SECAM, also written SÉCAM (French pronunciation: [sekam], Séquentiel couleur à mémoire, French for "Sequential colour with memory"), is an analogue colour television system first used in France. It was one of three major colour television standards, the others being the European PAL and North American NTSC.
Development of SECAM began in 1956 by a team led by Henri de France working at Compagnie Française de Télévision (later bought by Thomson, now Technicolor). The first SECAM broadcast was made in France in 1967, making it the first such standard to go live in Europe. The system was also selected as the standard for colour in the Soviet Union, who began broadcasts shortly after the French. The standard spread from these two countries to many client states and former colonies.
SECAM remained a major standard into the 2000s. It is in the process of being phased out and replaced by DVB, the new pan-European standard for digital television.