A television station is a type of broadcast station that broadcasts both audio and video to television receivers in a particular area. Traditionally, TV stations made their broadcasts by sending specially-encoded radio signals over the air, called terrestrial television. Individual television stations are usually granted licenses by a government agency to use a particular section of the radio spectrum (a channel) through which they send their signals. Some stations use LPTV broadcast translators to retransmit to further areas.
Main article: Digital television transition
Many television stations are now in the process of converting from analogue (NTSC, PAL or SECAM) broadcast, to digital TV (ATSC broadcast, DVB or ISDB).