Slate (broadcasting)

The broadcasting equivalent of a film leader, the slate is usually accompanied with color bars and tone, a countdown, and a 2-pop.

[1][2] In videotape workflows, slates help ensure that the tape received is the right one to broadcast (or to project, in the case of digital cinema) or to ingest into a digital playout system.

It also provides helpful context for consideration in the re-editing of the material into a larger package.

[3] A convention from the videotape era of television broadcasting, the need for slates in a tapeless workflow has largely been usurped by the Material Exchange Format.

[4] However, the slate is still a regular and often-required fixture of television stations and other media companies as of 2023[update].