A television is an electronic device for receiving and reproducing images and sounds of a combined audio and video signal of the broadcast content sent by a company in the broadcasting industry.

It shows news, sports, documentaries and drama – and a lot of other rubbish!

The television has also become a very popular medium for advertising messages. The very first television advertisement was broadcast in the United States at 14:29 on the 1st of July, 1941, when a company called ‘Bulova Watch’ paid $9 to New York City NBC affiliate WNBT for 20 seconds of promotional airtime before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillie’s. It simply displayed a Bulova watch over a map of the U.S., with a voice-over of the company’s slogan ‘America runs on Bulova time!’.

Television advertisements are now common place, but with the growing choice of channels for viewing and inventions like ‘Sky – fast forward through the adverts - +’ the future of television advertising is in doubt.