A television system is proposed which sends a succession of high-bandwidth and low-bandwidth pictures over a channel. If flicker is avoided, the eye judges picture quality from successive presentations of the pictures by taking an average. It appears that an exchange can be effected between the power in the high-frequency components and the actual duration of these components. Using only successive high-bandwidth and low-bandwidth pictures, a 1.5:1 compression ratio can be achieved, accompanied by a small drop in subjective quality. Using a "high-frequency boost circuit" to get a compression ratio up to 2.75:1 still gives satisfactory picture quality. Experiments using movie pictures in place of the previously mentioned stills show that high compression ratios are possible.