Color Television Broadcasting Day

What Is Color Television Broadcasting Day?

September 10th is "Color Television Broadcasting Day" in Japan. On this date in 1960, five broadcasters — NHK, Nippon Television, Radio Tokyo Television (now TBS), Yomiuri TV, and Asahi Broadcasting — began regular color television broadcasts in Tokyo and Osaka. It was the world's second regular color broadcast service, after the United States.

What Color TV Was Like in Its Earliest Days

When regular broadcasting began, color televisions were extremely expensive and well out of reach for most households.

• Price: a color TV set at the time cost roughly 520,000 yen — comparable to the price of a car
• Adoption: at launch, only around 1,200 color television sets were in use across the entire country
• Limited programming: color programming itself was still limited, so most households continued watching in black and white

The Tokyo Olympics — A Turning Point for Adoption

The event that finally drove widespread adoption of color TV was the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. With the opening ceremony and parts of the competition broadcast in color, public interest surged, and that year demand for color televisions finally overtook demand for black-and-white sets.

Tips for Marking This Day

• Look up old TV programs or footage from the early days of color broadcasting with your family
• Learn about the history of television, from black-and-white to color to the digital terrestrial transition
• Look back at old photos of vintage televisions and home appliances
• Ask family members about their memories of seeing color TV for the first time

The Day People Marveled at a World in Color

For people at the time, simply seeing color appear on a screen that had always been black and white must have been a genuine source of wonder. Let September 10th be a day to reflect on the origins of the excitement that advances in visual technology have brought us.