Spain has entered the chat.
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This is an interesting topic and I decided to do a little research before just posting "we picked PAL" and...wow! I uncovered a fascinating story of international intrigue and cold-war politics that I didn't expect to find.
The Spanish newspaper El País published in 1978 a story finally revealing what was behind the decision and how it came to be. Spoiler: Spain picked SECAM first! So in the mid-1960s the French government made an alliance with several other countries to use the SECAM system, though no broadcasting began. Two years later the Spanish government casually mentioned that they would be using PAL, but did not publish this decision in the BOE, effectively not making it official. It turns out that in the intervening years, the German government offered a loan to the Spanish government of 200 million DM that came with a condition to use Telefunken's PAL. But this was never made official because the French were in the process of their own bribe, in the form of a business deal for Thomson (the inventor or SECAM) to purchase the General Electric Española television factories and business for 300 million pesetas and the possibility to support Spain's bid to join the EU. A double cross!
In the end Spain ended up with PAL, France ended up with a Spanish TV factory*, and the Spanish government ended up with a pile of cash. Here's the full article, which reads pretty well using Google Translate:
https://elpais.com/diario/1978/09/28...01_850215.html
I had always made the assumption that since PAL was most similar to the various flavors of CCIR black and white in use at the time, it was chosen for expediency vs. the weird French system by most of the countries that adopted it. As Spain was not an important market, relatively speaking, in the 1960s all of this political machination leads me to wonder if something similar played out in the other countries. In the end SECAM was only used by France and their territories, some other dependent nations, and...the USSR. This would be a fascinating story to hear!
*Someone up thread was wondering if anyone actually produced entire CRTs. I can report that GEE (the Spanish division of GE) indeed had a CRT factory in Madrid and I have seen a 21" tube stamped FABRICADA EN ESPAÑA with the GEE logo on it. This is the same GEE that Thomson wound up with. Incidentally, none of these GEE sets were based on American designs, unlike the Philcos and Zeniths of the day. They were all home-grown, near as I can tell, and there are very, very few in existence. All the advertising at the time was focused on how only GEE sets had a "black screen" that allowed you to watch for hours without hurting your eyes.
I have a GEE set up on the bench right now, produced in 1968, that I need to finish up and make a post on. What's curious is that THIS particular set was built neither by GEE, nor by Thomson, but by Miniwatt, which near as I can tell, was actually owned by Philips. I have seen this same GEE-labeled set sold under the Emerson, Westinghouse, Kolster, and Iberia brands in Spain and under at least one brand in Germany. Pre-EU Europe sure were a promiscuous bunch. Incidentally every Spanish-made set I have also sports a metal "luxury tax" plaque riveted to the chassis.
I'm not aware of seeing any Thomson sets here that were made prior to the BPC era. I'm not saying there were none, but they sure are scarce.
Finally I'm not sure who sold the first color sets in Spain - there are almost none for sale today. One I have found is a Zenith four-tube PAL console that pops up for sale from time to time but the seller never answers any messages. I really, really want to get my hands on that!
Edit: here is a link to another retelling of the PAL vs. SECAM story:
https://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/45...elevision.html