NTSC

What Does NTSC Mean in a Text?

The Quick Answer

NTSC (National Television System Committee) is the analogue television standard that was used in most of the Americas (except Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and French Guiana), Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and some Pacific island nations.

More Detail...

Developed in 1941, NTSC was the first widely adopted broadcast colour system and remained dominant until around 2010, after which date digital standards such as ATSC and others began to replace it. Initially, NTSC was designed for black-and-white television and had no provision for colour. In 1953 a second NTSC standard was adopted, which allowed for colour television broadcasting which was also still compatible with existing black-and-white televisions. Of note, NTSC is a separate system to the British PAL and French SECAM television standards. There is no cross-compatibility between these three standards, meaning that television sets designed for one standard cannot view broadcasts from another standard without the use conversion equipment.

Image for NTSC

When I write NTSC, I mean this:

The image shows an NTSC-to-PAL converter.

Summary of Key Points

We have summarized the key points in the table below:

NTSC
Definition:	National Television System Committee (USA)
Type:	Abbreviation
Guessability:	4: Difficult to guess
Typical Users:	Adults and Teenagers

Examples of NTSC in Sentences

Here is an example of NTSC in a conversation:

Charlie: Hey, I just saw an NTSC TV for sale on ebay. It is nice and retro-looking. Should I get it?
Jordan: No, don't do it! It is analogue and we are in a digital area here. It won't work.

An Academic Look at NTSC

NTSC is an initialism abbreviation. This means it is pronounced using its individual letters (i.e., En Tee Ess See). Initialisms contrast with acronyms, which are spoken like words.