Effects of time zones on North American broadcasting

The scheduling of television programming in North America (namely the United States, Canada, and Mexico) must cope with different time zones.

This requires broadcast and pay television networks in each country to shift programs in time to show them in different regions.

CBC Television and CTV created delay centres in Calgary in the early 1960s in order to allow programming to air in each time zone based on the region.

Conversely, live shows aired in Canada are frequently televised simultaneously for some viewers in the U.S. with access to Canadian broadcast networks.

[1] The vast majority of specialty cable and satellite television channels in Canada each operate a single feed which is distributed in all time zones.

This includes all French language channels, as they predominantly serve Francophone areas of the country, mostly in Quebec (almost all of which observes Eastern Time).

[citation needed] The code of ethics of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) enforces a watershed, in which programs that contain coarse or offensive language or sexually explicit material intended for adult audiences may only air in the "late viewing period" when children are less likely to be watching, defined as 9:00 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. nightly.

[2] PrideVision (now OUTtv) was particularly affected as, from its launch in 2001 until 2005, its format included more innocuous entertainment and lifestyle programming aimed at the LGBT community during the daytime and prime time, and hardcore pornographic content in the overnight hours.

In 2009, PBS began using Internet servers instead of separate feeds for time delaying of its programming to the network's member stations.

For example, until it dropped the program in 2014, superstation-turned-basic cable channel WGN America (now NewsNation) telecast the noon (Central Time) newscast from WGN-TV in Chicago at 1:00 p.m. Eastern in Washington, D.C. and 10:00 a.m. Pacific in Los Angeles.

Broadcasters offer East and West Coast feeds of some basic cable channels for viewing in all time zones.

These designated stations are usually owned-and-operated stations and/or affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, The CW, and MyNetworkTV located in the Eastern and Pacific Time Zones (usually those based in New York City and Los Angeles such as ABC's respective O&Os [network owned-and-operated] in those markets, WABC-TV and KABC-TV).

[citation needed] Most sports television programs, including other major national events, are broadcast live in all time zones across U.S. territories, but also present special problems for local stations.

As such, a live Sunday sporting event that is played from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time preempts local 6:00 p.m. newscasts on the East Coast.

Likewise, a State of the Union address that is televised at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time preempts local 6:00 p.m. newscasts on the West Coast.

About 80% of the U.S. population reside in the Central and Eastern time zones, where the nation's largest city (and the main anchor of television programming) New York is located.

NBC cited the "communal" experience, increased use of social media, and decades-long widespread criticism of the prior format for this transition.

[15][16] Beginning in the 2025–26 season, NBC plans to air a weekly doubleheader of NBA games on Tuesday nights under a new broadcasting agreement.

Despite shifting venues across the mainland U.S., most notably to Las Vegas in 2022, the Grammys have continued to use the format, making it the first major award show to have consistently aired live every year across all U.S. territories.

The Billboard Music Awards have since juggled between tape-delayed West Coast airings and live coast-to-coast U.S. telecasts since the mid-2010s depending on the show's recent viewership changes.

This format, similar to aforementioned major awards shows, involves airing live on prime time or late night in the East Coast (and late afternoon hours or on prime time, simultaneously and respectively, on the West Coast) on a weekly basis due to episodic, per-season formats.

All remaining U.S. territories outside the North American continental mainland, however, are excluded from the show's real-time voting process due to multiple-hour time differences.

[29] The format would eventually extend to include the season finale round beginning 2019, making it the first ever primetime regular series in U.S. television history to air its season finale live all across the U.S.[30] The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the beginning of the 2020s resulted in some of the most drastic scheduling changes for major annual events on U.S. network television in the 21st century.

In 2020, MTV began expanding its broadcast coverage of the Video Music Awards with its simultaneous live telecasts via The CW in all U.S. territories.

[33] That same year, some events previously broadcast on live television began defecting to streaming platforms catering in real time across all U.S. territories, as ABC's Dancing with the Stars made a limited simulcast with Disney+ in 2022, followed by the Miss Universe pageant (headquartered in the U.S.) with its transfer from Fox to The Roku Channel alongside live coast-to-coast telecasts with Telemundo the following year.

Some television stations (such as WKYC and WJW in Cleveland, Ohio, or WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island) have recently begun using the fact that prime time in the Eastern Time Zone begins at 8:00 p.m. to their advantage by carrying a newscast during the 7:00 p.m. hour, generally in order to attract viewers who work longer days and cannot return home to watch a 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. newscast.

(A few stations—most notably, WIS in Columbia, South Carolina—have offered local newscasts in the 7:00 timeslot for several years prior to other Eastern Time stations expanding into that hour.)