A timeshift channel or time-shift channel (sometimes referred to as a +1 channel) is a television channel carrying time-delayed reruns of its "parent" channel's programming. This channel runs alongside its parent: the term timeshift does not refer to a network broadcasting at a later time to reflect a local time zone, unless the parent is also available. Often the timeshift channel's branding and advertising will be the same as that of the parent, with the channel number and respective timing being the only distinction between the two, but some, such as Channel 4 +1 in the United Kingdom and TVNZ 1+1 in New Zealand, will overlay a different digital on-screen graphic to distinguish the two channels. A few channels, like Film4 +1 in the United Kingdom, do not carry a digital on-screen graphic on its regular channel or its timeshift channel.
Australia In Australia, timeshifted Foxtel pay-TV channels typically carry a time delay of two hours, making the timeshift channels run on local time in Western Australia when daylight saving time is not in effect. These channels may accordingly be described as +2, such as on Arena, although the timeshift for W. is branded as W2. More than 20 timeshift channels exist, most of the entertainment channels. On 10 August 2026, Network 10 will launch 10+1, a free-to-air timeshift channel which broadcasts the main Channel 10 schedule with a one-hour delay.
New Zealand In New Zealand, Sky Movies 2 was formerly a two-hour delayed timeshift channel of Sky Movies 1 between 2007 and 2013. MediaWorks launched an hour-delayed timeshift channel of the TV3 feed with Auckland regional advertising on 30 March 2009. In 2012, TVNZ replaced TVNZ 7 with an hour-delayed timeshift channel of the TVNZ 1 feed with Auckland regional advertising. In late August 2013, U was also replaced, with an hour-delayed timeshifted version of TV2. Mediaworks launched an hour-delayed timeshifted version of Four on 27 June 2014 and replaced it with an hour-delayed timeshifted version of Bravo on 3 July 2016. Sky Network Television launched an hour-delayed timeshifted version of Prime on 1 February 2017.
On 1 July 2019, MediaWorks launched an hour-delayed timeshift version of ThreeLife, replacing The Edge TV which went online only.
Europe Bulgaria In Bulgaria, the terrestrial versions of bTV Lady, Ring BG, and Diema Family are shifted by an hour, with the normal versions are only available on cable and satellite.
Ireland Ireland has access to many of the UK's timeshift channels through satellite and cable services. Some are also available via spillover transmissions from Northern Ireland such as UTV's timeshift service UTV +1. RTÉ provides two timeshift service for RTÉ One and RTÉ Two, RTÉ One +1 and RTÉ Two +1 respectively. RTÉ One +1 used to be part-time, starting each night at 7 p.m. after the close of RTÉjr, though since the launch of RTÉ Two +1 in 2019, it became full-time, with RTÉjr now time sharing with RTÉ Two +1 since then. TV3 launched its timeshift service in April 2015, though is only available on satellite and cable. TG4 (the Irish language broadcaster) launched its timeshift channel TG4 +1 on 8 September 2023, coinciding with the launch of the Cúla4 channel, with which TG4 +1 timeshares with.
Italy In Italy the main Timeshift channels provider is Sky and most of their channels have a time delay of one hour. In the past, some channels like Sky Uno, Fox and Fox Crime had two-hours delay channels but all of them were closed.
Poland In Poland, there are two timeshift channels. Private, commercial TVN HD +1 was launched on May 1, 2010, and regional TVS HD +1 on April 30, 2010.
United Kingdom (UK) In the United Kingdom, most timeshift channels have a time delay of one hour, and are thus described as a +1 channel – for instance, U&Gold has a timeshift channel known as U&Gold +1. Not all channels are named like this, for example the timeshift channel of U&Dave is named U&DaveJaVu, and the timeshift channel of High Street TV 1 is named High Street TV 3. +2 channels, with a delay of two hours, also used to exist. The most notable of these was Fox, formerly known as FX. However, there are currently no more +2 channels on air, with the last remaining +2 channel, TLC +2, being shut down on 27 April 2018. Most timeshift channels are available only via pay television, though a fair number also have availability through the digital terrestrial television Freeview platform, with some Freeview +1 networks limited in availability by a region's transmitter station reach (such as London/Crystal Palace or Manchester/Winter Hill). 50 timeshift channels are carried over Sky, whilst 31 are available through Virgin Media. National Geographic +1 is no longer available on Sky in the UK
The Americas United States
In the United States, timeshift channels typically carry a time delay of three hours (in line with the time difference between the east and west coasts of the U.S.); the main channel feed is generally identified as the "East" feed and is programmed for Eastern Time Zone viewers, while the corresponding timeshift channel is generally identified as the "West" feed and is programmed for viewers in the Pacific Time Zone. For conventional broadcast networks, a timeshift channel is a network affiliate from a market in another time zone (such as New York City-based stations WCBS-TV, WNBC, WABC-TV and WNYW as Eastern Time Zone feeds, and Los Angeles-based stations KCBS-TV, KNBC, KABC-TV and KTTV as Pacific Time Zone feeds for CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox, respectively); for cable-only outlets, a timeshift channel is simply the original programming feed retransmitted at a later time, as is the case with timeshift channels in other countries. (Many cable systems in the Mountain states transmit a mix of timeshift channels as the originating network feed, split by the network between the "East" and "West" feed as opposed to offering uniform feeds of each channel that is aligned to the feed intended for distribution in the corresponding locale.) CBS also uses its streaming news service CBS News as a timeshift channel, carrying select CBS News programs on a half-hour delay from their original airings.
The major U.S. terrestrial television networks broadcast without delay in the Eastern and Central time zones (UTC−5 and UTC−6, respectively), but delayed programs by one and three hours respectively for the Mountain (UTC−7) and Pacific (UTC−8) time zones. The start of U.S. evening prime time programs is typically announced in the form of "8, 7 Central" (often written as "8/7c") or "8 Eastern and Pacific" (often written as "8 ET/PT").
Many cable television channels do not timeshift (or offer timeshift feeds to all viewers across the country), though there are several exceptions. As an alternative, many cable channels, including cable news outlets such as Fox News Channel, CNN and HLN repeat most of their prime time programs on their main channel in late night time slots, so that they will air during prime time in both the Eastern and Pacific time zones, though it is subject to pre-emption because of later breaking news.
Premium channels such as HBO, Showtime and Starz commonly air three-hour delayed feeds of the main channel and their multiplex channels, though typically digital cable providers only simultaneously carry the East and West coast feeds of the main channel while the multiplex channels are a singular feed (the "East" feed for the Central and Eastern time zones, and the "West" feed for the Pacific and Mountain zones); this allows subscribers to watch a movie, series or special three hours behind or ahead of its original airing in their area (in the case of The Movie Channel, many cable systems only carry the respective coastal feed of the main channel and its multiplex channel The Movie Channel Xtra, rather than airing the East and West feeds of the primary channel or both channels).
Many children's television channels, such as Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network also have timeshift services; however, most digital cable providers will only provide the East or West coast feed in the basic package and the opposite feed, if available, is often in a higher package tier (satellite subscribers will often receive both the East and West feed as part of their service package). The Nick Jr. Channel notably only maintained a single Eastern Time feed until 2013, which led to controversy when the channel launched its adult-oriented NickMom programming block, which had started at 7:00 p.m. in the Pacific Time Zone and earlier in Alaska and Hawaii, at times when preschoolers would still be awake in those regions; Nick Jr. would later launch a West Coast feed due to complaints from some parents about the content featured on the NickMom block.
Sporting events, including the Super Bowl, have been broadcast live in all U.S. time zones simultaneous with the primetime schedule of the Eastern time zone, for decades, resulting in announcements such as "4 Eastern, 1 Pacific" (generally shown as "4 ET/1 PT"). In the event of a sporting event leading into prime time on the East Coast, the following programs are often said to be "coming up next, except on the West Coast," as additional programming is shifted around to fill the time between the end of the event and the start of prime time on the West Coast. Many times, this is the programming that was preempted by the effectively earlier time slot in the western zones. Live nationwide U.S. airings of international sporting events like the FIFA World Cup on Fox and the Olympic Games on NBC, beginning in the late 2010s, are simultaneous with the actual live global broadcast regardless of the hosting nation, resulting in adjustments by networks as most of their games may fall outside the primetime slots of any of the U.S. time zones at the time of the event (and, on occasion, televise live during daytime with primetime encores when the hosting nation is located outside the Americas).
Until the mid-2000s, several awards shows were routinely tape-delayed for viewers on the West Coast while being transmitted live east of the Rockies. However, by the late 2000s, with the rise of social media like Twitter and Facebook around discussion of television programming, many of them now choose to air their ceremonies live all across the mainland U.S., especially those held in the Los Angeles area where tape-delayed broadcasts had been conducted by the networks in the past. The transition was ushered in 2009 by NBC with the Golden Globe Awards, primarily aiming to prevent spoilers for western viewers previously relying on telecasts delayed until local prime time. In the past, the only way to find out winners in advance was through radio news and print wire reports summarizing the ceremonies in progress, before the Internet and social media and their more widely-reaching and immediate reports effectively made tape delay a pointless endeavor.
The Academy Awards regularly air live on ABC across mainland North America for decades before expanding to full live telecasts for all U.S. territories in 2019. Since 2016, CBS mandates all of its affiliates across all U.S. time zones in and out of mainland North America to air the Grammy Awards live simultaneously with the East Coast primetime airing with corresponding local primetime encores for each U.S. time zone outside the Eastern and Central time zones. The Primetime Emmy Awards, on rotation among ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, joined the Grammys in airing completely live all across the U.S., including Hawaii, starting with CBS' telecast turn in 2017 to resolve the complaints of tape-delaying live American TV shows outside the mainland continent. In its resumption with physical show staging since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, the Tony Awards completed the shift of major U.S. entertainment awards shows to live coast-to-coast U.S. telecasts with its respective broadcast transition.