Ideologies of transmission
& the transmission of ideologies
OR television formats and politics

Richard Banghart

As if you didn't have enough acronyms I'm about to give you three more. They are NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. These acronyms refer to different television systems used around the world today. Here, in the United States, we use NTSC. NTSC was the first color television system--created in 1953. It was developed to be compatible with the earlier black and white system. Essentially, what NTSC allows is the addition of color to the existing transmission, while permitting black and white only receivers to be unaffected by the additional color information. Although newer televisions and improved broadcast transmission have obviated the need for some of these controls, the NTSC system requires color televisions to have hue and color intensity controls. With the hue control you can change the color of faces from red to blue to green and any color in between. With the intensity control you can remove all color (returning to a black and white picture), add a little tint of color, or make the color as garish as a comic book. The ability to control color is so great that NTSC is said to stand for Never Twice the Same Color. By contrast, the PAL system (used in most of Europe), offers only a color intensity control, while the SECAM system offers no color controls at all.

I have often found the differences in control offered by these three systems very interesting. While the developers of each system approached the problem of delivering a color television signals to the home in what they considered the "best" way possible, each approach embodies certain assumptions. The American way puts the most control in the hands of the consumer. It also embodies the assumption that errors in transmission might need correcting in the home. It has little confidence that the broadcaster and transmission channel can deliver the color that the producer intended. Indeed, it suggests that the consumer might even desire color different than even the producer intended, and gives them the means to achieve their desires.

On the other hand, the PAL system offers a single color intensity control. A PAL viewer can adjust the intensity of the color, but is stuck with the colors the producer chose or the broadcaster transmitted. Of course, one could say that PAL viewers need never worry about misadjusting the hue control. The designers of the PAL system had greater confidence in their ability to deliver the intended colors, and perhaps less confidence in the ability of consumers to adjust colors properly. Why should anyone want to watch green or blue faces?

The SECAM system, developed in France, offers no control of the color to the viewer. The SECAM system puts all control of color in the hands of the broadcaster. This represents the highest confidence in the ability of the broadcaster (central authority) to deliver the proper picture, and the lowest confidence in the ability of the consumer to adjust his or her own set. What is fascinating is which system each country of the world has chosen.

The rugged individualists of the United States have the ability to determine color to their heart's content. The more socialist democratic states of Europe and China have the ability to decide how much color to have, but the actual colors are determined by the broadcaster. In the eastern European countries, the broadcaster determines all of your color choices, thank you.

In all fairness, I should mention that while NTSC television sets have the knobs to fully manipulate the color, relatively few television viewers understand how to use the knobs. In the early days of color television (before the current, stable TVs of today), a mis-adjusted television set was very common. The viewer had the power to determine the color, but often failed to exercise it.