History of TV in the UK and abroad.

It is thought that television came around in 1869 and was created by Scotsman John Logie Baird. But in 1876 an experiment for television was carried out and John Bairds mechanical system was quickly dropped as a new system called an electronic 405 line was founded to be a lot better and was then classed as standard in the television industry.  

In 1922 the BBC was the first company broadcasting in Britain, which was set up by a group of manufacturers who worked with wireless equipment. In the company there was an attempt by hardware manufacturers to create software and a distribution system. This private sector organization was the world’s first national broadcaster.

In January 1927 the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) was founded by a royal charter and was given a license to broadcast.

Then in 1952 the new BBC signal could be received by 81% of the population, and by this time a television license had also been introduced.  

By the time of 1955 around four and a half million people were paying for a television license. 

In 1964 a new channel was introduced in colour and by 1967 there was a switch over to the new 625 lines which were in colour. The standard 405 system was finally switched off in 1985 and the new colour system (625 lines) became standard.

The ITV channel was later founded and went on air shortly after. 

Later in 1982 channel 4 came about and went on air.

Between 1982 -1990, BBC, ITV and channel 4 were the three main channels on air and the television system was named terrestrial TV.

There are now 5 national television networks in the UK not including cable and digital or satellite.

PAL (Phase Alternating Line) is an analogue television system which is used in broadcast television systems in many countries. It is the TV standard in the UK and is made up of 25 frames per second, it has 625 lines of which 576 are used to show the picture. PAL offers more picture detail and has a better quality of picture lighting and has a frame rate of 50HZ.

NTSC (National, television standard committee) is an analogue television system used in South America, all of southern America except Brazil and Argentina) Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Philippines and some pacific islands and territories. It has a higher frame rate of 60HZ which lowers visible flicker and picture noise.

SECAM (Sequential colour with memory) it is an analogue system which was first used in France. It was the first European colour television standard. SECAM is used mainly in France but is also used in many other eastern European countries. It offers good picture detail and stable hues. SECAM is very similar to PAL but it sends colour signals separately.