What formats of videotape are most commonly used for television broadcast of filmed material?
Network broadcast is now using digital masters, often in D1 or, more commonly and less expensively, D2. Older productions and those with lower budgets are sometimes broadcast off of analog 1″ C-type tape, though. Very few local broadcast stations can afford digital, and use 1″ almost exclusively. For news broadcasts (which almost never involve film), the lightweight and portable Beta SP format is used. A few low-end stations also use 3/4″, though its use for broadcast is fading now.
