TV Terminology

Edited by Michael A. Dolan

DIRECTV

December 9, 1999

AC3

An audio encoding standard used in some digital transports.

Affiliate

A broadcast station that has an agreement to transmit most content provided by a network, and thus has an affiliation to that network.

ATSC

Advanced Television Systems Committee. An international membership body that develops and promotes standards for digital television in North America and other places.

Author

An entity, usually in a studio, that creates content.

Content

The sum of video, audio and data essence, plus metadata of finite length.

DVB

Digital Video Broadcast. An international membership body that develops standards for digital television in Europe and other places.

EBU

European Broadcast Union. The European regulation body.

EPG

Electronic Program Guide.

Essence

Video, Audio, and/or Data information. Data Essence could also be Graphics, Telemetry, Photographs, or other information.

Event

A slice of time in a service. Usually corresponds to a single item of content.

Feed

A specific service from an originator in the distribution system.

MPEG

Moving Picture Experts Group. The ISO-sanctioned standards group responsible for basic digital video standards.

Network

A company that aggregates content and services and distributes them. A network may also be an author. Note that this term is primarily used in the US.

NTSC

National Television System Committee. US analog broadcast format.

PAL

Phase Alternate Line. European (except France) analog broadcast format.

SECAM

Sequential Couleur avec Memoire. French analog broadcast format.

Service

A collection of content concatenated in time into a stream. Usually part of a transport. This is also known in ATSC as a virtual channel.

SMPTE

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. The international, ANSI-certified entity for most TV technical standards, especially ones that involve the studio.

Transport

As defined by ISO 13818-1 for MPEG - a multiplexed collection of services.

Transport Company

A company that aggregates and emits (usually in cable or satellite) a collection of services.

VBI

Vertical Blanking Interval. A period of rescan time in analog broadcast formats that has been used to insert closed captioning, and other "data".

Virtual Channel

The ATSC name for a service.