Everything you need to know about broadcast media

Even as digital and on-demand content are increasingly adopted, broadcast media remains a cornerstone of mass communication. From news to live sports and radio shows, broadcast media plays an essential role in shaping public opinion, delivering real-time information, and providing entertainment to millions. 

Here, we'll explore what broadcast media is, why it still matters, the prominence of cloud broadcasting, and more.

What is broadcast media? 

Broadcast media is a means of sharing information, data, and content in audio or video format with a large audience simultaneously. It uses electronic mediums such as radio waves, cable systems, or satellites to transmit signals to receivers that include televisions, radios, computers, or mobile phones. These receivers decode the signals and convert them into audio, video, or data formats for the audience to consume.

Importance of broadcast media

Broadcast media has played a pivotal role in sharing information since the early 20th century and continues to do so even today. Here's why:

1. Expansive reach: Broadcast media helps connect with extensive and diverse audiences, reaching millions of people at once, even those without internet access. This makes it an ideal medium for spreading critical information quickly. For brands who want to establish a vast geographical presence, broadcast helps deliver the impact across diverse consumer groups.
2. Timely information: Broadcast media excels in delivering real-time updates, especially for news, sports, weather, and emergency alerts. From elections and pandemics to scores of major league tournaments, broadcast continues to be a credible, relevant, and timely source of information as events unfold in real-time. 
3. Public awareness and education: Broadcast media helps raise awareness of critical issues impacting the public and their communities. Public service announcements and educational programming help educate the public on health, safety, environmental concerns, social justice, and more. 
4. Economic impact: Broadcast media offers a widespread reach and provides a platform for advertising and promotions for diverse businesses. Advertising revenue, in turn, is one of the key drivers of the broadcast industry. By the end of 2024, TV and video advertising spending is forecasted to reach US $339.3 billion.

WATCH: State of the broadcast market webinar

What do broadcasters do?

Once TV broadcasters receive the content — a collection of live or non-live content like sports, news, studio productions, advertisements, community service announcements, etc. — they format the content, schedule it, and create a channel playout. This playout is then distributed over the air, via cable/DTH/MVPDs or through OTT streaming. Let's take a closer look at each. 

1. Over the air (OTA): Aka terrestrial television, OTA is a method of TV broadcasting in which content is transmitted via radio waves from a TV station transmitter to a TV receiver with an antenna. It was one of the first technologies used for TV broadcasting and is accessible to viewers for free. The quality and reach of the content vary widely based on the viewer's proximity to the originating broadcaster's signals. 
2. Cable: Cable television refers to distributing content to viewers using radio frequency (RF) signals sent through coaxial cables or, more recently, fiber-optic cables. Unlike OTA, it doesn't require viewers to rely on antennas to receive the signals. Viewers also typically pay a monthly subscription fee to access the services. Cable TV promises better signal quality than OTA and offers a broader array of channel selections, including local TV.
3. Direct-to-home (DTH): Direct-to-home (DTH) is a satellite broadcasting service that transmits signals from Earth to satellites positioned in geostationary orbits. The process begins with an uplink satellite dish that sends signals at a specific frequency range. A transponder on the satellite, tuned to that frequency, receives these signals and retransmits them back to Earth. These signals are then captured by a parabolic receiving dish installed at individual homes, enabling a seamless TV viewing experience. Satellite TV provides extensive coverage, even in the most remote areas. Viewers do not need a separate cable connection or antenna; instead, they pay a subscription fee to access the service.
4. Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs): These are service providers that deliver multiple television channels to subscribers. Traditionally, MVPDs include cable, satellite, and telecommunications companies that offer TV packages with various channels. Examples include Comcast, Dish Network, and AT&T U-verse.
5. OTT streaming: OTT refers to streaming content 'over the top' of the internet across devices like TVs, desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. A viewer requires a strong internet connection and a device that supports OTT apps or browsers to view the content. Unlike all other distribution channels, OTT offers the flexibility of watching content on demand and offers an expansive library of content. Viewers access the content in exchange for a subscription fee or watching ads.

READ: The state of cloud modernization in M&E report

OTT also encompasses Virtual MVPDs (vMVPDs), which deliver similar channel packages as MVPDs but over the internet rather than through traditional cable or satellite methods. Examples of vMVPDs include YouTube TV, Sling TV, and Hulu + Live TV. 

Broadband Only homes (BBO) is a term used to specify households that don't have a traditional TV service (OTA, cable, satellite, MVPD) and watch TV over OTT only — cord cutter/cord never-households.

As of July 2024, here's the share of diverse broadcast distribution methods across TV households in the US.  

Traditional broadcast workflow

Traditional broadcasting encompasses numerous steps from receiving the content to distributing it across different mediums. Here’s a typical broadcasting workflow. 

1. Broadcast systems receive two classes of content: live video feeds from the live venue and pre-recorded content in the form of mezzanine files from production studios or video distributors. 
2. These inputs are ingested into master control or playout systems that put together the content to form TV channels. This is also the step where playout systems insert bugs, channel-specific branding, lower thirds, ad slots, captions, etc — in a dedicated facility called a master control room. 
3. Once playout is complete, all channel streams are encoded and sent to a multiplexer. The multiplexer combines channel streams in a multi-program transport stream (commonly referred to as TS or MPEG-2 TS) for distribution. The final transport stream also includes critical information required for broadcast, like system information, SCTE-35 ad markers, and metadata. These processes are typically carried out on-premises using specialized hardware, such as broadcast encoders, multiplexers, modulators, and other dedicated equipment.
4. The transmitter then sends the stream to local TV stations and MVPDs, further reaching households. 

The state of broadcasting

Broadcasters have relied on traditional methods and on-premise infrastructure for a long time. Now, though, the rigid processes, resource-intensiveness, and higher costs are compelling broadcasters to embrace cloud technology.

From ingestion, management, and operations to packaging and distribution, cloud is transforming the broadcast ecosystem. Cloud-based solutions offer advantages such as increased flexibility, scalability, cost-efficiency, and enhanced reliability.

In our broadcast and cloud modernization report, respondents state that scalability, the ability to update their technology faster, and providing a better overall end-user experience are the top reasons broadcasters want to migrate to the cloud. 71% of respondents have yet to move their broadcast operations to the cloud because a vast majority don't know enough about cloud playout. This indicates there's a significant opportunity for broadcasters and content owners to migrate more of their video stack to the cloud. The good news is that 46% of respondents use cloud playout and or distribution for encoding and packaging. For more, you can read the full report here. 

Here are the critical differences between traditional and cloud-based broadcast technologies.

READ: Transforming live broadcasting through cloud technology

The Amagi advantage for broadcasters

With a comprehensive, cloud-native suite of solutions for channel creation, playout, distribution, and monetization, Amagi offers glass-to-glass coverage.

Along their cloud modernization journeys, we help broadcast and cable networks migrate their on-prem infrastructure to the cloud. The unified cloud workflows further help content and video service providers unify their live, linear, and VOD workflows, streamlining operations and management.  

Amagi CLOUDPORT helps you efficiently drive the entire channel creation and management workflows — from content ingest to scheduling, playlist management, advanced graphics insertion, live events handling, playout, delivery, and monitoring. Its high resilience, unmatched security, and reliable disaster recovery capabilities help you make the most of your linear, live, VOD libraries.

Amagi DYNAMIC, a cloud-based live management and playout system, empowers sports rights owners and holders to launch single live events. With single live events, spin up cloud infrastructure for the duration of the event and terminate it when the event ends to ensure efficient infrastructure resource management.

Want to learn more?

• Get in touch with us!
• Read more about cloud modernization 
• Watch the full webinar: Transform your broadcast operations with the power of the cloud