Viewing The Television Experience

Did you know that the week before the Super Bowl is the most popular time of year to purchase a new TV?

In February, our family, friends, co-workers, bowling league buddies and even Ted’s Great Aunt Martha will gather together in front of our TV screens for one of most anticipated television event of the year, the Super Bowl®. In just fifty years, viewership has skyrocketed from 50 million to over 114 million worldwide.

American families first became enamored with television in the late 1940s, following World War II. People could watch weekly black and white episodes of Ed Sullivan, Jack Benny, Walter Cronkite, “Leave It to Beaver,” “The Lone Ranger” and more. It was a brave new world that had come home to the small screen in our living rooms.

In the ’60s, color television came along setting another milestone. Many Baby Boomers can still recall the day when their Dad brought home their first color TV. The next few decades saw steady improvements in picture quality and soon we began to add new high tech features, such as VHS and DVD players.

Today, we have the ability to watch television everywhere – at home, work or on the road on our phones, tablets, computers and even our watches. And while some TV’s have gotten smaller, man’s love affair with the big screen TV continues. Mega screens are larger than ever, topping 110-inches with a picture format size (16:9) that’s nearly twice as wide as the old standard 3:4 ratio. Plus, when it comes to screen types, consumers have a range of choice – LED, LCD, Plasma, 3D, curved, and now 4K screens that are four times sharper than High Definition.

So as you make your preparations for Super Bowl Sunday, where and what will you be watching the big game on?