In 1940 Hungarian American engineer Peter Carl Goldmark (1906–1977), the head of the Columbia Broadcasting System’s (CBS) research and development laboratory, came up with a technology that broke down the television image into three primary colors through a set of spinning filters in front of black and white, causing the video to be viewed in color. His system gave way in the 1950s to an RCA system whose signals were compatible with conventional black-and-white TV signals.

In September 1962 American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) began color telecasts, for three and a half hours a week. By this time, competitor National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) was broadcasting 68 percent of its prime-time programming in color, while CBS had opted to confine itself to black and white after having transmitted in color earlier. By 1967 all three networks were broadcasting entirely in color.

It was not until 1967 that color television was broadcast in England: On July 1 the BBC-2 transmitted seven hours of programming, most of it coverage of lawn tennis from Wimbledon.