Early TV production figures for '46-'51

[bandersen]

I just stumbled across this breakdown of TV production for 1946-1951

1946 - 10,000
1947 - 250,000
1948 - 1,000,000
1949 - 3,000,000
1950 - 7,500,000
1951 - 5,600,000

That '46 figure seems a little low to me ?

They give further breakdown by screensize and other features for 1951.

It's on page 61
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...ng-1952-01.pdf

[benman94]

The '46 figures might be a tad low, but a lot of '46 models were introduced at the end of the year and would have their largest production runs in 1947.

[bandersen]

Ah, yes, good point.

[Eric H]

I'd heard the RCA 630 and 621 went into production in October of 46 so many, or maybe the majority of them were made in 47.

8000 sets in use in 1946, probably 7000 of them were RCA and the rest divided up between the other manufacturers?

Who else was making sets in quantity in 46?

[David Roper]

How many prewar sets were still in use during 1946? As many as a thousand? Possibly more?

[benman94]

DuMont and Raytheon-Belmont would likely have been the two largest aside from RCA. The vast majority of the RCA 621 and 630s would have been from '47. I have a low serial number 630TS; built around March of 1947 from what I can deduce.

Viewtone made some sets as well, starting in late 1945.

[arvebe1248]

It looks like the Korean War curbed TV production for 1951

[decojoe67]

Originally Posted by benman94

....The vast majority of the RCA 621 and 630s would have been from '47.

It's very hard to figure what RCA was doing with their TV's in those early postwar years. If many of the '46 sets were produced in '47, then it would've overlapped the new '47 models like the 721 which would've been the better choice than the 621 with it's larger 10" CRT, and a cheaper and more compact choice than the 630! Even more, after the relatively compact 721 with a refined chassis that was just as good as the 630 (some say even better), RCA went back to the large 630 styled 8TS30 in '48!

[madRad45]

Stumbled on an article titled “Receiver Production Hits Alltime High” on page 34 of "Broadscasting" magazine from 27-Jan-1947. Here's the link:

http://americanradiohistory.com/Arch...7-01-27-BC.pdf

Article calls out TV production for RMA Members for 1946 as:

“Output of television sets in 1946 totaled 6,746 units, of which 3,561 were shipped in December. The total video production for the year comprised 5,070 table models, 1,344 direct-viewing radio-television consoles, 10 projection consoles, 51 radio-phonograph combination projection consoles, 1 direct-viewing radio-phonograph console.”

A little later in article it says, with regard to radio, and I assume TV as well:

“RMA member production is estimated at about 90% of the industry total.”

This would put industry total around 7,500 sets, which seems to support the previous article. Also, over half the 1946 TVs produced shipped in December, so it seems they did get a late start on the '46 models.