Terrestrial television

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.

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.

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.

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.

[7] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Advanced Television Systems Committee developed the ATSC standard for digital high-definition terrestrial transmission.

Australia has adopted the DVB-T standards and the government's industry regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, has mandated that all analog transmissions will cease by 2012.

The government supplied underprivileged houses across the nation with free digital set-top converter boxes in order to minimize conversion disruption.

Australia's major free-to-air television networks were all granted digital transmission licenses and are each required to broadcast at least one high-definition and one standard-definition channel into all of their markets.

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set the final deadline for the switch-off of analog service for 12 June 2009.

In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) set 31 August 2011 as the date that terrestrial analog transmission service ceased in metropolitan areas and provincial capitals.