ABSTRACT
At the end of 1953 the FCC adopted the current standards for compatible color telecasting. In the decade that followed, color TV, with a few exceptions, treaded water. Only one network (and that because of an obvious vested interest) made a serious attempt to program in color. The price tag on color sets kept them well beyond the reach of the average buyer. Advertisers, aware of the lack of color penetration, were unwilling to invest the dollars needed to produce their commercials in color. Expenditures for color equipment during the two-year period averaged about 12 percent of national spot revenue, ranging all the way from 3 percent to 87 percent. The reason for this spread represents another of the frustrations of coloring a TV station: equipment costs make no distinction between rich and poor.
