Immediately after World War Two production of TV sets started in the
U.S. Many advances in electronics during World War Two, such as the minituration of vacuum tubes, larger CRTs, better camera tubes, and improement of VHF communication allowed TV sets to be smaller, have bigger screens, and be much cheaper to produce.
American ended the war in good economic shape, and consumers had money to spend.
In 1946, only a few stations were on the air, and broadcasting hours were very limited. By 1949,
almost all major cities had at least one station. At the end of 1946,
only 44,000 homes had a TV set; by the end of 1949, there were 4.2 million TV
homes. By 1953, 50% of American homes had television.
In the late 40s, A T & T started building a microwave and coaxial
cable network to tie together TV stations in the U.S. The network started on the east coast, but by 1950 it had been expanded to the south and midwest. By 1956, most
cities were linked to network programming.
