1. August 1936:
People watching a
television set at
Waterloo Station in
London. (Fox
Photos/Getty
Images)

2. John Logie Baird in
front of an early
television ('seeing by
wireless') transmitter.
Baird began
experimenting with
imaging systems in
the early 1920s. In
1924 he transmitted
outline images over
wires, and by 1925 he
was able to transmit
recognizable human
faces. In 1926 he
started the world's
first television
station, which he
named 2TV. (Ann
Ronan Pictures/Print
Collector/Getty
Images)

3. John Logie Baird in front of an
early television ('seeing by
wireless') transmitter. Baird
began experimenting with
imaging systems in the early
1920s. In 1924 he transmitted
outline images over wires, and
by 1925 he was able to
transmit recognizable human
faces. In 1926 he started the
world's first television station,
which he named 2TV. (Ann
Ronan Pictures/Print
Collector/Getty Images)

4. Dr. E.F. Alexanderson,
inventor of the radio-
television process whereby a
listener can see as well as
listen to the broadcast,
operating his 3-inch screen
home television set,
Schenectady, New York,
January 14, 1928. This was
the first home reception of
television. (Underwood
Archives/Getty Images)

5. Undated (circa
1940s) early
family
television time.
(Archive
Photos/Getty
Images)

6. Early days of television in
Sweden, 1953. The aerial is
mounted by two men in white
coats. From the Landskrona
Museum Collection. (IBL
Bildbyra/Heritage Images/Getty
Images)

7. A family watching
television at home, circa
1955. (Archive
Photos/Getty Images)

8. Circa 1960s: A couple
watching a portable TV in the
living room. (H. Armstrong
Roberts/Retrofile/Getty
Images)

9. With the start of pay television,
John Garrott installs a program
selector unit on a television set in
Los Angeles, Calif., July 23, 1964.
(Don Brinn/AP)

10. A Telstar satellite in 1962, designed by
Bell Telephone Laboratories for
relaying telephone calls, data
messages and television signals. (AP
Photo)

11. Gina Lollobrigida
watches President
Kennedy on a television
set in her Rome villa, July
23, 1962, during live
telecast from the U.S. to
Europe via the Telstar
satellite. The Italian
actress left her movie set
to watch the program,
which included a portion
of the president's news
conference in
Washington. (Jim
Pringle/AP)

12. July 23,1962: The first transmission
with six monitors of programming to
Europe via the Telstar satellite.
(Midge Aylward/Keystone/Getty
Images)

16. Prototype VCR
shown in the
U.K. in 1968.
(Hulton
Archive/Getty
Images)

17. Sept. 21,1970: The
new EVR system,
allowing the
recording of
television programs
that could then be
watched at the
viewer's discretion.
The new Teleplayer
was produced in
partnership with
Rank Bush Murphy
Ltd. and EVR, and it
had enormous
potential. (Central
Press/Getty Images)

18. Roy H. Pollack, vice president and
general manager of RCA Corporation
consumer electronics, demonstrates
a new video tape machine
introduced in New York, Aug. 23,
1977. The recorder, intended for
home use, was priced at $1,000, and
was capable of handling cassettes
that could record up to four hours of
television programs. (AP Photo)

19. Bert Jett proudly
stands in the yard of
his home near Blue
Creek, where he and
his two brothers
installed a $7,800
satellite receiving
dish so they could get
better TV reception in
Elkview, W.Va., July
14,1981. The Jetts
said they get nearly
60 stations around
the globe and had
their choice of four
separate movie
channels, several
Christian networks
and most of the big-
city TV stations in this
country. (AP Photo)

20. The new DVD
video player from
Toshiba America
Consumer
Products unveiled
at the Consumer
Electronics Show
in Las Vegas, Jan.
5, 1996. The
player reads
information from
a five-inch optical
disk that can hold
up to 133
minutes of digital
video and sound.
(Reuters)

21. Actor and director Robert
Redford (right) stands with
Barry Rosenblum, president
of Time Warner Cable, and
Barbara Kelly, senior vice
president and general
manager of Time Warner
Cable, at the launch of
Digital Television from Time
Warner Cable in New York,
Feb. 7, 2000. (Jonathan
Elderfield/Getty Images)

22. In this May 30,
2007, file
photo, a cable
box is seen on
top of a
television.
Pay-TV
customers
with regular
set-top boxes
could soon
record
programs
without a
DVR. (/Matt
Rourke/AP)

23. August 18, 2010,
New York. Verizon
Chief Information
Officer Shaygan
Kheradpir shows a
software application
that allows FiOS TV
customers to watch
live television on an
iPad. (Brendan
McDermid/Reuters)
August 18, 2010,
New York. Verizon
Chief Information
Officer Shaygan
Kheradpir shows a
software application
that allows FiOS TV
customers to watch
live television on an
iPad. (Brendan
McDermid/Reuters)

24. In this Feb. 23, 2011, file
photo, three Dish Network
satellite dishes are shown at
an apartment complex in
Palo Alto, Calif. On May 2,
2011, Dish Network Corp.
entered the U.S. consumer
market in 1996. (Paul
Sakuma/AP)

25. The Scientific-Atlanta Explorer 8300
Multi-Room Digital Video Recorder
allows cable television viewers to
record two shows at once and play
them back from any room in the
house. The red bars show that the
machine is set to record both "The
O.C." and "Joey" at the same time.
Photo made on Wednesday, March 9,
2005, in Bloomington, Minn. (Jim
Mone/AP)

26. A TiVo remote control
is the tool that
television watchers are
armed with to access
the digital technology
that allows them to
pause, replay or fast-
forward live
programming . (Cliff
Schiappa/AP)

27. In this Thursday, Dec.
20, 2012, photo, Chet
Kanojia, founder and
CEO of Aereo, Inc.,
shows a tablet
displaying his
company's technology,
in New York. Aereo
delivers broadcast
television over the
Internet, without
licensing agreements,
to subscribers .
(Bebeto Matthews/AP)

28. An Apple TV device,
left, is shown alongside
Google's Chromecast,
center, and the Roku 2,
on Thursday, Dec. 19,
2013, in New York.
Streaming video
devices such as Roku,
Apple TV and Google's
Chromecast project
video from Netflix,
YouTube and other
services onto the big-
screen TV. Suddenly,
the computer seems
inadequate. Internet
television will never be
the same. (Mark
Lennihan/AP)