A Review of Television Broadcasting

Marc Wijesuriya
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University
Ratmalana, Sri Lanka
marcwijesuriya@gmail.com

Abstract—Television Broadcasting as a form of mass media
communication has left a lasting impression on human society
over the past century, both in terms of culture and in terms of
communication technology. This paper is a brief review of the
history and technology of television broadcasting, as well as a
look at the future trends of its development.
of broadcast that exist today, such as Cable TV, Satellite TV,
IPTV, and Digital Terrestrial Broadcasts, the field of
Transmission has shifted drastically over the century or so it
has existed.
A. Over-the-Air Broadcasting

Keywords—television, broadcasting, entertainment, radio
I. INTRODUCTION
From the earliest ages, humans have devised ways of
communicating with each other. As civilization developed
into the large scale society that exists today, our methods of
communicating have grown along with it. One of the primary
needs of a large scale civilization is a method of transmitting
information to large groups of people at a time, and thus the
need for broadcasting arose.
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines broadcasting
as “electronic transmission of radio and television signals
that are intended for general public reception, as
distinguished from private signals that are directed to
specific receivers.”
In 1894, an Italian inventor named Guglielmo
Marconi invented a system that could transmit and receive
radio waves. He believed that this technology could be used
to broadcast messages over previously unheard of distances,
and thus laid the groundwork for broadcasting as we know it
today[1][2].
Television broadcasting initially started off by transmitting
analog television signals in the form of AM radio waves.
These signals were modulated onto Very High Frequency
(VHF, 30-300MHz) or Ultra High Frequency (UHF, 300MHz
– 3GHz) carrier waves. These broadcast signals were picked
up by television receivers. Initially these receivers were
mechanical, but they were very soon replaced by electronic
sets that used Cathode Ray Tubes [7].
CRT Televisions reconstructed images by projecting beams
of electrons across the screen in horizontal lines called a raster.
The intensity of the beam is varied at each point to increase or
decrease the brightness of that image.
Another technique known as interlacing was used to
increase the apparent frame rate of the video. In this
technique, alternate horizontal lines are displayed in frames
and the two frames then work together to give the impression
of a higher frame rate.[8]

Broadcasting began at the beginning of the 20th

Century, with the first public radio broadcast being sent out
from New York’s Metropolitan Opera House on the 13th of
January, 1910. This marked the beginning of wireless public
broadcasts [3][4]. Developments in amplification tube
technology made transmission of television signals practical.
In 1921 Edouard Belin transmitted an image across the
Atlantic Ocean over radio waves [5].

On the 26th of January, 1926, in what is widely

regarded as the world’s first public television demonstration,
Scottish Inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the
transmission of an image of a face in motion using AM radio
waves. This breakthrough was quickly followed up with the Fig 1. A visual example of interlacing
first transatlantic broadcast in 1928, and the first
experimental mechanical television service in 1929.[6]
B. Colour Television
In the 1950s, countries began the gradual shift towards
II. BROADCASTING TECHNOLOGY colour broadcasts. Initially, television sets that could receive
these colour broadcasts were expensive, but with the
There have been many advancements and changes in the development of the technology their cost reduced and
field of Television Broadcasting since its inception. From availability increased.
black and white, over-the-air broadcasts to the various forms
 The initial proposal for colour broadcasts involved 3
monochrome images of Red, Green and Blue, displayed
together in rapid succession. For this system to work,
however, the rate at which images were transmitted would
have had to be increased threefold, and therefore the
bandwidth used would have to be greatly increased as well.
Due to the desire to conserve bandwidth, a system that
encoded the colour information separately from the brightness
information was adopted by the United States. This had the
additional benefit of the brightness image remaining
compatible with existing black-and-white TV sets, while
colour televisions could decode the colour image as well and
display it [9].
In order to overcome the shortcomings of the NTSC
system developed by the National Television System
Committee of the USA, Western European countries
developed a colour system known as PAL (Phase Alteration
by Line). PAL had 576 visible lines of resolution, which when
compared with the 480 lines of resolution that NTSC had gave
PAL a 20% higher resolution than the NTSC standard.
Characteristics NTSC PAL
transmission came into being subsequently. One of the
earliest was cable television
Coaxial cabling was initially used in the 1950s as a means
of extending existing television signals into areas that had
difficulty in receiving the signals through antenna. The
antenna was setup in a location that had good reception, and
the cables were led from the antenna to a network of
televisions that were then able to view the television signals.
In the 1980s, cable broadcasting was adopted by TV
stations as the number of houses with cable connections had
increased. An advantage of cable TV was that it could use so
called ‘midband’ frequencies, which were unused by
terrestrial broadcasts at the time as they were allocated to
other services [12].
Along with cable TV, pay-per-view programming and
subscription-based services came into being. The types of
channels on cable TV became highly specialized as the
number of channels that could be carried by the service
increased.

Video Bandwidth 4.2 MHz 5.0 MHz By the late 1970s, television signals were being broadcast
up to geostationary satellites to be distributed to televisions.
Sound Carrier 4.5 MHz 5.5 MHz
In 1976 the American scientist Taylor Howard demonstrated
6 MHz 7 to 8 MHz the possibility of receiving a satellite television signal directly
Bandwidth
to a consumer’s home by using a home-made satellite dish
Vertical Frequency 60 Hz 50 Hz and analog satellite receiver. Television Networks like Home
Box Office and Turner Broadcasting System were among the
Horizontal Frequency 15.734 kHz 15.625 kHz first to adapt to this new technology [13].

Lines / Field 525/60 625/50
Fig 2. A comparison of PAL and NTSC Colour Systems [10]
C. Digital Television
With the advancement of computers and the availability
of high-performance, inexpensive processing power, digital
television began to emerge. There are a number of advantages
that digital television has over analog, with much higher
resolution, and the ability to transmit multiple channels on
one frequency using multiplexing being two of the main ones.
Digital signals also require less transmission power when
compared with analog signals.
The first satellites broadcast signals in the frequency
range of 4.0 to 8.0 GHz, also known as the C-band, and
required large receiver dishes around 2-3 meters in diameter.
In comparison, modern communications satellites broadcast
signals in the range of 8.0 - 12.0 GHz (X-band) or 12.0 - 18.0
GHz (Ku-band) and require a much smaller dish less than a
meter in diameter [14].
Satellite TV was quickly adapted by those in remote areas
who had no access to cabling and bad terrestrial reception.

In 2006, delegates from multiple countries signed the

RRC-06 agreement hosted by the International
Telecommunication Union in Geneva. This agreement set the
17th of June 2005 as the date after which countries were free
to reassign analog television frequencies for other (digital)
services. This was expected to the date by which all countries
would have transitioned to digital broadcasting. However,
many countries did not reach this deadline, due to upgrade
costs and similar issues [11].

D. Cable & Satellite Technology

Though terrestrial broadcasts were the sole medium of
transmission of television signals originally, other systems of
Fig 3. An illustration of how satellite broadcasting work
 III. CURRENT RESEARCH TRENDS
A. Internet Protocol Television
Initially, it was considered impossible for a telephone
cable to be able to carry a television signal, as the required
bandwidth of a digital television signal was about 2,000 times
greater than that of a speech signal. Due to two major
technological developments, this idea was changed. These
two concepts were Motion Compensated DCT compression,
and ADSL data transmission.
DCT compression reduced the bandwidth of a television
signal from about 200 Mbps to around 2 Mbps, whereas
ADSL increased the bandwidth of a telephone line from
about 100 kbps to 2 Mbps, thus enabling video to be
transmitted through a telephone line.
Subsequently, IPTV services were started by various
different countries. Along with standard live television
programming, IPTV can have additional features such as
Video-on-demand, where programmes are recorded and
stored to be viewed at any time. Programme guides and
subscription-based programming also are usually included in
IPTV services [15].
Fig 4. A diagram of how IPTV operates
B. Content Delivery and Additional Features
In order to compete with the fast-changing world of the
internet and online streaming subscriptions, TV broadcasters
now bundle additional features into IPTV and Satellite
broadcasts, such as Video-On-Demand and High-Definition
TV.
Additionally, by switching to IPTV, Internet Service
Providers bundle the television charges along with Internet
charges. This makes IPTV more attractive to consumers
compared to internet streaming services due to the lower
subscription cost.
By adding more interactive content, TV providers are able
to personalize the TV viewing experience for each consumer.
This includes showing certain programmes at the consumers
preferred times, such as News at 6pm, Movies at 9pm, etc.
This personalization of television also enables the targeting
of ads to specific consumers, to ensure that advertising
companies reach their target audiences [16].
C. 3D Television
3D Television as a concept has been in existence for
almost as long as television itself, with John Logie Baird
demonstrating a stereoscopic 3D television on the 10th of
August 1928.
In the 1950’s, many movies were produced in 3D for
theatrical release, but their popularity quickly waned due to
the lack of quality of the 3D effects contained in these films.
Following the success of the 2010 movie Avatar, which
was screened in theatrical 3D, manufacturers began
advertising 3D Television sets for consumers. These TVs
used polarized 3D techniques for viewing with glasses. The
DVB 3D-TV standard which came out at the end of 2010
included procedures and techniques to send three-
dimensional video signals through actual DVB transmission
standards [17].
Fig 5. A 3D Television Broadcast Schematic
D. HD and Ultra-HD Broadcasting
Television has come a long way since the days of John
Logie Baird’s mechanical invention. We now have access to
high-definition media streams from digital TV broadcasts,
and technological development is underway to raise the
standard of terrestrial broadcasts as well, with new
breakthroughs being made constantly.
The Advanced Television Systems Committee issued a
standard ATSC 3.0 which was deployed initially in 2017
which supports up to 4K resolution transmissions and 120
frames per second video [18].
At the Cable Tech Show 2018, Japan’s NHK Science and
Technology Research Laboratories demonstrated an 8K Ultra
HD transmission using MPEG Media Transport technology,
which enabled seamless switching between the delivery
platforms of Satellite Broadcasting, Cable TV and IPTV with
a single receiver. In 2019, NHK launched a permanent
Television channel dedicated to 8K programming, called
BS8K. This channel broadcast 200 hours of the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics in 8K [19].
 In November 2022, the Digital Video Broadcasting
Project approved an update to the DVB- Terrestrial
specification that extend the use of the HEVC codec up to 8K
resolution and up to 60Hz with High Dynamic Range.
IV. THE FUTURE OF TELEVISION
A. Television in the Modern Age
Nowadays television has evolved to the point where
instead of a handful of channels on a TV set, we can access
hundreds of channels with the ability to pause and rewind
programmes as we wish. We can also access a variety of
videos and films as additional features
However, Television Broadcasting has much to compete
with in this age of information. It is certain that it will evolve
and change over time as the rest of technology changes with
it. With the advancement of wearable electronics, we can now
receive broadcasts directly to the palm of our hands.
B. The Internet and its Effect on Television
The rapid rise in accessibility of the internet, and the drop
in cost of smartphones and computers that the world has seen
over the past decade has affected all forms of media and
entertainment. In 2021, The Washington Post reported that
2,200 American newspapers had gone out of print since 2005
[20]. Similarly, the number of pay-tv subscribers have
decreased instead of increasing over the past decade. The
internet provides access to almost infinite content from nearly
anywhere in the world, and traditional media has to compete
with that in order to survive.
The various streaming services present today cater to
consumers individual preferences, allowing them to watch
their chosen programme at the time of their leisure. Online
streaming also bypasses the need for advertisements and
other interruptions to programmes.
C. Television and Anonymity
One feature that has changed throughout the shift of
television from over-the-air broadcasts to other mediums of
transmission, is the anonymity of the receiver. Cable
Subscriptions, as well as Satellite and IPTV, require the
consumer to register with the company or group that provides
the service. Over-the-air broadcasting, on the other hand, is
free for whoever owns the equipment to receive such
broadcasts. In an age when personal data has become
currency, this is a major factor to consider.
Another factor to be taken into consideration is the cost of
watching television. In the case of terrestrial broadcasts, aside
from the initial cost of the television itself, there are no
additional costs. Cable, Satellite and IPTV all require
subscription costs to be paid to the service provider.
However, the additional features the latter services provide
justify their cost in the eyes of many consumers.
V. CONCLUSION
We can see that regardless of the development in
technology and the change in the medium of transmission, the
fundamental aspect of Television Broadcasting has remained
the same: namely that it is a means of communicating
information to a large audience through a single broadcast.
The television broadcast has been a major part of the last
century. Every major news event, from the Apollo 11 Moon
Landing to the Olympics, has been televised and broadcast,
transmitting through radio waves and cables into the homes
and, eventually, the minds of people. It has undoubtedly
shaped the way news is reported, it has influenced the
methods of advertising products to consumers, and it has
brought awareness of innumerable subjects to millions of
individuals.
With the modern age of information upon us, television
plays an even more vital role in our daily lives, bringing us
information and enabling us to witness what we otherwise
could not see
From entertainment, to education, to information,
Television Broadcasting has shaped our civilization
throughout its history. It is only to be expected that it
continues to do so as we look to our future
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