How Israel ERASED Colour TV | An AMTV Documentary

Not every nation around the Earth would be so excited to adopt TELEVISION into its culture as soon as they could. In ISRAEL, the new independent state was hesitant and resisted television for several decades.
When the development of COLOUR TELEVISION came about, things became more serious. Citing it as an unnecessary luxury, the lengths that the various Israeli Governments went to to prevent colour from reaching local audiences, is truly quite remarkable... In this latest AMTV mini-documentary, we explore that story!
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#israel #colour #television

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you for tuning in to this AMTV documentary! I hope you enjoyed this rather baffling yet fascinating story! A special thank you to Toby Lior Carmel! He reached out and suggested the idea of telling this story, and presented me with an initial script to cover it! I adapted his script into what you've just watched, and without his help, knowledge and insight into this story, then this video would have never come about! Thank you Toby! Please leave a LIKE on this video, SUBSCRIBE to the channel if you're new, and SHARE it around on all of your socials! See you in the next one!

[@rogerdarthwell5393]

Adam, what you are doing with these docs is absolutely spectacular! I have to say that what we have been saying recently with all these interesting documentaries is Adam Martyn at his very best! Now don't get me wrong you were best even before, but I feel that we are seeing you at a creative peak, and it's awesome!

[@owenmcghee1666]

Information, education, entertainment. You have nailed it 👍

[@RoundBaguette]

You mean the country of Palestine

[@pcno2832]

You might want to do a video on the CBS sequential color experiment which ran for a few months in limited USA markets in 1951. It used the English 405 line picture format, but at double or maybe triple the frame rate in order to blend the red, green and blue images, but the audio was, I believe, the same FM used in the NTSC channel layout. CBS sold sets with small screens and big color wheels (I don't know why they didn't go right to rear-projection sets), but the public balked and the impracticality of it all and they gave up quickly. The War Production Board (still intact from WWII) ordered them to close down the operation due to the onset of the Korean war, but most saw that as a face-saving measure. NBC/RCA's progress on a backward-compatible format was the final nail in the coffin for the CBS system.

[@ron0311]

There is no palestine.

[@robertsteinbach7325]

The younger generation needed to know that even in the United States that in the late 70s and early 1980's not all TV sets in use were color sets. Black and White sets were still in use until the end of the 1980's in America and probably far later elsewhere. Even medium size TV sets built in the 1960s were well built, easy to get repaired, and last decades with regular use.

[@rassilontdavros3004]

I remember my grandparents still having a small B&W TV in the kitchen as late as 2009, though they had a color one in the living room. This was in the US.

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

There's a slight difference between not being able to afford a service and the government outlawing it.

[@pcno2832]

The last B&W set my family bought was a 19" portable in 1979. But you could still buy a Zenith full-sized B&W console TV in a simulated wood cabinet in 1981. Most of the buyers of those were elderly, but there were some people with types of color blindness that made the color more of an annoyance than a benefit. Though not colorblind, I always turn the color saturation down to the minimum level that looks realistic on any set I buy, and when I see the over-saturated color in some people's houses, it often seems worse than going back to B&W.

[@Soturi92]

Huuuuge tv, tiny, grainy screens 😂 it’s like the counter top tv’s we had in our kitchen growing up. My stepdad basically demanded one so he could watch football and we could watch the news or golden girls at the dinner table hehehehe eventually we evolved to eating in the living room while watching American Idol and Survivor.

[@rockets4kids]

Pretty much every family in middle-class America had a color TV by 1975. Sure, if a household had additional TVs, those additional TVs were likely B&W, and those secondary B&W TVs did soldier on into the 1980s. Our family got a second color TV in the late 1970s, which I remember playing Atari 2600 on. Interestingly, my parents still have that TV, and last I checked it still worked.

[@jfwfreo]

Given how much pressure there was from not just the broadcasters but also the people of Israel, I wonder why there weren't political parties saying "vote for us and we will end the ban on color TV".

[@hedgehog3180]

There might have been but other things were probably just higher on people's priorities.

[@israelilocal]

this policy for some reason got pretty wide political support although it wouldn't surprise me if there was a party which sole purpose was to bring color tv fun fact some Jewish millionare from France which was being investigated for fraud ran and won a sit in one of israel's election for the sole purpose that he won't be extredated

[@ronmaximilian6953]

Actually, it was political. The Labour party dominated Israeli politics from 1948 until 1977. Have they tried to control every part of his Israeli culture along with the economy. The Center party, Liberal party, and Freedom Party ran on liberalizing the economy and host of other issues to varying degrees. In 1973, they joined into the Alliance party, Likud. In 1977, during the election, Labor government allowed cable TV along with a house of other less socialist concessions. It didn't work and they lost for the first time. The administrative state was still controlled by the left and it took another few years for Israel to get one and then two color TV stations. Television and the rest of the media is highly regulated in Israel and creating new stations is actually quite controversial.

[@jfwfreo]

@@ronmaximilian6953 Somehow I suspect the Labor government hung on to power for as long as they did in part because they used their control over everything to suppress the ability of the opposition party to campaign and get their message out. (it wouldn't surprise me also if they used "fear of attack from Arab neighbors" as a reason to vote for them)

[@jwenting]

@@ronmaximilian6953similar to the Netherlands. There only government controlled channels were permitted until the early 1990s (or maybe late 1980s), when a Dutch media magnate purchased a broadcasting license in Luxembourg and started broadcasting in Dutch from there. There was a political furore, including the left wanting to start transmitting jamming signals on those frequencies to block them from being received, and banning cable providers from carrying the station.

[@Ponken123]

The trial of Adolf Eichmann was televised and broadcast internationally in 1961. I believe this event forced Israeli politicians to rethink.

[@davidsp5936]

My father talks about talks about being in Israel during the moon landing in 1969. He said that it wasn't available on live TV. He had to listen to it on the radio.

[@Rob2]

The moon landing wasn't available live on TV anywhere in the world. All pictures of the landing were recorded on film, brought back and processed on earth, to be made available for TV transmission after the mission. Only the moonWALK was televised live!

[@davidsp5936]

@Rob2 Yes, but they didn't have that, or live coverage of the landing.

[@Rob2]

Live TV from another continent was not usual in those days. You can now see the whole world live on internet, but then there were only few satellites. @@yossarian6799

[@lironl6782]

Israel wasn't the only country where colour was suppressed. I read on the web that here in Australia, before the official launch of colour TV and during the hours when TV stations weren't supposed to broadcast in colour, TV pre-launch, stations kept broadcasting in colour, except that they omitteed the colour burst signal. Like Israel, colour TVs could be modified to be able to watch in colour despite the lack of a colour burst signal, but people had to adjust the picture occasionally as the colours would drift. However, i can't find any references on the web at the moment.

[@jagmarc]

Not so much "blocking color" as a whole but to prevent the public lumbering the country with the 'wrong' color standard. Like the USA had been stuck with NeverTwicetheSameColor for half a century. In the West the people who waited before buying a VCR were glad they choose later VHS instead of early Betamax

[@fungo6631]

@@jagmarc No, it's just (((them))) being (((them))). PAL and SECAM were already deployed by that time and didn't have those color issues.

[@gladiammgtow4092]

ATV0 in 1964 was going to be colour. Much of the studio gear was colour in 1964 not the cameras though.

[@mel816]

@@jagmarc To be fair, the USA's NTSC was the first color standard in the world, so PAL and SECAM would naturally be improvements over NTSC's limitations like color drift. With any technology, it pays to be late😉

[@stthecat3935]

Ah no wonder Australia only launched color TV in 1975, a whole 20 years after the US

[@JCCyC]

Another country that could make for an interesting "History of TV" video is Brazil. We took the frequency+geometry+framerate of NTSC, but with PAL color encoding. It was named PAL-M. One of my college teachers was the man who developed the format, Alcyone Fernandes de Almeida Jr. The idea was to avoid both the flickering of PAL standards and the color distortion of NTSC. In fact, it was the best of both worlds and the image quality of locally produced content was gorgeous.

[@Kalvinjj]

@@sem_skywalker I'd rather get 3:2 pulldown and correct speed than weirdly sped up just by a bit movies to be honest. Never saw any flicker or bad motion on movies having watched them since a young age on CRT TVs.

[@Kalvinjj]

@@sem_skywalker I still keep my CRT for those old games, but really, other than playing them (which are still fun on original hardware) all the rest of those days of TV standards and also DVD region locks when they arrived, are best left in the past. Thankfully most of our memories at least retain the good stuff cause specially now, getting captures from Brazilian stuff has been an annoyance. It's not every capture card that would decode PAL-M properly.

[@Kalvinjj]

@@sem_skywalker Yes, my TV has that too, weirdly enough... it feels worse. No idea why but it just does.

[@Nadia1989]

Living in Argentina, a PAL-N country, we had a Phillips TV made in Brazil. One afternoon I was bored and read the entire manual, and I learnt to access the "secret" settings, which allowed changing to PAL-M. Combined with the color mode toggle (PP and normal), I felt I was tripping.

[@GaviotaSteampunk]

@@sem_skywalker 3:2 pull-down was a necessity because electricity in Brazil is 60Hz

[@shacharraz9129]

As an Israeli, I knew about this story but not all of its details. My Gen X parents have always told me of the time there was only was channel. Two bonus facts: 1. One of the shows you showed, Zehu Ze, got a 2020 reboot that’s still going. 2. Tommy Lapid later went into politics, and so did his son, who served as Prime Minister for 6 months last year

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you for the additional facts! I hope you enjoyed the documentary! 😊

[@fungo6631]

Meanwhile in Italy by the early 80s there was at least 3 national channels plus a few additional local channels. A few years later this jumped to 7 national channels and a dozen regional and local channels.

[@noamharduf]

גם אני

[@Sniperboy5551]

Just as a curious American, what do you think about the “judicial overhaul?”

[@jodishapiro9257]

@@Sniperboy5551can’t speak for op but as a dual citizen (Israeli American in Israel), personal I’m opposed because I saw what happened in the US when politics gets inserted into the judiciary.

[@ingikjartansson]

In Iceland we got our first TV station in 1966, but we didn’t get colour until 1976. They didn’t start broadcasting every day of the week until 1987, until then there was no broadcast on Thursday’s. We didn’t get our second station until late 1986. Before we got our own station a lot of people were watching a broadcast from the American military base stationed in Iceland, but it was frowned upon by many as they believed it was damaging Icelandic culture, whatever that is.

[@belstar1128]

A lot of countries wanted to be ussr lite back the when it came to tv. a real waste of potential imagine how many more classic icelandic tv shows could have existed if they allowed for non governmental tv stations .it was similar but not quite as bad in my country too. this is why america became number 1 in terms of media they where one of the few countries that didn't have this problem. they had 3 channels in the 50s and already had cable with 10+ channels in the 70s.

[@kda9x]

@@belstar1128 US had constant drive to improve and push the entertainment medium. Government wanted to show American technical and media supremacy, corporations wanted to create a new market. Their combined effort created one of the craziest eras of technology.

[@gagamba9198]

_'a lot of people were watching a broadcast from the American military base stationed in Iceland'_ Same in S. Korea. Korean broadcasters, all gov't owned, operated a few hours in the morning (6 to 9 iirc) and then early evening to midnight. The US military channel, called Armed Forces Korea Network, broadcast 24 hours a day. It had one TV channel and two radio channels, one each for AM and FM. Many Koreans viewed it to learn English. Then pirate cable emerged. These services offered the Korean gov't channels, AFKN, a few foreign satellite channels that were unencrypted like RAI from Italy, and the cable services' own channels that were a rebroadcast of programming on Korean state TV.

[@kenwebster5053]

Reverence for Thor's day I guess, LOL

[@SmokeyChipOatley]

To be fair, a lot of network TV was absolute trash in the 80s/90s so I don't blame them for their opinion. I was born in '88 so I caught the tail end of pre 9-11 era broadcast tv as a kid. Everything back then was cheesey sitcoms and trashy talk shows. Only sitcoms I still like from back then are Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Dinosaurs.

[@simondan3828]

I was in elementary school in Israel during the years of: the eraser, anti-eraser and transition to color. One detail worth mentioning- until the end of the 1970s, Israel suffered from lack of foreign currency due to the struggling economy and the Arab boycott (many brands were boycotting Israel: Coca Cola, Pepsi, Honda, all fast food chains etc.). As a result, the government imposed strict restrictions: For example you could only withdraw foreign currency with a flight ticket in hand, and there was a strict quota on the amount. Your luggage was searched for cash etc. Therefore, the government was doing everything they could to limit the import of foreign luxury goods, such as color TVs.

[@kfirwz]

As a teen I remember this time. I did watch the Eurovision in color. It was an event at the time. They did broadcast sometime different shows in color. I remember a nature show with David Attenborough. Another attempt to not corrupt the youth of the 1960s was banning the Beatles to perform in Israel.. 😢

[@kurtl4761]

It might be interesting to cover South Africa, which didn't have national TV until the late-70s (with most people not having TVs until the 80s). Many communities relied on a monthly service that brought imported TV programs/movies to the local town hall or community Center. Radio drama continued until TV took over. Radio enthusiasts have been trying to restore Springbok Radio"s program archives from homemade off-the-air recordings.

[@mike04574]

i remember playing rugby with a few SA guys back in the 90s, we could talk about everything except for tv shows lol

[@Game_Hero]

These anti-colour TV attitudes were wild, man. I'm surprised there wasn't one that said that colour tv would make people violent or something.

[@joebidenofficialpotus]

12:22

[@DanielArbaboff_daPersonB]

3:52 I do remember vaguely a report that included an interesting fact: When Ben Gurion visited the French PM (I believe that happened around 1962), he saw a documentary aired on the telly, focusing on nature. That particular program made him change his mind about the concept of television - in its educational purposes in particular.

[@OrlyYahalom]

Thank you for this excellent doc! I'm an Israeli, born in 1975, and I've learned a lot. I don't know when my family bought our first TV set, but the first colour TV arrived when I was 6. Before that, my brothers and I used to watch some colour animation for kids at neighbours' who had one. BTW the educational programs were excellent. Many B&W programs were re-runned for many years. We all loved them and enjoyed watching them when we were sick, or pretended to be sick in order to avoid school. For example, there were programs in English that we started watching and rewatching as small kids before we even started learning English at school. Oddly, watching the educational programs at school itself was actually less common, at least where I used to live. We didn't have a TV in class.

[@jaxking904]

It’ll be fun to see you to cover Japan’s transition to color.

[@AdamMartyn]

If there's any clips or good info I'd definitely cover it!

[@thesailormercury2]

​@@AdamMartynif you have clips of South America translation to color if possible.

[@dratopia7268]

You should also make a story about how Romania got color television. It has a very interesting history, being the last country in Europe to use colour.

[@AdamMartyn]

Could you provide me with some sources or potential video clips? Definitely interested in the story!

[@dratopia7268]

Also, the broadcaster hasn't commited to full color broadcasting until 1990.

[@dratopia7268]

​@@AdamMartynalso great documentary

[@dratopia7268]

I also have a bunch of articles about the whole history preceeding the first broadcast in color in Romania.

[@intel386DX]

@@dratopia7268 wtf?! No color until 1990?!

[@GeoNeilUK]

South Africa was also late to the party with television. They held out until the 1970s (but unlike Israel, had colour from the start) With South Africa, it was political, not a great deal of imported programmes would be suitable under Apartheid policies, the last thing the NP would hacve wanted is black people seen on South African TV being seen as human, let alone equal alongside white people.

[@MrSmith1984]

South Africa's excuses where incredibly daft. Especially when Television is a very good propaganda tool. Then again, what do you expect from the guys who brought Apartheid...

[@douro20]

They were the last country on the continent to get a state TV broadcaster.

[@MrSmith1984]

@markjackson2395 Do you know what that video (featuring the footage) is called?

[@yossarian6799]

@markjackson2395 yeah, that attitude lasted for about 3 hours... until the Broederbond realised what a powerful propaganda tool television was. Jaaaaaa baas.

[@MrFagedaboudit]

I remember this. TV wasn't popular until 1977. Israel won the World Basketball Cup and Eurovision then, and B&W just didn't capture the pageantry of the events.

[@OrlyYahalom]

* Re basketball - Maccabi Tel Aviv won the European Championship in 1977. I now recall that my family had a vynil record of the audio commentary of the final match. I was born 1975 and we had a TV since I can remember myself, but the colour TV came when I was 6.

[@JoePlett]

So, with the colour eraser and the eraser-eraser, viewers essentially got an NTSC experience? Constantly having to manually adjust the hue? 😏

[@IAdryan]

never twice same color ? 😁

[@xsc1000]

Because of PAL, hue remained OK, but saturation decreased when phase was too wrong.

[@blitzroehre1807]

Please do a docu on South African TV. The "ungodly box" was long blocked by Albert Herzog, minister of telecommunications and introduction was comparitively late in 1976.

[@bryede]

In case no one has gone into the details of the colorburst signal, every scan line of a color signal (regardless of the standard) has a short waveform added to it before each line begins at the left edge of the screen. This signal tells the TV that the line contains color and is used to align the color decoding circuit with the color signal embedded in the picture. So, a circuit that simply 'mutes' the broadcast signal for a few microseconds at the start of each scanline will cause the TV to remain in black and white mode.

[@jamesmt142]

Great documentary, and the Eurovision connection is fascinating. I belive the BBC had to loan the IBA colour equipment for the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, which they also had to do to RTÉ following Ireland's first win at the start of the decade. Irrespective of how it was shown locally, the EBU would have insisted on it being filmed and broadcast internationally in colour, but you can certainly tell the Israelis weren't used to colour when they hosted for the first time. Today, of course, Israel has one of the most advanced television industries in the world. Their third hosting of Eurovision four years ago was exceptional (if we don't talk about Madonna!)

[@novatiberium]

Finally, an Israel video without the controversial uncontributing comments. Excellent work :D

[@rumenjanro]

This comment aged well

[@abdullahal-mamun1053]

isnotreal

[@rumenjanro]

@@abdullahal-mamun1053 then why does it exist on the world map, with its flag, people and language?

[@abdullahal-mamun1053]

@@rumenjanro ‘people’ as if they were all there a couple decades ago. what if a bunch of bengalis came to england and took over london and birmingham and let british people keep the rest. and then later decided to take over all of england and pushed british people to the midlands.

[@binaway]

Ironic as Jewish talent in the USA, UK etc had a lot to do with the establishment of TV in many nations. Apartheid South Africa resisted TV for even longer. They then bought all the TV equipment, at a bargain price, from the 1972 Munich Olympics. An event the nation was excluded from. Possibly Black and White TV was a political problem. Mind you so would colour TV.

[@langolier9]

It’s staggers, the mind that such a technologically advanced country was so backwards for so long I mean, it blows my mind

[@yossarian6799]

Go to Israel. You won't think it's "advanced" for long...

[@idontknowwhatnameshouldipu1864]

Texhnologoxally advanced my ass tel aviv has yet to have an underground metro

[@richardhalliday6469]

What a fascinating tale - who knew ? Certainly not me, having worked all my career as a technician in TV , through to digital etc. I never knew...........! Great work Adam.

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you!

[@Thx1138sober]

Seems so bizarre to me, in 1979 I was a college student and we just got cable tv with 32 channels and I think basically all the network tv shows had all switched to color in 1966-67.

[@mondegreen9709]

That's because a) you're a huge country with a huge and mostly affluent population and hence a huge potential market, b) you're a capitalist country whose whole raison d'etre is free enterprise and consumerism where basically everything (except morality) is mostly deregulated, and c) you didn't have to deal with the devastating effects of a war on your own territory that would take its toll on your economy and take several years to recover from.

[@dxer22000]

I'm surprised the Israeli government didn't jam those overseas TV broadcasts

[@magesnz]

i'm surprised as well like north and south korea do to each other every day.....

[@scottsimon1]

It's important to understand the political implications of this too. Until the late 1970s Israel had been run by socialist governments who had more in common with communism than capitalism. This explains the argument that colour tv was an unnecessary, extravagant luxury.

[@Ivan-bw6iw]

Hell, far-right governments including South Korea, which was run by dictator Park Chung-Hee in the 1970s, banned color television as well.

[@MrKenichi22]

Thanks for the documentary, helped clear things up about Israel’s TV History

[@robertwilloughby8050]

What about the Swiss journey to colour? Although it was fairly quick, some cantons still had a lot of local programming in black and white, and if I remember rightly, it wasn't until the late 70's that all local programming was in colour.

[@ivaneurope]

Would like to see an episode on Italy's transition in colour and how an Italian-languaged TV channel from then communist Yugoslavia became immensely popular in Italy before Rai could launch their own colour TV service

[@gab_v250]

as Italian, I support this. Especially since colour tv began regular transmissions in 1977, and full colour broadcast in the early 80s

[@UHF43]

TeleMonteCarlo and RTV Koper / Capodistria took advantage of the italian goverment reluctancy to adopt colour television.

[@gab_v250]

@@UHF43 yup, confirm. Also TSI in Lombardy and Piedmont (the italian swiss channel)

[@edgeeffect]

Wow... that is the most petty and pointless act of dictatorship I've ever heard.

[@yossarian6799]

Welcome to Israel

[@Ivan-bw6iw]

Albania banned color television, along with South Korea. Hell, South Africa didn't have television at all until 1976.

[@monacophotographyevents2384]

I think it was back in the late 70's that I was living in Israel, and it always sticks in my mind, how many times a night Kojak was on, picked up from many of the Arab countries..I developed a deep loathing for Kojak.

[@xaverlustig3581]

The need to adjust the colour every now and then seems like the tint dial on NTSC sets. The reference signal that tells the receiver the "correct" colour being missing that seems logical.

[@ErnestJay88]

Wow i didn't know that, Israel (knowing for their science and technological progress) literally one of the last country on earth that officially broadcast color television, only ahead of some sub-saharan Africa, even my home Country, Indonesia is already broadcast color TV program since 1968 and fully broadcast all channel in color since 1977

[@Speeder76]

Interesting... it was only three years after Portugal got his first colour broacasts. An interesting story behind them, too. It envolves some politics - PAL vs SECAM - but in comparison to Spain, it's neighbour, it took them a while to have colour. But at least, we didn't have colour erasers!

[@RebeccaPhythian]

Bonkers how each country felt so differently about the introduction of colour tv! So interesting ❤

[@philtkaswahl2124]

"We must force black and white TV signals to discourage the citizens from spending too much on color TV sets!" >citizens spend even more to get color back * surprised Pikachu face *

[@ClayBenTreeceJr.]

We in the United States had adopted color TV back in the mid-to-late 60s and you had other countries like Germany. France. Italy. Britain. North Korea. South Korea. Canada. Australia. New Zealand. Japan. China. The Former Soviet Union. Mexico. Who were all adopting color television as the broadcast standard in the 60s and 70s

[@k7jeb]

Make that mid-to-late 50's for broadcasting, but, you're right, it really was fully adopted in the 60's

[@paulnese1090]

Nonsense! In the US NBC broadcast in early 1950:s early Rose Parade & Rose Bowl Gamez nationwide in analog color TV and would due so annually throughout the 1950's. But through the 1950's NBC was the only TV network that broadcast in color nationwide occasional special programs and some variety programs. It wasn't until 1960 that NBC started regular broadcasting in color of Bonanza TV series and Disney's World of Color that public interest was awakened. During this period some major US cities like NYC, LA etc would initiate more hours of local color TV transmissions. However, by the mid-1970:s the US's all three major TV networks like ABC. CBS, joined NBC and started more normal broadcasting hours in color. Admittedly, the recent decade introduction of digital LCD broadcasting and viewing of color TV today is far superior to that of the old analog color TV.

[@GianniBarberi]

In Italy 📺 started in the ^50 and became one of the best. Color instead was delayed until 1977, only for political reasons. The communist party wanted the French Russian system secam, and others thought was a useless expensive gadget. But, as in Israelite, the tv manufacturers built a network of pirate transmitters to relay neighbour's signals, mainly Swiss

[@mondegreen9709]

Mainly Capodistria afaik. And no, Italian television is not one of the best. Not even close.

[@GianniBarberi]

@@mondegreen9709 capodistria was a station from then communist Yugoslavia, run by italians i think, that just broadcast very old movies. Montecarlo was a similar scheme but with more fun. The Swiss italian channel was a official public broadcaster with a complete lineup. Rai, public tv, was at that time one of the best, winner of many prizes, later and today is obsessed by audience ratings. Now offers 15 channels with many hidden gems

[@keithscott1957]

In Uganda in the 1960s, the TV station was run by some very drunk Italians. The quality of transmission was appalling. Then the Pope visited Uganda - sharp pictures, great sound! Then the Pope returned home, and the degradation returned to the screens.

[@GianniBarberi]

Having tv in the 60 was achievement, maybe better came ras came with pope

[@GianniBarberi]

@@Ivan-bw6iw the extremists didn't care about TV

[@waverider227]

Interesting fact South Africa had NO TV until 1976 !

[@yossarian6799]

Yeah but they had "Squad Cars" on Springbok Radio...

[@Rickyrab]

1) David Ben Gurion was a bookworm and had an extensive library in his house. 2) some early Israelis might have associated television with the Nazis (because of Paul Nipkow's 1930s Nazi German broadcasts hawking all sorts of "Strength through Joy" stuff).

[@rogerdarthwell5393]

This is fantastic! Well done Adam!

[@andrewthomas1799]

More please Adam your documentaries are fascinating and very informative keep up the good work 👍

[@Wallyworld30]

I was born in '77 in the US and thought it was hilarious my parents had to watch TV in black and white when they were growing up. Little did I know it was still happening in Israel. I can't believe the Israeli citizens put up with this nonsense. It doesn't make sense on any level.

[@yossarian6799]

Go to Israel. "Doesn't make sense on any level" should be printed on their money. Courtney Love is wrapped tighter than Israeli culture.

[@fusionsub]

Certainly an interesting story

[@penguinvic9892]

I had an old 12 volt portable B & W TV set in a shack in the hills in Australia from 1984-1987. No mains power. It ran off a car battery, powered up by a small windmill, on trickle charge. Colour would have been nice but the programs didn’t get any better. When I left I took the TV set with me. It was still working into the 2000s when the Australia Government closed down the analog system replacing it with digital.

[@tdb7992]

I loved seeing the old Australian footage in this video. I'm an Aussie, and it's always fascinating seeing footage from the mid century.

[@Pepek94]

Next: Why almost all former Warsaw Pact countries adopted SECAM?

[@AdamMartyn]

Potentially! Just need to make sure there are enough good clips and reliable information!

[@Game_Hero]

the Soviets did, so they don't have much of a choice.

[@xsc1000]

Because it was ordered from Moscow... Also there were no colour CRTs other then from USSR produced in eastern block till 80s. Than finally other countries bought licence either from RCA or Toshiba and started producing much better CRTs than USSR.

[@colourist.]

you have kind of answered your own question ;)

[@kyflo]

The Philippines maybe one of the first countries in the world to adopt Color TV but if this channel will be creating content soon about their color TV adoption, I'm sure it will be a challenge especially when looking for credible content and videos online. Many archives are either lost, destroyed, or not yet converted to digital.

[@mel816]

First in Southeast Asia (1966 on ABS-CBN), second in all of Asia (just behind NHK Japan in 1960)

[@kyflo]

5th in the world as well. They started months ahead of Canada.

[@TheRealSpeedWolf]

I grew up in the Philippines during the late '80s and early '90s. I am not Filipino, but I can clearly remember black and white TVs still being sold until the end of 1993 and 1994. Those TVs that were in color brand new didn't come with a remote, you had to turn the knob to change the channel. This was true for Philips and Goldstar TVs from what I can remember. Those TVs were very common, and the cable box was designed with a plug in the back so you could turn on and turn off your TV with the controller of the cable box since many of them didn't come with a remote.

[@NeatNit]

I'm Israeli and never knew any of this! Fascinating stuff.

[@amelliamendel2227]

Please stop killing the Palestinians this has been the deadliest year for Palestinians since they started bothering to keeping count of the murdered Palestinians in the '50s. What exactly did they ever do to you to cause your racism, ethnic cleansing, and want to genocide them?

[@rumenjanro]

@@amelliamendel2227You’re making yourself sound like every Israeli wants to kill Palestinians, stop crying, this is real life.

[@haileyshannon7548]

It's seems when new countries are formed, they want to create their own culture, sense of national pride and ways to make them stand out in the world stage.

[@SpiritmanProductions]

It's just a matter of immersion, isn't it? If their government thought TV was a distraction and had a detrimental influence (for which there are valid arguments), then suppressing colour would curtail its ability to captivate audiences. Colour TV is more life-like, and can thus make a more powerful impression.

[@RobeonMew]

its cause God said no music can he recorded according to them.

[@jensschroder8214]

the frequency used to decode the color is set with the burst in the blank area. Setting a wrong burst there means the color decoder cannot work. the solution is to manually tune a local oscillator to roughly the required frequency

[@abdelali9279]

I find it somewhat so amusing that some TV advancements during the 20th century have the involvement of either Football or the Eurovision contest, we want to see our footy and out pop stars in the best way possible! xD

[@DanielArbaboff_daPersonB]

1:26 That’s not entirely accurate: by the time television launched in Israel (in 1966), there were 3 radio stations in operation - two of which were operated by the IBA, and the third was the Army Radio (or Galei Tzahal)

[@phpmayan1319]

Such a great documentary! I Didn't knew the story behind color TV in my country! Thanks a lot for it

[@banto1]

Great documentary. Israel's founding political party from 1948 to 1977 was very socialist oriented. TV was western decadence and would create inequality for those who couldn't afford it. Color TV's had heavy tariffs (around 150%), so only very few could afford them. One interesting aspect of the story you didn't mention, was that close to the 1981 elections, the ruling Likud (anti-socialist) government declared a significant reduction on the color TV import tax, making these sets more affordable for their lower class voter base. There was widespread claims of buying votes from the socialist opposition parties. Today, there is still a tariff on TV's above 50", being attributed to Israel's socialist egalitarian roots.

[@OrlyYahalom]

Wow, so this is why my socialist/left voting parents bought our first color TV in 1981? 😂 (I was 6 so not into politics yet)

[@Ivan-bw6iw]

Pro-Palestinian leftists consider Labor Zionism to be far-right.

[@thiscat9712]

as an Israeli after the video i asked my father about why and apparently it's because a big chunk of the immigrants we're russians who brought socialist ideals basically they didn't want that rich people would watch tv in color while others don't because they don't have the money also development progress wasn't only with television for example McDonald's started in Israel only in 1993 and nickelodeon started full broadcasting 10 years later in 2003

[@bradmiley]

Excellent documentary Adam. I do enjoy your videos, and this was a corker sir! I'm very interested in TV history, and your research here has told me a story I did not know about. Thank you! All the best with your future endeavours, may you continue to produce high quality content! Cheers my friend; 🙂

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you very much for your kind words sir! Glad you enjoyed it! 😊

[@bradmiley]

@@AdamMartyn I love your stuff! Old telly things are always fascinating. Rather like the SABRE website, which is all about roads (everything! How they're numbered, when built, where they go etc), "old telly fans" are a niche group. One of the first things I did when I got on the Internet in 1994 (worked in tech), I started researching - the music that used to scare me when I was a kid (BBC radiophonic) on BBC2 after Play School at around 1030 or 1100, it handed over to BBC Cymru, and this music was scary, but the graphics were mesmerising! 🙂 I found continuity, start of day music, idents, the lot. As the internet grew, more and more appeared. I find your channel so interesting as, like *this* video, you talk about how TV started not just in the UK, but other places too. This is fascinating stuff! I'm so glad you're producing content for "our little group", so to speak. Again, thank you, and all the best for your future projects and productions. Take care Adam, be well my friend!

[@MikeBracewell]

Absolutely fascinating & utterly bizarre. I've watched this twice & still can't fully comprehend why there was so much official opposition to colour TV. Even in the Soviet block they didn't do anything that stupid. Thanks the for video, Adam.

[@mondegreen9709]

Probably for pretty much the same reason why it doesn't make sense for most of us not to eat meat and cheese at the same time with the same cutlery or not to use electricity on Saturdays (or in our case Sundays, as it were).

[@Lestibournes]

​@@mondegreen9709no, those are completely different matters.

[@ChipsChallenge95]

Israel: TV for thee but not for me

[@robmortimer4150]

For some reason this isn’t showing in my subscription list… but great as always

[@critical_always]

I find the British broadcast fees and their manhunts for TV receivers far more surreal.

[@hebneh]

Well, that was a crazy story I never knew about. Shows how people can get irrationally focused on some stupid non-issue and turn it into a major thing.

[@wpflesh6510]

Great to have Eli back in the booth and its like he never missed a step….Great first game for the team as well…..Great start to the season,Bring on Texas and Roll Tide

[@DaniJam05]

I just realized that your intro tune is a slowed down version of the tune to "Rhythm is a Dancer", neat!

[@waverider227]

Interesting history of Color tv introduction The USA was first in 1953, with NTSC. Cuba for a brief period (1958-1959 thanks to US assistance) became the second country in the world to have color tv (Until Castro arrived) in Africa Zanzibar (were Freddie Mercury was born) was the first area on the African continent to have color tv ! In Japan NHK was the first in Asia 1960. The UK was the first in 1966 (experimental tests go back to 1955 or earlier.) Germany was the first in continental Europe in 1967 ( funny fact is there were two cameras on in B&W and the other in Color when the Chancellor pushed the big red button to initiate color broadcasting the camera man in his excitement switched on the color transmitter 2 seconds to early before the chancellor pushed the button!

[@ronbroadfoot279]

I was in Iran last year. Do you think you could make a video on the history of TV in that country?

[@moskovskoeradio]

That would be interesting. Also, is it dangerous for citizens to visit Iran?

[@KlodFather]

@8:23 - SECAM stands for Specially Engineered Contrary to the American Method LOL Love those French engineers and their inventions.

[@monacophotographyevents2384]

The French, being typically French, stayed out of step as usual with most other countries with the SECAM system

[@KlodFather]

@@monacophotographyevents2384 - Yes and that is exactly why the Soviet Union and many other communist and dictatorships chose SECAM to avoid compatibility with neighboring countries... But FUN FACT, in the Soviet Union they were producing many multi-format TV sets for sale in countries who did not have usual access to capitalist markets, so putting in a bribe for one of those sets was possible and people who were on the border with other countries could use these TV's to watch PAL SECAM and NTSC broadcast. Some of the RUssian islands north of Japan could receive TV across the water with some height and a good antenna.

[@lakrids-pibe]

Eurovision winner of 1978: "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" with Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta. 1979: "Hallelujah" with Milk and Honey. People should look them up to get a glimps of the glory. Especiallt the disco banger A-Ba-Ni-Bi"! Haha! (You probably didn't include them to avoid the youtube curse of copyright strikes) It's seems crazy now, but people were seriously concerned with the dangers of television polluting the cultural life of a nation. Denmark didn't participate in the song contest from 1967 to 1977 for those reasons. The song contest was critisised for pushing shallow, manufactured, idiotic "music", and the limited resourses of the one danish TV channel should be used for "propper" music. The music in the eurovision song contest at still being ridiculed today. Israel being in the song contest meant that other countries backed out. Tunisia, Morocco, and Lebanon would perticipate join if Israel wasn't there. Isn't it remarkable that an evening of light entertainment on TV is so entangled in international politics?

[@yossarian6799]

Two sounds I never want to hear as long as I live: 1. the screams of puppies trapped in a kennel fire 2. Israeli pop music

[@youcantata]

Israeli should have introduced color TV early. It would have helped domestic production of color TV sets and export it to neighboring countries and worldwide including USA and Europe. Color TV was hot commodity then so Israe could have profited from such economic boom like Japan and South Korea did. Sony Panasonic Samsung LG are still dominant TV brands today.

[@UHF43]

The israeli domestic market was small to make color tv production profitable*. I don't see neighbouring countries keen to buy goods with the "Made in Israel" sticker on them, to be honest. In the 70's international trade was not as easy as it might seem today. * Spain had a miriad of B/W TV manufacturers. When colour arrived, very few had the expertise or the money to start colour production on their own.

[@greenpedal370]

Israel was granted independence by the UN, they did not take it. Perhaps you confused Israel with Rhodesia.

[@vylbird8014]

The situation was a lot uglier than that - a serious diplomatic botch-up in Britain relinquishing power without proper planning for what would follow. The declaration was issued by the Jewish Agency for Israel, despite having absolutely no authority to do so - leading to the Arab-Israeli War. The UN /did/ recognise Israel's independence, yet - but not until after the war, which was a horrific clusterfuck of international backstabbing on all sides.

[@okaro6595]

UN general assembly voted on the partition plan of the mandatory Palestine. While the plan was approved it was not implemented. Instead British left and at the same time Israel declared independence. The next day several Arab countries started a war. Israel won the war gaining some territory compared to the partition plan. Israel surely did take its independence.

[@greenpedal370]

@@okaro6595 "UN approved Partition" followed by country after country recognising the state. Sounds like granting independence to me.

[@Inkling777]

You're right. I was living in Israel in 1979. Broadcasting Eurovision in color was much discussed.

[@shonenjumpmagneto]

Shouldn't it be EuraVusion since Israel is an Asian Country? Lol

[@johnduffy9727]

This videos says more about controlling and hypocritical governments, than television.

[@urieladiv]

Thank you for this history insight it was very interesting. 👍🏽❤️👏🏽 Greetings from Israel

[@Matthew6248]

You should also do a story about how one station in Pittsburgh PA USA stayed in black and white until the mid 1980s

[@yossarian6799]

Oh it was color. You just couldn't see the color through Pittsburgh's air...

[@NathanPlays395]

its hilarious how it went from black and white to state of the art in just over a year

[@SO_DIGITAL]

Wow! Nice work.

[@Alif24Nizar]

amazing documentaries.. can you make any documentaries about the "struggling" process of digital terrestrial television transition in Indonesia ? altough indonesia ceased their analogue broadcast recently (yes, it recently).. it takes so many years to do official digital television services in indonesia, starting from late 2020 using DVB-T2 system some broadcaster in indonesia already have the 4K production equipment before 2020 (like SONY HDC-4300 camera, Ikegami HDK-97A 4K by CCU-out, SONY HXC-FB80 by CCU-out or even ROSS Video mixer that support 4K video through 6G even 12G-SDI) but at that time, they continued to transmit their program using Analogue PAL transmission because the official digital terrestrial broadcasting had not started until late 2020 official Digital terrestrial broadcasting started late 2020, simulcasting ONLY 2 and half-year. Indonesia began switching OFF the Analogue broadcast at late 2022 until August 2023. Altough, official rejected the statement of "digital broadcast in indonesia started officially at 2020" because they think that indonesia "started" the digital terrestrial broadcast back to 2009 when using DVB-T system (but some people think, it was only a long experimental or trials and errors to do digital broadcast, creating a mature preset of transmission etc etc) I think this should be a world record for fastest and most rapidly digital terrestrial television transition in the world, regarding on the size of Indonesia, the COVID pandemic situation, economic recession. last but not least, dont be shocked, if at the begining of 2021, many TV station indonesia (terrestrial broadcast) still broadcasted their program mostly at 4:3 SDTV. But at the mid of 2022, almost 100% of TV station suddenly (and rapidly) completed their migration to 16:9 HDTV broadcast (even a developed countries like Japan, US i think it took a long time to migrate their 4:3 NTSC broadcast to 16:9 HDTV)

[@mondegreen9709]

Even the US still haven't fully ceased analog transmissions, so don't feel too bad about Indonesia lagging behind. 😉

[@Alif24Nizar]

@@mondegreen9709 but analog transmission in US are limited to low-power transmitter (not even 1-5kw power), not a full high power transmission.

[@imrezsoltkalmar4940]

I don't remember when we switch to colour broadcast in Hungary, but I remember when I was child in early 90s, there was the SECAM-PAL switch, and before it there was some experimental Broadcast. There was a Disney mix program with cartoons and movies. The first experiment I remember was "The Black Hole" movie in the Disney block. I watch it trough a dual standard compatible Aiwa VHS VCR and Samsung TV. The VCR was turned on and used its tuner. When the movie started, there was some flicker for a second, then the fluorescent display of the VCR changed the colour system mark from MESECAM to PAL. I didnt notice picture quality change, but it was interesting for me. There was an other story related to Disney programme, but it affected most of the hungarian childrens of the age. In the middle of a Duck Tales episode there was an interruption with sad music... The prime minister passed away.

[@KalixtoKahlo]

In 1958, Cuba was the second country in the world (after the United States) to begin color broadcasting!!

[@kmfw72]

South Africa didn't have TV at all until 1976, by which time it went straight to colour, but Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) had it from 1960, though wasn't able to upgrade to colour because of sanctions so it only went colour until 1984, four years after independence. When I lived in Nigeria in 1976-78, it had colour, but Ghana didn't get it until 1985!

[@KevinFields777]

Yet another absurdity of authoritarian governance.

[@shonenjumpmagneto]

4:19 - The IBA Logo is a Minora doubling as a TV Tower! LOL creative! Nice! Y'all ever notice that?

[@energybrown]

Fascinating! I never heard about this.

[@ruben_balea]

They didn't want color TV and half a century later they could hack any smartphone in the world, I wonder if the Pegasus guys are descendants of the Anti-Eraser guys 🤔

[@KarlKR_YT]

Another interesting documentary, quite enjoyed it. If possible, could you cover the switchover in the Soviet Union/the eastern bloc?

[@AdamMartyn]

If there's enough good clips or reliable information out there for it then absolutely!

[@loco4loco]

@@AdamMartynOUR TELEVISION!!!! 🚩🚩🚩🚩

[@magesnz]

you should also do a video on south african tv that appeared in 1976 and was kinda forced on them because they didn't want to put tv in south africa to not break the monopoly of the sabc as well as not show black with white people

[@LexieAssassin]

Interesting. IIRC, the Soviet Union began broadcasting in color like a decade or two before they had started producing color televisions. Almost the polar opposite situation to Israel.

[@sapiate971]

Like Israel, in Italy too only in 1977 we have got tv color! Political reasons!

[@slothfulcobra]

God, why is everything about Israel's politics so weird

[@angelinacamacho8575]

Here in peru while the first tv broadcast was in 1958 there wasnt any full time color color tv until the 1980s but Channel 4 did air in color around the 1970s. Oddly enough not only do more homes here have a tv than say have an oven but analog was only discontinued recently in 2020.

[@swedishmetalbear]

So interesting. I myself lived in Jordan 1984-1989 and could see Israeli TV on our TV set. It was in colour. Same as the Jordanian. I remember watching Saudi Arabian TV.. But would get nightmares because they showed executions on TV.

[@mikezinn7212]

Another baffling, politically based TV story is that South Africa only got television in 1976. My entire childhood was with radio!

[@MichelleCameron]

I remember the very first broadcast in South Africa. We had just moved from Rhodesia so were one of the few families that had a TV. Needless to say, SABC wasn't worth watching in the first few days and didn't get much better for a year or so. The saving grace was Haas daas se nuuskas which was actually quite good, albeit in Afrikaans

[@yossarian6799]

SQUAD CARS! 7.30 Friday nights. "The prowl the empty streets at night..." or something along those lines. Remember the made-up car names? "The suspect was seen leaving the scene in a 1965 Bunyon V8..." "All cars be on the lookout for a red Meisterbahn with Sandton registration..."

[@yossarian6799]

@@MichelleCameron South Africa had, shockingly, locally-produced shows of remarkable quality. Liewe Heksie and The Pumpkin Patch were good kiddie shows. I was impressed with The Villagers (okay... I'd watch anything with even the remotest glimpse of Rod Alexander...)

[@mikezinn7212]

@@yossarian6799 CONSIDER YOUR VERDICT and THE CREAKING DOOR!

[@stevensiferd7104]

11:22 -- NTSC sets all had a color killer circuit, but not for the purpose that Israel used it for. Without it, black-and-white pictures would display red, green and blue hash flashing over the image. You had to set the color killer control high enough to stop this, but low enough to allow the colors of a color picture through. (The color killer setting was a service technician adjustment and was different from the color intensity control that the user could adjust.) It was possible to adjust the killer control so high that the set became, in effect, a black-and-white set.

[@DanielArbaboff_daPersonB]

7:27 It’s worth noting that IBA launched its service by using B&W cameras purchased (or rather obtained) from the BBC..

[@theblitz9]

Are You Being Served! Just finished binge watching it.😊

[@tuvialev6304]

It is said that that the Anti-Eraser (אנטי מחיקון) signifies the born of of Israel as Startup nation.