How different are the TV channels between States?

17 comments

1. Cable is pretty much the same everywhere. The major networks are pretty much the same everywhere. The WB and the CW are pretty much the same everywhere. Even “local” TV stations syndicate most of their content. The local news is often tailored to the region, but even local news stations are being consolidated into media conglomerates with a single narrative across them.

   One of the few things that remains varied across the country are the local sports networks. Most major sports markets have channels dedicated to their local teams. That’s about it.

2. Not different at all. TV is some of the most homogeneous entertainment in the world.

3. Broadly speaking there are two types of television in the United States: broadcast television and multichannel television.

   Broadcast television is broadcast over the air for free by local network affiliates, the major ones being PBS, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. For some programming (like nightly newscasts) all of the affiliates will carry the same programs, but blocks are left for local affiliates to air their own local news programs and syndicated shows. So you might have two different CBS affiliates in two different cities, which both might carry “60 Minutes” at the same time every day, but the channels will have different names and will air different local weather reports, for example. Broadcast television is free to receive; back in the day this was done through a “rabbit ears” antenna.

   Multichannel television comprises cable, satellite, and other wireline services. For these, everyone gets the same national channels (e.g. CNN, Discovery, ESPN) assuming they are included in whatever package you subscribe to. However, the actual channel numbers can vary widely from place to place and from provider to provider. Also, you’ll get localized advertisements.

4. We have similar channels. Cable is largely the same. The difference between our TV channels and yours is we have local stations. Every major city will have their own stations affiliated with ABC, Fox, NBC, CW, CBS, etc. They’ll play mostly the same content (from the parent network) but they’ll have local news in the morning and evening, local sports, etc.

5. Historically, there were three major national broadcast TV networks up through the 60s: ABC, CBS, and NBC. NET was less significant and evolved into PBS. FOX and Warner came later, as did cable networks.

   In the era of broadcast TV, independently owned stations would affiliate themselves with one of the major networks, sometimes more than one. They’d get prime time programming from the network, generally at time slots determined by the network (and location). They’d fill in the rest of the time with local programming, syndicated shows, and possibly shows from one of the other major networks.

   In larger markets, there might be more independent stations. I grew up in NYC, and we had 7 local stations, all broadcasting VHF. I remember WOR (now WWOR, a FOX-owned station) had the Million Dollar Movie program, which regularly showed movies that they had licensed – a broadcast precursor to AMC. (It was quite a few years later that I learned the theme for Million Dollar Movie came from Gone With the Wind.)

   One of the major breakthroughs happened because of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball coming up with the idea of doing their show on film, before videotape was practical. Previously, most shows were live, and kinescopes were used to broadcast the show on the west coast. By having their show on film, they were able to cut and paste past footage to fill in the gap during Lucy’s pregnancy, which eventually led to the invention of reruns and syndication of previous shows. I only remember watching syndicated reruns of Superman, several years the star, George Reeves, had died. These reruns allowed local stations to pick and choose shows during their non-prime time hours. Also, eventually video tape became practical, leading to many day time soap operas being available nationwide, along with the infamous “soap opera effect”.

   I think that may be more than you asked for.

6. Not terribly different except for the extreme local channels, usually just local news.

   Though tbh many (most?) People don’t even use cable anymore. They sign up for various streaming services which will not differ at all by region. We have Hulu, Netflix, Disney plus and discovery plus. The content is the same for every user regardless of location.

7. They can be somewhat different, but for the most part the same.

   We have broadcast television, which means free over-the-air, and many cities have stations that are independently owned from the major channels (i.e. ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, etc.), but are affiliated to broadcast their programming through their channel. The major difference though is that these stations will produce local news instead of national. PBS stations takes it one step further though where affiliates will also make their own local programming, like PBS North Carolina and NJ PBS.

   Then you have Cable/Satellite/Internet channels, which will have the same programming for everyone. Some sports channels will be [regional focus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_sports_network) (i.e. Bally Sports and YES Network), but that’s really it.

8. I feel like cable tv is being phased out. I don’t know many people that use it besides my parents. Most people use streaming services.

9. Local news.

10. It used to be. IN the 70’s there were shows that played in the eastern or western parts of the us that they just did not show in mid America. And vice versa. Cant remember specific shows, but it was about the market demographic. They’d survey, and decided this show would play best in Kansas, this show would be best in LA, this show best in NY. And EACH network would do that.

    There were basically three programming regions. Big competition between nbc, cbs, abc, every year for top ratings. Its why carson did so well for so long as the king of late night The first show of a new season for series all happened at the same time and was called sweeps week. New shows debuted same time. I remember ‘and coming this fall…’,

    Different shows for different geographic regions: east/west/mountain/central, it was organized around time zones kinda so a hot demographic could watch happy days at 5/6/7 and 8 and it would always be 7 o’clock, right after dinner and the news.

    Cable changed all that.

11. When I was a kid the stations themselves didn’t change at all beyond time zone differences and local news programs, but the numbers that each channel was on were different from place to place. Not sure how it is now that cable is all digital, I haven’t had it in years

12. You’ve pretty much got your answer with regard to the major network channels- but one thing that isn’t well discussed so far is public television and public access. Public access is generally limited to distribution through cable TV in a specific local area, and will usually have locally produced programming of widely varying content and quality- local town council meetings, church services, high school basketball games, and programming produced by local amateur producers.

    Then there’s public TV, which is usually a state (rather than national) content network that features content from PBS and from local productions. For instance, the Wisconsin Public TV network showed British TV comedies every Saturday night- a strictly state-level operation. I’ve also seen gardening shows and cooking shows produced by state universities and shown on the public TV network’s channel. So, there’s that little sliver of professionally produced content with a regional flavor.

13. I mean, there’s channels for cartoons, news, sports, I highly doubt they’re different anywhere in the UK and I’ve been everywhere except Wales and Northern Ireland because I was visiting family in regular Ireland. Also I grew up towards the end of ‘The Troubles’ so I probably won’t be going to Northern Ireland anytime soon because my brain still says ‘danger’ and ‘Sinn Fein lies’ but my brain says things like that a lot so is that regular paranoia or reasonable paranoia?

14. The thing is, local TV stations are not based on states but rather cities. They were invented in the era when there was only over-the-air broadcasts from antennas. So the audience for a station was limited to the city it was in and the areas immediately around that city where the signal reached. The signal didn’t go all that far. Like 40 miles (so 80 miles across). Since many of our states are huge, 11 are bigger than the entire UK, those signals had no chance of covering an entire state in almost all cases. A single state would generally have multiple TV stations in different cities, each run separately, with broadcast areas not close enough to significantly overlap. So TV stations are identified with cities, not states.

    As others have said, the programming is mostly the same type of thing for local stations because there is a standardized format for local stations that are affiliates of national networks. In the morning, the morning news show from the national network, then syndicated shows like Judge Judy purchased by the station, and then a noon local news program and then more syndicated shows in the afternoon, and then the afternoon/evening local news (which can last two hours and includes weather and sports) and then the national news from the national network (which does not include weather and sports) and then “prime time” for three hours where all the most popular shows of the affiliated network are shown all over the country at the “same” time (which isn’t exactly the same time because of different time zones) and then the late evening local news and then the late night talk shows.

    This is almost set in stone. That is the absolutely standard format for local TV stations.

    The only thing that varies in the format is the specific syndicated programs each station broadcasts – one might be showing a game show while the other is showing an entertainment talk show, for instance. So the overall experience, city to city, is almost identical. All the station managers have been to the same business school and that’s what the economics and affiliate agreements dictate. The one other thing that differs is who the news announcers are. Each city has their own local “celebrities” at the various stations. Some who are there for 30 years are closely identified with their city. In Atlanta, where I live, the most recognized is Monica Kaufman, who has been the top dog for years at Channel 2 (she has been married several times so that might not be her current name). Oops, I guess she is retired now.

    There are no “local” cable channels (although they do carry the local broadcast channels) so everybody gets pretty much the same thing, just depending a bit on the exact cable company.

15. We have the over the air broadcast networks – ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, who once dominated television before cable. The first three have been around for decades, first as radio networks and now television with ABC being split off from NBC. There were other television networks such as DuMont or the WB and UPN but most have failed. Most OTA stations are affiliates of the big networks, with certain stations being owned and operated by the network; WCBS here is owned and operated by CBS. Then you have the diginets operated by the networks, for example, WNBC here would be on channel 4.1 with subsidiary stations on 4.2, 4.3, etc.

    My local media market also hosts two independent and syndicated stations, WWOR channel 9 and WPIX channel 11 as well as the PBS station WNET channel 13. (These stations also broadcast baseball.)

    PBS hosts a mix of education, journalistic and foreign broadcasting but instead of a license fee PBS is funded by a pledge drive, a [mix of viewer and corporate donations](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxiG5XYJ000). And then you have the small local stations that cater to niche markets, such as Telemundo for Spanish speaking viewers, Chinese stations for Chinese speaking viewers, etc. The city also owns WNYE, channel 25, for municipal and education programming.

16. The big 4 networks have local affiliates with their own local news programs, program off hours and have some local programming (eg. coverage of a local parade). Other hours are set by the national network, like national morning shows, evening news, prime time sitcoms and dramas, late night shows

17. In Maine growing up we had the French channel. I moved to Tucson and no longer had a French channel but there was a Spanish channel. Other then that they’re all the same really except for local newscasts