
Another development was the move from standard-definition television (SDTV) ( 576i, with 576 interlaced lines of resolution and 480i) to high-definition television (HDTV), which provides a resolution that is substantially higher. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, digital television transmissions greatly increased in popularity. For many reasons, especially the convenience of remote retrieval, the storage of television and video programming now also occurs on the cloud (such as the video-on-demand service by Netflix). The availability of various types of archival storage media such as Betamax and VHS tapes, LaserDiscs, high-capacity hard disk drives, CDs, DVDs, flash drives, high-definition HD DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, and cloud digital video recorders has enabled viewers to watch pre-recorded material-such as movies-at home on their own time schedule. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the U.S. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for influencing public opinion. After World War II, an improved form of black-and-white television broadcasting became popular in the United Kingdom and the United States, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions. Television became available in crude experimental forms in the late 1920s, but only after several years of further development was the new technology marketed to consumers. Television is a mass medium for advertising, entertainment, news, and sports.

The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Flat-screen televisions for sale at a consumer electronics store in 2008
