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Color-Casting

June 25, 2013

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Profile America -- Tuesday, June 25th Today is the anniversary of the first color television broadcast. In 1951, CBS transmitted the appropriately named program "Premiere" from New York City, and through stations in Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia. The program was seen in color only at a few select facilities, because color sets for the home weren't available until 1954. By the end of 1957, while nearly 39 million U.S. households had TV sets, only 150,000 were color units. Sales of color sets caught up with those of black and white sets around 1970. Today, some $19 billion worth of LCD and plasma screen TVs are sold annually. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: www.earlytelevision.org
Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 796
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012, t. 1033
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/manufactures.html