A timeshift channel (sometimes referred to as a +1 channel) is a television channel carrying time-delayed reruns of its "parent" channel's programming. This channel runs alongside its parent: the term timeshift does not refer to a network broadcasting at a later time to reflect a local time zone, unless the parent is also available. Often the timeshift channel's branding and advertising will be the same as that of the parent, with the channel number and respective timing being the only distinction between the two, but some, such as Channel 4 +1 in the United Kingdom and TVNZ 1+1 in New Zealand, will overlay a different digital on-screen graphic to distinguish the two channels. A few channels, like Film4 +1 in the United Kingdom, do not carry a digital on-screen graphic on its regular channel or its timeshift channel.
In Australia, timeshifted Foxtel pay-TV channels typically carry a time delay of two hours, making the timeshift channels run on local time in Western Australia when daylight saving time is not in effect. These channels may accordingly be described as +2, such as on Arena, although the timeshift for W. is branded as W2. More than 20 timeshift channels exist, most of the entertainment channels.
New Zealand
In New Zealand, Sky Movies 2 was formerly a two-hour delayed timeshift channel of Sky Movies 1 between 2007 and 2013. MediaWorks launched an hour-delayed timeshift channel of the TV3 feed with Auckland regional advertising on 30 March 2009. In 2012, TVNZ replaced TVNZ7 with an hour-delayed timeshift channel of the TVNZ 1 feed with Auckland regional advertising. In late August 2013, U was also replaced, with an hour-delayed timeshifted version of TV2. Mediaworks launched an hour-delayed timeshifted version of Four on 27 June 2014 and replaced it with an hour-delayed timeshifted version of Bravo on 3 July 2016. Sky Television launched an hour-delayed timeshifted version of Prime on 1 February 2017.
On 1 July 2019, MediaWorks launched an hour-delayed timeshift version of ThreeLife, replacing The Edge TV which went online only.
Europe
Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, the terrestrial versions of bTV Lady, Ring BG, and Diema Family are shifted by an hour, with the normal versions only available on cable and satellite.
Ireland
Ireland has access to many of the UK's timeshift channels through satellite and cable services. Some are also available via spillover transmissions from Northern Ireland such as UTV's timeshift service UTV +1. RTÉ provides a part-time timeshift service for RTÉ One, RTÉ One +1 starts each night at 7 p.m. after the close of RTÉjr. TV3 launched its timeshift service in April 2015. TG4 (the Irish language broadcaster) is considering a timeshift channel. In 2019 RTÉ Two +1 has also launched.
Italy
In Italy the main Timeshift channels provider is Sky and most of their channels have a time delay of one hour. In the past, some channels like Sky Uno, Fox and Fox Crime had two-hours delay channels but all of them were closed.
Poland
In Poland, there are two timeshift channels. Private, commercial TVN HD +1 was launched on May 1, 2010, and regional TVS HD +1 on April 30, 2010.
United Kingdom (UK)
In the United Kingdom, most timeshift channels have a time delay of one hour, and are thus described as a +1 channel – for instance, ITV2 has a timeshift channel known as ITV2 +1. +2 channels, with a delay of two hours, also used to exist. The most notable of these was Fox, formerly known as FX. However, there are currently no more +2 channels on air, with the last remaining +2 channel, TLC +2, being shut down on 27 April 2018. Most timeshift channels are available only via pay television, though a fair number also have availability through the digital terrestrial televisionFreeview platform, with some Freeview +1 networks limited in availability by a region's transmitter station reach (such as London/Crystal Palace or Manchester/Winter Hill). 50 timeshift channels are carried over Sky, whilst 31 are available through Virgin Media.
In the United States, timeshift channels typically carry a time delay of three hours (in line with the time difference between the east and west coasts of the U.S.); the main channel feed is generally identified as the "East" feed and is programmed for Eastern Time Zone viewers, while the corresponding timeshift channel is generally identified as the "West" feed and is programmed for viewers in the Pacific Time Zone. For conventional broadcast networks, a timeshift channel is a network affiliate from a market in another time zone (such as New York City-based stations WCBS-TV, WNBC, WABC-TV and WNYW as Eastern Time Zone feeds, and Los Angeles-based stations KCBS-TV, KNBC, KABC-TV and KTTV as Pacific Time Zone feeds for CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox, respectively); for cable-only outlets, a timeshift channel is simply the original programming feed retransmitted at a later time, as is the case with timeshift channels in other countries. (Many cable systems in the Mountain states transmit a mix of timeshift channels as the originating network feed, split by the network between the "East" and "West" feed as opposed to offering uniform feeds of each channel that is aligned to the feed intended for distribution in the corresponding locale.) CBS also uses its streaming news service CBS News as a timeshift channel, carrying select CBS News programs on a half-hour delay from their original airings.
The major U.S. terrestrial television networks broadcast without delay in the Eastern and Central time zones (UTC−5 and UTC−6, respectively), but delayed programs by one and three hours respectively for the Mountain (UTC−7) and Pacific (UTC−8) time zones. The start of U.S. evening prime time programs is typically announced in the form of "8, 7 Central" (often written as "8/7c") or "8 Eastern and Pacific" (often written as "8 ET/PT").
Many cable television channels do not timeshift (or offer timeshift feeds to all viewers across the country), though there are several exceptions. As an alternative, many cable channels, including cable news outlets such as Fox News Channel, CNN and HLN repeat most of their prime time programs on their main channel in late night time slots, so that they will air during prime time in both the Eastern and Pacific time zones, though it is subject to pre-emption because of later breaking news.
Premium channels such as HBO, Showtime and Starz commonly air three-hour delayed feeds of the main channel and their multiplex channels, though typically digital cable providers only simultaneously carry the East and West coast feeds of the main channel while the multiplex channels are a singular feed (the "East" feed for the Central and Eastern time zones, and the "West" feed for the Pacific and Mountain zones); this allows subscribers to watch a movie, series or special three hours behind or ahead of its original airing in their area (in the case of The Movie Channel, many cable systems only carry the respective coastal feed of the main channel and its multiplex channel The Movie Channel Xtra, rather than airing the East and West feeds of the primary channel or both channels).
Many children's television channels, such as Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network also have timeshift services; however, most digital cable providers will only provide the East or West coast feed in the basic package and the opposite feed, if available, is often in a higher package tier (satellite subscribers will often receive both the East and West feed as part of their service package). The Nick Jr. Channel notably only maintained a single Eastern Time feed until 2013, which led to controversy when the channel launched its adult-oriented NickMom programming block, which had started at 7:00p.m. in the Pacific Time Zone and earlier in Alaska and Hawaii, at times when preschoolers would still be awake in those regions; Nick Jr. would later launch a West Coast feed due to complaints from some parents about the content featured on the NickMom block.
Sporting events, including the Super Bowl, have been broadcast live in all U.S. time zones simultaneous with the primetime schedule of the Eastern time zone, for decades, resulting in announcements such as "4 Eastern, 1 Pacific" (generally shown as "4 ET/1 PT"). In the event of a sporting event leading into prime time on the East Coast, the following programs are often said to be "coming up next, except on the West Coast," as additional programming is shifted around to fill the time between the end of the event and the start of prime time on the West Coast. Many times, this is the programming that was preempted by the effectively earlier time slot in the western zones. Live nationwide U.S. airings of international sporting events like the FIFA World Cup on Fox and the Olympic Games on NBC, beginning in the late 2010s, are simultaneous with the actual live global broadcast regardless of the hosting nation, resulting in adjustments by networks as most of their games may fall outside the primetime slots of any of the U.S. time zones at the time of the event (and, on occasion, televise live during daytime with primetime encores when the hosting nation is located outside the Americas).
Several awards show, up until the mid-2000s, were routinely tape-delayed for viewers on the West Coast while being transmitted live east of the Rockies. However, by the late 2000s, with the rise of social media like Twitter and Facebook around discussion of television programming, many of them now choose to air their ceremonies live all across the mainland U.S., especially those held in the Los Angeles area where tape-delayed broadcasts had been conducted by the networks in the past. The transition was ushered in 2009 by NBC with the Golden Globe Awards, primarily aiming to prevent spoilers for western viewers previously relying on telecasts delayed until local prime time. In the past, the only way to find out winners in advance was through radio news and print wire reports summarizing the ceremonies in progress, before the Internet and social media and their more widely-reaching and immediate reports effectively made tape delay a pointless endeavor.
The Academy Awards regularly air live on ABC across mainland North America for decades before expanding to full live telecasts for all U.S. territories in 2019. Since 2016, CBS mandates all of its affiliates across all U.S. time zones in and out of mainland North America to air the Grammy Awards live simultaneously with the East Coast primetime airing with corresponding local primetime encores for each U.S. time zone outside the Eastern and Central time zones. The Primetime Emmy Awards, on rotation among ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, joined the Grammys in airing completely live all across the U.S., including Hawaii, starting with CBS' telecast turn in 2017 to resolve the complaints of tape-delaying live American TV shows outside the mainland continent. In its resumption with physical show staging since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, the Tony Awards completed the shift of major U.S. entertainment awards shows to live coast-to-coast U.S. telecasts with its respective broadcast transition.
The Billboard Music Awards began its live coast-to-coast U.S. telecast with ABC in 2016 and has since juggled between West Coast-delayed and live coast-to-coast U.S. broadcasts in its transfer to NBC beginning in 2018. Meanwhile, the MTV Video Music Awards have regularly aired live all across U.S. territories simultaneously with The CW as part of its post-COVID-19 pandemic adjustments since 2020. In particular, network-timeshifting of live U.S. television broadcasts has since steadily declined amidst the rise of social media and online streaming services, simultaneous with the increasing trend of U.S. entertainment shows towards live coast-to-coast American broadcasting that earned renewed importance for they are "DVR-proof" in terms of ratings and social purposes.
Now more rarely, lesser ceremonies continue to air live in the Eastern and Central time zones while tape-delayed for all other U.S. territories, as their airtime is often purchased as a brokered programming arrangement, and as disruption for those ceremonies (often on weekdays) is much less tolerated by their airing network's affiliate base west of the Rockies. Other ceremonies that do not air live are taped in advance, including those broadcast on weekend nights in the U.S., to allow standards and practices to watch the ceremony in advance and determine cuts for profanity or content to insert a bleep censor or cut-away, and the producers can make cuts for time and superfluous items such as longer walks than expected by an award winner to the stage or a rare botched performance with the replacement of dress rehearsal footage.
Canada
In Canada, digital television services typically offer network stations from at least Toronto and Vancouver as timeshift channels, and may also offer stations from other markets as well. Most English-language programming is transmitted without delay in the Atlantic time zone (UTC−4) and delayed in most of the rest of the country. This results in the effective existence of, for example, +1, +2, +3, and +4 channels of the broadcast networks for viewers in the Atlantic time zone and −4, −3, −2, and −1 channels for Pacific viewers. French programming is transmitted without delay on Montreal's CBFT-DT in the Eastern zone and delayed only in Western Canada. In Newfoundland, CBNT-DT, which has its own time zone half an hour ahead of Atlantic time, programming airs at the same time as in the Atlantic, with special time announcements (thus, for instance, The National on CBC will be said to air at 10:00, 10:30 in Newfoundland).
In practice, only the CBC delays its entire prime time schedule for each time zone; the commercial networks typically schedule programs to maximize their ability to claim simultaneous substitution rights (which allows local broadcast stations to require U.S. broadcast stations' signals on television providers to be overridden with their own, if they are airing the exact same program in simulcast), resulting in programs often being scheduled in pattern with an airing from the Eastern or Pacific zones. In Alberta, programs may sometimes be aired earlier or later than normal than in other parts of the country in order to achieve a simsub with either coast, as stations from Spokane (which is located in Pacific time, one hour behind local Mountain time) are typically carried on cable in the province.
In Latin America, Spanish-language pay television programming used to be broadcast without delay in Argentina and Uruguay, and delayed in most countries; this situation was common in networks that broadcast one video feed for distribution to the rest of Latin American countries, as it centred their schedule using the Argentine time zone (HBO, Moviecity). However, this stopped being the case on basic-tier subscription TV with the launch of different regional feeds centred on local time zones, either based on Mexico, Colombia, Peru or Chile. Networks that are known to employ this practice are Star Channel, MTV, ESPN, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, among others. In cases of live programming, all events are broadcast in all feeds live without delay.
Portuguese-language programming in Brazil is transmitted in broadcast and cable networks without delay throughout the country in all time zones, except for broadcast stations in Acre, which is the only state 2 hours behind Brasília time. A few years ago, however, programming in broadcast stations was also delayed for states 1 hour behind Brasília time. XEW-TV (the flagship of Canal de las Estrellas) in Mexico has two timeshift feeds: Canal de las Estrellas −1 and Canal de las Estrellas −2, delayed one and two hours respectively from the main Mexico City feed. These timeshift feeds are broadcast on terrestrial television in the Mountain and Pacific time zones and are available on pay television in various parts of the country.
Nickelodeon is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through Paramount Media Networks' subdivision, Nickelodeon Group. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children, the channel is primarily aimed at children and adolescents aged 2 to 17, along with a broader family audience through its program blocks.
Live television is a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. In a secondary meaning, it may refer to streaming television where all viewers watch the same stream simultaneously, rather than watching video on demand.
In broadcast programming, dayparting is the practice of dividing the broadcast day into several parts, in which a different type of radio programming or television show appropriate for that time period is aired. Television programs are most often geared toward a particular demography, and what the target audience typically engages in at that time.
In radio and television, broadcast delay is an intentional delay when broadcasting live material, technically referred to as a deferred live. Such a delay may be to prevent mistakes or unacceptable content from being broadcast. Longer delays lasting several hours can also be introduced so that the material is aired at a later scheduled time to maximize viewership. Tape delays lasting several hours can also be edited down to remove filler material or to trim a broadcast to the network's desired run time for a broadcast slot, but this is not always the case.
Movie Central was a Canadian English language Category A premium cable and satellite television channel that was owned by Corus Entertainment. Movie Central was designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territories. Although the channel's name implies that it focuses solely on theatrically released motion pictures, Movie Central's programming included original and foreign television series, made-for-cable movies and documentaries.
News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or television studio newsroom, or by a broadcast network. A news broadcast may include material such as sports coverage, weather forecasts, traffic reports, political commentary, expert opinions, editorial content, and other material that the broadcaster feels is relevant to their audience. An individual news program is typically reported in a series of individual stories that are presented by one or more anchors. A frequent inclusion is live or recorded interviews by field reporters.
Television in Canada officially began with the sign-on of the nation's first television stations in Montreal and Toronto in 1952. As with most media in Canada, the television industry, and the television programming available in that country, are strongly influenced by media in the United States, perhaps to an extent not seen in any other major industrialized nation. As a result, the government institutes quotas for "Canadian content". Nonetheless, new content is often aimed at a broader North American audience, although the similarities may be less pronounced in the predominantly French-language province of Quebec.
Early Today is an American early morning television news program that is broadcast on NBC on weekday mornings. The program features general national and international news stories, financial and entertainment news, off-beat stories, national weather forecasts, and sports highlights.
Showcase is a Canadian English-language discretionary specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. Launched on January 1, 1995, the channel primarily airs scripted and dramatic television series.
Nickelodeon is a British pay television network.
Foxnet was a national cable programming service of the Fox Broadcasting Company that was owned by the Fox Entertainment Group division of News Corporation. The service, which operated from June 6, 1991 to September 12, 2006, was intended for American television markets ranked #100 and above by Nielsen Media Research estimates that lacked availability for a locally based Fox broadcast affiliate.
JUCE TV was a youth-oriented Christian television network and is a current YouTube channel owned and operated by the Trinity Broadcasting Network. The channel is aimed at teenagers and young adults between the ages of 13 and 30 years, and features a format similar to MTV and MTVU, airing Christian music videos, and original content such as Christian-themed entertainment and lifestyle programming, along with some church services.
The CW Plus is a secondary national broadcast television syndication service feed of The CW, whose controlling stake of 75% is owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery holding their own 12.5% stakes. It is intended primarily for American television markets ranked #100 and above by Nielsen Media Research estimates. The service is primarily carried on digital subchannels and multichannel subscription television providers, although it maintains primary affiliations on full-power and low-power stations in certain markets.
Discovery Channel is a British pay television channel, operated by Warner Bros. Discovery. Its programming is based on programming produced by Discovery Networks Europe, Discovery Channel Canada and Discovery Channel from the US.
TSN2 is a Canadian English-language discretionary sports specialty channel that acts as the secondary feed of sports-centred channel The Sports Network (TSN) and owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc. It was launched in its current form on August 29, 2008.
Encore Avenue was a Canadian English language Category A premium cable and satellite television channel that was owned by Corus Entertainment. Encore Avenue was designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territories. The channel offered a variety of classic films from the 1970s to the 1990s, with films from the early 2000s interspersed within the schedule.
Disney Channel is a Latin American pay television network broadcasting throughout Hispanic America and Brazil. It was officially version of the eponymous television channel in the United States launched on July 27, 2000 as a premium-label channel in Hispanic America, and also in Brazil back on April 5, 2001, and became a basic pay TV network in 2004.
Late-night television is one of the dayparts in television broadcast programming. It follows prime time and precedes the overnight television show graveyard slot. The slot generally runs from about 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., with variations according to the time zone and broadcaster.
The scheduling of television programming in North America must cope with different time zones. The United States has six time zones, with further variation in the observance of daylight saving time. Canada also has six time zones. Mexico has four time zones. This requires broadcast and pay television networks in each country to shift programs in time to show them in different regions.
NickMom was an American nighttime programming block owned by Viacom Media Networks. It aired on the Nick Jr. Channel during the watershed hours of 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. ET, when the channel's regular audience of children would normally be sleeping. The block carried ad-supported comedy programming targeting an adult demographic, particularly young mothers.
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