F. Jenkins to
the mark by giving the first public demonstration of - a dim and badly
flickering - television in 1926 in Soho, London. Britain commenced
experimental broadcasting almost immediately thereafter. Irish actress
Peggy O'Neil was the first to be interviewed on TV in April 1930. The
Japanese televised an elementary school baseball match in September
1931. Nazi Germany started its own broadcasting service in 1935 and
offered coverage of the 1936 Olympics. By November 1936, the BBC was
broadcasting daily from Alexandra Palace in London to all of 100 TV
sets in the kingdom.
At the beginning there were many competing standards on both sides of
the Atlantic. Baird's technological solutions were trounced by Isaac
Shoenberg and his team, set up in 1931 by Electric and Musical
Industries (EMI). RCA refined its own system, as did the Dutch
Philips. Not until 1951 were the standards for public broadcasting set
in the USA and in Europe.
But the Americans were the ones to grasp the commercial implications
of television. Bulova Clock paid $9 to WNBT of New York for the first
20-seconds TV spot, broadcast during a game between the Brooklyn
Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies in July 1941.
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