Television Set Shipments by Areas
May 1949 Radio & Television News

May 1949 Radio & TV News [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio & Television News, published 1919-1959. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

According to a tally crafted by Radio & Television News magazine in 1949, the total number of television sets sold in the United States in 1947 and 1948 was 964,206. There were approximately 146 million people at the time per the U.S. Census. If there was an average of 4 people per household, that works out to around one television set for every 36 houses. Some households already had TV sets during that time, but far fewer than half owned a television. Nobody owned a color TV then because no commercial broadcaster used a color camera. Color was still a future feature being hyped in Mechanix Illustrated and Scientific American, like flying cars and personal computers. Today, of course, everybody that wants a television has a television... or two... or three. Effectively, every smartphone and computer is a TV (via Internet, not direct OTA transmissions) as well. In 1949, almost all TVs were owned by people who paid for them themselves. Today, many sets are bought by people who have been subsidized by fellow citizens forced to help pay for them via tax policies.

Television Set Shipments by Areas

Editor's Note: The figures herein are presented through the courtesy of the Radio Manufacturers' Association (RMA). In view of the fact that not all television set manufacturers are members of RMA, add approximately 10 per-cent to all of the figures above. Admiral Radio Corporation for one, and all kit manufacturers, do not belong to RMA, and their production of sets accounts for at least 10 per-cent additional.

Posted August 19, 2022
(updated from original post on 6/7/2016)

Color and Monochrome (B&W) Television Articles

• Color Television Has a Problem - May 1966 Radio-Electronics
• What You Want to Know About Television - February 1949 Popular Science
• Electronic Color Television Is Here - February 1947 Popular Science
• Television on the Job - February 1947 Popular Science
• What You Should Know About X-Ray Radiation in TV Sets - November 1967 Radio-Electronics
• Apollo 10 & 11 Color Video Camera Used Rotating Color Wheel - August 1969 Radio-Electronics
• What Happened at Oslo? - ITU Color TV - January 1967 Radio-Electronics
• Color Television Past Present Future - January 1954 Radio-Electronics
• Basic Color TV, Part I - January 1954 Radio-Electronics
• How Television Cathode Ray Tubes Are Made - July 1938 Radio News
• Color Television Fundamentals, Part 1 - March 1954 Radio & Television  News
• Color Television Systems - January 1951 Radio-Electronics
• Simulating a CBS Color Signal - September 1951 Radio & Television News
• The Strange World of Color Vision - January 1958 Radio Electronics
• Color Television? - December 1949 Radio & Television News
• Fundamentals of Color TV: The NTSC System - April 1954 Radio & Television News
• Color TV - October 1953 Radio & Television News
• The Color TV X-Ray Problem - November 1968 Radio-Electronics
• Introduction to Modern Television - February 1939 Radio News
• Television Industry Prepares for Postwar - January 1945 Radio News
• Television Transmission Lines - May 1952 Radio & Television News
• Television in Great Britain - January 1945 Radio News
• Television Set Shipments by Areas - May 1949 Radio & Television News
• Television Forges Ahead - March 1930 Radio News
• The Television Test Pattern - January 1949 Radio & Television News
• Television Tubes by the Thousands - December 1947 Radio News
• Television I.Q. Quiz - October 1948 Radio & Television News
• Television, As I See It - January 1945 Radio News
• The Outlook for Color TV - March 1957 Radio & Television News
• Color TV Today - September 1959 Popular Electronics
• Mac's Service Shop: Motorola's 1974 Color TV Receivers - November 1973 Popular Electronics
• Mac's Service Shop: Cost of Color TV Service - February 1969 Electronics World
• Practical Color TV for the Technician - September 1957 Radio & TV News
• Anxiety Amid Affluence: Why Color-TV Makers Worry - December 27, 1965 Electronics Magazine
• Fundamentals of Color TV - Tri-Gun Receiver Circuits - June 1954 Radio & Television News
• 3-D Color TV for the Future? - May 1958 Radio News
• Mac's Radio Service Shop: Barney Takes on Color - February 1955 Radio & Television News
• TV X-Rays - April 1970 Radio-Electronics
• TV X-Rays Are Back - June 1969 Radio-Electronics
• Television in Twelve Colors - October 1930 Radio-Craft
• Trinitron - Still a Mystery? - February 1972 Popular Electronics