- CBS demonstrates it's UHF-band color TV system to the FCC. The system is incompatible with the existing black-and-white standard, though company officials have designed an inexpensive converter for the countries 250,000 black-and-white sets.

- About 70 stations were on the air in the U.S.

- Cable TV is introduced as a means to bring broadcast reception to rural areas of the country. 

- The 1st pay TV system is tested by the Skiatron Company, on New Yorks WOR.

- The worlds first videotape recorder is tested at Bing Crosby's Los Angeles studios. The tape runs at 100 inches/second, and the recorder's reel holds 16 minutes of programming. 

- The Supreme Court upholds the FCC's decision to name CBS's incompatible color system the country's standard.

- The first UHF station, KPTV in Portland, Oregon, goes on the air.

- Casper, Wyoming's cable TV system uses a microwave relay systems to transmit distant television signals from Denver to its own cable system.

- Ampex demonstrates its first VTR. The tape runs at 15 inches-per-second. The machines are priced at $50,000; the company sells 80 within four days of introduction.

- The federal government requires that all new televisions be capable of receiving both VHF and UHF bands.

- The 1st home videotape recorders are demonstrated. Ampex sells its version exclusively through Neiman-Marcus for $30,000. The unit is nicknamed Grant's Tomb, for its size as well as for the company's marketing director.

- California's voters make pay TV illegal, an effort led by the movie and TV industries, concerned about lost profits. The Supreme Court rules the attempt unconstitutional, but Subscription Television, Inc., by then loses $10 million and goes bankrupt.

- CBS announces that virtually its entire schedule will be broadcast in color.

- Dual hetrodyne set-top converters allow regular television receivers to receive more than 12 channels.

- The U.K. begins PAL color broadcasts, simultaneously switching its transmission standard from 405 to 625 scan lines.

- The Supreme Court denies an injunction against pay TV.

- Sony's U-matic VCR introduced. The 1st units sell for $2,500. Sony president Akio Morita claims U-matic will be the "color video phonograph" of the 1970s. 

- Sync suppression scrambling of television signals is demonstrated at the National Cable Association convention. This allows cable operators to offer basic and premium service tiers. 

- Scientific Atlanta demonstrates 2-way digital communications, the forerunner of interactive cable TV.

- FCC creates the Cable Television Report and Order, creating must-carry and may-carry stations and requiring all cable systems to be built with a capacity of at least 20 channels. 

- The FCC authorizes 3 over-the-air pay stations: Zenith's Phonovision, Teleglobe's Pay TV Systems, and Blonder-Tongue Labratories' BTVision. 

-The first HBO programming is transmitted to 365 Service Electric subscribers in Pennsylvania.

- Systems capable of offering 35 channels of programming become the cable industry standard.

- The 1st. personal computers are sold. 

- HBO begins distribution of its programming via satellite, becomming, in effect, a network.

-Japan Victor Corporation's (JVC) VHS (video home system) is introduced, offering double the recording time of the beta format. 

- Fiber-optic cable is first used to distribute cable TV programming. This new technology increases potential channel capacity and improves picture reception.

- 75 percent of TV homes have at least 1 color set. 

- LA businessman George Atkinson becomes the 1st person to rent videotapes to the public. Within 5 years he franchises more than 400 Video Station stores across the country. 

- Home color TV cameras are introduced.

- The introduction of addressable cable TV converters allows operators to control which channels each subscriber will receive, without having to send a technician to the home. With remote control of channel reception, pay-per-view events become a reality.

- Beta format camcorders are introduced, using 8mm tape that is incompatible with the existing VHS standard.

- After 2 reversals, the courts finally find in favor of Sony in it's copyright dispute with MCA and Disney over home recording. 

- Multi-channel stereo TV sound is authorized by the FCC. Stereo TV broadcasts begin.

- The S-VHS recording standard is introduced. Picture quality is superior to every recorded format except laserdisc and 1-inch tape.

- Sony begins it's own manufacture of VHS-format VCRs.

- Developers of HDTV systems propose creating a digital, rather than analogue standard.

- The 1st. television program to use only computers - rather than film or videotape - to store, edit and broadcast its content is created by L.A. special-effects producer Scott Billups.

- Sony, Philips, and Toshiba agree on a compromise standard for the next-generation consumer video-playback device, the CD-sized Digital Video Disc. DVD offers picture quality superior to broadcast TV. 

- An FCC advisory group recommends a digital HDTV standard to the FCC. Wide-Screen HDTV sets are predicted to go on sale by 1997. 25.7 million color TV receivers (and 460,000 Black-and White TVs) are sold this year.