Why were monophonic TVs sold for so long?

[maxhifi]

Originally Posted by ESigma25

I've always been curious why monophonic TVs were sold seemingly until the end of CRT production itself, long after the cost of adding a second speaker and the necessary hardware would have been enough to have a real impact on the price. Were TV manufacturers just that cheap that they were willing to make relatively big sets with only one speaker (and often no composite jacks) up to the 2000s? It just doesn't make much sense to me given by the mid 90s only the cheapest and crappiest VCRs didn't output in stereo.

1. They were cheaper, and by the end, they where the absolute cheapest.

2. Stereo speakers 18 inches apart don't really add a lot to the experience of watching TV. For someone who just wanted a basic TV to watch, it wasn't a feature worth spending money on.

3. There was really no use for AV jacks, unless you were a videophile, until the DVD player became mainstream in the very late 90s. Before that, I suspect the vast majority of composite inputs were never used. Most people would connect their VCR directly to the VHF input of their TV, even if a better method was possible. In reality the quality difference was insignificant on most normal sized TVs.