Color Future

The Supreme Court decision in favor of CBS color (TIME, June 4) did not mean that U.S. audiences would start seeing regular television shows in color right away. For one thing, not many set owners were likely to plunk down an estimated $125 for the necessary converters and adapters until they were assured of a full color schedule. For another, though CBS estimated that color receivers would be moving off U.S. assembly lines by September, most television manufacturers were either noncommittal on the subject or obviously dragging their feet.

Even CBS was making no large promises about its color schedule. It planned to get started by the end of June, but the CBS shows will be broadcast mostly during the early morning and late evening hours, so as not to interfere with CBS' black & white telecasts. What color programming there is will stick pretty closely to standard TV and, at first, will not exceed 20 hours a week. Advertisers who are curious to see how their products look in color may buy CBS time for as little as $300 an hour (for black & white TV, CBS charges $3,250 an hour).

Although CBS had won the first battle, the campaign was far from over. RCA, whose rival, all-electronic color system lost to CBS before the FCC and in the courts, is still in there fighting. It released the design of its tri-color electronic tube to 231 TV manufacturers (including CBS) and plans public color demonstrations of its own system within a few weeks. And last week RCA joined with four other manufacturers (General Electric, Philco, Du Mont, Hazeltine) to announce successful laboratory tests of an even newer color system based, in part, on RCA's defeated candidate.

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