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The Television Portal

Flat-screen television receivers on display for sale at a consumer electronics store in 2008

Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set, rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, entertainment, news, and sports. The medium is capable of more than "radio broadcasting", which refers to an audio signal sent to radio receivers.

Television became available in crude experimental forms in the 1920s, but only after several years of further development was the new technology marketed to consumers. After World War II, an improved form of black-and-white television broadcasting became popular in the United Kingdom and the United States, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the U.S. and most other developed countries. (Full article...)

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In 1969, the children's television show Sesame Street premiered on the National Educational Television network (later succeeded by PBS) in the United States. Unlike earlier children's programming, the show's producers used research and over 1,000 studies and experiments to create the show and test its impact on its young viewers' learning. By the end of the program's first season, Children's Television Workshop (CTW), the organization founded to oversee Sesame Street production, had developed what came to be called "the CTW model": a system of planning, production, and evaluation that combined the expertise of researchers and early childhood educators with that of the program's writers, producers, and directors.

CTW conducted research in two ways: in-house formative research that informed and improved production, and independent summative evaluations conducted by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) during the show's first two seasons to measure the program's educational effectiveness. CTW researchers invented tools to measure young viewers' attention to the program. Based on these findings, the researchers compiled a body of data and the producers changed the show accordingly.

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Credit: Adam Kliczek, [1]

CRT TV set "Wisła" ("Vistula") made in Poland, since 1955, by Warszawskie Zakłady Telewizyjne

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Did you know

...that David Letterman parodied Werner Erhard in the 1978 Mork & Mindy episode Mork Goes Erk?

...that the television adaptation of the BBC Radio 2 sitcom Teenage Kicks, originally for BBC Two, has been taken over by ITV?

...that an advertising spot immediately following Xinwen Lianbo, a daily news programme shown by most terrestrial television stations in mainland China, can sell for an estimated US$100,000?

...that the final episode of the 1986 television series Outlaws recycled footage from The Oregon Trail, because actors Rod Taylor and Charles Napier appeared in both programs?

...that the Zambian district of Chiengi has no television or telephone service?

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If there's anything unsettling to the stomach, it's watching actors on television talk about their personal lives.

— Marlon Brando

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Wikinews television portal

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Newman at the Canadian media delegation to China in 1974

Sydney Cecil Newman OC (April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman was appointed acting director of the Broadcast Programs Branch for the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) and then head of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He also occupied senior positions at the Canadian Film Development Corporation and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and acted as an advisor to the Secretary of State.

During his time in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, he worked first with ABC Weekend TV, before moving across to the BBC in 1962, holding the role of Head of Drama with both organisations. During this phase of his career, he created the spy-fi series The Avengers and co-created the science-fiction series Doctor Who, as well as overseeing the production of groundbreaking social realist drama series such as Armchair Theatre and The Wednesday Play. (Full article...)

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James T. Aubrey Kroger Babb Rudolph Cartier Eric Bana Kylie Minogue Peter Jennings KaDee Strickland Austin Nichols Aaron Sorkin Jake Gyllenhaal Dan Rather Brad Pitt Walter Cronkite Tom Brokaw John Le Mesurier George Formby Dan Castellaneta Perry Como Red Skelton Rose Catherine Pinkney

General images

The following are images from various television-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1LG Electronics smart TV from 2011 (from Smart TV)
Image 2Comparison of image quality between ISDB-T (1080i broadcast, top) and NTSC (480i transmission, bottom) (from Digital television)
Image 3Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)
Image 4A color television test at the Mount Kaukau transmitter site, New Zealand in 1970.
A test pattern with color bars is used to calibrate the signal. (from Color television)
Image 5RCA CT-100 at the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention playing Superman. The RCA CT-100 was the first mass-produced color TV set. (from Color television)
Image 6Hovannes Adamian c. 1900s (from Color television)
Image 7First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television)
Image 8Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right) (from History of television)
Image 9Ferdinand Braun (from History of television)
Image 10A map depicting digital terrestrial television standards (from Digital television)
Image 11An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
Image 12Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television)
Image 13The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
Image 14Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
Image 15Smart TVs on display (from Smart TV)
Image 16Public television in France uses 819 line b&w high definition, from 1959 until 1983 (TF1). (from History of television)
Image 17DBS satellite dishes (from History of television)
Image 18The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)
Image 19RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
Image 20LG Smart TV using the Web browser (from Smart TV)
Image 21Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
Image 22Samsung's discontinued Orsay platform (from Smart TV)
Image 23This live image of actress Paddy Naismith was used to demonstrate Telechrome, John Logie Baird's first all-electronic color television system, which used two projection CRTs. The two-color image would be similar to the basic Telechrome system. (from Color television)
Image 24The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
Image 25Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available (from History of television)