Television broadcaster
Within the industry, a tiering is sometimes created among groups of networks based on whether their programming is simultaneously originated from a central point, and whether the network master control has the technical and administrative capability to take over the programming of their affiliates in real-time when it deems this necessary – the most common example being during national breaking news events.
In North America in particular, many television networks available via cable and satellite television are branded as "channels" because they are somewhat different from traditional networks in the sense defined above, as they are singular operations – they have no affiliates or component stations, but instead are distributed to the public via cable or direct-broadcast satellite providers.
On the other hand, television networks also undergo the impending experience of major changes related to cultural varieties.
The emergence of cable television has made available in major media markets, programs such as those aimed at American bi-cultural Latinos.
Such a diverse captive audience presents an occasion for the networks and affiliates to advertise the best programming that needs to be aired.
Vos notes that policymakers did not expressly intend to create a broadcast order dominated by commercial networks.
The advertising-funded arm (BBC Studios) employs 23,000 people worldwide including the operation of broadcaster UKTV in the UK itself.
[1] Limited regular broadcasts using this system began in 1934 and an expanded service (now known as BBC Television) started from Alexandra Palace in November 1936.
[2] Electronic television was made and demonstrated in San Francisco, on September 7, 1927, it was designed by Philo Taylor Fransworth who has been working on it since 1920.
Networks that maintain a home shopping or infomercial format may instead pay the station or cable/satellite provider, in a brokered carriage deal.
Early individual experimental radio stations in the United States began limited operations in the 1910s.
In November 1920, Westinghouse signed on "the world's first commercially licensed radio station", KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
[4] Other companies built early radio stations in Detroit, Boston, New York City and other areas.
Its high capacity (transmitting 240 telephone calls simultaneously) also made it ideal for long-distance television transmission, where it could handle a frequency band of 1 MHz.
[6] AT&T laid the first L-carrier coaxial cable between New York City and Philadelphia, with automatic signal booster stations every 10 miles (16 km), and in 1937 it experimented with transmitting televised motion pictures over the line.
AT&T made its first postwar addition in February 1946, with the completion of a 225-mile (362 km) cable between New York City and Washington, D.C., although a blurry demonstration broadcast showed that it would not be in regular use for several months.
[9][10] Not to be outdone, NBC launched what it called "the world's first regularly operating television network" on 27 June 1947, serving New York City, Philadelphia, Schenectady and Washington.
As the networks increased the number of programs that they aired, however, officials at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) grew concerned that local television might disappear altogether.
The Fox Broadcasting Company, founded by the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corporation (now owned by Fox Corporation), was launched on 9 October 1986 after the company purchased the television assets of Metromedia; it would eventually ascend to the status of the fourth major network by 1994.
In September 2006, The CW was launched as a "merger" of The WB and UPN (in actuality, a consolidation of each respective network's higher-rated programs onto one schedule); MyNetworkTV, a network formed from affiliates of UPN and The WB that did not affiliate with The CW, launched at the same time.
FCC regulations in the United States restricted the number of television stations that could be owned by any one network, company or individual.
Smaller groups of stations with common branding are often categorized by industry watchers as television systems, although the public and the broadcasters themselves will often refer to them as "networks" regardless.
Citytv originally began operating as a television system in 2002 when CKVU-TV in Vancouver started to carry programs originating from CITY-TV in Toronto and adopted that station's "Citytv" branding, but gradually became a network by virtue of national coverage through expansions into other markets west of Atlantic Canada between 2005 and 2013.
On 2 November 1936 the BBC opened the world's first regular high-definition television service, from a 405 lines transmitter at Alexandra Palace.
The BBC remained dominant until eventually on 22 September 1955, commercial broadcasting was established to create a second television network.
Commercial companies such as Modern Times Group, TV4, Viasat, and SBS Discovery have established TV networks since the 1980s although they initially aired exclusively on satellite.
Rather than having a single production arm, there are a number of public broadcasting organizations that create programming for each of the three stations, each working relatively independently.
Later on 22 January 2002, the second largest private television network TV-6, where the former NTV staff took refuge, was shut down allegedly because of its editorial policy.
The Russian television market is mainly shared today by five major companies: Channel One, Russia 1, NTV, TNT and CTC.
TVNZ's second network, TV2, airs mostly imported shows with some locally produced programs such as Shortland Street.
