The foundation of the television dates back to as far as the discovery of photoconductivity of the component selenium by Willoughby Smith in the year 1873. Television also carries some traces of the scanning disk which was invented by Paul Nipkow in the year 1884.

Electromechanical methods were initially researched in the 1920s and 1930s mainly by John Logie Baird who was a famous Scottish engineer. Baird made the first ever working television which broadcasted moving images in the year 1926. Other people who helped develop the Television technology were Charles Francis Jenkins, Frank Conrad, Frank Gray and Herbert E. Ives.

There was regular broadcasting in countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Soviet Union before the World War II broke out. There was regular network broadcasting post 1946 and television became part of the American house hold by mid 1950's.