American TV Networks

[nshady]

Can someone just help clarify the structure of the American TV channels? In Australia, we have five 'free to air' channels broadcast in analogue and digital (though only digital from 2013... you think you're behind the times). The channels are 7, 9, 10, ABC (the national broadcaster) and SBS (special broadcasting... broader international focus, minority programming). Then there is Pay TV, which is broadcast via cable and satellite. It is called Foxtel in metropolitan areas, and Austar in the country, but it is the same service, same channels etc.

I'm a little lost as to how it works over there? What are the basic 'free' stations, what is cable, why do some shows (i.e. Psych) get shown on more than one network?

[masherscf]

Can someone just help clarify the structure of the American TV channels? In Australia, we have five 'free to air' channels broadcast in analogue and digital (though only digital from 2013... you think you're behind the times). The channels are 7, 9, 10, ABC (the national broadcaster) and SBS (special broadcasting... broader international focus, minority programming). Then there is Pay TV, which is broadcast via cable and satellite. It is called Foxtel in metropolitan areas, and Austar in the country, but it is the same service, same channels etc.

I'm a little lost as to how it works over there? What are the basic 'free' stations, what is cable, why do some shows (i.e. Psych) get shown on more than one network?

Things are a sight more complex her in the states. The channels are basically leased from the FCC by over-the-air TV stations in a given geographical area. These stations may or may not be affiliated with a national network that would provide content. So there is not any one channel that is identified with given content on a national level.

On a national level, broadcast TV is identified by the networks. The broadcasting TV networks are CBS, ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS and CW. These are mostly private commercial venture accept PBS. PBS is a mostly non-commercial venture that operates on private and corporate donations and government funding. The other networks make money off of ad revenue.

Cable-TV providers have exclusive rights to provide service to a given area. In exchange, the Cable-TV providers have to carry local broadcast channels with their basic service. So, running a small regional broadcast TV station is a great way get your content onto cable for almost nothing.

[nshady]

Things are a sight more complex her in the states. The channels are basically leased from the FCC by over-the-air TV stations in a given geographical area. These stations may or may not be affiliated with a national network that would provide content. So there is not any one channel that is identified with given content on a national level.

On a national level, broadcast TV is identified by the networks. The broadcasting TV networks are CBS, ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS and CW. These are mostly private commercial venture accept PBS. PBS is a mostly non-commercial venture that operates on private and corporate donations and government funding. The other networks make money off of ad revenue.

Cable-TV providers have exclusive rights to provide service to a given area. In exchange, the Cable-TV providers have to carry local broadcast channels with their basic service. So, running a small regional broadcast TV station is a great way get your content onto cable for almost nothing.

Hmmm... still trying to wrap my head around it.

Here the five 'networks' broadcast nearly identical programming across the country. Channel 7 Adelaide has its own news and current affairs shows, and a couple of other local interest programs, but Dancing With The Stars is shown nationwide at the same time.

So are you saying that locally, broadcasting is not done by FOX, for instance, but by a third party who has licensed their content? Or do they license "Fox Regional Station 12" and just rebroadcast it? i.e. on a local level is content still dictated by the overarching network, or is there a local studio that intersperses the appropriate local content in the same way that we get Adelaide news instead of Sydney news?

[tokenuser]

Hi. You know me. An Aussie living in the US.

The US has its major (and minor) networks. Masher left of the peacock (NBC) from his list.

These are national stations - to a point. The major cities tend to be "corporate" stations, owned by the networks. Smaller regions are a mix of corporate and affiliate stations for the networks.

Across the country, each of the majors broadcasts pretty much the same show content. ABC in LA (KABC - channel 7), shows the same programming (mostly) as ABC in NY (WABC - also channel 7, but don't bank on it everywhere, is WTVD on channel 11 in Raleigh NC).

Programming is set as national or local. Local programming generally includes a local news service, sometimes a local morning show, and differing sports coverage (blackout regions stop local broadcasters from showing local major league sports). In fact, our local FOX affilliate gets its local news from our local CBS station.

From that perspective, there isn't much difference to what is in Australia. They are all free to air channels (and soon all digital).

PBS is an odd one. It receives some funding from the federal government, but it is largely based on donations and subscriptions. It shows limited advertising, in the form of "this show was brought to you by Dewalt Tools" type sponsorship. It is not like the (Australian) ABC but seems to sit a little closer to the SBS model. FWIW - Sesame Street, as seen on the ABC, is a PBS show.

For additional programming, there are two primary and one minor (but growing) distribution methods - cable, satellite, and fios (fibre optic).

I was a Telstra cable subscriber in Australia before moving to the US (12 years ago - can't remember exactly what it was called). In the US there are 2 major national cable networks (carriers, not stations) - TimeWarner Cable, and Comcast. You will hear us bitching about them frequently. On top of that there are a number of regional carriers as well (Charter springs to mind). In its infinite wisdom, the government allows these to operate as local monopolies - if you are in a TWC area, then you must subscribe to TWC. Ditto Comcast. The Aussie analogy is that downunder, there is a single monopoly (I guess that the definition of monopoly) and that is Foxtel (yes Americans, this is owned by the same media company that owns Fox in the US - Rupert Murdoch was an Aussie after all ... and its the same organisaiton that own Sky in the UK/Europe).

Austel used to be a satellite provider along with Austar. In the US you have Dish networks, and a number of other copanies that lease/resell Dish services.

These are just the carriers, they dont (for the most part) have their own stations.

Where it gets interesting it that the cable/sat providers carry the local networks. They also carry a number of different tiers of programming that you can subscribe to. While the stations are filled with news stations (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc), and sports (ESPN), and home and garden stations, etc., several of the station on cable are also affiliated with the national free to air broadcasters.

For example, NBC is actually NBC-Universal, and also owns or has relationships with USA, Bravo, SciFi, Telemundo (spanish language), Universal-HD, Oxygen, Sleuth, and others. Psych is a USA show, but its not unusual to see shows produced for one network on cable syndicated to others.

CBS has Shotime (a premium movie subscription channel that also shows shows like Dexter), and the CW. ABC is owned by Disney, so there is a lot of programming there that is shared as well.

Its incestuous, but explains why I have 600 channels, and nothe decent on TV to watch. At least in Australia yo can come to that conclusion after 60 stations :)

[nshady]

Awesome, thanks for clearing that up for me Token.

[yssman]

A very well-done explanation Tokenuser! It was so good, even I could barely understand it (lol!).

The weird thing we have here in Grand Rapids is the overlap in coverage from other TV stations to the south and east of town. We actually have two ABC stations, one based here in Grand Rapids (WZZM-13) and one based on Battle Creek (WOTV-4), which actually gets its local news service and management from the Grand Rapids NBC station (WOOD-8).

...Then there is the major-market channel from Chicago, WGN, which I have no idea why we get it. It not only shows a lot of syndicated programing, but also the local Chicago news and advertising. Strangely, however, we don't receive anything from Detroit, despite being an equal distance between the two major cities (about a three hour drive each way).

What really seems kinda creepy is how so few companies own most of the major networks in the country...

NBC Universal (owned by General Electric):
- NBC
- CNBC
- MSNBC
- Bravo
- Telemundo
- The Weather Channel
- USA Network
- SciFi Network
- Oxygen
- A&E Television

ABC Disney:
- ABC
- The Disney Channel
- Toon Disney (now called Jetix?)
- ABC Family
- ESPN (and its subsidiaries)
- SOAPnet

News Corp:
- Fox Television
- My Network TV (not available in all over-air areas)
- Fox News
- Fox Business
- Big Ten Network (only available in NCAA Big Ten areas)
- Fox Sports Net (regional in coverage)
- Fox Soccer
- SPEED Network (mostly auto racing, NASCAR's lead outlet)
- Fox Reality
- Fox Movie Channel
- FX Network
- National Geographic
- FUEL TV (never heard of it?)

Viacom:
- MTV (and subsequent spin-offs)
- Nickelodeon
- Comedy Central
- BET (Black Entertainment Television)
- Logo
- Spike TV
- TV Land (vintage TV, mostly)
- Noggin
- CMT
- VH1

CBS Television:
- CBS (I guess it broke off from Viacom in 2005?)
- The CW (joint ownership with Time Warmer)

Time Warner:
- CNN (and its spin offs)
- Headline News
- TBS
- Boomerang (vintage cartoons, mostly)
- Cartoon Network
- Turner Classic Movies
- TNT
- truTV
- The CW (joint ownership with CBS)

...Then there are a small handful of "independent" cable operations that are spread around around the country, some operated by cable providers themselves, others just one-off ideas. Things like Al Gore's Current TV spring to mind, as does the MTV-competitor FUSE TV. Something like G4 TV, for instance, is actually operated by Comcast, the largest cable provider in the US.

Now, for me, the way in which the UK is set up continues to boggle my mind. I assume its similar to the Aussie system, the BBC operating most of the over-the-air channels, and then some privately operated ones doing the rest of the business.

[tokenuser]

Now, for me, the way in which the UK is set up continues to boggle my mind. I assume its similar to the Aussie system, the BBC operating most of the over-the-air channels, and then some privately operated ones doing the rest of the business.Australia only has one "government" network - Aunty ... the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). They are government owned and funded. No advertising revenue. The ABC also has radio stations, and retail outlets.

SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) is quasi government funded, but is not government operated. It was established to provide native language ethnic programming for immigrants, but has really expanded its programming (Top Gear Australia is a SBS show).

The rest are commercial networks ... just like in the US.

So, in that respect the Australian model is closer to the US model. WGN (The Super Station) is an odd one ... an independent station that seems to have gotten onto the cable networks nationally.

[aerodash84]

Also, shows can be sold as syndication. So reruns can be rebroadcasted on other channels. Which is Spike shows CSI, TNT shows Angel & Charmed, etc.

[joeyrock]

Now, for me, the way in which the UK is set up continues to boggle my mind. I assume its similar to the Aussie system, the BBC operating most of the over-the-air channels, and then some privately operated ones doing the rest of the business.

I think the UK is a lot more simple than the US... or Australia. I've just read this thread trying to get my head around those. :P

In the UK there is Freeview (over the air digital.. analogue switch over is in progress) and Freesat (pretty much the same as Freeview but a sat service with HD)
Those two serve 80+% of people's needs to be honest.

For pay TV there is Sky (satellite owned by Murdock) and Virgin Cable. There were a few more cable networks and local cable networks, but over the years companies brought them up and then a couple of years ago Virgin brought all those up.
Lastly there is BT which does broadband TV and on-demand movies over DSL.
There are scattered trials for over the net TV services, but none of them will beat freeview/sat.

So on Freeview there are 4 main networks.

- BBC (they have 4 channels, then news, kids channels and so on) These are the only non-commercial channels.
- ITV (they have 4 main channels plus "+1" channels)
- Channel 4 (they have 3 main channels, "+1"s, a movie channel and a music channel)
- Five (they have 3 main channels)
.. then there is "Sky 3" and "Virgin 1" from the other pay providers.. plus a couple of the BBC's commercial arm, One called "Dave" and one called "UK TV History"
.... plus a load of shitty shopping channels. You can insert a card into a freeview tuner and unscramble some other channels.. there is some porn ones, a movie one I think and some other BBC commercial ones. Nothing worth getting.

Freesat has more channels and HD variants because they have the space, freeview will get some HD when the analogue is switched off.

That's not a lot of channels, about 30ish. We get the likes of Entourage, Dexter, Curb your Enthusiasm etc etc.. over freeview channels. Pretty much the only US stuff which you have to go to Sky for is Lost, 24. However FX isn't on freeview and that's pretty cool.. has the likes of The Shield, Buffy repeats all day and soon Tru Blood. However Tru blood will be replayed later on by Channel 4. So we'll get it free eventually.

There isn't much regional variation. ITV and BBC do that, BBC switch to the news room in your county for local news split 50/50 with national news... news airs for an hour/half hour in 6 hour intervals. ITV do the same plus have some local programming as well.

[scoobydiesel]

I have never even thought about this before...But wow. Token nice.

and nice Break down YSS

[nshady]

So, to clarify, joey, Lost in Britain is only available on Pay TV? And the 'freesat' with HD content, is that a free service (presumably after installation)?

[Mal]

One thing worth mentioning about the UK is there is a lot of regulation that broadcasters have to follow, like product placement is banned and there's strict rules on how many adverts can be shown at a given time. So, advertising is generally shown differently to the USA, a programme that fits in a 30 minute slot will normally have one advert break (or even none at all if they are saving their advert quota for later). This makes it less frustrating to watch TV IMO but at the same time, American shows often rely on mini cliffhangers at their ad breaks times, so we get these cliffhangers, a fade in/out and then an immediate resolution.

[Mal]

So, to clarify, joey, Lost in Britain is only available on Pay TV? And the 'freesat' with HD content, is that a free service (presumably after installation)?
I can answer this, Lost is on pay TV only. It was originally on Channel 4 and got a cult following of millions but Sky out-bid them.

There's two competing services in the UK called Freesat, there's the official one (http://www.freesat.co.uk/) run by a consortium including the BBC and ITV, and there's Freesat from Sky (http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/), which is like a taster for their pay TV service. Freesat simply requires the dish and receiver, you can install it yourself if you like. It's an open platform with no encryption, so it's free after the initial purchase. There's a growing selection of receiver boxes designed for Freesat from standard ones to PVRs and different manufacturers making them, you can also purchase TVs with it built in - much like with Freeview.

[masherscf]

For the record, I'm not the only one that seems to have forgotten NBC. :(

[mltvcocktail]

For the record, I'm not the only one that seems to have forgotten NBC. :(

"NBC has lots of great shows, and their news and sports coverage can't be beat!"