Terrestrial television

Terrestrial television, or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the content is transmitted via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an antenna. The term terrestrial is more common in Europe and Latin America, while in Canada and the United States it is called over-the-air or simply broadcast. This type of TV broadcast is distinguished from newer technologies, such as satellite television (direct broadcast satellite or DBS television), in which the signal is transmitted to the receiver from an overhead satellite; cable television, in which the signal is carried to the receiver through a cable; and Internet Protocol television, in which the signal is received over an Internet stream or on a network utilizing the Internet Protocol. Terrestrial television stations broadcast on television channels with frequencies between about 52 and 600 MHz in the VHF and UHF bands. Since radio waves in these bands travel by line of sight, reception is generally limited by the visual horizon to distances of 64–97 kilometres (40–60 miles), although under better conditions and with tropospheric ducting, signals can sometimes be received hundreds of kilometers distant.

Terrestrial television was the first technology used for television broadcasting. The BBC began broadcasting in 1929 and by 1930 many radio stations had a regular schedule of experimental television programmes. However, these early experimental systems had insufficient picture quality to attract the public, due to their mechanical scan technology, and television did not become widespread until after World War II with the advent of electronic scan television technology. The television broadcasting business followed the model of radio networks, with local television stations in cities and towns affiliated with television networks, either commercial (in the US) or government-controlled (in Europe), which provided content. Television broadcasts were in greyscale (called black and white) until the transition to color television in the 1960s.

There was no other method of television delivery until the 1950s with the beginnings of cable television and community antenna television (CATV). CATV was initially only a re-broadcast of over-the-air signals. With the widespread adoption of cable across the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, viewing of terrestrial television broadcasts has been in decline; in 2018, it was estimated that about 14% of US households used an antenna. However, in certain other regions terrestrial television continue to be the preferred method of receiving television, and it is estimated by Deloitte as of 2020 that at least 1.6 billion people in the world receive at least some television using these means. The largest market is thought to be Indonesia, where 250 million people watch through terrestrial.

By 2019, over-the-top media service (OTT), which is streamed via the internet, had become a common alternative.

Following the ST61 conference, UHF frequencies were first used in the UK in 1964 with the introduction of BBC2. In the UK, VHF channels were kept on the old 405-line system, while UHF was used solely for 625-line broadcasts (which later used PAL color). Television broadcasting in the 405-line system continued after the introduction of four analog programs in the UHF bands until the last 405-line transmitters were switched off on January 6, 1985. VHF Band III was used in other countries around Europe for PAL broadcasts until the planned phase-out and switch over to digital television.

The success of analog terrestrial television across Europe varied from country to country. Although each country had rights to a certain number of frequencies by virtue of the ST61 plan, not all of them were brought into service.

The first National Television System Committee standard was introduced in 1941. This standard defined a transmission scheme for a black-and-white picture with 525 lines of vertical resolution at 60 fields per second. In the early 1950s, this standard was superseded by a backward-compatible standard for color television. The NTSC standard was exclusively used in the Americas as well as Japan until the introduction of digital terrestrial television (DTT). While Mexico has ended all its analog television broadcasts and the United States and Canada have shut down nearly all of their analog TV stations, the NTSC standard continues to be used in the rest of Latin American countries except for Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, where PAL-N standard is used while testing their DTT platform.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Advanced Television Systems Committee developed the ATSC standard for digital high-definition terrestrial transmission. This standard was eventually adopted by many American countries, including the United States, Canada, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras; however, the four latter countries reversed their decision in favor of ISDB-Tb.