How much did the first televisions cost?

Answer 1

The first televisions went on sale to the public in 1929 as the BBC began the first television broadcasts. The "Televisor" and John Logie Baird named his television was not a trivial purchase. The cost was the equivalent of £8000 ($12,000) today.

Broadcasts were limited at the time and on only a single channel. It was a huge investment for a tiny screen and no choice of programming. Nonetheless, several hundred were sold.

Answer 2

RCA offered four types of television receivers for sale to in 1939, the TRK-12, the TRK-9, the TRK-5, and the TT-5 (the number being the screen size in inches). The TT-5 was an "everyman" vision-only table model introduced last and intended to be connected to a "TV compatible" radio that RCA had been selling earlier for the sound. Their prices, ranging from $199 to $600 (at a time when average annual incomes were less than $1000), were considered high. They received channels 1 to 5 (the frequency for channel 1 had not yet been taken over for military use).

These would be roughly equivalent in 2015 to prices ranging from $3500 to $10,300 (similar to current very large screen digital HDTVs).