A timeshift channel (sometimes referred to as a +1 channel) is a television channel carrying time-delayed reruns of its "parent" channel's programming. This channel runs alongside their parent: the term timeshift does not refer to a network broadcasting at a later time to reflect a local time zone, unless the parent is also available. Often the timeshift channel's branding and advertising will be the same as that of the parent, with the channel number and respective timing being the only distinction between the two, but some, such as Channel 4 +1 in the United Kingdom and TVNZ 1+1 in New Zealand, will overlay a different digital on-screen graphic to distinguish the two channels. A few channels, like Film4 +1 in the United Kingdom, do not carry a digital on-screen graphic on its regular channel or its timeshift channel.
Australia
In
W.
is branded as W2. More than 20 timeshift channels exist, most of the entertainment channels.
New Zealand
In
Prime
on 1 February 2017.
On 1 July 2019, MediaWorks launched an hour-delayed timeshift version of
are shifted by an hour, with the normal versions only available on cable and satellite.
Ireland
TV3 launched its timeshift service in April 2015. TG4
(the Irish language broadcaster) is considering a timeshift channel. In 2019 RTÉ Two +1 has also launched.
Italy
In Italy the main Timeshift channels provider is Sky and most of their channels have a time delay of one hour. In the past, some channels like Sky Uno, Fox and Fox Crime had two-hours delay channels but all of them were closed.
Poland
In
TVN HD +1
was launched on May 1, 2010, and regional TVS HD +1 on April 30, 2010.
United Kingdom (UK)
In the
Fox, formerly known as FX. However, there are currently no more +2 channels on air, with the last remaining +2 channel, TLC +2, being shut down on 27 April 2018. Most timeshift channels are available only via pay television, though a fair number also have availability through the digital terrestrial televisionFreeview platform, with some Freeview +1 networks limited in availability by a region's transmitter station reach (such as London/Crystal Palace or Manchester/Winter Hill). 50 timeshift channels are carried over Sky, whilst 31 are available through Virgin Media
programming feed retransmitted at a later time, as is the case with timeshift channels in other countries. (Many cable systems in the Mountain states transmit a mix of timeshift channels as the originating network feed, split by the network between the "East" and "West" feed as opposed to offering uniform feeds of each channel that is aligned to the feed intended for distribution in the corresponding locale.) CBS also uses its streaming news service CBS News as a timeshift channel, carrying select CBS News
programs on a half-hour delay from their original airings.
The major U.S. terrestrial
television networks broadcast without delay in the Eastern and Central time zones (UTC−5 and UTC−6, respectively), but delayed programs by one and three hours respectively for the Mountain (UTC−7) and Pacific (UTC−8) time zones. The start of U.S. evening prime time
programs is typically announced in the form of "8, 7 Central" (often written as "8/7c") or "8 Eastern and Pacific" (often written as "8 ET/PT").
Many
late night
time slots, so that they will air during prime time in both the Eastern and Pacific time zones, though it is subject to pre-emption because of later breaking news.
multiplex channels, though typically digital cable providers only simultaneously carry the East and West coast feeds of the main channel while the multiplex channels are a singular feed (the "East" feed for the Central and Eastern time zones, and the "West" feed for the Pacific and Mountain zones); this allows subscribers to watch a movie, series or special three hours behind or ahead of its original airing in their area (in the case of The Movie Channel
, many cable systems only carry the respective coastal feed of the main channel and its multiplex channel The Movie Channel Xtra, rather than airing the East and West feeds of the primary channel or both channels).
Many
children's television channels, such as Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network also have timeshift services; however, most digital cable providers will only provide the East or West coast feed in the basic package and the opposite feed, if available, is often in a higher package tier (satellite subscribers will often receive both the East and West feed as part of their service package). The Nick Jr. Channel notably only maintained a single Eastern Time feed until 2013, which led to controversy when the channel launched its adult-oriented NickMom
programming block, which had started at 7:00 p.m. in the Pacific Time Zone and earlier in Alaska and Hawaii, at times when preschoolers would still be awake in those regions; Nick Jr. would later launch a West Coast feed due to complaints from some parents about the content featured on the NickMom block.
Sporting events, including the Super Bowl, have been broadcast live in all U.S. time zones simultaneous with the primetime schedule of the Eastern time zone, for decades, resulting in announcements such as "4 Eastern, 1 Pacific" (generally shown as "4 ET/1 PT"). In the event of a sporting event leading into prime time on the East Coast, the following programs are often said to be "coming up next, except on the West Coast," as additional programming is shifted around to fill the time between the end of the event and the start of prime time on the West Coast. Many times, this is the programming that was preempted by the effectively earlier time slot in the western zones. Live nationwide U.S. airings of international sporting events like the FIFA World Cup on Fox and the Olympic Games on NBC, beginning in the late 2010s, are simultaneous with the actual live global broadcast regardless of the hosting nation, resulting in adjustments by networks as most of their games may fall outside the primetime slots of any of the U.S. time zones at the time of the event (and, on occasion, televise live during daytime with primetime encores when the hosting nation is located outside the Americas).
Several awards show, up until the mid-2000s, were routinely
radio news and print wire reports summarizing the ceremonies in progress, before the Internet and social media
and their more widely-reaching and immediate reports effectively made tape delay a pointless endeavor.
The
major U.S. entertainment awards shows
to live coast-to-coast U.S. telecasts with its respective broadcast transition.
The
DVR-proof
" in terms of ratings and social purposes.
Now more rarely, lesser ceremonies continue to air live in the Eastern and Central time zones while tape-delayed for all other U.S. territories, as their airtime is often purchased as a
standards and practices to watch the ceremony in advance and determine cuts for profanity or content to insert a bleep censor or cut-away, and the producers can make cuts for time and superfluous items such as longer walks than expected by an award winner to the stage or a rare botched performance with the replacement of dress rehearsal
footage.
Canada
In Canada, digital television services typically offer network stations from at least Toronto and Vancouver as timeshift channels, and may also offer stations from other markets as well. Most English-language programming is transmitted without delay in the
will be said to air at 10:00, 10:30 in Newfoundland).
In practice, only the CBC delays its entire prime time schedule for each time zone; the commercial networks typically schedule programs to maximize their ability to claim simultaneous substitution rights (which allows local broadcast stations to require U.S. broadcast stations' signals on television providers to be overridden with their own, if they are airing the exact same program in simulcast), resulting in programs often being scheduled in pattern with an airing from the Eastern or Pacific zones. In Alberta, programs may sometimes be aired earlier or later than normal than in other parts of the country in order to achieve a simsub with either coast, as stations from Spokane (which is located in Pacific time, one hour behind local Mountain time) are typically carried on cable in the province.
Several Canadian cable channels have separate feeds for the Eastern and Pacific time zones, such as
In Latin America, Spanish-language pay television programming used to be broadcast without delay in Argentina and Uruguay, and delayed in most countries; this situation was common in networks that broadcast one video feed for distribution to the rest of Latin American countries, as it centred their schedule using the Argentine time zone (HBO, Moviecity). However, this stopped being the case on basic-tier subscription TV with the launch of different regional feeds centred on local time zones, either based on Mexico, Colombia, Peru or Chile. Networks that are known to employ this practice are
Nickelodeon
, among others. In cases of live programming, all events are broadcast in all feeds live without delay.
Portuguese-language programming in
Brasília time
. A few years ago, however, programming in broadcast stations was also delayed for states 1 hour behind Brasília time.
Canal de las Estrellas) in Mexico has two timeshift feeds: Canal de las Estrellas −1 and Canal de las Estrellas −2, delayed one and two hours respectively from the main Mexico City feed. These timeshift feeds are broadcast on terrestrial television in the Mountain and Pacific time zones and are available on pay television
