Television in Saleria

Television in Saleria was introduced in 1955 and started operations in 1959 with the launch of Tele Saleria (now TeleUno).

General information
Currently, all of the television channels, both terrestrial and pay-TV are broadcasting in the 625-line 50i PAL format (for SD channels) and either 720p or 1080i (for HD channels). Most pay-TV channels that are distributed in Saleria are either based on the Italian feed or the pan-European feed or the United Kingdom feed. All terrestrial broadcasting channels are broadcasting in 24 hours, with the exception of SPBC TeleEdu, which is timeshared with Tele4. Prior to 2011, most of SPBC television channels on terrestrial (including the digital terrestrial channels, such as Tele4, SPBC Sport, and TeleCinema) were aired from 05:00 to 01:00, except in special occasions, such as the Olympics.

All of the channels that are broadcasting in Saleria require to have a dual-language audio option and subtitles, as mandated by law (The Bilingual Communications Act of 1987). The only exception from this requirement is British and European pay TV channels that are distributed to the country, such as Cartoon Network UK and Comedy Central UK. Some pay TV providers would either distribute the Italian version or the UK version of a pay TV channel or both. Not all providers would distribute both versions of a particular pay TV channel due to rights issues. All of the channels (except pay-TV channels from the UK and other countries) are also required to put the Pubblicità (Advertising) bumper before each ad break and Fine Pubblicità (End of Advertising) bumper after each ad break.

All pay TV providers in Saleria are required to include all free-to-air terrestrial television channels (including its subchannels) without any form of encryption.

It is possible to import a Sky UK or Sky Italia decoder and smartcard and receive such signals in Saleria, which falls into the legal grey area. Currently, there are no records of crimes related to the importation of / decoders and smartcards in the country. It is also possible to import a decoder in Saleria as well, although it has to be registered in Italy through “Codice Fiscale” and requires an Italian address before importing it in Saleria.

The introduction (1955-1984)
Television in Saleria was introduced in 1955 when some of the expatriates and residents on the eastern part of the country were able to receive broadcasts of RTF Télévision (now TF1) from France and the BBC (now BBC One) from the United Kingdom. However, only a few people successfully received broadcasts of RTF Télévision from France, due to the fact that the channel utilized the black and white, 819-line System F standard, which is incompatible with either the 405-line standard (used in the UK) or the 625-line standard (used in most regions where the PAL broadcast standard is used).

Before its introduction in 1955, Vittorio Di Dio developed the experimental 768-line, 50 Hz analog high definition television standard. It was only used on Tele Saleria from 1956 until 1959, when the station was finally switched to the 625-line television standard.

In 1959, Tele Saleria (now TeleUno), the first native television service in Saleria owned by the Saleria Public Broadcasting Commission, started regular broadcasts. At the time of launch, the channel initially ran for 8 hours (from 2pm to 10pm).

Until 1999, a television license fee was imposed. The average television license fee during 1959 was around €10 per year or €5 per month. The licensing fee was used to fund the Saleria Public Broadcasting Commission. Today, advertising, government grants and subscription fees from SPBC Concerts, SPBC Premium and TeleCinema Premium are used to fund the state-owned public broadcaster.

In 1974, color television using the Phase Alternating Line standard was introduced to the general public. On that same year, SPBC 2 (now Tele Due) started broadcasting. This renamed Saleria Public Broadcasting Commission's first channel (Tele Saleria) into SPBC 1.

Demonopolization and the introduction of pay TV subscription services in Saleria (1984-1999)
From 1959 until 1984, terrestrial television broadcasting was monopolized by the Saleria Public Broadcasting Commission, which meant that the government could only broadcast and privately-owned media companies weren't allowed to broadcast on TV. These regulations and restrictions on broadcasting and private ownership of television stations were lifted in 1984.

In 1984, Radiotelevisione Italiana (Rai), Italy's state-owned broadcaster, launched a version of Rai Uno in Saleria under the name Rai Saleria. Prior to its launch, Rai's original programming were shown on SPBC 1 and SPBC 2.

Rete Tre, a television station owned by RTI (now Mediaset), became the first privately-owned television station to broadcast in Saleria in 1986. On that same year, TeleCavo, the first cable television system in Saleria, was installed in the city of Qemshire. Over the next 5-10 years, more cable TV systems were installed in other cities in the country. TeleCavo was later acquired by Vision Communications and merged into Vision TV in 2005. Other cable TV providers that were established in that time period were Vista TV and tvXL. The introduction of cable television in the country introduced Siarlian viewers to other television channels at the time, such as The Children's Channel, Mirrorvision, Music Box, Sky Channel, and Bravo, as well as Italian television channels such as Videomusic, Rai Uno, Rai Due, Rai Tre, TMC (now La7), and Italia 1.

In 1987, all television stations in Saleria began broadcasting in stereophonic sound using the Zweikanalton (A2 Stereo) system. This allows all television broadcasters in Saleria to broadcast their television programs in dual language (either if it's dubbed in Italian or in its original language).

In 1992, the Saleria Public Broadcasting Commission started a test trial on the HD-MAC standard, an analog high definition standard that was developed by the European Commission, for their experimental channel SPBC HD (not related to the 2005-2010 SPBC HD digital television channel). The channel only lasted from March 1992 until 02 April 1994. It was only available for public viewing in selected establishments (e.g. bars, hotels and restaurants), due to the lack of availability for HD-MAC compatible receivers and TVs. Some of the selected programming that were aired on that channel include the 1992 Winter Olympics, the 1992 Summer Olympics, some concerts and movies, and test videos that demonstrated the HD-MAC standard.

Sometime around 1993, SPBC 1, SPBC 2 and Rete Tre, began testing the PALPlus 16:9 analog widescreen standard for selected programming, such as documentaries, movies, music videos, and news programs. These tests lasted until 1998, where it was discontinued in preparation for the launch of digital terrestrial television in 2000.

In 1994, Vision Direct, Saleria's first direct-to-home satellite-based pay TV service was launched. Initially, it was only available as an analog satellite service, then a digital version (DVB-S) of the service was launched in 1998. The analog version of the service was discontinued in 2003.

In early 1998, the SPBC experimented with streaming their channels (SPBC 1 and SPBC 2 at the time) to the Internet. The streams were encoded in a RealVideo format. On the same year, TeleStream, Saleria's first IPTV provider, was launched.

The rise of digital broadcasting and high-definition broadcasting (2000-2011)
Digital terrestrial television was launched on 02 February 2000 in Saleria and was officially marketed as Liberoview on 10 September 2004. It uses the DVB-T digital terrestrial television standard. All of the digital terrestrial TV channels in Saleria switched from 4:3 to the 16:9 anamorphic aspect ratio on the 1st of January 2001. Alongside with the digital simulcasts of SPBC 1, SPBC 2 and Rete Tre, additional channels were introduced into the digital terrestrial television lineup, such as SPBC K (children's television channel), SPBC Sport (sports channel), TeleCinema (movies channel), and SPBC Music (music channel).

In 2001, the television rating system came into effect in late 2001 and was enforced in January 2002 on all local terrestrial and pay-TV channels in Saleria.

Test trials for high-definition television in Saleria were started on 08 June 2005 with the launch of SPBC HD, SPBC Sport HD and Rete Tre HD. The test trials were finished on 10 July 2010 with the shutdown of SPBC HD and the launch of SPBC One HD (now TeleUno HD) and SPBC Two HD (now Tele Due HD).

Analog terrestrial transmissions in Saleria were shut down on 08 June 2011. All of the terrestrial television channels on DTT, cable and satellite began broadcasting for 24 hours after that date.

Current era (2011-present)
The 2010s saw a rise in subscribers from streaming television services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, as well as local streaming services such as SPBC Now and Vision TV Now. CineStream, the oldest streaming television service in Saleria, was acquired by Vision Communications and rebranded into Vision On Demand in 2010, two years before the launch of Netflix in Saleria. The shift to streaming TV also caused a decline in linear TV viewership in the last five to ten years.

In mid-2020, linear TV versions of Netflix and Disney+ were launched exclusively on Vision Direct and Vision TV for Plus and Premium subscribers without showing any advertisements.

Free-to-air television
Digital television was first launched on 02 February 2000 in Saleria under the name Liberoview. Currently, all of the terrestrial television channels in Saleria are broadcasting in DVB-T for standard definition channels and DVB-T2 for high-definition channels.

Liberosat, a free-to-air satellite television provider, was launched in 2011. It has a selection of channels that's similar to Liberoview, but with the addition of news/international channels and two 4K channels (NASA TV UHD and Fashion TV 4K).

Subscription
There are four pay-TV providers that are available in Saleria. These include Vision TV, tvXL, Vision Direct, and Vista TV.

Streaming
Since 1995, streaming television has been in Saleria with the launch of Cinestream (now Vision TV Now). Subscription streaming services include:


 * Vision TV Now (formerly Cinestream and Vision On Demand)
 * Netflix
 * Amazon Prime Video
 * Funimation Now
 * Disney+

In addition to the subscription streaming services, there are also free streaming services that are available in Saleria. This include the following:


 * SPBC Now
 * Mediaset Infinity (a mix of free and paid content)
 * Crunchyroll (a mix of free and paid content)
 * Vue Play
 * VVVVID

Other providers
The American Forces Network, a government television and radio broadcast service owned by the United States military, broadcasts in Saleria via US military bases in the cities of Easthaven, Santiatejo, Valoveia, Wrediff, and Salenone since 1981. This includes all AFN television channels (AFN Prime, AFN Spectrum, AFN News, AFN Family/AFN Pulse, AFN Movie, AFN Sports, and AFN Sports 2) and radio stations (AFN Eagle, AFN Hot AC, AFN Legacy, AFN Country, AFN Joe Radio, AFN Gravity, AFN Freedom Radio, AFN Fans, AFN The Voice, and AFN PowerTalk). The television service was previously aired in the analog NTSC format until June 12, 2009 (the same date when all full-power analog TV stations were shut down due to the FCC mandate in the United States). Currently, all of AFN's television channels are broadcasting in NTSC 60Hz either via low-power ATSC television stations (in select US bases only), via Americom Cable (QAM) or via satellite (DVB-S2, Eutelsat 9B).

Similarly, the British Forces Broadcasting Service, also broadcasts in Saleria via UK military bases in the cities of Easthaven, Santiatejo, Valoveia, Wrediff, and Salenone since the early 1980s. This includes all of the BFBS television and radio channels. The service is only available via satellite though Eutelsat 10A at 10.0°E.

Television content rating system
The Saleria Classification Committee reviews and rates television programs before being airing them on television (either via terrestrial or pay-TV). The television rating system came into effect in late 2001 and was enforced in January 2002 on all local terrestrial and pay-TV channels in Saleria.

In 2007, the Salerian Broadcasting and Communications Authority and the Saleria Classification Committee proposed a law to delay all of signals foreign free-to-air and pay-TV channels for 1 minute in order to add a rating advisory screen before the start of each program. However, the law faced backlash from pay-TV providers in Saleria as it might delay some live events, particularly award shows and sporting events, though some live events (particularly from the United States) are delayed in order to censor objectionable content that could happen live. Because of the backlash, the proposed law was scrapped.