Broadcasting is a process by which audio and video signals are sent to an audience for example terrestrial, satellite, cable and internet protocol television (IPTV).
Digital broadcasting such as Freeview is a way of transmitting audio and video information through an encoded signal that is made up of 1s and 0s. A multiplex a single broadcast frequency that contains multiple channels) allows us to broadcast several channels together on one bandwidth. The advantages of digital broadcasting are: it has a greater variety of channels, HD channels and it also caters more to what you want on TV. The disadvantages for broadcasters are channels one to five have to compete with all the other channels because they’re losing viewers.
Terrestrial broadcasting is called DVB-T (digital or analogue which is the old system, video broadcasting terrestrial). Analogue signal can lose quality when transmitted and they also need a large bandwidth. Digital takes up less bandwidth; you receive more channels and better quality. It basically means on the ground broadcasting as it is located on the ground and not in space/air like a satellite. Terrestrial broadcasting doesn’t use cables or satellites to work instead it uses radio waves sent from TV antennas e.g. Crystal Palace. This kind of broadcasting has many advantages such as; usage of radio frequency spectrum, better sound and picture quality and wide screen picture format. The down side to using terrestrial broadcasting is the limited range of signal, losing the signal depending on where you are e.g. if you’re driving through a tunnel. Weather can also ruin your signal and radio wave antennas can’t transmit that far.
Satellite TV broadcasting works by broadcasting audio and video signals from satellites located in space to satellites on Earth. They used to transmit analogue signals but are not digital. The disadvantages of satellite TV are: he receiver and satellite dish can be expensive, multiple TV sets require multiple receivers, a different receiver for each TV is needed, making it very expensive if you have (like many people) more than one TV in your home. The satellite TV can malfunction in bad weather because the satellite dish is located outdoors, it can very easy to malfunction as a result of weather conditions like snow, very strong winds and lightning. The advantages of satellite TV are: as they are located in space it doesn’t matter where you live you can always receive satellite TV signal because the satellites move with the earth in orbit, they have interactive TV so you can choose from a huge selection of channels, satellites provide a lot of high definition which means better quality viewing because of digital signal. If you live at the side of a hill it would benefit you more if you had satellite TV as you can receive the signal anywhere, if you had terrestrial it would be a lot more difficult to receive the signal as it can’t pass through the hill to get to your house making it harder for you to watch TV. The UK mostly uses the Astra satellite group (4 or 5 satellites) – used by SKY, BBC and Freesat. Sky offers something called skyfreesat.Freesat from Sky. 240 digital TV channels for a cost of £147. Sky will install the satellite dish and digibox with there's no ongoing subscription.
Cable TV works by laying down a line of cable from the existing cable company network into your street. The TV signal is then sent directly through the line and into your TV. The cable company have an advantage of receiving more viewers if they put their cable lines in a street which means no other cable companies can. For example if Virgin put their cable lines down in Rockwell Road another cable company cannot put theirs in as Virgin have already too much disruption. Which means Virgin receives all viewers from that street. The disadvantage is that the people living in that street can only have Virgin, they can’t choose another cable company. The advantages when compared to digital broadcast TV are that there's no pixilation of the signal and the image is clear (but satellite TV can match it for clarity), cable doesn't involve the use of a dish. That means there's no messing around with equipment up on the roof. Some people can have serious problems with satellite dishes in their homes especially when weather can block a satellite's signal. Cable TV avoids those problems. The disadvantage of cable TV depends on individual areas and the needs of the customer. A cable company may not have a greater service then their satellite competitors and many satellite problems can be fixed easily by repositioning the dish whereas a break in the cable line could take days even weeks to repair properly. Cable is also very hard to get in country areas as they can't put a line of cable out to remote houses however satellite is available to anyone anywhere provided you have a view of the sky. Also Satellite has been able to provide HDTV more effortlessly than cable TV, producing a clearer picture than cable TV.
Internet television (otherwise known as Internet TV, iTV or Online TV) is a television service distributed through the Internet e.g. 4oD and iplayer which is provided by broadband which is a fast, lasting internet connection which can also be delivered by satellite, cable and mobile. Some advantages of internet TV are: you can watch your favourite TV shows even if you’re away on holiday or out of the country, so you can stay updated with your favourite TV shows. Some internet TV websites have free streaming which means you can watch your shows for free, with the benefit that you don’t have to subscribe to cable or satellite. The disadvantages of internet TV are hard to think of, I personally don’t think it is as comfortable as sitting down and turning on a regular TV set, also you have to watch the advert breaks.
In future years to come I believe that internet TV will have wiped out most broadcasting systems like satellite and cable as technology enhances. As internet TV is mostly free and easy to access why would people bother paying expensive packages to watch their favourite shows? Also as the younger teenage generation are more likely to use the internet to watch TV I believe that in years soon to come even younger people will be into using the internet in this way. I think by the year 2040 or so most broadcasting systems could be seeing their last days and more useful, exciting technology will have been made to watch TV.
