Example sentences
bié别kàn看diàn电shì视le了。
Stop watching TV.
diàn电shì视kāi开zhe着méi没rén人kàn看。
The TV is on but no one watches it.
About this word
电 is "electric" and 视 is "sight", so the word is "electric seeing". 视 is the formal word for looking, the one in 视力 eyesight, 近视 nearsighted, 无视 to disregard, and it reads as more bookish than 看. The medium and the machine share the name, though 电视机, with 机 "machine" tacked on, is the physical set. 看电视 is to watch TV, and 电视台 is a TV station. The same 电- prefix builds 电脑, 电影 and 电灯, all modern inventions named for their power source.
The story behind the character
电
The bronze 电 is a bolt of lightning, zigzagging down. The traditional 電 added a 雨 (rain) on top but kept the lightning below. Xu Shen wrote 电, 阴阳激耀也. The electricity in your phone began as the bolt splitting the sky.
视
视 is 見 (to see) with 示 on the left, which also happens to supply the sound. Xu Shen wrote 视, 瞻也, to gaze at something. The traditional 視 still shows the full 見 on the right; the simplified form trimmed it down to 见. So inside 电视, the word for television, there is a small 见 sitting there, watching.