The Real First Four Countries to Broadcast Television

You've probably heard that England, the US, the USSR, and Brazil were the first four countries to have television. It's a tidy list that spans continents and superpowers. There's just one problem: it's missing the actual pioneers.

Germany and France don't appear on that list, yet both countries were broadcasting television before most of the nations mentioned. Let's set the record straight.

The Actual Television Pioneers

The real chronological order tells a different story. Germany launched the world's first regular electronic television service on March 22, 1935, broadcasting from Berlin as Deutscher Fernseh Rundfunk. France followed close behind with its first official broadcast on February 13, 1935, though regular programming didn't begin until January 1937.

The United Kingdom entered the race on November 2, 1936, when the BBC began transmitting what's often called the "world's first public, regular, high-definition service" from Alexandra Palace in north London. The "high-definition" qualifier matters here—the BBC's 240-line broadcasts were significantly sharper than Germany's 180-line service.

The United States didn't issue its first commercial television licenses until 1941, when stations like WCBW (later WCBS-TV) began broadcasting to New York City. The Soviet Union didn't start regular broadcasting until June 1949, with transmissions beginning in Moscow. And Brazil? TV Tupi launched on September 18, 1950, making it the first station in South America and the sixth in the world.

Why the Confusion?

So how did this myth take hold? Part of the confusion comes from how we define "having television." Are we talking about experimental broadcasts? Regular programming? High-definition service? Commercial operation?

• Germany had regular service first, but lower resolution
• The UK claims "first high-definition" service
• The US pioneered commercial television
• Brazil was first in South America and the Portuguese-speaking world

Each country can claim a "first" of some kind, which makes the narrative messy. But if we're ranking by when regular television broadcasts actually started, Germany takes the crown.

The Pre-War Television Race

By 1939, the US, UK, Germany, and the USSR all had operational stations with limited viewers. But "operational" is generous—we're talking about very few cities with very few television sets. The technology was expensive, the broadcasts were limited, and World War II would soon interrupt Europe's television experiments entirely.

The war essentially hit pause on television development in Europe. Germany's service shut down in 1944. The UK suspended broadcasts for the duration of the war. When television resumed after 1945, the landscape had shifted, and the post-war narrative often emphasized different pioneers.

That might explain why the original fact skips Germany and France entirely—by the time television became a mass medium in the 1950s, the pre-war pioneers had been somewhat forgotten in popular memory, replaced by the countries that dominated the expansion era rather than the invention era.

Brazil's Impressive Achievement

While Brazil wasn't in the first four, its 1950 launch deserves recognition. TV Tupi was a genuine achievement—the first station in South America, ahead of Portugal despite Portuguese being the broadcast language, and the sixth television station in the entire world.

Journalist Assis Chateaubriand spearheaded the effort, and the launch show "TV na Taba" featured six-year-old actress Sonia Maria Dorce delivering what's considered the first line of Brazilian television. Brazil would go on to become a television powerhouse, eventually pioneering color broadcasting in South America with PAL-M in 1972.

So the next time someone rattles off the "first four countries" with television, you'll know the real story. Germany, the UK, France, and the US were the actual pioneers—and understanding that gives us a clearer picture of how this revolutionary technology spread across the globe.