UK broadcast systems

Terrestrial broadcasting

Terrestrial broadcasting is the broadcasting of images and media through radio waves. This is done by erecting large radio antenna that then broadcast the radio waves to smaller antenna that are attached to a person’s house. The BBC broadcast on terrestrial. This method of TV broadcasting has been used for a long time. With analogue broadcasting there are only a certain amount of TV channels that can be broadcast because of the bandwidth. The bandwidth is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum. There are quite a few drawbacks with analogue broadcasting. For one if the weather is bad then you can lose the signal on your TV. Also radio antenna cannot broadcast very far so you need lots of them to cover a wide area. And lastly if your house is situated behind a hill and the antenna is on the other side then you will not receive much signal because the radio waves cannot travel through solid objects. However now with the invention of digital terrestrial we can now use a multiplex to combine lots of TV signals into one bandwidth. This means that we can now get more channels on a terrestrial broadcast. Digital signals are better than analogue because they can give better quality of picture and sound. They can now also introduce interactive aspects into digital TV.

Satellite broadcasting

Satellite broadcasting is when the TV station transmits the TV signal to a satellite that is situated in orbit around the earth. SKY is the biggest UK provider of satellite TV. This satellite then transmits the signal back down to earth and to the houses that have the receiving dish. This method of broadcasting is a lot better that terrestrial broadcasting because of a number of things. One is that you can broadcast much more channels. This means that now there are a lot more channels that can cater to the wide diversity of the British audience. But know because of digital terrestrial we can get more channels without having to pay for satellite. Also there is no problem with the lay of the land because the satellite is above the land. Also the quality of the signal is a lot better because you don’t lose the signal of the TV if the weather is bad. This is why lots of people are prepared to pay for their TV to come from satellite because they know that they will have very little problems with loss of signal. But now that we have digital TV there are more channels available on terrestrial which means that people who don’t want to pay for satellite can still get more channels than they used to be able to get. For example with freeview you only pay about £30 pounds for the box and then once you have bought it you don’t have to pay anything else and you get about 80 channels.

Cable TV broadcasting

Cable broadcasting is when you receive your TV signals trough cables that are run under your street. . They can give the same channels and quality as satellite but there are more problems with getting cable than there are with getting satellite. Virgin media is the leading cable TV provider in the UK. It supplies a number of different cable packages that can even include phone packages. This means that virgin own 95% of the UK market. This is called a monopoly. The main problem is that if you do not have a cable running under your street then there is no way that you can receive cable. Also to put a new cable in you have to do major work to the road to get the cable in. And then if it breaks then you have repeat the whole process again. However the upshot of this is that the programmes come straight from the TV station to your TV. And an advantage for the broadcaster is that once you get a cable in then that street can only get cable from you. But then a disadvantage for the viewer is that if they don’t want to be with the cable company on their street then they don’t really have many other options apart from satellite or freeview. This means that you are more likely to get more customers. However one big disadvantage with all of these mediums of broadcasting is that now they have more channels there will be much more competition for the audience. And also with more channels means that they will also have to lower their advertising slot prices because if theirs are too high then the advertiser will just go somewhere else.

Internet protocol Television (IPTV)

Internet TV is brought to us over broadband and they bring us sites like 4OD and BBC iplayer that play TV shows that have been on TV on the internet. Broadband is a high frequency signal on the telephone lines. This is very good for us as a consumer because we can watch programmes that they have missed online and on some of the sites like 4OD they have old TV shows that were on channel 4 at one point but aren’t any more. Most video’s that you watch on the internet use buffering where you can temporarily download and watch. Then you can also stream TV shows which mean that you download it onto your computer and watch it whenever you want. However for the TV stations it means that they now have to find a way to make money from this without charging for usage. BBC iplayer have set their catch up site so that the programmes run out after about 2 weeks after they were first aired but the other internet sites have had to put adverts on their internet sites. I think that if we can just watch the TV on the internet then it will discourage lots of people from watching TV. I think this because the people now being able to watch TV whenever they want they will not watch the shows on TV. This means that along with all the other factors that I have mentioned the broadcast methods are changing.