Timeline of the introduction of television in countries
 |
1939 and before
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000 and after
No television
No data
This is a list of when the first publicly announced television broadcasts occurred in the mentioned countries. Non-public field tests and closed circuit demonstrations are not included.
This list should not be interpreted to mean the whole of a country had television service by the specified date. For example, the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the former Soviet Union all had operational television stations and a limited number of viewers by 1939. Very few cities in each country had television service. Television broadcasts were not yet available in most places.
History[edit]
1920s and 1930s[edit]
| Year | Countries and territories |
|---|---|
| 1928 |  United States (mechanical television, experimental - W2XCW)[1]
|
| 1929 |  United Kingdom (mechanical, experimental),[2]  Germany (mechanical, experimental),[3]  Australia (mechanical, experimental, after hours on two existing Melbourne radio stations - 3UZ and 3DB),[4][5][6]  Netherlands (mechanical, experimental in Scheveningen)[7]
|
| 1931 |  France (mechanical, experimental),  Canada (mechanical, experimental - VE9EC),  Soviet Union (mechanical, experimental - МТЦ),  Siam (mechanical, experimental, cancelled because of the revolution)
|
| 1934 | Australia (electronic television, experimental, Brisbane)[8]
|
| 1935 |  Germany (intermediate film; semi-electronic), France (electronic - PTT Radio Vision), Netherlands (electronic, experimental in Eindhoven by Philips)[7]
|
| 1936 | United Kingdom (electronic - BBC Television Service), Germany (electronic television - Deutscher Fernseh Rundfunk),[9]
|
| 1937 |  Free City of Danzig (electronic, experimental),[10]  Poland (mechanical, experimental), (Doświadczalna Stacja Telewizyjna)[11]
|
| 1938 |  Soviet Union (electronic, experimental - CT USSR),  Turkey (electronic, experimental)
|
| 1939 |  Chile (experimental),  Japan (electronic, experimental - J2PQ),[12][13]  Italy (electronic, experimental - EIAR Trasmissioni Sperimentali Radiovisione),[14]  Peru (electronic, experimental),[15] Poland (electronic, experimental),[11] United States (electronic; experimental and non-commercial until 1941 - NBC)
|
1940s[edit]
1950s[edit]
1960s[edit]
1970s[edit]
1980s[edit]
1990s[edit]
| Year | Countries and territories |
|---|---|
| 1991 |  Cayman Islands (Cayman 27, now defunct),  Falkland Islands (FITV),[118]  Fiji (FijiTV),[119]  Nauru (NTV),  Rwanda (RTV)
|
| 1992 |  São Tomé and Príncipe (TVS, regular),  Solomon Islands (TTV),  South Ossetia (Ir),[120]  Transnistria (PMR TV),  Vanuatu (TBV, experimental),
|
| 1993 |  Eritrea (Eri-TV),  San Marino (San Marino RTV), Vanuatu (TBV),  Western Samoa (SBC Television 1)
|
| 1994 |  Tanzania (mainland, Coastal Television Network)
|
| 1995 |  Andorra (ATV),[121]  Gambia (Gambia Radio & Television Service),  Saint Helena (Sure South Atlantic Ltd),  Turks and Caicos Islands (WIV Channel 4)
|
| 1996 |  Palestine (PBC)
|
| 1997 |  Somaliland (Somaliland Television)[122]
|
| 1999 |  Bhutan (BBS),[123]  Malawi (TVM),[124]  Tuvalu (limited service)[125]
|
2000s and 2010s[edit]
| Year | Countries and territories |
|---|---|
| 2000 |  Botswana (BTV, national),  Tonga (TV Tonga, national)
|
| 2001 |  Tokelau (foreign channels, no local service),[126]  Tristan da Cunha (BFBS, live service)
|
| 2002 |  Kiribati (TV Kiribati, native, but suspended from 2013 to 2018)
|
| 2004 |  Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic[127][128] (Laayoune TV)
|
| 2005 |  South Sudan (South Sudan Television)[129]
|
| 2006 |  Comoros (ORTC),  Palau (OTV, returned),[130]  Pitcairn Islands[131]
|
| 2008 |  Liechtenstein (1 FL TV),  Papua New Guinea (state-owned launching) (NBC Television)
|
| 2011 |  Norfolk Island (TVNI, local)
|
| 2018 | Kiribati (Kiri 1 TV, returned)[132]
|
| 2019 | Tuvalu (returned, Tuvalu.TV)[133]
|
See also[edit]
- History of television
- List of years in television
- Geographical usage of television
- Prewar television stations
- Timeline of the introduction of color television in countries
- Timeline of the introduction of radio in countries
Notes and citations[edit]
- ^ See WRGB History, How Television Came to Boston: The Forgotten Story of W1XAY, W3XK: America's first television station, and "WRNY to Start Daily Television Broadcasts," The New York Times, August 13, 1928, p. 13.
- ^ See J.L. Baird: Television in 1932.
- ^ See Museum of Broadcast Communications: Germany and Berlin 1936: Television in Germany.
- ^ Australian TV – The First 25 Years by Peter Bielby, page 173. ISBN 0-17-005998-7
- ^ Linking a Nation – Chap 9 – Australian Heritage Council
- ^ Peter Luck, 50 Years of Australian Television ISBN 1-74110-367-3 p.15
- ^ a b c See Eerste NTS journaal op de Nederlandse televisie.
- ^ "Timeline – national and state, 1927-1941". Brisbane Courier Mail. Archived from the original on February 15, 2008.
- ^ See The Birth of Live Entertainment and Music on Television, November 6, 1936, and 1937 RCA Publicity Photographs. "Eighty-seven video programs were telecast by NBC last year," "Where Is Television Now? Archived 2008-09-13 at the Wayback Machine", Popular Mechanics, August 1938, p. 178. Regularly scheduled electronic broadcasts began in April 1938 in New York (to the second week of June, and resuming in August) and Los Angeles. "Telecasts Here and Abroad," The New York Times, April 24, 1938, Drama-Screen-Radio section, p. 10; "Early Birds," Time, June 13, 1938; "Telecasts to Be Resumed," The New York Times, Aug. 21, 1938, Drama-Screen-Radio section, p. 10; Robert L. Pickering, "Eight Years of Television in California," California — Magazine of the Pacific, June 1939. Also note that many rural areas of the Southern United States didn't receive television until the late 1950s and early 1960s.
- ^ Although 180-line cathode ray tube receivers were manufactured in France in 1936, a mechanical scanning camera was still used at the transmitter in Paris until 1937.
- ^ a b See The Warsaw Voice: What's On? and Historia Przemysłowego Instytutu Telekomunikacji przed II wojną światową at the Wayback Machine (archived September 28, 2007) (in Polish).
- ^ See The Evolution of TV: A Brief History of TV Technology in Japan: “Can you see me clearly?” Archived 2013-01-01 at the Wayback Machine; Public TV Image Experiments Archived 2016-05-26 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Off from 1940 to 1950 due to Japan's entry in the Second World War and subsequent US occupation.
- ^ See Early Television in Italy
- ^ See Historia de la televisión en el Perú
- ^ Off from 1939 to 1945 during World War II.
- ^ ["Historia de la Televisión! | Primera transmisión en blanco y negro | Event view". Archived from the original on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 2013-10-24. Latin America's first experimental television station (in Spanish)
- ^ Off from 1939 to 1946 during World War II.
- ^ Czechoslovakia became two separate states, namely the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
- ^ License auctioned to Silvio Santos and became SBT São Paulo in 1981
- ^ License auctioned to Organizações Bloch in 1983 and became TV Manchete Rio de Janeiro, now RedeTV! Rio
- ^ See DRs historie 1950-1959.
- ^ Station broadcast in English from its launch to shutdown in 1954, as a consequence of the FCC freeze, which was lifted at the time of closure.
- ^ Licensed to Altzomoni, in the neighboring State of Mexico.
- ^ "20,000 SAW THE FIRST TELEVISION IN BANGKOK". Singapore Standard (retrieved from NLB). 30 April 1952. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
- ^ Limited to Istanbul. Ankara got television in 1968 when TRT started its television service. In 1971, ITU TV shut down and TRT started a station in Istanbul. From then on, a slow process to start a national service began.
- ^ Dutch-language BRT used the Belgian 625-line standard and French-language RTB used the Belgian 819-line standard (abandoned in 1963). Early Belgian sets were very expensive because they could receive four different standards: Belgian 625, European 625, Belgian 819, French 819. Later a fifth standard was added with the French 625-line standard.
- ^ English-language station affiliated to American networks (with an independent phase) until 2015, when it became a Canal 5 affiliate.
- ^ First television broadcasts in the island of Ireland, eight years before the Republic. Local programmes started in 1955.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1955. p. 242. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ Australian Television: the first 24 years, Melbourne: Nelsen/Cinema Papers, 1980, p. 3
- ^ "TELMA, the story of Morocco's first and short-lived television channel".
- ^ "Lajes more than speck in television history". Air Force. 19 October 2004. Archived from the original on 12 February 2024. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
- ^ License auctioned to Organizações Bloch in 1983 and became TV Manchete Minas, now RedeTV! Minas
- ^ a b The channel launched in 1956 as a continuation of a project that had aired a public broadcast in May 1955 as the first television broadcast in Finland. Keinonen, Heidi (2011). Kamppailu yleistelevisiosta. TES-TV:n, Mainos-TV:n ja Tesvision merkitykset suomalaisessa televisiokulttuurissa 1956–1964 (in Finnish). Tampere: Tampere University Press. ISBN 9789514483684.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1957. p. 280. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ Cheurfi, Achour (4 February 2011). Radio et télévision : histoire d'un monopole (in French). Algiers: Casbah Éditions (published September 2010). p. 88–p. 148.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ Herrera Palacios, Antonio (October 1998). "Un breve recorrido por la televisión en El Salvador" [A Brief Tour of Television in El Salvador]. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 November 2021.
- ^ "Primeros". La Prensa. 11 September 2006. Archived from the original on 19 September 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
- ^ "¿Cómo fue la llegada de la pantalla chica a Panamá? - Nacional - title.suffix.trans".
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1957. p. 281. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ The date refers to the launch of the television channel in republics and autonomous provinces of Yugoslavia, there were: RTV Zagreb in Croatia (1956), RTV Ljubljana in Slovenia (1958), RTV Belgrade in Serbia (1958), RTV Skopje in Macedonia (1964), RTV Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1969), RTV Titograd (Podgorica) in Montenegro (1971), and in Kosovo (RTV Priština) and Vojvodina (RTV Novi Sad) was introduced in 1975.
- ^ Television was introduced in Hong Kong when it was a British crown colony until 1997. The Rediffusion service was a cable network until 1973, when it converted to terrestrial television.
- ^ About LRT
- ^ Date where relays from Italy became available.
- ^ This station was the first in the Chinese world to be strictly terrestrial from the outset.
- ^ Originally limited to Tehran area, later to Abadan, and from 1969, expanded to the whole nation.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1969. p. 942-b. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1971. p. 1054-b. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ Wales had received broadcasts from England since 1952.
- ^ License auctioned to Silvio Santos in 1981 and became SBT RS
- ^ Station shut down in 1972. The frequency was later occupied by Teleamazonas starting in 1974. RTS is often erroneously believed to be the first.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1966. p. 856-b. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
- ^ Television was introduced in the Ryukyu Islands (now part of Japan), when they were under U.S. administration.
- ^ License auctioned to Organizações Bloch in 1983 and became TV Manchete Ceará (signed on 1984), now RedeTV! Ceará
- ^ The United Arab Republic was a short-lived political union between
Egypt and 
Syria. The union began in 1958 and existed until 1961, when Syria seceded from the union.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1966. p. 865-b. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ License auctioned to Silvio Santos in 1981 and became SBT Pará
- ^ "Megahertz" (PDF). March 1984. p. 32. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1963. p. 745. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ Ireland had received broadcasts from the United Kingdom since 1949.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1969. p. 934-b. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ Gibraltar had previously received television broadcasts from Spain.
- ^ Originally limited to Jakarta area, and from 1965, the island of Java as a whole. The first television station outside of the island, TVRI North Sumatera, opened in 1970, after receiving just overspill coming from West Malaysia.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1966. p. 856-b. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
- ^ Previously received television broadcasts from Italy.
- ^ This is the year when television was introduced in territories under its administration. After the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the government of the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan and other islands, and Mainland China was controlled by the People's Republic of China.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1971. p. 1062-b. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ Originally limited to most areas of Peninsular Malaysia.
- ^ a b "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1971. p. 1056-b. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1966. p. 847-b. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ A. Qoshanov, O. Dospanov, T. Uzakhbergenova “Qaraqalpaqstan tariyxı”, Nókis “Bilim” –2018
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1969. p. 928-b. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ Considering the current territory of the state, the first TV station is TV Centro América, founded in 1967. The area where TV Morena is became its own state, Mato Grosso do Sul, in 1979.
- ^ Although the Isle of Man has received television signals since 1951, 1965 marked the first direct broadcast from a relay station built on the island. To date, no local television service has been set up and the island is served by BBC North West and ITV Granada (until 2009, ITV Border) with no local opt-outs.
- ^ Times, Special to The New York (1966-11-25). "Congo Celebration Marks Year of Rule by Mobuto". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-09-25.
- ^ The Israeli Ministry of Education in co-operation with the Rothschild Fund started limited broadcasts to schools in March 1966. A public state-owned TV channel started broadcasting in May 1968. Broadcasts were black and white (with a few exceptions) until the early 1980s.
- ^ Previously received television broadcasts from Italy.
- ^ now defunct and replaced by HTV
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1969. p. 928-b. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ Successor of the prior RTV service in Lusaka, which started in 1961.
- ^ Excludes TV Florianópolis, a television station that existed between 1964 and 1965, and was shut down after four months on air by DENTEL on the grounds that it lacked a license.
- ^ Corresponds to the current
Northern Mariana Islands.
- ^ Corresponds to the current territory
Anguilla, and the country 
Saint Kitts and Nevis.
- ^ Antarctic Journal of the United States. January–February 1974. p. 29. ISBN 9780786451982 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1976. p. 1079-b. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ Converted from the former cable service.
- ^ Honolulu Star-Bulletin (February 1975). "Easter Island Television" (PDF). p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 July 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
- ^ Cable service. Dominica never had a terrestrial television service. Its monopoly in the market was broken in the early 80s by Marpin Telecoms, which is currently Digicel Dominica.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1976. p. 1077-b. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ Current
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
- ^ The Bahamas had previously received broadcasts from the United States.
- ^ Now believed to be under the jurisdiction of Radio-Televisão Timor Leste following the formal independence of the country in 2002.
- ^ "Television Factbook" (PDF). 1984. p. 1381. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ Replaced a cable company set up in 1975 when it was still under the control of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and was shut down due to storm surges from a hurricane in 1979.
- ^ Test service available only in Yangon in 1979, and formally launched in 1981.
- ^ Avaiable only in Colombo in the network's early years.
- ^ Had received broadcasts from
Singapore since 1963.
- ^ "Bonus TV channel". The Straits Times (retrieved from NLB). 13 July 1980. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
- ^ "Tune in to Channel 6!". The New Nation (retrieved from NLB). 12 July 1980. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
- ^ عن المؤسسة - موقع التلفزة الموريتانية. tvm.mr (in Arabic). Retrieved 2018-10-25.
- ^ Only bantustan within Apartheid-era South Africa to have a local television service. After the dissolution of Bophuthatswana, the station was integrated into the SABC and later shut down.
- ^ Television is available from Nong Khai city in Thailand since the mid-1970s.
- ^ "Media in Seychelles". Seychelles Media Commission. Retrieved 2022-12-22.
- ^ Louise M. Bourgault (22 June 1995). Mass Media in Sub-Saharan Africa. Indiana University Press. pp. 104–. ISBN 0-253-11309-1.
- ^ Off from 1991 to 2011 as the channel was suspended due to the civil war. During the interim, numerous private television stations appeared.
- ^ Subscription service, shut down in 1987, during its existence it also faced competition from ASTL-TV3, itself a subscription service until the 1991 launch of the Oceania Broadcasting Network, ASTL-TV3 later shut down in 1996.
- ^ Although the Vatican did not have a television service of its own until 1983, broadcasts from Italy had been received since 1954.
- ^ http://www.radiotv.ax/om-alands-radio (Swedish).
- ^ Winchester, Simon (2003) [originally published 1985]. Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire. p. 85.
- ^ TV comes to Norfolk Islands, Pacific Islands Communication Journal, December 1984
- ^ A prior service existed during the brief Argentine takeover of the islands in the Falklands War in 1982, sustained by ATC.
- ^ Assets sold to the government of Niue in 1989 and converted to a free-to-air terrestrial operation, TV Niue.
- ^ "Botswana Television (BTV) Negotiating Control and Cultural Production in a Globalising Context: A Political Economy of Media State Ownership in Africa" (PDF). University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. March 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
- ^ "LTV starts broadcasting for the first time - lesothotribune". 7 September 2022.
- ^ "Guiné-Bissau: Televisão celebra 17º aniversário com 14 horas de emissão". Agência Angola Press. 15 November 2006. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
- ^ LUSA (Agência de Notícias de Portugal, S.A.) (14 November 2007). "Único canal de televisão da Guiné-Bissau comemora 18 anos". Rádio e Televisão de Portugal. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
- ^ Television broadcasts had also been received from Argentina.
- ^ Television came to Fiji in part-time for the 1991 Rugby World Cup, and it arrived in full-time in 1994.
- ^ https://cominf.org/en/node/1166526942
- ^ ATV's origins trace back to the early 90s as an opt-out in the local relay of TVC's second channel, Canal 33.
- ^ "Somaliland National Television". somalilandlaw.com. Archived from the original on 23 September 2023. Retrieved 9 January 2004.
- ^ "Bhutan TV Follows Cyber Launch". BBC News. 2 June 1999.
- ^ "At the Crossroads: Freedom of Expression in Malawi" (PDF). Article 19. March 2000. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
- ^ "TUVALU: 2002 Economic and Public Sector Review" (PDF). Asian Development Bank. November 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
- ^ Narini Rajan (23 April 2012). The Digitized Imagination: Encounters with the Virtual World. Taylor & Francis. p. 102. ISBN 9781136516337, 1136516336.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help) - ^ "Sahrawis launch national television". Afrol News. 2009-05-21. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
- ^ RASD TV was established in February 2004, but didn't broadcast its regular transmissions until 2009.
- ^ Became the national broadcaster upon independence in 2011.
- ^ Excluding the cable network installed by the PNCC in 1990.
- ^ Pitcairn Island as a Port of Call. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. March 23, 2012. ISBN 978-0-7864-8822-3. Retrieved February 16, 2024.
- ^ "Kiribati TV venture hopes to connect islands". RNZ. 2 May 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
- ^ "Tuvalu Parliament sessions go live". Radio New Zealand. 29 November 2019. Archived from the original on 29 November 2019. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
