A flat gas discharge display includes a gas-filled envelope having mutually parallel front and rear wall plates disposed one behind the other as seen in a given viewing direction, at least one relatively large area cathode disposed on the front side of the rear wall plate, a cathodoluminescent layer and an anode disposed on the rear side of the front wall plate, a control unit disposed between the wall plates including front, central and rear grid electrodes each formed of a group of mutually parallel strip conductors, the strip conductors of the central grid electrode being column conductors, the strip conductors of the rear grid electrode being row conductors forming an orthogonal matrix together with the column conductors, and the strip conductors of the front grid electrode being tetrode conductors extended parallel to the row conductors and crossing the column conductors at given locations, the control unit being perforated with canals at the given locations where the tetrode conductors and column conductors cross each other, the row conductors each including n adjacent rows of channels, where n is an integer greater than one, and pairs of directly adjacent tetrode conductors disposed in front of different row conductors being combined to form a single strip conductor.