(SEquential Couleur Avec Memoire, Sequential Color with Memory) A color TV standard from France that was officially introduced in 1967. Although development began in 1956, it took time to convert from the earlier French 819-line system.

SECAM broadcasts 25 interlaced frames per second (50 half frames per second) at 625 lines of resolution, 576 of which are the visual frame. Used in France and Russia and other countries in Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, several countries have switched from SECAM to PAL, and production equipment for SECAM is no longer made. Today, almost all work is done in component video systems that support 576 scanning lines (SECAM and PAL) or composite video (PAL) and converted to SECAM for transmission. See NTSC, PAL and YUV.