Why the color tv sets where so expensive at the beging?

[zeno]

RCA was the major inventor of NTSC TV & held tons of
patent rights for it. They charged fees to use it & that
was one early problem. When they stopped charging things
started to take off. Just about everyone started to make there
own & drove the cost down.

Building in quantity saves money. If you have a CRT plant
that can make 250,000 CRTs a yr but only make 100,000
you better find a way to run it at 100%. The excess gets sold
off at lower prices.

PCB's save money & almost everyone used them. Zenith
hand wired sets then slowly evolved in the '70's to all PCB
due to cost & tech advances. Zenith & RCA sold for the same
money & they were considered the 2 premium sets.

73 Zeno