Television channel frequencies

The following tables show the frequencies assigned to broadcast television channels in various regions of the world, along with the ITU letter designator for the system used. The frequencies shown are for the video and audio carriers. The channel itself occcupies several megahertz of bandwidth. For example, North American channel 2 occupies the spectrum from 54 to 60 MHz. See Broadcast television system for a table of signal characteristics, including bandwidth, by ITU letter designator.

VHF

=North and South America (most countries), South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines=

Channel 1 was finally withdrawn on 14 June 1948 and allocated to fixed and mobile services. In some countries using the standard, channels 5 and 6 are allocated to non-broadcast services. An international agreement provides for a unified television bandplan, with 6-MHz channels throughout ITU Region II for both VHF and UHF bands, except for French territories, Falkland Islands, Greenland and Netherlands Antilles. Not all territories observe this bandplan.

During World War II the frequencies originally assigned to channels 13 to 18 were appropriated by the military, which still uses them. It was also decided to move the allocation for FM radio from the 42-50 MHz band to a larger 88-106 MHz band (later extended to the current 88-108 MHz FM band). This required a reassignment of the VHF channels to the plan currently in use. [http://www.tvtower.com/Commercial%20Television%20Frequencies.html]

=Assignments since 25 February 1946=

Note: The only System I Band I channel used was Channel B for RTÉ One from the Maghera, Co. Clare transmitter during 1963-1999. It was moved to Channel E due to interference from TVE2 during certain weather conditions.

Western Europe, Greenland and most countries in Asia, Africa and Oceania

French overseas departments and territories and former French African colonies

* Note: channels 0, 3, 4, 5 and 5A are rarely used, and only in regional areas for repeater stations. With the introduction of Digital TV in 2001, the last two channels were moved up by 1MHz to allow a full 7MHz for a new channel 9A and channel 12 was added following the new channel 11.

New Zealand

UHF

Americas (most countries), South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines

;Notes:
*For the Americas, UHF channels 70 through 83 were reallocated to land mobile radio (public safety and trunked radio) and cellular telephones in the 1980s, and thus were never used for digital TV. Channels 52 through 69 in the United States are in the process of being cleared in advance of a similar reallocation once conversion to digital TV has been accomplished.

*Not all countries listed use ATSC, which has a single VSB carrier wave. Other countries use COFDM modulation for DVB-T or SBTVD (Brazil), which has dozens of carriers within the channel.

*Channel 37 is reserved for radio astronomy in the United States, Canada, Bermuda and the Bahamas, thus there are no TV stations assigned to it.

ee also

*Broadcast television systems
**ATSC Standards
**BTSC
**NTSC
**NTSC-J
**PAL
**RCA
**SECAM
*Moving image formats
*Knife-edge effect
*Australasian television frequencies
*Asian television frequencies
*Channel 1
*Channel 37
*Digital switchover
*North American broadcast television frequencies
*North American cable television frequencies
* [http://www.jneuhaus.com/fccindex/cablech.html U.S. cable television channel frequencies]
* [http://www.tvtower.com/Commercial%20Television%20Frequencies.html TVTower.com - Commercial Television Frequencies]