See how it looked in 1950

Ruling on Color TV Turns Buyer Blue; Industry Sees Red

By Richard L. Strout | Staff Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Washington

Eight million owners of television sets want to know if their sets are obsolete. Many more millions of potential owners, facing a new 10 percent federal tax starting Nov. 1, want to know if they should buy now.

The issue arises from color, and the permission of the Federal Communications Commission granted to the Columbia Broadcasting System to start sending out pictures in color on Nov. 20.
The coming of color to television doesn’t mean the end of the rainbow to the harassed industry. It has spent years climbing out of the red, and now it is being dropped back into the paintbox under conditions of considerable confusion.

There are indignation meetings and probable lawsuits. The rivals of the Columbia Broadcasting System have not been able to stick to neutral shades. At the news their faces turned white, they felt blue, and they saw red.

Huge Investment

Since a good television set costs $200 to $300, the question of obsolescence injected by the FCC is huge. Eight million existing sets valued at $200 each represent an investment of $1,600,000,000.
The companion radio-phonograph industry is now engaged in bitter contest between rival makers of different style phonograph records, with adapters necessary on new sets to meet three different requirements.

The situation in the television industry is uncertain, but talk of “adapters” and “converters” coupled with plain colorful language, has followed the FCC ruling.
Prospect of colored television has been held forth for years. Rival companies have desperately sought to be first with the new process.

Six weeks ago the FCC made its decision. It announced it would give permissive approval to CBS to broadcast in color by its new process, unless the “great majority” of television set manufacturers agreed to make certain changes in their black-and-white receivers after mid-November.

FCC Not Too Happy

On Oct. 11, the FCC noted that most receiver makers had indicated they were “unwilling or unable” to redesign their existing black-and-white sets. So the FCC authorized CBS to go ahead.

The FCC decision was 5 to 2. In approving CBS color, the majority rejected rival systems of the Radio Corporation of America and Color Television Inc., for the time being. These did not come up to minimum criteria, said the FCC majority.

The FCC wasn’t very happy about its own decision. But it argued that the longer it waited, the “greater the number of the receivers in the hands of the public that will have to be converted or adapted if at a later date the CBS color system is adopted.”
As the situation stands now, even enthusiasts do not expect commercial color television in the home without considerable delay.

Costly ‘Converters’

Present sets won’t be able to get the proposed color images that CBS proposes to start broadcasting without adapters. On the other hand, it appears that any set made specially to receive color will require some extra gadgets in order to get programs in plain black and white.

Owners of present sets will be able to buy “converters” for $25 to $70, depending on the size of screen, which would pick up the color programs and translate them back into black and white.

Most television manufacturers were eager to tell the public that ordinary black-and-white shows will continue to be broadcast for years, perhaps for good. Using Hollywood as an analogy, they pointed out that most motion pictures are still in black and white.

TV experts said that color productions will be more costly to stations, and some advertisers might be unwilling to pay for them.

The FCC authorization is permissive, not mandatory. Television broadcasters are meeting to consider their course.