The first flat screen TV was invented in 1964 by a team of engineers at the U.S. company, RCA (Radio Corporation of America). However, it wasn’t until the early 2000s that flat screen TVs became widely available to consumers.
RCA’s prototype used a technology called liquid crystal display (LCD), which later evolved into the LCD TVs we see today. Although this invention was groundbreaking, it took decades for the technology to develop to a point where it could be mass-produced and made affordable for the average consumer.
The real shift in popularity for flat screen TVs occurred in the late 1990s and early 2000s when advancements in both LCD and plasma screens allowed for slimmer designs and improved picture quality. By the mid-2000s, flat screen TVs began to dominate the market, marking a significant change in how people experienced television.