Georges Valensi was a French telecommunications engineer who, in 1938, invented and patented a method of transmitting color images so that they could be received on both color and black & white television sets. Rival color television methods, which had been in development since the 1920s, were incompatible with monochrome televisions.

All current widely deployed color television standards – NTSC, SECAM, PAL and today's digital standards – implement his idea of transmitting a signal composed of separate luminance and chrominance. Because his invention predated the actual introduction of color television by so long, his patent was exceptionally extended to 1971.