Simulcast

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Simulcast (a portmanteau of
simultaneous broadcast) is the
broadcasting of programs or events
across more than one medium, or more
than one service on the same medium, at
exactly the same time (that is,
simultaneously). For example, Absolute
Radio is simulcast on both AM and on
satellite radio.[1][2] Likewise, the BBC's
Prom concerts were formerly simulcast on
both BBC Radio 3 and BBC Television.
Another application is the transmission of
the original-language soundtrack of
movies or TV series over local or Internet
radio, with the television broadcast having
been dubbed into a local language.

Early radio simulcasts

Before launching stereo radio, experiments
were conducted by transmitting left and
right channels on different radio channels.
The earliest recorded found was a
broadcast by the BBC in 1926 of a Halle
Orchestra concert from Manchester, using
the wavelengths of the regional stations
and Daventry. (Practical Television, April
1964, p305. see
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Arc
hive-Practical/Television/60s/Practical-
Television-1964-04.pdf )

In its earliest days the BBC often

transmitted the same programme on the
"National Service" and the "Regional
Network".

Between 1990 and 1994 the BBC

broadcast a channel of entertainment
(Radio 5) which offered a wide range of
simulcasts, taking programs from the BBC
World Service and Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 for
simultaneous broadcast.

Simulcasting to provide
stereo sound for TV
broadcasts
Before stereo TV sound transmission was
possible, simulcasting on TV and Radio
was a method of effectively transmitting
"stereo" sound to music TV broadcasts.
The band Grateful Dead and their concert
"Great Canadian Train Ride" in 1970 was
the first TV broadcast of a live concert
with FM simulcast. In the 1970s WPXI in
Pittsburgh broadcast a live Boz Scaggs
performance which had the audio
simultaneously broadcast on two FM radio
stations to create a quadrophonic sound,
the first of its kind. The first such
transmission in the United Kingdom was in
1975, when the BBC broadcast a recording
of Van Morrison's London Rainbow
Concert simultaneously on BBC2 TV and
Radio 2 (see It's Too Late to Stop Now).

Similarly, in the 1980s, before Multichannel

Television Sound or home theater was
commonplace in American households,
broadcasters would air a high fidelity
version of a television program's audio
portion over FM stereo simultaneous with
the television broadcast. PBS stations
were the most likely to use this technique,
especially when airing a live concert. It
was also a way of allowing MTV and
similar music channels to run stereo
sound through the cable-TV network. This
method required a stereo FM transmitter
modulating MTV's stereo soundtrack
through the cable-TV network, and
customers connecting their FM receiver's
antenna input to the cable-TV outlet. They
would then tune the FM receiver to the
specified frequency that would be
published in documentation supplied by
the cable-TV provider.
With the introduction of commercial FM
stations in Australia in July 1980,
commercial TV channels began
simulcasting some music based programs
with the new commercial FM stations and
continued to do so into the early 1990s.
These were initially rock based programs,
such as late night music video shows and
rock concerts, but later included some
major rock musicals such as The Rocky
Horror Picture Show and The Blues
Brothers when they first aired on TV.
During the mid 1980s the final Australian
concert of several major rock artists such
as Dire Straits were simulcast live on a
commercial TV and FM station. The ABC
also simulcast some programs on ABC
Television and ABC FM, including the final
concert of Elton John with the Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra.

The first ever concert "simulcast" was

Frank Zappa's Halloween shows (October
31, 1981), live from NYC's Palladium and
shown on MTV with the audio-only portion
simulcast over the FM "Starfleet Radio"
network. Engineered by Mark Pinske with
the UMRK mobile recording truck. A later,
notable application for simulcasting in this
context was the Live Aid telethon concert
that was broadcast around the world on
July 13, 1985. Most destinations where
this concert was broadcast had the
concert simulcast by at least one TV
network and at least one of the local FM
stations.

Most stereo-capable video recorders

made through the 1980s and early 1990s
had a "simulcast" recording mode where
they recorded video signals from the built-
in TV tuner and audio signals from the
VCR's audio line-in connectors. This was
to allow one to connect a stereo FM tuner
that is tuned to the simulcast frequency to
the VCR's audio input in order to record the
stereo sound of a TV program that would
otherwise be recorded in mono. The
function was primarily necessary with
stereo VCRs that didn't have a stereo TV
tuner or were operated in areas where
stereo TV broadcasting wasn't in place.
This was typically selected through the
user setting the input selector to
"Simulcast" or "Radio" mode or, in the case
of some JVC units, the user setting
another "audio input" switch from "TV" or
"Tuner" to "Line".

In the mid to late 1990s, video game

developer Nintendo utilized simulcasting
to provide enhanced orchestral scoring
and voice-acting for the first ever
"integrated radio-games"[3] – its
Satellaview video games. Whereas digital
game data was broadcast to the
Satellaview unit to provide the basic game
and game sounds, Nintendo's partner,
satellite radio company St.GIGA,
simultaneously broadcast the musical and
vocal portion of the game via radio. These
two streams were combined at the
Satellaview to provide a unified audiotrack
analogous to stereo.[4]

Other uses
The term "simulcast" (describing
simultaneous radio/television broadcast)
was coined in 1948 by a press agent at
WCAU-TV, Philadelphia.[5] NBC and CBS
had begun broadcasting a few programs
both to their established nationwide radio
audience and to the much smaller—though
steadily-growing—television audience.
NBC's "Voice of Firestone" was an early
example. Toscanini's NBC Symphony
performance of 15 March 1952 is perhaps
a first instance of radio/TV simulcasting of
a concert, predating the much-heralded
rock concert simulcasts beginning in the
1980s.

Presently, in the United States, simulcast

most often refers to the practice of
offering the same programming on an FM
and AM station owned by the same entity,
in order to cut costs. With the advent of
solid state AM transmitters and
computers, it has become very easy for
AM stations to broadcast a different
format without additional cost; therefore,
simulcast between FM/AM combinations
are rarely heard today outside of rural
areas, and in urban areas, where often the
talk or all-news radio format of an AM
station is simulcast on FM, mainly for the
convenience of office buildings in urban
cores which easily block AM signals.

During apartheid in South Africa, many

foreign programmes on SABC television
were dubbed in Afrikaans. The original
soundtrack, usually in English, but
sometimes in German or Dutch was
available on the Radio 2000 service.[6] This
could be selected using a button labeled
simulcast on many televisions
manufactured before 1995.

Radio programs have been simulcast on

television since the invention thereof
however, as of recent, perhaps the most
visible example of radio shows on
television is The Howard Stern Show, which
currently airs on Sirius Satellite Radio as
well as Howard TV. Another prominent
radio show that was simulcast on
television is Imus in the Morning, which
until the simulcast ended in 2015, aired
throughout the years on MSNBC, RFD-TV
and Fox Business Network, in addition to
its radio broadcast distributed by Citadel
Media. Multiple sports talk radio shows,
including Mike & Mike, The Herd with Colin
Cowherd and Boomer and Carton also are
carried on television, saving those
networks the burden of having to air
encores of sporting events or other paid
sports programming which may draw
lower audiences.

In professional wrestling, a simulcast

happened on March 26, 2001 between
WWF Raw is War and WCW Monday Nitro
upon WWE's purchase of WCW's assets to
merge the storylines of the two wrestling
promotions, which was the last episode of
Monday Nitro.

In another case, popular programs will be

aired simultaneously on different services
in adjacent countries, such as The
Simpsons, airing Sunday evenings at
8:00 p.m. (Eastern and Pacific times) on
both Fox in the United States and Global in
Canada. "Simulcast" is often a colloquial
term for the related Canadian practice of
simultaneous substitution (simsub).
Simulcasts are also used for the purposes
of television ratings, mainly with awards
ceremonies such as the MTV Video Music
Awards and the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice
Awards where the ceremony airs on other
sister channels in the same corporate
family. These allow a bulk ratings number
to be competed which allows for more
homes to be calculated in a final rating,
along with removing any in-house
competition, with each of the networks
carrying the same ceremony and same
advertising. Another example is a
"roadblock strategy", where a family of
networks will air the premiere of a new
series, music video or other event such as
a telethon at the same time to maximize
their audiences. During major breaking
news events, a simulcast of the Fox News
Channel is aired on the Fox broadcast
network and Fox Business Network.

"Live Simulcast" is also used throughout

South America for a real-time live
broadcasting from the USA, where it
differs from just a live broadcasting in that,
on the former case, the event is being
broadcast live while it is happening in real
time (e.g. the NFL games), while, the latter,
a show may be a live recording but not
necessarily being broadcast in real time of
when the event took place (e.g. a live
concert recording). Yet, local live
productions (soccer games, for instance)
being broadcast in real time in South
America are often just called live, without
the use of the word simulcast.

Simulcasting of sporting
events

In sports, such as American football and

baseball, simulcasts are when a single
announcer broadcasts play-by-play
coverage both over television and radio.
The practice was common in the early
years of television, but since the 1980s,
most teams have used a separate team
for television and for radio.

As all NFL television broadcasts are done

by the national networks or via cable, there
are no regular TV-to-radio football
simulcasts. However, NFL rules require
that games airing on cable and satellite
networks (ESPN, NFL Network) be
simulcast on local over-air TV stations in
markets serving the two local teams
participating in each game.

Similarly, no current National Basketball

Association teams use a simulcast. Al
McCoy (Phoenix), Chick Hearn (Los
Angeles), Kevin Calabro (Seattle) and Rod
Hundley (Utah) were the last NBA team
broadcasters to simulcast.

In Major League Baseball, until his

retirement in 2016, Vin Scully continued
the practice; however, he simulcasted only
the first three innings of Los Angeles
Dodgers games at Dodger Stadium and
other National League Western Division
parks. As a result of his retirement, no
MLB team uses a simulcast now.

The practice is more prevalent in the

National Hockey League where 2 teams
currently simulcast:
 The Buffalo Sabres with Rick Jeanneret
and Denis Potvin
The Dallas Stars with Dave Strader and
Daryl Reaugh

Simulcasts via satellite can be a challenge,

as there is a significant delay because of
the distance - nearly 50,000 miles
(80,000 km) round-trip - involved. Anything
involving video compression (and to some
extent audio data compression) also has
an additional significant delay, which is
noticeable when watching local TV
stations on direct-broadcast satellites.
Even though the process is not
instantaneous, this is still considered a
simulcast because it is not intentionally
stored anywhere.

(Multiplexing—also sometimes called

"multicasting"—is something of a reversal
of this situation, where multiple program
streams are combined into a single
broadcast. The two terms are sometimes
confused.)

In horse racing, a simulcast is a broadcast

of a horse race which allows wagering at
two or more sites; the simulcast often
involves the transmission of wagering
information to a central site, so that all
bettors may bet in the same betting pool,
as well as the broadcast of the race.

The San Francisco Giants simulcast with

the Oakland Athletics while playing each
other on their respective stations and
commercials with a mix of broadcasters
from both teams.

On cable television systems, analog-digital

simulcasting (ADS) means that analog
channels are duplicated as digital
subchannels. Digital tuners are
programmed to use the digital subchannel
instead of the analog. This allows for
smaller, cheaper cable boxes by
eliminating the analog tuner and some
analog circuitry. On DVRs, it eliminates the
need for an MPEG encoder to convert the
analog signal to digital for recording. The
primary advantage is the elimination of
interference, and as analog channels are
dropped, the ability to put 10 or more
SDTV (or two HDTV, or various other
combinations) channels in its place. The
primary drawback is the common problem
of over-compression (quantity over
quality) resulting in fuzzy pictures and
pixelation.

In universities with multiple campuses,

simulcasting may be used for a single
teacher to teach class to students in two
or more locations at the same time, using
videoconferencing equipment.

In many public safety agencies, simulcast

refers to the broadcasting of the same
transmission on the same frequency from
multiple towers either simultaneously, or
offset by a fixed number of microseconds.
This allows for a larger coverage area
without the need for a large number of
channels, resulting in increased spectral
efficiency. This comes at the cost of
overall poorer voice quality, as multiple
sources increase multipath interference
significantly, resulting in what is called
simulcast distortion.

With some of the latest Simulcast control

equipment for FM radio networks, the
distortion experienced is almost in-audible
to the human ear. With the introduction of
Line Equalisation Modules and Tone
Generation Modules, the phasing advance
and retard is so well calculated that the
distortion is almost entirely averted.

The Tone Generation Module (or TGM)

generates a pilot tone at 3300 Hz which is
then sampled by the Line Equalisation
Module (or LEM) which each channel on
each radio high site has 2 of located back
at the main control site. This then
determines the phase shift in the signal
and adjusts the transmission accordingly
such that all the overlap areas in
transmission are in phase with each other.

See also
Single Channel Simulcast
Digital distribution, Video on demand
and Streaming media: In English
language anime distribution, the word
"simulcast" is often misused to refer the
online release of a Japanese animated
 television series during the same period
as in Japan.[7][8]
List of anime releases made
concurrently in the United States
and Japan

References
1. Parry, Caroline (18 September 2008).
"Absolute Radio signs exclusive Sony
Ericsson ad deal" . Marketing Week.
Retrieved 18 September 2008.
2. Barnett, Emma (1 September 2008).
"Plans revealed to rebrand Virgin Radio as
Absolute" . Brand Republic. Archived from
the original on 7 September 2008. Retrieved
1 September 2008.
3. Nintendo (February 13, 1995). BS-X: Sore
wa Namae o Nusumareta Machi no
Monogatari (in Japanese). Satellaview.
Nintendo/St.GIGA. "Kabe shinbunsha: ８月
６日（日）、世界初のジオ／ゲー動プログ
ラム「ＢＳゼルダの伝説」が大好評につき
９月の再放送がついに決定した。" External
link in |title= (help)
4. "Satellaview: juegos desde el espacio."
Atomicx. pp.54-57. July 2009.
5. John Crosby, "Television Headache in
Etymology," Oakland (CA) Tribune, 15 June
1948.
6. The voice, the vision: a sixty year history
of the South African Broadcasting
Corporation , Malcolm Theunissen, Victor
Nikitin, Melanie Pillay, Advent Graphics,
1996, page 120
7. Landa, Amanda (2010-07-02). "Niche
Market, Global Scale: Simulcasting Anime
Online" . Retrieved 2013-02-19.
8. Aeschliman, Lesley. "What Is
Simulcasting? - Anime" . Retrieved
2013-02-19.

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