TV Remote Controls By the Numbers


 

Digital tv remote control

You’ve probably got a handful of TV and DVD remote controls hanging around the house, but just how much do you really know about them?

335 million: The estimated number of TV remote controls that are hovering around American households today. And yes, this includes all the remotes that have disappeared under mysterious circumstances, as well as the universal remotes that only half-work and are left, forgotten, on the coffee table for years on end, and also all of the replacement television remote controls bought after multiple Universal Replacement Boxes of Lies were purchased.

1898: The year that the very first wireless remote control was unveiled to the public (although these didn’t turn into remote controls for TVs until much later in the mid-1900s). This first remote was invented by Serbian-American genius Nikola Tesla, and he first put his wireless remote control on display in Madison Square Garden.

2.24: The average number of TV sets per American household. And considering that each set comes with its own remote, and each extra TV-related device (DVD players, Blu-Ray players, etc.) comes with at least one more remote…that’s a lot of TV remote controls hanging around the average house.

It’s pretty crazy to think about just how much we use TV remotes everyday, and just how accessible replacement remote controls are, when a little over 100 years ago, the wireless remote didn’t even exist.

And now we’re turning the conversation over to you: what crazy fact do you happen to know about remote controls? Be sure to let us — and all of our readers — know in comments section! Great references here: remotes.com Ger more information on this topic here.