_States_and_Canada finds no domestic commercial stations before 1952, which would be the start of CBC Television/Radio-Canada. That page lists just Illinois (1943), New York (1941), Ohio (1943), Pennsylvania (1941) and Washington D.C (1945) as being on-air at that time - a very short list indeed. Pennsylvania is home of Westinghouse (although TV had not yet come to Pittsburgh, it was in Philly), Illinois was Chicago's Zenith Radio before it became South Korean, New York is RCA and possibly General Electric, Washington D.C was one of the Dumont experimental stations. Not sure what was in Ohio... but TV was a small world back then. Not even Détroit made this list, although it would be providing usable signals to Windsorites a year or two later. --66.102.80.212 (talk) 21:59, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder about this, too. I see no source for stating 1946. As far as I know, Canadian television was introduced in 1952. NorthernThunder (talk) 08:18, 8 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'd expect the first TV for many Canadians was WIVB Buffalo in 1948 as that reached Toronto. In Montréal, however, the foreign stations are small-town Burlington-Plattsburgh; WCAX/WPTZ likely weren't on-air until well after Montréal already had a first domestic station, CBFT, in 1952. 66.102.83.61 (talk) 05:08, 24 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Turkey[edit]

Turkey met with TV in 1953, not in 1968. --88.234.239.222 (talk) 01:02, 7 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You mean introduced TV Quiensabe (talk) 21:12, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Norway, Sweden and Denmark[edit]

These countries are lsited twice, first for when they introduced television, and second, when they introduced commercial television. This doesn't apply to other countries, so why these ones? There is nothing to stop people from introducing a separate timeline for the introduction of commercial television, just as there is for colour one. Quiensabe (talk) 21:17, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]


USA, Poland, Soviet Union and France is listed with commercial debut so why shouldn't Norway, Sweden and Denmark be. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Swedol (talk • contribs) 18:12, 4 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Timeline of the introduction of 24-hour television in countries (pre-newpage draft)[edit]

Country Date Network or Channel Previous sign-on time Previous sign-off time Notes
 Australia 1989 Channel 9 9:00am 1:30am
 Austria 1992 ORF 7:00am 12:30am
 Belgium 1990
 Bulgaria 1993 BNT 5:00am 3:00am
 Burma 2007 MM 6:00am 2:00am Only commercial channel
 Cambodia 2003 CTN 24 hours since start 24 hours since start International.
 Cambodia (domestic) 2009 TVK 11:30am 11:00pm Still playing national anthem and test card at 11pm.
 Canada 1985 CBC 7:00am 1:00am
 Chile
 China 2003 CCTV
 Czechoslovakia 1995 ČST
 Denmark 2008 Danmarks Radio 5:30am 2:00am
 Finland 1971 (first time)
1997 (second time) 		YLE 4:00am midnight YLE started the 24 hour project for every Mondays since May 17, 1971. The programs were cancelled in 1981. Another project started in 1997
 France 1987 ORTF
 Germany 1988
 Greece 2000 EPT 7:00am 11:30pm
 Hong Kong 1993 TVB PAL
 Hungary 1998 m2 (TV channel) 11:15am 2:00am
 Iceland 1986 Stod 2 24 hours since start 24 hours since start
 India 2000 Unknown
 Iran 2003 IRIB
 Ireland 1989 RTÉ 7:00am 12:30am Introduced in 1988 tests for summer olympics.
 Italy 1986 RAI 8:00am 12:00am
 Jamaica 2004 JBC 2:00pm 11:30pm
 Japan 1985 NHK 10:00am 1:00am The first Asian country to introduce 24-hour television.
 South Korea 1998 MBC 6:00am 11:30pm
 Kuwait 1995 KTV
 Laos 2008 LTV3 6:00am 10:00pm LTV1 still closing at night
 Malaysia 2006 TV2 6:00am 1:00am English language channel.
 Netherlands 1999 Nederland 1 8:00am 11:30pm
 Norway 2002 NRK 6:00am 1:30am Broadcast music at night. Today still start at 6am
 Poland 2006 Polsat 6:00am 4:00am
 Portugal RTP
 Romania 1997 TVR PAL
 Singapore 2004 RTS 7:00am 2:00am
 Spain 2000 RTVE 6:00am 12:00am Spanish TV start broadcasting around-the-clock since January 1, 2000.
 Sweden 2002 TV4 6:00am 9:00pm
 Taiwan 2002 (now cancelled) CTV 8:00am 1:00am CTV introduced new programs in 2002, but have to cancel by law in 2004.
 Thailand 1996 iTV 24 hours since start 24 hours since start
 Tunisia 1997 6:00am 1:30am
 Turkey 2002 TRT 1 5:30am 2:30am
 United Kingdom 1983 ITV 6:00am 12:00am
 United States 1987 CBS
 Vietnam 2001 VTV2 5:30am 1:00am
 Zimbabwe

Introduction in 1990s?[edit]

The television is introduced in some countries in 1990s? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.151.150.166 (talk) 13:43, 9 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, some third world countries really started in 1990s. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.49.224.192 (talk) 15:38, 29 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Timeline of the introduction of television in countries[edit]

This interesting list suffers from a lack of references and many, many mistakes. The list requires a completely new research of the dates. I have collected some sources which may the useful: At first, The Statesman's Yearbook and the Europa World Year Book, very reputable almanacs, also TIME Almanac with Information Please and World Almanac may be useful. Unfortunately I do not have an own access to the online archives, so I cannot do that work. pressreference.com, culturalprofiles.net or [mapsofworld.com] (blocked by spamfilter) are much less reputable and should be used only if no other sources are available. Then, there are several "historical dictionaries", available also for minor countries in asia and africa, and the Country Studies(Area Handbooks. Perhaps the is someone here who wants to improve that list.--Antemister (talk) 22:21, 25 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

German Version[edit]

Having completed a new version in German, containing 250 references. I recommand to translate the German one, as this list contains numerous mistakes.--Antemister (talk) 19:33, 5 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Agree - At first glance, it seems more precise. Any volunteers? Denis (talk) 13:22, 8 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Can someone add 1 more country ?[edit]

Kuwait had TV in 1951 This Is the link of the original information https://ar.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/تلفزيون_الكويت

Information in Arabic was citied from a book written by Mohammed Nasser Al-Sanousi Book title : تلفزيون الكويت تاريخ وحكايات 

Ala'a Fadhel (talk) 23:45, 12 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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extremely misleading[edit]

Of course people had television in Liechtenstein before 2008. It is not clear what the date refers to.

The entire article should be deleted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.29.81.232 (talk) 12:51, 16 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

first off saying "this entire article should be deleted" because of one "mistake" (which isn't a mistake as i explain later) is wrong, second off, the reason liechtenstein is listed as 2008 is because that was the date their first local TV station started broadcasting, as we do not count receiving signals from other countries as television being "in that country" Mariobot128 (talk) 13:45, 29 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
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