Television advertisement in the context of "HBO"

A television show, TV program (British English: programme), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is transmitted via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platforms. This generally excludes breaking news or advertisements that are aired between shows or between segments of a show. A regularly recurring show is called a television series, and an individual segment of such a series is called an episode. Content is produced either in-house on a television stage with multiple cameras or produced by contract with film production companies. Episodes are usually broadcast in annual sets, which are called seasons in North America and series in other regions. A one-off television show may be called a television special, while a show with a limited number of episodes is a miniseries. A television film, or telefilm, is a feature film produced for broadcast by a terrestrial or cable network.

Television shows by terrestrial and cable networks are most often scheduled for broadcast ahead of time and appear on electronic guides or other TV listings. The rise of streaming television, however, has made television schedules less relevant than in earlier decades. Some programming may be aired live—that is, events are broadcast at the time they happen rather than at a later time or date—but the vast majority of programming is produced ahead of time. Originally, viewers had no practical way to record a show for later viewing; this changed with the advent of home video, first in the form of videotape recorded on VCRs and later in the form of digital video recorders. Cable television providers began offering certain programming "pay-per-view" or on-demand, with viewers paying a one-time fee to watch a program at a time of their own choosing. Streaming television allows viewers to watch programming at any time with a subscription to the OTT platform service.

An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally independent of the client; it may be an internal department or agency that provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services, or an outside firm. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and promotions for its clients, which may include sales as well.

Typical ad agency clients include businesses and corporations, non-profit organizations and private agencies. Agencies may be hired to produce television advertisements, radio advertisements, online advertising, out-of-home advertising, mobile marketing, and AR advertising, as part of an advertising campaign.

Campaign finance—also called election finance, political donations, or political finance—refers to the funds raised to promote candidates, political parties, or policy initiatives and referendums. Donors and recipients include individuals, corporations, political parties, and charitable organizations.

Political campaigns usually involve considerable costs, travel, staff, political consulting, and advertising. Campaign spending depends on the region. For instance, in the United States, television advertising time must be purchased by campaigns, whereas in other countries, it is provided for free. The need to raise money to maintain expensive political campaigns diminishes ties to a representative democracy because of the influence large contributors have over politicians.

Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded entirely by its commercial activities, including advertising. It began its transmission in 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom. At the time, the only other channels were the licence-funded BBC1 and BBC2, and a single commercial broadcasting network, ITV.

Originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. Until 2010, Channel 4 did not broadcast in Wales, but many of its programmes were re-broadcast there by the Welsh fourth channel S4C. In 2010, Channel 4 extended service into Wales and became a nationwide television channel. The network's headquarters are in London and Leeds, with creative hubs in Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol.