First anniversary of 4K UHDTV

The TV industry wants you to think about throwing out that fancy flat-screen HDTV you just got. ... Yet the mass-market prospects for TV with four times the resolution of HD — 3,840 by 2,160 pixels — appear as blurry as ever. reference All of the Potential Problems with 4K TV

Of course, there was 12 years between the first national broadcast in color, and the widespread adoption by most TV programs. Bonanza was always shown in color from the first episode in September, 1959. TV executives at the time were very concerned about bandwidth overload.

I was 10 in 1959 and remember the first time
I saw Bonanza in color. The kid down the street
had an accountant dad and they got a 21" color
TV. It was incredible to see a color TV show. I
wonder how much it cost him, for one lousy
show a week. I think Ed Sullivan was next.

In 1959 Bonanza was the only regularly scripted show in color, but NBC 's big job was to help the parent company (RCA) to sell color televisions. There was a long list of variety, special presentations, and game shows broadcast by NBC in color in 1959.

1. Bonanza
2. Startime
3. Sunday Showcase
4. Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall
5. The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
6. The Steve Allen Plymouth Show
7. The Arthur Murray Party
8. The Price is Right
9. The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford
10. The Bell Telephone Hour

In 1954 when the first color televisions were sold they were in $1000 to $1300 range (for a 15" TV). That was unsustainable and they were replaced in a few months with the 21" TV for $495. People who bought the earlier models were given a new TV for free (but they didn't get their money back).

RCA pretty much held on to the $495 price tag from 1955 to 1964. As this brand was by far the most popular in USA, it was the one you probably saw.




NBC would have monthly color specials from 1955 on, and variety shows were often in color. Jack Webb even tried a color medical drama called Noah's Ark which debuted on September 18, 1956, but was cancelled within a few months. Bonanza sold a lot of color sets in 1959 (but didn't bring the price down), but sales tripled in 1962 (from 150,000/year to 450,000/year) when Disney moved from ABC to NBC to be in color.

In 1965 when ABC and CBS began to broadcast most of their shows in color production at RCA went to 1.5 million sets per year, and the prices began to go down as other manufacturers began to seriously compete. Finally in 1970 color sets were outselling black and white ones.

As a rough estimate $495 is close to $4K in present day buying power. In some ways the family down the street in 1959 was putting out money equivalent to buying a 55" or 65" UHDTV today, but the difference of seeing color TV vs B&W would be much more profound than the difference between watching a good blu-ray disk in 1080p and seeing a movie in UHDTV.

Sony Ultra High Definition TV Prices
$3,498 55" diagonal
$4,998 65"
$24,998 84"

Bestbuy sells a 50" 1080p television for about $550.

EPA estimates that more than 979 million CRT televisions and monitors were sold between 1980 and 2010

It's hard comparing actual value of money in
different era's. In 1959, you could buy a very
decent used car for $500. Today $4000 will
get you a high mileage old piece of junk.
Heck, I was getting decent used cars in the
late 60's for $50..

In 59, $500 was a down payment on a $5000
house, now $4K is a down payment on a mobile home.

You could go to a mid level college for a year
in 59 for $500. Now you'd be lucky if $4k got
you a whole semester.

If you had a color TV in 59, you were living large.

In 1960, $495 had a buying power of $3,895.73 in today's dollars.

That is a F*CKLOAD of money for a TV. I'm surprised anyone bought those TV's. But then people were generally better off back then than they are now, even adjusted for inflation. My dad was upwardly mobile from his dad, but I'm probably going to be downwardly mobile from mine.

Quote: theodores

In 1960, $495 had a buying power of $3,895.73 in today's dollars.

That is a F*CKLOAD of money for a TV. I'm surprised anyone bought those TV's. But then people were generally better off back then than they are now, even adjusted for inflation. My dad was upwardly mobile from his dad, but I'm probably going to be downwardly mobile from mine.

It may not be that simple. You surely can buy a TV many times better than anything available in your father's time, and for a fraction of the cost. And just think about how much a computer cost in his time as compared to the present.

Quote: theodores

In 1960, $495 had a buying power of $3,895.73 in today's dollars.

That is a F*CKLOAD of money for a TV. I'm surprised anyone bought those TV's. .

They were strictly status symbols. My CPA neighbor
put the RCA box the TV came in out by the road
with his garbage can 5 days before trash pick up
day, so all the neighbors had plenty of time to see
it. When you got a new car, it was customary to
leave it parked in the driveway the first few weeks
and not in the garage. Keeping up with the Jones
was fierce business in the 50's and 60's.

Quote: theodores

In 1960, $495 had a buying power of $3,895.73 in today's dollars. That is a F*CKLOAD of money for a TV. I'm surprised anyone bought those TV's.

The 1960 Beetle sedan cost $1,565, the convertible started at $2,055. Average price of a new car was $2400 .

So you are correct that it was huge purchase. But sales quantities of RCA color TV's were very small compared to the 750,000 per week in 2011.

RCA color TVs produced per year
1960 120,000 <= Bonanza in color on NBC
1961 140,000 <= Wonderful World of Disney in color on NBC
1962 450,000 <=The Virginian in color on NBC
1963 750,000 <= The Lucy Show in color (on CBS)
1964 1,500,000 <= The last year when NBC was the primary broadcaster of color TV

But an RCA 24 inch Black and White TV was $289 in 1960. While I am sure that the tiny totables were cheaper, I don't think that there was such a thing as a bargain basement TV. I found a 19" brand new 720p TV at Best Buy for $79.99 (or roughly $11 in 1960 buying power).

Quote: Evenbob

It's hard comparing actual value of money in different era's.

There is a consumer price index, that says $1 in 1960 was roughly $8 today. However purchases were different. While we spend very little on a physical TV, most people spend much more on cable and internet.

Ultimately the big difference was that people spent money on children. Disney made a huge boost in color TV sales by switching from ABC to NBC.



Live Births and Birth Rates, by Year
1960 4.26 million births population 179 million
2010 4.13 million births population 309 million

I remember when ABC went all color in the mid 60's,
it was a huge deal. Every show that was in color on
all the networks advertised it constantly, it was part
of daily life. That was 50 years ago, people today
can't imagine color TV being a big deal because
it's all they've known.