National Television Standards Committee which set the standard frame rate used for videos in the United States based on the 60 cycles per second of our power grid. Thus, we in the states using NTSC have 60 interlaced images per second, making 30 frames per second in black and white. However, because color takes up more information, the broadcasting TV stations cut a tiny bit out every second to make room for the color information. Thus we now have 29.97 frames per second.

see also PAL.