Misplaced Pages

#948051

62-586: By the early 1980s, cable television had reached millions of American households and was starting to draw significant audiences away from the " Big Three " broadcast television networks . All three networks saw opportunities to expand into cable television in order to protect and grow their audiences, and they all experimented with niche programming. In fact, all three traditional networks introduced arts-related channels within one year of each other. CBS launched CBS Cable in 1981, which focused on " art house " and critical acclaimed programs; NBC , meanwhile, launched

124-747: A Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française 819-line test card introduced in 1953. In North America, most test cards such as the famous Indian-head test pattern of the 1950s and 1960s have long since been relegated to history. The SMPTE color bars occasionally turn up, but with most North American broadcasters now following a 24-hour schedule, these too have become a rare sight. With the introduction of color TV, electronically generated test cards were introduced. They are named after their generating equipment (ex: Grundig VG1000, Philips PM5544 , Telefunken FuBK , etc.), TV station (ex: BBC test card ) or organization (ex: SMPTE color bars , EBU colour bars ). In developed countries such as Australia , Canada ,

186-494: A test pattern or start-up/closedown test , is a television test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no program is being broadcast (often at sign-on and sign-off ). Used since the earliest TV broadcasts, test cards were originally physical cards at which a television camera was pointed, allowing for simple adjustments of picture quality. Such cards are still often used for calibration, alignment, and matching of cameras and camcorders . From

248-443: A "programming service" which primarily carries acquired programming. Pax TV , a venture of Paxson Communications , debuted on August 31, 1998, as an attempted seventh broadcast network to compete against UPN and The WB; although Pax carried a limited schedule of first-run programs in its early years, its schedule otherwise was composed mainly of syndicated reruns. Pax TV later rebranded to i: Independent Television in 2005, before it

310-527: A 25-percent stake, split at nominal 12.5-percent stakes for both companies. Under Nexstar, The CW also began to broaden its programming to include national news (primarily via collaborations with Nexstar-owned cable news channel NewsNation ) and sports programming, Fox launched MyNetworkTV at the same time as The CW, with a lineup of English language telenovelas ; it later shifted toward unscripted programs and movies, though its persistent lack of ratings success led News Corporation in 2009 to convert it to

372-410: A Sunday night lineup for all but its first half-season on the air. In 1998, Tribune launched The WB 100+ Station Group in 1998, a programming service primarily intended for smaller markets. Both networks mainly aired only prime time and children's programming. The latter was the only form of weekday daytime programming offered by either one, although UPN discontinued its children's lineup in 2003 at

434-421: A common sight, test cards are now only rarely seen outside of television studios, post-production, and distribution facilities. In particular, they are no longer intended to assist viewers in calibration of television sets. Several factors have led to their demise for this purpose: For custom-designed video installations, such as LED displays in buildings or at live events, some test images are custom-made to fit

496-763: A few local television stations, but they quickly affiliated with other stations to cover almost the entire U.S. by the late 1950s. Several of these stations affiliated with all three major networks and DuMont, or some combination of the four, in markets where only one or two television stations operated in the early years of commercial television; this resulted in several network shows, often those with lower national viewership, receiving scattershot market clearances, since in addition to maintaining limited broadcast schedules early on, affiliates that shoehorned programming from many networks had to also make room for locally produced content. As other stations signed on in larger cities, ABC, NBC, and CBS were eventually able to carry at least

558-640: A few markets. In the 21st century, the "Big Four" have controlled only a relatively small portion of the broadcasting market in the United States. By 2007, their collective share was estimated at a combined 32%. The Big Three's market share has declined considerably as a result of growing competition from other broadcast networks such as Ion Television, The CW, and MyNetworkTV; Spanish language networks such as Univision , UniMás , and Telemundo ; national cable and satellite channels such as TNT , ESPN , and AMC ; and streaming channels such as Netflix . Each of

620-506: A major move when the service launched an independent signal on Manhattan Cable and TelePrompter, which was separate from Nickelodeon, in a package that around the same time fellow Hearst-ABC service Daytime was launched. NBC had been facing a similar problem in finding a sufficiently large audience for its cable network the Entertainment Channel, which launched in 1982 and aired such expensive programming as BBC cultural imports from

682-495: A mix of programs from both predecessors, as well as some newer shows after the launch. The last surviving series of The CW's predecessors — Supernatural , from The WB — continued until its finale on The CW in 2020. Nexstar Media Group acquired a 75-percent ownership stake in The CW on October 3, 2022; former joint owners Paramount Global ( successor to CBS Corporation) and Warner Bros. Discovery (successor to Time Warner) retained

SECTION 10

#1732852570949

744-471: A set of patterns to enable television cameras and receivers to be adjusted to show the picture correctly (see SMPTE color bars ). Most modern test cards include a set of calibrated color bars which will produce a characteristic pattern of "dot landings" on a vectorscope , allowing chroma and tint to be precisely adjusted between generations of videotape or network feeds. SMPTE bars—and several other test cards—include analog black (a flat waveform at 7.5 IRE , or

806-713: A single-pixel border for over-scanning and dimensions . Test cards are as old as TV broadcasts, with documented use by the BBC in the United Kingdom in its early 30-line mechanical Baird transmissions from 1934 and later on as simplified "tuning signals" shown before startup as well as in Occupied France during World War II. They evolved to include gratings for resolution testing, grids to assist with picture geometry adjustments, and grayscale for brightness and contrast adjustments. For example, all these elements can be seen in

868-529: A sizable portion of their programming on one station. Of the four original networks, only DuMont did not have a corresponding radio network. Ironically, the fourth major radio network of the Golden Age of Radio era, the Mutual Broadcasting System , which maintained a long time extensive news reporting unit up to the 1980s, had briefly considered the idea of transitioning with expansion and launching

930-539: A stake in the Overmyer Network in 1967 (resulting in a branding change to "The United Network"), but other than a single late-night talk show, The Las Vegas Show , which lasted one month, that network never made it to its full launch. For most of the history of television in the United States, the Big Three dominated, controlling the vast majority of television broadcasting. DuMont ceased regular programming in 1955;

992-618: A television network , with consideration being made to have film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer supply programming talent. In fact the former Bamberger Broadcasting 's local stations WOR-TV (currently in Secaucus, New Jersey , serving metropolitan New York City ) and WOIC (later WTOP-TV, now WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C. ) - both stations affiliated with Mutual, the latter with a Washington, D.C. video outlet - maintained stationery letterhead with " Mutual Television " decorating their identifications. It

1054-435: A third hour of prime time , or late-night talk shows . Other networks eventually launched in an attempt to compete with the Big Three as well as Fox, although these "netlets" have been unable to ascend to the same level of success. The WB and UPN launched in 1995; like Fox, they both added nights of prime time programming over the course of a few years, although The WB was the only one that aired any on weekends, carrying

1116-406: A very low rate to that network for its three evening satellite transponder hours, plus a repeat broadcast at 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time (according to Hearst executive Raymond E. Joslin , ARTS did not pay Nickelodeon at all for the first year, and paid a $ 1 million fee for the second year and $ 2 million for the third). Most cable providers that carried Nickelodeon also carried ARTS simply because of

1178-524: Is not considered part of the Big Three. Among Fox's differences with the Big Three is its reduced weekday programming. It lacks national morning and evening news programs; Fox has a news division consisting of cable and radio operations, but does not provide content for the broadcast television network other than a weekly news analysis program , limited special breaking news reports and an affiliate news service for its stations called Fox News Edge. Fox does not feature any daytime programming on weekdays,

1240-438: Is used for the calibration of photocopiers . Photocopier test patterns are physical sheets that are photocopied, with the difference in the resulting photocopy revealing any tell-tale deviations or defects in the machine's ability to copy. There are also test patterns kits and software developed specifically for many consumer electronics. The B&K Television Analyst was developed in the 1960s for testing monochrome TV sets in

1302-497: The Crystal Palace transmitter to test its new UHF network which it eventually launched as BBC Two in 1964. Test cards are also used in the broader context of video displays for concerts and live events. There are a variety of different test patterns, each testing a specific technical parameter: gradient monotone bars for testing brightness and color; a crosshatch pattern for aspect ratio , alignment, focus, and convergence; and

SECTION 20

#1732852570949

1364-876: The Kyowa Sonic lens cleaning kits from 1997–2001, also included test patterns as well. More recent examples include the THX Optimizer which can be accessed in the setup menu in almost every THX-certified DVD, as well as well as the "HDR sRGB Graphics Test (400 nits)" and "Test Patterns" series available on Netflix meant to test out streaming bandwidth on Internet-enabled devices, especially on widescreen smart HDR TVs, 4K and 8K displays and also used to sync audio and video feeds, which can be affected, among other factors, by Bluetooth and Internet latency. Test patterns are also used to calibrate CCTV cameras and monitors, as well as medical imaging displays and equipment for telemedicine and diagnostic purposes, such as

1426-515: The NTA Film Network , unusual in that its programming, all pre-recorded, was distributed by mail instead of through communications wires, signed on in 1956 and lasted until 1961. From 1961, and lasting until the early 1990s, there were only three major networks. Every hit series appearing in the Nielsen top 20 television programs and every successful commercial network telecast of a major feature film

1488-757: The NTSC setup level ), full white (100 IRE), and a "sub-black", or "blacker-than-black" (at 0 IRE), which represents the lowest low-frequency transmission voltage permissible in NTSC broadcasts (though the negative excursions of the colorburst signal may go below 0 IRE). Between the color bars and proper adjustment of brightness and contrast controls to the limits of perception of the first sub-black bar, an analog receiver (or other equipment such as VTRs) can be adjusted to provide impressive fidelity. Test cards have also been used to determine actual coverage contours for new television broadcasting antennas and/or networks. In preparation for

1550-542: The Public Broadcasting Service ). Many cable providers had limited channel bandwidth at that time over their headends ; as a result, CBS Cable struggled to find channel carriage and an audience, eventually folding in late 1982. However, while ARTS fared no better in finding viewers, it shared channel space with Nickelodeon , signing on at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time after the children's television network ended its broadcast day. That shared channel arrangement

1612-634: The SMPTE RP-133 medical diagnostic imaging test pattern specification for medical and surgical displays, created around 1983 –86; as well as a later derivative called the TG18-QC test pattern created by the AAPM in 2001. Test patterns to calibrate X-ray machines , in particular those manufactured by Leeds Test Objects in England, also exist as well. Television has had such an impact in today's life that it has been

1674-647: The United Kingdom and live broadcasts from Lincoln Center . Hearst/ABC Video Services and NBC ultimately decided to merge ARTS and the Entertainment Channel to form a single service, the Arts & Entertainment Network ( A&E ), which launched on February 1, 1984; ABC would exit the partnership soon afterward (ironically, the Walt Disney Company , which bought ABC in 1996, would acquire an ownership interest in A&;E in

1736-568: The United Kingdom , and the United States , the financial imperatives of commercial television broadcasting mean that air-time is now typically filled with programmes and commercials (such as infomercials ) 24 hours a day, and non-commercial broadcasters have to match this. A late test card design, introduced in 2005 and fully adapted for HD, SD, 16:9 and 4:3 broadcasts, is defined on ITU-R Rec. BT.1729. It offers markings specificity design to test format conversions, chroma sampling, etc. Formerly

1798-556: The " Big Three ". The three networks' dominance was interrupted with the launch of Fox (the Fox Broadcasting Company, "the Searchlight Network") in 1986, leading it to join them as one of the expanded " Big Four ", while the viewership shares of all the major broadcast networks declined over the following years. The National Broadcasting Company and Columbia Broadcasting System were both founded as radio networks in

1860-473: The (temporary) transmitter and a replicating landscape feature causing ghosting . Said test cards were mainly transmitted from temporary mobile transmitters attached to caravan trailers based at the predicted locations of the ITA's eventual main transmitters, such as Croydon , Lichfield , Emley Moor and Winter Hill . Almost a decade later, the BBC started using a modified SMPTE monochrome test card radiating from

1922-508: The 1920s, with NBC eventually encompassing two national radio networks, the prestige Red Network and the lower-profile Blue Network . They gradually began experimental television stations in the 1930s, with commercial broadcasts being allowed by the Federal Communications Commission on July 1, 1941. In 1943, the U.S. government determined that NBC's two-network setup was anticompetitive and forced it to spin off one of

Alpha Repertory Television Service - Misplaced Pages Continue

1984-1155: The 1950s to the 1970s. The merged A&E unit retained the same arts-focused and foreign drama programming for the next twenty years, though it eventually drifted towards a direction heavy towards reality television by 2008 and has long drifted away from the channel's original remit. Big Three (television networks) History of: From the 1950s to the 1980s, during the network era of American television, there were three commercial broadcast television networks – NBC (the National Broadcasting Company, "the Peacock Network"), CBS (the Columbia Broadcasting System, "the Eye Network"), ABC (the American Broadcasting Company, "the Alphabet Network") – that due to their longevity and ratings success are informally referred to as

2046-474: The 1950s, test card images were built into monoscope tubes which freed up the use of TV cameras which would otherwise have to be rotated to continuously broadcast physical test cards during downtime hours. Electronically generated test patterns, used for calibrating or troubleshooting the downstream signal path, were introduced in the late-1960s, and became commonly used from the 1970s and 80s. These are generated by test signal generators , which do not depend on

2108-401: The 1980s and 1990s. Numerous novelty and collectible items has been patterned after the famous test card, including wall clocks, bedsheets, wristwatches, and clothing. The BBC Test Card F features throughout 2006-07 TV sci-fi detective series Life on Mars . In Britain, music rather than radio sound was usually played with the test card. The music played by the BBC, and afterwards ITV ,

2170-430: The BBC began to build up its own library of specially produced music for the half hour tapes – initially three tunes in similar style, followed by an identification sign (the three notes B-B-C played on celesta ). ITV (which began its first trade transmissions in 1957) continued to use commercially available recordings until the late 1960s, when it also began to make specially produced tapes. For rights reasons, much of

2232-475: The Big Four (to Five) networks is now owned by a media conglomerate , providing corporate synergy with various cable channels, a major film studio , a companion streaming service, and other sibling media assets. NBC is owned by NBCUniversal , a Comcast company (whose assets include Universal Pictures , Peacock , Universal Destinations & Experiences , E! , MSNBC , and Golf Channel ), since 2004, CBS and

2294-719: The CW are owned by Paramount Global (who also owns Paramount Pictures , MTV , Showtime , Nickelodeon and Paramount+ , among other units; The CW and The CW Plus is jointly owned with Warner Bros. Discovery and Nexstar Media ) since 2019, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company (whose assets consist of, but not limited to, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products , Disney Channel , Walt Disney Pictures , 20th Century Studios , ESPN , Disney+ and Hulu ) since 1996, and Fox and MyNetworkTV are owned by Fox Corporation (who assets include Fox News , Tubi , Fox Sports , and others) since 2019. Test pattern A test card , also known as

2356-495: The NTSC standard and was later modified for European and Australian PAL standards. Among other uses, it consisted of a flying spot scanner on which a test pattern printed on a cellulose acetate slide was shown. When CRT monitors were still commonly used on personal computers , specific test patterns were created for proper calibration of such monitors in the cases whereby multimedia images could not be shown properly on said monitors. Some VCD and DVD lens cleaner discs, such as

2418-459: The conclusion of a content deal with Disney, and UPN aired sports programming via the short-lived XFL , as well as WWF SmackDown! . While The WB and UPN each had a few popular series during their existences, they struggled for overall viewership and financial losses. This led their respective parent companies, Time Warner and CBS Corporation , to shut them down and jointly launch The CW and The CW Plus in 2006. The CW initially featured

2480-466: The convenience of the single channel feed. These factors combined to help keep the channel on the air more than twice as long as CBS Cable. Nonetheless, despite having a small but affluent audience ostensibly attractive to advertisers, Hearst/ABC could not turn a profit on ARTS. The network had carried limited advertising each hour, typically carrying low-key commercials for luxury products and services; often advertising slots went unfilled. In 1982, it made

2542-459: The correct configuration (and presence) of a camera, and can also test for additional parameters such as correct color decoding, sync , frames per second , and frequency response. These patterns are specially tailored to be used in conjunction with devices such as a vectorscope , allowing precise adjustments of image equipment. The audio broadcast while test cards are shown is typically a sine wave tone, radio (if associated or affiliated with

Alpha Repertory Television Service - Misplaced Pages Continue

2604-442: The early 1990s). A&E took over the transponder space held by ARTS, as well as that network's timeslot over Nickelodeon's channel space. That summer, A&E announced that it would move the network to its own dedicated transponder and become a separate 24-hour cable channel to take better advantage of valuable satellite time. The move took place on January 1, 1985, with Nickelodeon expanding part of its programming schedule to fill

2666-421: The idea to launch a nighttime block of classic television series, modeled after the "Greatest Hits of All Time" oldies radio format, after being presented with over 200 episodes of the 1950s sitcom The Donna Reed Show . On July 1, 1985, Nick at Nite launched over Nickelodeon's channel space in the 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific time period, featuring reruns of classic television series from

2728-405: The longer-established networks, becoming the second most-watched network behind CBS during the 2000s. During the 2007–08 season, Fox was the highest-rated of the major broadcast networks, as well as the first non-Big Three network to reach first place, but it lost the spot in the 2008–09 season and dropped to a close second. From 2004 to 2012 and 2020 to 2021, Fox also dominated American television in

2790-443: The lucrative and viewer-rich 18–49 age demographics, in large part due to the success of its NFL coverage and its top rated prime time program, American Idol . Given the network's success in its prime time and sports offerings, it has been occasionally included with the Big Three, in which case the phrase "Big Four" is used. Although Fox has firmly established itself as the nation's fourth major network with its ratings success, it

2852-534: The main motif for numerous collectors' coins and medals. One of the most recent examples is The 50 Years of Television commemorative coin minted on 9 March 2005, in Austria . The obverse of the coin shows the centre portion of the Telefunken T05 test card, while the reverse shows several milestones in the history of television. The Philips Pattern is widely recognised as one of the iconic popular culture symbols of

2914-644: The music was recorded by light music orchestras in France and Germany, though sometimes by British musicians, or top international session players using pseudonyms, such as The Oscar Brandenburg Orchestra (an amalgamation of Neil Richardson , Alan Moorhouse and Johnny Pearson ) or the Stuttgart Studio Orchestra. Other composers and bandleaders commissioned for this type of work included Gordon Langford , Ernest Tomlinson . Roger Roger , Heinz Kiessling , Werner Tautz, Frank Chacksfield and Syd Dale . During

2976-525: The networks; NBC chose to sell the Blue Network operations, which eventually became the American Broadcasting Company. All three networks began regular, commercial television broadcasts in the 1940s. NBC and CBS began commercial operations in 1941, followed by ABC in 1948. A smaller fourth network, the DuMont Television Network , launched in 1944. The three networks originally controlled only

3038-567: The new commercial ITV service in the 1950s, the Independent Television Authority (ITA) tasked Belling & Lee, an Enfield -based British electronics company best known for inventing the Belling-Lee connector just over three decades earlier, with designing a series of Pilot Test Transmission test cards and slides intended for potential viewers and DX-enthusiasts to test the ITA's new Band III VHF transmitter network that

3100-407: The rules allowed Fox affiliates to force their way onto cable lineups, and the network's affiliation deal with New World Communications , which it later purchased in 1996, and the acquisition of National Football League broadcast rights brought a wave of new Fox affiliates. Since its founding, Fox has surpassed ABC and NBC in the ratings during the early primetime hours in which it competes against

3162-590: The similarly formatted the Entertainment Channel. ABC partnered with the Hearst Corporation to create its own arts-oriented service, the Alpha Repertory Television Service . ARTS launched on April 12, 1981, focusing on highbrow cultural fare such as opera , ballet , classical symphonic performances, dramatic theater productions and select foreign films (besides CBS Cable and the Entertainment Channel, ARTS also competed with Bravo and

SECTION 50

#1732852570949

3224-403: The specific size and shape of the setup in question. These custom test images can also be an opportunity for the technicians to hide inside jokes for the crew to see while installing equipment for a show. Rather than physical test cards, which had to be televised using a camera, television stations often used a special purpose camera tube which had the test pattern painted on the inside screen of

3286-401: The target, rather than displaying an image, a varying electrical signal was produced generating a video signal from the etched pattern. Monoscope tubes had the advantage over test cards that a full TV camera was not needed, and the image was always properly framed and in focus. They fell out of use after the 1960s as they were not able to produce color images. A lesser-known kind of test pattern

3348-539: The television channel) or music (usually instrumental , though some also broadcast with jazz or popular music ). Digitally generated cards came later, associated with digital television , and add a few features specific of digital signals, like checking for error correction , chroma subsampling , aspect ratio signaling , surround sound , etc. More recently, the use of test cards has also expanded beyond television to other digital displays such as large LED walls and video projectors . Test cards typically contain

3410-706: The time period formerly held by A&E with more teen-oriented programming and displaying a test pattern screen after the network signed off later in the evening. As a result of A&E's separation from Nickelodeon, MTV Networks President Bob Pittman commissioned Geraldine Laybourne , who served as general manager of Nickelodeon at the time, to develop programming to fill the vacated time period. Laybourne asked programming and branding consultants Fred Seibert and Alan Goodman , founders of Fred/Alan Inc. (who launched successful branding campaigns for MTV when it launched in 1981, and for Nickelodeon in 1984), to come up with programming ideas. Seibert and Goodman came up with

3472-399: The tube. Each tube was only capable of generating the one test image, hence it was called a monoscope . Monoscopes were similar in construction to an ordinary cathode-ray tube (CRT), only instead of displaying an image on its screen it scanned a built-in image. The monoscope contained a formed metal target in place of the phosphor coating at its "screen" end and as the electron beam scanned

3534-430: Was library music , which was licensed on more favourable terms for frequent use than commercially available alternatives. Later, Channel 4 used UK library LPs from publishers like KPM , Joseph Weinberger and Ready Music. Until September 1955, the BBC used live playing 78 RPM commercial records as an audio background to the test cards. After that date, they switched to using recorded music on tape. The following year,

3596-441: Was a perfect symbiotic scheduling match for the two networks given their respective audience demographics (the target viewership of ARTS either did not have young children or had sent them to bed by the time the channel began its programming). ARTS had somewhat lower programming costs than CBS Cable, with fewer (and less costly) original programs. Prime time was normally the most valuable airtime, but not for Nickelodeon – ARTS paid

3658-592: Was aired by one of the Big Three networks. A viable fourth television network in the commercial sense would not again become competitive with the Big Three until Fox was founded in October 1986 from some of the assets and remnants of the DuMont network, which had become Metromedia after DuMont folded, and were acquired by News Corporation earlier in 1986. Fox, which began as a distant fourth network, rose to major network status in 1994 after must-carry rules took effect;

3720-598: Was designed with the assistance of the General Post Office (GPO), then the UK's government-run PTT agency . These test cards, some featuring the G9AED call sign assigned by the GPO for said transmissions, featured a squiggly line in a circle in the middle of the test card with an on-screen line gauge indicated in miles which was used as a guide to reveal the distance between the receiver,

3782-458: Was even speculated at the time that WOR & WOIC were being considered by Mutual as possible flagship stations for a Mutual-branded TV network if one were ever launched. Beyond this, there is no confirmation, however, that a cooperative video service was ever seriously considered by the radio service, although Mutual's individual component stations themselves launched television outlets in their home cities. Some of Mutual's component stations bought

SECTION 60

#1732852570949

3844-536: Was renamed to Ion Television in 2007. Likewise, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which has existed since 1970, is not considered to be a "Big" network. PBS operates as a noncommercial service with a very different distribution form compared to the major networks; its member stations basically own the network instead of the traditional mode of a network owning some of its stations and affiliating with additional stations owned by other broadcasters, and it maintains memberships with more than one educational station in

#948051