Geographical usage of television

Despite being the most economically advanced country on the continent, South Africa did not introduce TV until 1976, owing to opposition from the apartheid regime.

The main satellite TV providers are the South African MultiChoice DStv service, and the predominantly French language Canal Horizons, owned by France's Canal+.

Japan's NHK is a non-commercial network similar to the BBC, funded by a television license fee, and has more editorial independence over news and current affairs than broadcasters like India's state-run Doordarshan or China's China Central Television (CCTV).

Similarly in the Middle East, television has been heavily state-controlled, with considerable censorship of both news coverage and entertainment, particularly that imported from the West.

In regional and rural areas, numerous commercial stations are affiliated with one of the three metropolitan networks, and carry programming generally indistinguishable from their city cousins.

Although both networks are required to screen advertisements to pay for their operation, TVNZ 1 receives additional funding to provide local content under a government broadcasting charter.

These were usually funded by the state or a television license, but many countries have eventually adopted advertising in the public channels.

As Europe is a linguistical and culturally varied continent, the dominating broadcasters are either national or are operating in countries that share a language.

The private networks usually use most of their primetime hours to rebroadcast U.S. shows, while the CBC airs more Canadian programming.

Private systems — essentially mini-networks whose stations have a somewhat enhanced local focus and which do not reach all of Canada — include E!

TQS does not have national cable carriage rights, although it is available in some markets outside of Quebec with larger francophone communities.

Notable examples include CBC Newsworld, TSN, MuchMusic, Showcase, and The Movie Network.

In the U.S., the three traditional commercial television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) provide prime-time programs for their affiliate stations to air from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific Monday-Saturday and 7:00 p.m to 11:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific on Sunday (with schedules in the Central and Mountain time zones starting one hour earlier).

Sinclair Broadcast Group operates the largest network of local television stations, reaching about 24% of U.S. households.

Cable television was originally created to allow residents of weak-signal areas to benefit from a large, well-located common antenna.

During the same period, it has seen the emergence of numerous specialty cable networks, such as CBN (now Freeform), CNN, ESPN (sports), Lifetime (women's programming), TLC, MTV, Nickelodeon (children's shows), VH-1, The Weather Channel, and others.