e. Television Standards Given the importance of the new era in television, the following sections establish some reference points for television standards, both analog and digital. Table 10.1 Improvements in Compression MPEG-4/VC-1 MPEG-4/VC-1 2006 MPEG-2 MPEG-4/VC-1 Enhancements Improvements Standard definition 2.5-3Mbps 1.5-2Mbps <1-1.5Mbps High definition 15-19Mbps 1-12 Mbps <7-10Mbps Multimedia Networking Requirements Analog TV In 1945, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC; www.fcc.gov) allo- cated 13 basic VHF television channels, thus standardizing the frequencies and allocating a broadcast bandwidth of 4.5MHz. The NTSC was formed in 1948 to define a national standard for the broadcast signal itself. The standard for black- and-white television was finally set in 1953 and ratified by the Electronic Indus- tries Association (EIA; www.eia.org) as the RS-170 specification. Full-time net- work color broadcasting was introduced in 1964, with an episode of Bonanza. The NTSC color TV specification determines the electronic signals that make up a color TV picture and establishes a method for broadcasting those pictures over the air. NTSC defines a 4:3 horizontal:vertical size ratio, called the aspect ratio. This ratio was selected in the 1940s and 1950s, when all picture tubes were round, because the almost-square 4:3 ratio made good use of round picture tubes. An NTSC color picture with sound occupies 6MHz of frequency spectrum, enough bandwidth for 2,222 voice-grade telephone lines. To transmit this signal digitally without compression requires about 160Mbps. The English/German PAL system was developed after NTSC and adopted by the United Kingdom, Western Germany, and The Netherlands in 1967. The PAL system is used today in the United Kingdom, Western Europe (with the exception of France), Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin Amer- ica. Brazil uses a version of PAL called PAL-M. The PAL aspect ratio is also 4:3, and PAL channels occupy 8MHz of spectrum. Uncompressed PAL, dig