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Question about TV broacasting in different time zones? - _DOM - 11-09-2012 08:27 PM
Let's say a show on the east coast goes on at 8 pm EST, on central time zone the show plays at 7 pm CST. So does that mean in the west coast the show will also go on at 5 pm WST? When I finish watching a show, about an hour later people on twitter say "west coast it's almost time for the show to air"! Does that mean that shows don't broadcast simotaneously?
- LadyMerton - 11-09-2012 08:36 PM
the show airs at 8pm West coast time
the east coast sees the show 3 Hrs Before the West coast does
- PoohBearPenguin - 11-09-2012 08:36 PM
You are correct. Shows do not air simultaneously.
Most of the western states are part of the Pacific time zone which is 3 hours behind the Eastern time zone. There's also Central time which is 1 hour behind Eastern and Mountain which is 2 hours behind Eastern.
So Saturday Night Live does not air "live" on the west coast because it's actually 3 hours later.
Most stations in the Central time zone will use the same broadcast towers in the Eastern time zone, so what's 8pm Eastern is 7pm Central, but the show is being aired simultaneously. People in the Mountain zone usually get their TV from the Pacific zone, so for them shows are on 1 hour later.
Cable/satellite channels are a bit different. Most channels have an East Coast and West Coast feed. This means if a show is on at 8pm Eastern, it will rebroadcast from the West Coast at 8pm Pacific. However, some smaller channels don't have the money for this. So that means shows that air at 8pm Eastern, do get aired simultaneously at 5pm Pacific (and 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain)
This isn't too noticeable though since many cable stations divide their programming into 4 hour blocks that they rerun.