<P> While the CBS color broadcasting schedule gradually expanded to twelve hours per week ( but never into prime time ) , and the color network expanded to eleven affiliates as far west as Chicago , its commercial success was doomed by the lack of color receivers necessary to watch the programs , the refusal of television manufacturers to create adapter mechanisms for their existing black - and - white sets , and the unwillingness of advertisers to sponsor broadcasts seen by almost no one . CBS had bought a television manufacturer in April , and in September 1951 , production began on the only CBS - Columbia color television model , with the first color sets reaching retail stores on September 28 . But it was too little , too late . Only 200 sets had been shipped , and only 100 sold , when CBS discontinued its color television system on October 20 , 1951 , ostensibly by request of the National Production Authority for the duration of the Korean War , and bought back all the CBS color sets it could to prevent lawsuits by disappointed customers . RCA chairman David Sarnoff later charged that the NPA 's order had come `` out of a situation artificially created by one company to solve its own perplexing problems '' because CBS had been unsuccessful in its color venture . </P>
<P> While the CBS color broadcasting schedule gradually expanded to twelve hours per week ( but never into prime time ) , and the color network expanded to eleven affiliates as far west as Chicago , its commercial success was doomed by the lack of color receivers necessary to watch the programs , the refusal of television manufacturers to create adapter mechanisms for their existing black - and - white sets , and the unwillingness of advertisers to sponsor broadcasts seen by almost no one . CBS had bought a television manufacturer in April , and in September 1951 , production began on the only CBS - Columbia color television model , with the first color sets reaching retail stores on September 28 . But it was too little , too late . Only 200 sets had been shipped , and only 100 sold , when CBS discontinued its color television system on October 20 , 1951 , ostensibly by request of the National Production Authority for the duration of the Korean War , and bought back all the CBS color sets it could to prevent lawsuits by disappointed customers . RCA chairman David Sarnoff later charged that the NPA 's order had come `` out of a situation artificially created by one company to solve its own perplexing problems '' because CBS had been unsuccessful in its color venture . </P>
when did the first color tv came out
when did the first color tv came out
1951
1951