The year 1956 in television involved some significant events.
Below is a list of television-related events during 1956.
Events
January 1 – Beleteleradio begins transmissions as the first television channel in Belarus.
January 25–February 5 – The 1956 Winter Olympics staged at Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy are the first multi-sport event to be televised to an international audience,[1] although the broadcasts are not monetized. Warsaw Pact countries have the technology to be able to broadcast coverage with a communist slant into Finland and parts of West Germany and Austria.[2]
January 28 – Elvis Presley makes his national television debut on CBS in the United States on the program Stage Show, the first of six appearances on the series.
January 30 – NBC swaps its Cleveland radio and TV stations to Westinghouse Broadcasting in exchange for Westinghouse's own Philadelphia radio and TV stations. The trade is eventually reversed in 1965.[3][4]
February 17 – The English Midlands becomes the first part of the United Kingdom outside London to receive Independent Television (ITV), when the Associated Television Network (as ATV Midlands) begins broadcasting their weekday franchise. The weekend franchise, ABC Weekend TV, begins operation a day later.
April 14 – Ampex company demonstrates a videotape recorder at the 1956 NARTB (later National Association of Broadcasters) convention in Chicago, Illinois, using the first practical and commercially successful videotape format known as 2" Quadruplex. The three networks place orders for the recorders.
April
WNBQ (modern-day WMAQ-TV) in Chicago becomes the first TV station to broadcast all its local programming in color.
United States Senator Estes Kefauver holds congressional hearings on the rising rates of juvenile crime and publishes an article in Reader's Digest named "Let's Get Rid of Tele-Violence."
May 2 – Baghdad Television (BTV) goes on the air as the first television station in Iraq.
May 24 – The firstEurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland. It is primarily a radio program at this stage, as few Europeans can afford TV sets.
August 5 – KUAM-TV becomes the first television station in Guam.
August 6 – Final telecast of the DuMont Television Network. The United States will not have a fourth major network until the launch of the Fox network in 1986.
September – NBC introduces a still version of its peacock color logo.
September 4 – Television broadcasting begins in Sweden as Radiotjänst TV goes on the air.
September 9 – Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States for the first time.
September 15 – Gabriel J. Fontana wins a record US$64,000 from the Super Bonus Stunt on Beat the Clock.
September 16 – TCN-9Sydney becomes the first Australian television station to begin regular transmission.
October 1 – Ernie Kovacs becomes the host for NBC's The Tonight Show in the United States on Mondays and Tuesdays.
October 28 – La 1, the first TV channel for Television Espanola (TVE), signs on in Madrid, Spain. It is the country's first TV station.[8]
October 29
First use of videotape in network television programming; CBS uses its Ampex VTR to record the evening news, anchored by Douglas Edwards. The tape is then fed to West Coast stations three hours later.
November 3 – The 1939 MGM movie The Wizard of Oz is shown on television for the first time in the United States, by CBS; the viewing audience is estimated at 45 million people.
November 4 – HSV 7 officially inaugurates on the air in Melbourne, Australia, soon after the Australia Government starts issuing television licences.
November – The first use of videotape for a network television entertainment program. Jonathan Winters uses videotape and superimposing techniques to be able to play two characters in the same skit for his NBC television show.
December 26 – Algeria's TV1 broadcasts for the first time as RTF Television Algiers, making it the first television network in the country.
December 31 – Game series host Bob Barker makes his national television debut in the United States on the program Truth or Consequences.
Portable TV sets (black and white) are first marketed.
September 8 – Hey, Jeannie! starring Jeannie Carson on CBS (1956–57, then 1958 in syndication as The Jeannie Carson Show)
September 15 – The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (UK) on ITV (After being sold to the NBC network in the United States, it later becomes the first British television series ever to be made in colour, in this case it wouldn't premiere in the United States until 9 days later on September 24, 1956) (1956–57)
