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83-426: Previously before 2024, the network was available primarily through the digital subchannels of broadcast television stations , as well as an ad-supported video-on-demand channel on Peacock and Stirr , along with national carriage on Dish Network and Sling TV . Cable television and IPTV providers were offered either the network's local affiliate, or the network's national feed on their systems. Circle ended

166-584: A sizzle reel with excellent responses from focus group sessions. Ryman and Gray Television announced a joint venture between Gray and Ryman's subsidiary, Opry Entertainment Group on April 24, 2019 to launch a broadcast television network in early 2020 and an online streaming service later. The planned network would feature the Grand Ole Opry archives and performances from the Grand Ole Opry House and other Ryman-owned music venues. On October 17, 2019,

249-654: A 1080i high definition main feed; this changed in 2013 with the addition of dedicated local news channels on CBS O&Os in New York City and Philadelphia (the company later announced the creation of Decades , a multicast network part-owned by CBS which aired on all CBS and CW owned-and-operated stations from 2015 to 2018). It is possible for stations to carry more than two subchannel feeds in HD, at least nominally. Actual picture quality may be comparable to DVD video. Some examples of stations broadcasting in this format are: Outside

332-628: A 30% minority stake in Opry Entertainment in 2022. Programs from the Circle Network continue to be available through various streaming providers on the Circle Country network after the OTA service ended. Circle Country was Opry Entertainment Group's fourth entry into television network ownership. From its founding in 1983 until 1997, OEG's parent company ( Ryman Hospitality Properties ), known then as

415-471: A CW affiliate) and had to mostly rely on stations in Pittsburgh (and to a lesser extent Columbus and Youngstown, Ohio ) to view programming from other networks. However, the advent of digital television allowed WTRF to launch two digital channels (one as a primary Fox/secondary MyNetworkTV affiliate, the other affiliated with ABC) while still carrying CBS programming in full on its main signal (WTOV later took

498-524: A CW affiliate), as the additional educational content these separate stations once provided can now be carried by multiple subchannels of a single parent station. Subchannels also allow some educational stations to devote an entire channel to telecourses , which are recorded by instructors and students for later use, allowing the station's main channel to air a generalized schedule in the morning and overnight hours . Subchannels and transmitter reconfigurations have been used to temporarily restore service from

581-487: A close second. Several cable-to-air broadcasters, such as those in Willmar, Minnesota and Cortez, Colorado , have multiplexed more than five separate cable television channels into subchannels of one signal. Operating in a sector traditionally lacking subchannels, digital cable television provider Music Choice packages its nearly 50 music channels (including Music Choice Play ) as digital subchannels of one channel. This

664-777: A duopoly outright. In the latter scenario, the station whose programming is on an LMA station is moved to a subchannel of a station that is owned outright by the station that own the non-licensed assets of other stations. Many companies such as Sinclair Broadcast Group (via Cunningham Broadcasting , Deerfield Media , & Howard Stirk Holdings ), Nexstar Media Group (via Mission Broadcasting & Vaughan Media ), and Gray Television (via American Spirit Media & SagamoreHill Broadcasting ) have been doing this, partially due to regulation pressure. Networks dedicated to sports programming have been launched specifically for use on digital subchannels. Until 2010, CBS affiliates often subdivided four temporary subchannels in order to show all of

747-457: A few multicast channels that have broadcast familiar sports programs: Bounce TV , for instance, carried college football from historically black colleges and universities until 2013. In January 2016, Sinclair Broadcast Group launched a 24-hour feed of its American Sports Network sports syndication service on subchannels of ten stations owned and/or operated by the group; the ASN multicast network

830-726: A large market area. This is used to duplicate network service for stations that are part of duopolies , where transmitters scattered through a large geographical area allow multiple networks and channels to be carried. The most prominent example is the Granite Broadcasting Corporation 's virtual quadropoly in Duluth, Minnesota , which consists of two separate full-power stations, NBC affiliate KBJR-TV and CBS affiliate KDLH , which combined carry three subchannels (two affiliated with major networks – CW Plus affiliate "Northland CW 2" on KDLH and MyNetworkTV affiliate "My9" on KBJR – and

913-456: A low-power or Class A station or by a cable television channel. Often, the owner of a full-power television station acquires or already owns a low-power secondary station in the same market to carry another network. The use of a digital subchannel on a full-power television station as a replacement for low-power station greatly increases the available coverage area for its programming. Because of interference issues that stations transmitting on

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996-563: A main channel affiliation may not be available. Other stations have launched subchannels with an independent station format on their DT2 signals (such as WTTV in Indianapolis , Indiana – a market with enough commercial stations able to support affiliations with all six networks and a standalone independent, although the seventh (WTTK) instead acts as a WTTV satellite – which converted its 4.2 subchannel as an independent station in January 2015 as

1079-599: A market at one time (outside of Los Angeles, where if the Rams and Chargers play at the same time, Fox is allowed to broadcast the second game on MyNetworkTV affiliate KCOP-TV , or CBS on independent KCAL-TV , depending on the game's carrier that specific week); all four of the major sports leagues (the NFL , the NBA , Major League Baseball and the NHL ) have out-of-market sports packages that require

1162-438: A method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual program stream, and multiplexing to combine them into a single signal. The practice is sometimes called " multicasting ". The ATSC digital television standard used in

1245-456: A pay television subscription and generate significant revenue for the leagues. Most sports programming on digital subchannel broadcasters has been relegated to low-budget content such as amateur athletics, extreme sports, and hunting and fishing programming geared toward outdoorsmen, though minor league baseball , American Hockey League hockey and other minor league sports may also be seen. Prominent team sports programming on digital subchannels

1328-561: A result of owner Tribune Media selling the local rights to the CW affiliation that was to move from its main feed on 4.1 to Media General -owned WISH-TV , whose CBS affiliation was assumed by WTTV). Digital subchannels are also used to relay stations beyond their traditional signal coverage areas to reach an entire market. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and northern Minnesota , many of these stations are on duplicate frequencies to cover

1411-681: A result, since 2016, many areas that formerly had only one Azteca or Televisa network now have both from the same transmitter. Additionally, TV Azteca has two national services that are broadcast as subchannels in most areas, a+ and adn40 . In October 2016, the IFT put into effect new guidelines for the numbering of virtual channels. As a result, national networks use consistent numbers nationwide; SPR transmitters now use four or five major channel numbers (11, 14, 20, 22, and 45 in some areas). Prior to this, digital television stations usually used virtual channels corresponding to their former analog positions, still

1494-762: A service called Hi-TV, featuring several channels encoded in H.264 MPEG-4 encoding, which while available in the ATSC standard is not common on TV sets. This use of subchannels as pseudo-restricted signals within non-restricted channels was placed under investigation and litigation with authorities at COFETEL (the Federal Telecommunications Commission), involving a fine of 4,453,150 Mexican pesos . HiTV subchannels began broadcasting on an intermittent basis in 2013 and were almost completely deactivated in late 2014. Televisa and TV Azteca use subchannels in rural areas in order to ensure national network service. As

1577-547: A service known as DTV radio , in which the audio of a commonly owned broadcast radio station is simulcast over a subchannel (for instance, KPJK in San Mateo, California broadcasts former FM sister KCSM on its DT3 signal). WANN-CD in Atlanta offers six radio stations owned by iHeartMedia , in addition to ten television channels. Non-broadcast content, subscription television channels or datacasting operations unrelated to

1660-575: A short-lived launch affiliation with Heartland , which launched utilizing the trademark of The Nashville Network , but lost it a year later due to business disputes. On May 3, 2021, Gray announced it was purchasing Meredith's broadcasting properties (and the sale was completed on December 1), which made WSMV-TV both an O&O station for the network as well as its flagship station . Stations listed in BOLD were Circle owned-and-operated. Digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are

1743-488: A similar demographic targeted by competing country music-oriented multicast networks Heartland (which, incidentally from 2012 until 2013, used The Nashville Network moniker once used by Ryman's original cable network venture) and The Country Network . Circle Country's programming primarily features a mix of original and acquired series with a country music or Southern lifestyle-centric format. Circle previously broadcast two simultaneous feeds: one for digital distribution, and

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1826-542: A single SD subchannel which simulcasts that station's primary channel. There have been a number of issues surrounding the introduction of digital subchannels in Australia. The first subchannels launched by the ABC – ABC Kids and Fly TV – closed after less than two years in operation in 2003 as a reaction to budget cuts by the conservative Howard government under Communications Minister Alston and low viewership (partly due to

1909-579: A station that is unable to broadcast for technical, weather-related, or other reasons using the facilities of another. This use dates to the early days of digital television: in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, which destroyed the primary TV transmission site in New York City, WWOR-TV was broadcast as a subchannel of co-owned WNYW-DT . Competing stations in a market have even offered each other support; in 2009, Weigel Broadcasting offered

1992-457: A subchannel and air network programming on the other. Thus, the station can accommodate viewers wanting to watch either regular programming or news coverage. Some sports leagues, most notably the NFL, have strict rules against their game broadcasts airing on a subchannel. The first major nationally distributed general entertainment digital multicast television network , or diginet, for use on subchannels

2075-466: A total population of 195,620,130 residents) of all households in the United States that own at least one television set. It is also carried as a live channel on NBC's streaming service Peacock , and on Vizio 's Free Streaming Channels platform on their current generation of smart TVs . Before its launch, Circle Media actively sought affiliation agreements with various television station owners to make

2158-542: Is broadcast in Wales instead of Channel 4 HD). In the United States, digital subchannels have been used to provide programming from multiple major networks on a single television station. This has become prevalent since the late 2000s in smaller markets that have as few as one or two commercial stations, which during the era of analog television, would not have been able to carry the complete programming lineups of all four major commercial networks (CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox) because of

2241-491: Is divided. Therefore, station managers and broadcast engineers could run any of the following scenarios using one 6 MHz channel (note that the actual bitrate moves up and down, due to usage of variable bitrate encoding): With improvements in MPEG encoding, and tighter VBR encoding, more subchannels can be combined. 1×720p + 3×480i is becoming more common. For a frame rate of 30 p or 60 i , uncompressed DTV channels have

2324-537: Is only carried by the stations of non-commercial networks SBS Television and ABC Television ). Each network currently has at least one HD sub channel. All networks use their HD subchannel to provide a simulcast of their primary channel or their multichannels. Inclusive of their primary standard definition channels (ignoring HD): Community television stations in Melbourne ( C31 ) and Adelaide ( C44 ) also broadcast digital signals, however they typically only broadcast

2407-460: Is possible as the only information sent over each channel are audio feeds and a still slide which rotates every 20 seconds, displaying an advertisement and information about the current playing song on the individual channel. The audio feed and rotating stills occupy significantly less bandwidth than video feeds, leaving space for more multiplexed content. A broadcaster saves significant costs in power and bandwidth through multiplexing in comparison to

2490-509: Is rare; the general trend for sports programming tends to eschew the free-to-air model that digital subchannels use, and the cost of rights fees for most sports requires that they air on channels that air on cable and satellite television services and thus can recuperate costs through retransmission consent . Channels such as Sportsman Channel (and the now-defunct Universal Sports ) that began as digital subchannel networks now operate as cable and satellite-exclusive services. There are nonetheless

2573-638: The Scripps Networks subchannel services Court TV , Ion Mystery , Bounce TV , Laff , Grit , Defy TV , and Scripps News . More programming streams can be fit into a single channel space at the cost of broadcast quality. Among smaller stations, KAXT-CD in San Francisco is believed to have the most feeds of any individual over-the-air broadcaster, offering twelve video and several audio feeds (all transmitted in standard definition). WANN-CD in Atlanta , Georgia, with ten video and ten audio feeds, comes at

Circle Country - Misplaced Pages Continue

2656-640: The Traverse City - Cheboygan market in Upper Michigan, NBC affiliate WPBN/WTOM also simulcasts sister station WGTU/WGTQ , providing that station's ABC programming to the entire market; CBS affiliate WWTV/WWUP carries its Fox-affiliated sister WFQX/WFUP on their DT2 subchannel to expand their coverage area further north into the eastern portion of the Upper Peninsula. In many cases, these "new" channels are existing secondary channels that were carried by

2739-483: The United States supports multiple program streams over-the-air, allowing television stations to transmit one or more subchannels over a single digital signal. A virtual channel numbering scheme distinguishes broadcast subchannels by appending the television channel number with a period digit (".xx"). Simultaneously, the suffix indicates that a television station offers additional programming streams. By convention,

2822-1006: The Washington, D.C. area, MHz Networks is available as ten subchannels transmitted by two stations, with their virtual channels mapped uniformly, making them appear as if they are transmitted by one station. In some U.S. states, statewide educational, cultural or public affairs services are carried on a digital subchannel of a PBS member station or network (such as the Minnesota Channel , PBS Wisconsin 's Wisconsin Channel, or New York State broadcaster ThinkBright TV ). The use of subchannels has also allowed educational television broadcasters to sell off former secondary PBS analogue stations to commercial broadcasters (such as WNEQ in Buffalo , which its sister station WNED-TV sold in 1999 to LIN TV (now owned by Nexstar Media Group ) to become WNLO , now

2905-433: The syndication market. Previously, Circle (as OTA sub-channel) provided up to 20 hours of programming to its owned-and-operated and affiliated stations on weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time and on weekends from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The remaining vacated hours were occupied by paid programming. Circle featured programming geared toward both fans of the country music genre and rural audiences,

2988-448: The 25 largest U.S. markets (including New York City , Los Angeles , Philadelphia , San Francisco , Boston , Miami – Fort Lauderdale and Dallas – Fort Worth ) through the group's independent stations. Ironically at the network's launch, Circle was not available over-the-air in the network's headquarters of Nashville, despite its status as the hub of the country music industry. Gray Television did not own any television stations in

3071-528: The Circle network widely available throughout the United States. The network launched with clearance rate of, at minimum, 50% of overall American television households, in part due to affiliation agreements with stations owned by network co-parent Gray Television (initially encompassing 56 of the group's stations, with no clearance in approximately 15 other small-sized markets with a Gray-owned station) and CBS Television Stations , which provided Circle broad clearance in

3154-458: The DVB format) is used, and was specifically designed with physical RF segments that could be split to use for different subchannels. In Brazil , a digital subchannel is only allowed to the public and educational stations. As the amount of data which can be carried on one digital television channel at one time is limited, the addition of multiple channels of programming as digital subchannels comes at

3237-551: The Fox affiliation for its second subchannel in September 2014). Upon their launches in September 2006, The CW and MyNetworkTV were among the first conventional networks to actively utilize subchannel-only affiliations in markets where a standalone station is not available to affiliate with; this is particularly true of The CW's small-market feed, The CW Plus , which originally consisted mostly of cable-only affiliations (by way of inheriting

3320-708: The Gaylord Entertainment Company, was owner of The Nashville Network (TNN) . Gaylord later bought a second country music-oriented cable network, Country Music Television (CMT) , in 1991. Gaylord Entertainment sold both networks to the CBS Cable unit of CBS Corporation in 1997 for $ 1.55 billion feeling that the two then-country networks could grow faster as part of a larger media company. Gaylord, however, retained CMT International. Gaylord Cable Networks took its stakes in TV Argentina and CMT International to launch

3403-673: The MusicCountry channel in Mexico and Argentine in 2000. Then on September 1, 2000, the company launched the MusicCountry service in Europe. Gaylord would subsequently rebrand CMT channels in Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Asia-Pacific region's areas to the MusicCountry brand. Towards the end of the 2010s, Ryman Hospitality Properties was looking to venture back into television, with its Opry Entertainment unit already having co-produced

Circle Country - Misplaced Pages Continue

3486-539: The Nashville television market (the company was only in two of the six Tennessee-based television markets) until 2021, and did not secure a local affiliate prior the network's debut. The network gained an affiliate in that market on January 31, 2020, via the DT5 subchannel of (at the time) Meredith Local Media -owned NBC affiliate WSMV-TV , which was formerly owned alongside Ryman's Opry properties from 1950 until 1981 and had

3569-452: The OTA portion of the channel on December 31, 2023. Streaming of the channel remained available under the Circle Country name. Many of the OTA stations replaced Circle with one of several networks under the new Gray/ Lionsgate / Warner Bros. Discovery joint venture Free TV Networks , which is led by broadcasting veteran Jonathan Katz. Opry's programming rights will be utilized on several new AVOD ventures by Opry and NBCUniversal , which took

3652-625: The United States broadcast their main channel in high definition and up to three standard definition subchannels; however, a few reconfigure their digital channels depending on daypart, carrying four standard definition channels during the daytime, reducing them to one HD and one SD channel at night due to technical limitations at the station's level that may prevent it from carrying PBS programming in HD full-time and maintain multiple full-time subchannels like other member stations. PBS stations often carry additional national channels such as PBS HD ( PBS Satellite Service ), PBS Kids , World , and Create . In

3735-678: The United States ;– especially in Europe ;– high-definition feeds are rarer, and most countries only provide a single high-definition service for each broadcaster. For example, in France , there are only five HD services: one each for TF1 , France 2 , Canal+ , M6 and Arte ; in the United Kingdom , four HD services are currently transmitted over terrestrial frequencies: BBC One HD , BBC Two HD , ITV HD and Channel 4 HD ( S4C Clirlun

3818-606: The United States, none of the stations currently broadcasting a digital signal transmit any subchannel other than a possible HD service or a standard definition simulcast of the main channel. Unlike the FCC in the United States, the body that governs Canadian broadcasting licenses, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), requires stations to file license amendments in order to be considered for permission to carry digital subchannels (this differs from

3901-481: The United States. The Sistema Público de Radiodifusión del Estado Mexicano , a public broadcaster, operates 26 multiplexed transmitters throughout Mexico carrying five to six public television services, while XHTRES-TDT carries Imagen Radio audio on a subchannel. One notable experiment involving digital subchannels in Mexico was undertaken by TV Azteca , which used its three muxes in the Mexico City area to broadcast

3984-416: The artist-fan relationship in country music; Upstream , a fishing/interview program hosted by Elizabeth Cook ; and several Grand Ole Opry -focused series such as Opry Debut ). Among the initial offerings were all surviving episodes of Hee Haw . Previously, Circle had current or pending affiliation agreements with 96 television stations in 96 media markets encompassing 39 states, covering 62.60% (or

4067-469: The call letters are WFRC and the station broadcasts on channel 10, then the 10.2 subchannel is identified as EFRC, 10.3 is GFRC, 10.4 is HFRC, 10.5 is IFRC and 10.6 is JFRC. If the call letters are KFRC and the station broadcasts on channel 10, then 10.2 is identified as NFRC, 10.3 is OFRC, 10.4 is QFRC, 10.5 is RFRC and 10.6 is SFRC. Although digital television services in Canada use the same ATSC technology as

4150-480: The case for certain local stations. The IFT enforces minimum bitrates for digital television channels, and as such it is not possible for a station to broadcast two HD feeds in MPEG-2 encoding. Most HD feeds are provided in 1080i with all subchannels in 480i standard definition. Australian digital subchannels are currently divided between high definition (HD), standard definition (SD) and radio subchannels (the latter type

4233-449: The channel if the station removes it. Mobile DTV is also carried on ATSC stations, but as a separate service, according to the ATSC-M/H standard. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considers all subchannels carried by a single station to have the same call letters for legal identification purposes. However, within the broadcast sales industry, to differentiate subchannels,

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4316-398: The clear) in selected cities to stream a limited number of "cable" channels to its subscribers for an additional fee to supplement its otherwise free digital video recorder (DVR) service allowing recordings of local broadcast channels and free and subscription internet content. Digital television supports multiple digital subchannels if the 19.39 Mbit/s (megabits per second) bitstream

4399-565: The commission's rules for premium cable television services, which allow the addition of multiplex channels consistent with the service's license requirements without the need to amend the license). On August 17, 2012, the CRTC gave approval to Leamington, Ontario community station CFTV-TV to broadcast four local subchannels on its digital signal, making it the first station in Canada to launch original content on its multiplex channels. Some Mexican TV stations use digital subchannels as they are used in

4482-450: The cost of operating additional analog television stations to accommodate the extra programming. In practice, operating extra stations is impossible due to the required channel and distance separations combined with the available number of channels. Most ATSC tuners will automatically add a new digital subchannel to their internal channel map , once it is tuned to the station carrying the new channel. However, some of these will not delete

4565-476: The daily simulcast of WSM Radio morning show "Coffee, Country & Cody" and Grand Ole Opry broadcasts, as well as during regular timeslots of Circle-produced original programming. As of 2024, the terrestrial feed is no longer available, but the digital (aka streaming) feed remains available as Circle Country, with classic movies being added with the original programming. As the network was under development, Circle Media developed several original productions for

4648-495: The dramatic series Nashville , along with the end of its partnerships to carry the Opry with CMT, then Great American Country , as their managements both shifted away from music programming and towards a more generic and broad-based focus on Southern culture . In 2018, Ryman had settled on a broadcast television network and began pursuing starting one as they felt country music fans are underserved. Ryman tested nine potential shows via

4731-547: The early round games of the NCAA men's basketball tournament in addition to those broadcast on the main digital channel (this was superseded as a result of a new television agreement with the NCAA that took effect in 2011, which gave cable networks TBS , TNT and TruTV partial rights to the tournament). Most of the major professional sports leagues , however, have strict prohibitions against using subchannels for carrying multiple game broadcasts and only allow one game to be aired in

4814-610: The expense of having less available bandwidth for other purposes, such as the ability to transmit high definition content. A station carrying multiple subchannels will normally limit itself to one high-definition channel (or in some cases, two HD channels), with any additional channels being carried in standard definition. Because of the tradeoffs, stations owned by CBS Corporation through its CBS Television Stations subsidiary (which include owned-and-operated stations of CBS and The CW , and some independent stations ) generally opted not to carry digital subchannels and transmitted only

4897-539: The following data rates in megapixels per second:   For ATSC , these must be compressed into 19.4 Mbit/s total per physical 6 MHz RF channel over the air, and 38.8 Mbit/s for cable. Various forms of digital radio also allow for multiple program streams. Free TV Networks Free TV Networks is an American specialized digital multicasting and advertising-supported video on demand network media company . The company owns and operates three broadcast television networks. The company

4980-412: The initial letter of a call sign changes per subchannel. As per Nielsen , digital stations identified with a "W" call letter will generally have their subchannels identified with an "E" (.2), "G" (.3), "H" (.4), "I" (.5) or "J" (.6). Digital stations identified with a "K" call-letter will generally have their subchannels identified with an "N" (.2), "O" (.3), "Q" (.4), "R" (.5) or "S" (.6). For example, if

5063-483: The joint venture partners would confirm that Gray-owned stations would be among the network's charter affiliates; they would also reveal on that date the network's name — Circle, which is a nod to the iconic 6-foot wooden section of stage at the Opry House (and that section's original home, Ryman Auditorium ) on which various country stars have performed. On December 16, 2019, Circle's formal launch date of January 1, 2020

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5146-402: The late 2010s, some station groups have started consolidating major network affiliations onto one signal if they own the non-licensing assets of those channels. Some of this was due to the 2016 United States wireless spectrum auction , but most have been due to companies who use sidecar companies to create virtual duopolies via local marketing agreements when they are not legally able to own

5229-467: The limited distribution of set-top boxes); and commercial broadcasters could not legally air a digital subchannel other than a single high-definition service until 2009. As most digital services in Europe rely on more complex methods of multiplexing, where a large number of digital channels by many different broadcasters can be broadcast on one single frequency, the concept of a subchannel is instead applied to

5312-500: The low VHF band (channels 2 to 6) often experience, some stations broadcasting on these frequencies are relayed on the subchannels of stations that are less prone to interference. An example of this is CBS affiliate WRGB in Albany, New York . While WRGB broadcasts its main digital on VHF channel 6 in high definition, CW-affiliated sister station WCWN relays a standard-definition subchannel feed of WRGB over its digital channel 45. Since

5395-482: The main television programming are also permitted by the digital television standards but are less-commonly used. USDTV was an over-the-air pay television service that used H.264 compression instead of standard MPEG-2 . Mobile DTV now uses MPEG-4 compression, which like H.264 yields a much lower bitrate for the same video quality . For example, the Sezmi TV/DVR service uses broadcast digital subchannels (not in

5478-598: The model and much of the affiliate body of predecessor The WB 100+ Station Group ). Since its launch, affiliates of other major networks have taken over the operations of cable-only CW Plus affiliates (or even outright replacing WB 100+ cable channels at the launch of The CW) and began transmitting the service over subchannels to reach viewers who do not subscribe to a pay television service. Some Spanish language networks (such as Estrella TV and Telemundo ) have also been carried on digital subchannels, either as subchannel-exclusive services or to provide programming to markets where

5561-480: The network in Circle's first five months of operation, including a simulcast of WSM Radio's Coffee, Country & Cody (which had previously aired on competing country music-oriented multicast network Heartland ), and the music and interview series The Dailey and Vincent Show which moved from the show's prior four-year home, RFD-TV . and several docu-series (including Craig's World , a reality program centering on country artist Craig Morgan ; Fandom , focusing on

5644-550: The network's inaugural programming slate—aiming to make it one of a handful of digital multicast services that carry original programming, and one of the few (alongside the Live Well Network , which reduced its national distribution outside of sister networks ABC 's owned-and-operated stations in January 2015, and its rebrand Localish ) to offer a large original content slate. On December 11, 2019, Circle Media announced that it had greenlit 16 original programs slated to debut on

5727-505: The other for terrestrial distribution. The terrestrial feed (which typically appeared as a digital subchannel of a major network affiliate station in numerous markets around the United States) aired classic movies and off-network syndicated programming, while the digital feed (distributed over streaming services such as Peacock and Roku ) features more company-owned music-based programming. Those feeds converged for live programming, such as

5810-963: The same level as in the late 2000s due to the population of entertainment-based multicast services, many local stations have used or currently use subchannels to carry continuous news or local weather content; in particular, there have been at least four networks that have been created to serve this audience: NBC Weather Plus (a service exclusive to NBC stations that operated from 2004 to 2008), The AccuWeather Channel , WeatherNation TV (which also maintains limited exclusive distribution on pay television services) and TouchVision . Locally programmed news subchannels (such as News 9 Now / News on 6 Now on KWTV in Oklahoma City and KOTV in Tulsa, Oklahoma or NewsChannel 5+ on WTVF in Nashville , Tennessee ) often carry rebroadcasts and simulcasts of local news programs seen on

5893-429: The station's main feed, in some cases displaying a ticker with news headlines and weather forecasts to provide updated information. Subchannels also allow stations to air news programs without fully pre-empting normally scheduled programing on the station's main feed. During significant breaking news or severe weather events, for instance, a station may choose to air extended news coverage on either its main channel or

5976-458: The station's own local and syndicated programming commitments, and overlapping network programs that would be tough to schedule outside of regular timeslots. A prime example is the Wheeling, West Virginia / Steubenville, Ohio market, which for decades was home to only two stations (CBS affiliate WTRF-TV and NBC affiliate WTOV-TV ; the cable-only WBWO also served the market as a WB and now as

6059-433: The suffix position ".1" is normally used to refer to the station's main digital channel and the ".0" position is reserved for analog channels . For example, most of the owned-and-operated stations / affiliates of Trinity Broadcasting Network transmit five streams in the following format: The most of any large broadcaster in the United States, Ion Television stations transmit eight channels (in standard definition ) and

6142-748: The team's broadcasts to over-the-air television in the home market; as part of the deal, Golden Knights games air on the second subchannel of KIVI in Boise , KSAW-LD in Twin Falls , and the Montana Television Network . In October of that year, the Arizona Coyotes moved their broadcasts to Scripps Sports, where the games air on the second subchannel of KNXV in Phoenix and KGUN in Tucson . Although not to

6225-555: The third, a local weather subchannel on KBJR). While KDLH carries the CW subchannel on their DT2 feed and KBJR carries the MyNetworkTV subchannel on its DT2 feed on their primary signals, all five channels are carried on satellite station KRII in Chisholm , providing the Iron Range region (located north of Duluth) programming from networks that were previously unavailable over-the-air. In

6308-532: The use of a subchannel to Milwaukee's WTMJ-TV when its transmitter was disabled by lightning, only for WTMJ to reciprocate the next year when flooding took Weigel's WDJT-TV out of service for three days. For five months from October 2019 to 2020, commonly operated WBBH-TV and WZVN-TV in Fort Myers , broadcast from the former's facility on one multiplex to allow for an overhaul of the latter's antenna. In rare cases, digital television broadcasters have included

6391-485: The variety of channels that are produced by a single company. This can vary widely depending on the country: for example, ITV currently has four of its digital channels ( ITV1 , ITV2 , ITV3 and ITV4 ) broadcasting on one multiplexed service, while two others ( ITV2 +1 and CITV ) are each broadcast on another, separate multiplex. In Japan and Latin America (except Colombia , Mexico and Panama ), ISDB (similar to

6474-512: Was Retro Television Network in 2005. Several new services launched or attempted to launch in 2008, including This TV , utilizing classic TV programming and library movies. This time period also saw the launch of some of the first services for public TV stations in the United States, such as Create . The field of diginets grew throughout the 2010s. MeTV , once a local service in Chicago and Milwaukee, became nationally distributed in 2010; by 2014, it

6557-414: Was announced for Circle, along with a roster of 16 new programs for the network. Additionally, CBS Television Stations was also announced as joining in Circle's list of charter affiliates, bringing major markets to the network's initial list of stations to 56 affiliates covering 50% of the country. As of October 2020, Circle has 99 affiliates reaching 62.61% of U.S. TV households. On November 10, 2023, it

6640-576: Was announced that Circle as an over-the-air network would cease its broadcast operations on December 31, 2023, as Gray transitions to a new partnership for its digital subchannel networks, Free TV Networks , with Lionsgate and Warner Bros. Discovery . The final regular program to air on Circle as a OTA network was the movie Rio Lobo . The channel continues streaming via the Circle Country network, with select programming such as Coffee, Country & Cody as well as Opry Live . In addition, Opry Live and The Song will continue to be offered over-the-air via

6723-733: Was founded and is led by broadcasting veteran Jonathan Katz, who previously launched what is now the Scripps Networks division of competitor E. W. Scripps Company . The venture launched with two digital multicast television networks on January 1, 2024, each resembling networks Katz originally launched, which are The365, a channel for Black audiences (similar to Bounce TV ) and Outlaw, a network for Western programming (similar to Grit ). The venture launched its third broadcast network, Defy , on July 1, 2024 in partnership with A&E Networks , which features action and male-targeted reality programming from A&E Network's library; Scripps's Defy TV (which previously carried said library) ended operations

6806-571: Was subsequently replaced by Stadium in August 2017, following the formation of a multi-platform network venture with the Chicago White Sox's Silver Chalice unit and 120 Sports . 2023 saw the moves of two National Hockey League team broadcasts to digital subchannels, in at least part of the team's market. In May 2023, the Vegas Golden Knights and Scripps Sports announced plans to bring

6889-750: Was the most widely distributed diginet, and it remains the most watched with prime time viewership eclipsing some cable channels. Station groups also increased their presence in the space, most notably the E. W. Scripps Company 's 2017 acquisition of Katz Broadcasting, which was seen as giving the sector legitimacy. Ratings and coverage have increased as these channels seek to reach cord cutters who still use antennas to receive broadcast signals. Diginets generally are reliant on national advertising revenue and, in some cases, pay stations to be carried on their subchannels, prizing lower channel numbers. Some have obtained national distribution on paid and free ad-supported streaming TV services. Many PBS member stations around

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