The clip mentions the BBC TV broadcasts starting in November 1936. The system was fully electronic modern TV (405 line) and it wasn't experimental. My Dad first saw a TV in a British pub in Farnham Surrey in 1938. The broadcasts were only two hours a day in 1936 and expanded hours up to September 2,1939 when TV ceased at the declaration of War. British TV resumed on 405 lines in 1946 and the standard continued to January 1985. There were an estimated 20,000 sets in the UK in 1939. A 1936 set would work up to 1985 receiving off air signals without modification.
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Originally Posted by Jeffhs
I am amazed there was anything at all on television prior to World War II. I always thought that any TV broadcasting during this era would have been strictly experimental, not intended for viewing by the general public. Were there any real TV stations on the air before the war, or was it all just experimental closed-circuit programming sent to special receivers in laboratories? I think most of us wertinge still listening to radio until after the war ended, when the first commercial TV stations came on the air. Cleveland's ABC affiliate on channel 5 was the city's first TV station, and it did in fact sign on for the first time in 1947. Channel 3 (NBC) and 8 (at the time CBS) signed on shortly after, in 1948 and 1949, respectively.
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