Free The Kinescopes! is a page devoted to early television history. Be sure to check out our companion page 'The SBC Archive'. We believe in universal access to all television. The kinescope process was one in which live television programs were recorded via a small video monitor onto 16mm or 35mm film. This was the only way to preserve live television for time-shifting, rebroadcast or sale of tv programs. Kinescopes were made obsolete by the invention of videotape, which became commercially available in 1956/57. However, they were still used all the way up through the early 1970s as a means of videotape backup, or for preservation since videotape was frequently erased and reused. This page will focus mainly on these early tv recordings dating from the late 1940s through the late 1960s. Kinescope also went by 'Teletranscriptions' in the USA and 'Telerecordings' in the UK.