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Digital subchannel

In broadcasting, digital subchannels are 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".

ATSC television[edit]

United States[edit]

The ATSC digital television standard used in 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, 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:

DVB television[edit]

Australia[edit]

Australian digital subchannels are currently divided between high definition (HD), standard definition (SD) and radio subchannels (the latter type 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):

(IBOC), digital radio technology allowing digital subchannels on FM stations

In-band on-channel

and DVB, international digital radio-television standards in use in Europe, Australia and New Zealand

DAB

QAM tuner

. HowStuffWorks. 10 January 2001. Retrieved 29 January 2007.

"How Digital Television Works"