British Made TVs For Export

[Richard_FM]

While 625 line sets seemed to be a common product for the British manufacturers pre-1964, did any make 525 line sets for export to the Commonwealth countries who used NTSC?

[German Dalek]

Hi Richard,

I have a question, what is a 525 lines Commonwealth country?
I am sorry to say that I have all the Commonwealth countries not present,
but this has to be a country on the american continent!?
Correct me if I am wrong, please.

I have 3 exported english CCIR sets, Bush TV 22-F (foreign/Netherlands),
1956 Alba 14" (type not present/Spain) and a Pye from about 1959 (17")
The PYE has user informations on the back in different languages, incl. arabian
writing.
The PYE was sold in Finland.

I see the 525 lines standard only in connection with 60 Hz mains.

Best regards,
German Dalek

[paulsherwin]

Did British Honduras / Belize use 60Hz? I don't even know when TV started there though.

British manufacturers would have had a hard time selling into markets dominated by the American big boys. Did Grundig ever export 525 TVs?

[Jac]

Canada was 525/60.
Honduras also.

Jac

[peter_scott]

Possibly Jamaica and Bermuda too.

Peter

p.s. I see Jamaica is 110v but 50Hz.
Bermuda is 60Hz though.

[FERNSEH]

German Dalek wrote: "I have 3 exported english CCIR sets, Bush TV 22-F (foreign/Netherlands),
1956 Alba 14" (type not present/Spain) and a Pye from about 1959 (17")"

That's interesting, I didn't know that Alba made TVs for export.

DFWB.

[German Dalek]

Yes, Grundig did!
They were exported and made in the US at the Majestic plant.
To save taxes companies built plants in overseas countries. They send
often the parts from the homeland and mounted the sets in the
country where they entered the market.

TV export and domestic productions are a part of my collection
and interesting to see, who built TVs for Export.

As I know, only Grundig made this in higher numbers.
I have a re-imported Kuba Komet, that was an Imperial chassis,
but there were not so many shipped/and partly mounted in the USA.

But there was a presence in other south american states like Brasil,
Chile.

Best regards,
German Dalek

[Jac]

Originally Posted by peter_scott

Possibly Jamaica and Bermuda too.

Peter

Jamaica had 50Hz (PAL N)
Bermuda indeed also 60Hz - system M

Jac

[German Dalek]

Originally Posted by FERNSEH

"I have 3 exported english CCIR sets, Bush TV 22-F (foreign/Netherlands),
1956 Alba 14" (type not present/Spain) and a Pye from about 1959 (17")"

That's interesting, I didn't know that Alba made TVs for export.

DFWB.

I shall dig it out, hope that it was not a set of a moval.
But there were many british made TVs in Spain.
HMV and the others were present.

Spain started in 1956 with Television, they had an own industry, but most
of the 50s sets in Spain were german made and Philips.

Another market for british TVs was Italy and a few I think to Sweden.I remember an advertisement in an old TV guide.
But I never saw a british TV in Sweden.

Best regards
German Dalek

[Nuvistor]

I was talking to the Ekco/Pye rep in the late 1960’s about cabinet design and the comment was made that their cabinets for the Italian market were vastly different in style to the UK ones.
I recollect he said more colourful than U.K. designs.

We did like our mahogany and teak styles until RBM came out with brightly coloured cabinets.

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by German Dalek

Hi Richard,

I have a question, what is a 525 lines Commonwealth country?
I am sorry to say that I have all the Commonwealth countries not present,
but this has to be a country on the american continent!?
Correct me if I am wrong, please.

Thanks for the feedback.

I was meaning the Caribbean islands in the Commonwealth, who seemed to be under the American sphere of influence in adopting standards, but I guessing the British electrical manufacturers were already exported their products to.

Were some sets assembled anywhere from a UK chassis with a locally sourced cabinet? This sort of thing was common in the car industry for meeting local content quotas.

[usradcoll1]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Did British Honduras / Belize use 60Hz? I don't even know when TV started there though.

British manufacturers would have had a hard time selling into markets dominated by the American big boys. Did Grundig ever export 525 TVs?

I have two Grundig sets, using Toshiba 19" color CRT's. Made in Austria.
The only sets in my collection that has the CRT faces protruding past the mask like the British sets.

[Richard_FM]

I've noticed it's common for American TVs to have the screen with a thick bezel around the screen, & often used by the Japanese makers on their sets, which possible were designed with the American market in mind.

It's not just British sets that had a screen standing proud, my parents Belgian made Philips 16inch 2216 had one.

[usradcoll1]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

I've noticed it's common for American TVs to have the screen with a thick bezel around the screen, & often used by the Japanese makers on their sets, which possible were designed with the American market in mind.

It's not just British sets that had a screen standing proud, my parents Belgian made Philips 16inch 2216 had one.

I failed to mention the European sets as well.
The two Grundigs I have were definitely made for the US market. Strictly NTSC and 120 Volt mains.

[Maarten]

Originally Posted by German Dalek

I shall dig it out, hope that it was not a set of a moval.
But there were many british made TVs in Spain.
HMV and the others were present.

Spain started in 1956 with Television, they had an own industry, but most
of the 50s sets in Spain were german made and Philips.

Another market for british TVs was Italy and a few I think to Sweden.I remember an advertisement in an old TV guide.
But I never saw a british TV in Sweden.

I have the impression that a substantial number of TV sets with foreign/overseas brand names were actually locally made in Spain, Portugal and Italy. It seems to me there was a lot of licensing going on and possibly constructions to evade taxes or trade restrictions (Franco, Salazar). I'm in any case sure that Philips made TV sets in its Z factory in Barcelona shortly after TV started but I don't know the exact year. Philips factories in Spain and Italy had their own full fledged design teams, Portugal had a factory but I'm not sure whether they designed sets from the ground up.

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by Maarten

I have the impression that a substantial number of TV sets with foreign/overseas brand names were actually locally made in Spain, Portugal and Italy. It seems to me there was a lot of licensing going on and possibly constructions to evade taxes or trade restrictions (Franco, Salazar). I'm in any case sure that Philips made TV sets in its Z factory in Barcelona shortly after TV started but I don't know the exact year. Philips factories in Spain and Italy had their own full fledged design teams, Portugal had a factory but I'm not sure whether they designed sets from the ground up.

Philips seemed to have a lot of different operations working independently until the 1980s at least.

[Synchrodyne]

According to the attached Wireless World item, some British setmakers were offering export model 525/60 TV receivers as early as 1949:



At that time though, the US would have been the only market. British Commonwealth countries/territories that later adopted 525/60 would have been a few years away from starting their TV services. Whether these receivers were actively marketed in the USA to any extent is unknown, but it could be that they were aimed more at the personal export market.

Cheers,

[paulsherwin]

They may have had Canada in mind, though that would have been rather optimistic given the strength of the local electronics industry and the trading links with the US.

[German Dalek]

Yes, Maarten, thats true.
But just the common Philips TV sets like 21"/90°, 21"/110" and 23"/110° were million sellers all over the world.
There are slightly different knobs, different cabins and of course different standards in use, but they look in all countries closeby the same.

Philips sold TVs in Finland not only with the Philips name, mostly they called: Fenno

Funkschau report in 1957:
A picture shows experimental television in Portugal with a 21" Philips TV set.

Best regards,
German Dalek

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

They may have had Canada in mind, though that would have been rather optimistic given the strength of the local electronics industry and the trading links with the US.

I've heard of Clairtone, a Canadian manufacturer of hi-fi equipment who made the mistake of starting to make colour TVs a few years before the market was ready.