Television

While it would be simpler to credit its invention to just one person, the television is better described as the end development of several other communications technologies.

The telegraph, followed by the telephone, allowed people to send messages over great distances and past physical barriers quickly. The radio, or wireless, helped voice communication take to the air. Motion pictures using film made it possible to capture and record images for replay.

Television, when it entered the scene, combined these technologies into a single medium.

The first television broadcast occurred in 1926 in the United Kingdom. The first commercial broadcasts were in the United States in the early 1940s. Today there are thousands of television channels around the world, using many different ways to transmit programs to peoples’ homes.

The Australian Broadcast Association reports that television was first introduced to Australia in 1956 to NSW and Victoria, but did not reach Canberra until 1962. The last territory to receive television in Australia was the Northern Territory in 1971. Colour television reached Australia shortly after in 1975.

Besides the free-to-air television channels usually transmitted to your home using radio waves through the air, many people can now choose to watch subscription television via cable , satellite or, in the near future, the internet .

Recently television began to change from analogue to digital technology. The transition in Australia is now happening in several years. This shift gives viewers more choice and control over what they choose to watch and when they choose to watch. Part of this shift may include greater access to video on-demand services, the television equivalent of podcasting.