 step in television evolvement was high-definition television (HDTV), and 1998 is considered to be the year when HDTV was launched. Interfacing standards for television have had a rather unfortunate background. North America, Japan, and much of Latin America follow one standard called NTSC (National Television Systems Committee). The remainder of the world follows a wide variation in standards. For example, there are three different color television standards: NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. These are discussed later in the chapter. The television signal, no matter what standard it follows, is a complex analog signal. It is a bandwidth hog, requiring anywhere from 4 to 8 MHz for the video, color subcarrier, and the aural (audio) channel(s). The objectives of this chapter are severalfold. The first is to provide the reader with a clear understanding of how TV works. The second goal is to describe how television is transmitted and distributed over long distances. However, the radio-broadcast of television is not included and is left to other texts. Cable television is covered in Chapter 17. The third goal of the chapter is to provide an overview of digital television, and we cover several generic methods of digitizing original analog television signals. Our interest in television transmission derives from its impact on the larger telecom- munications environment. For example, the PSTN and other carriers are called upon to transport broadcast-quality TV, or to develop and transport a sub-broadcast quality TV signal called conference television. Conference television is used in the industrial and office environment to facilitate "meetings at a distance." One or more people at location X can meet with one or more people at location Y where attendees at each site can see and hear those at the other site. It can save money on business meetings, travel, and lodging. Current television signals are composed of three parts: the video signal, which is monochrome, and audio subcarrier and a color subcarrier. We first describe the video