Wikipedia:WikiProject Television/Television stations task force/Standards

Naming conventions
Broadcasting naming conventions have their own guideline page, which covers the vast majority of articles in the project scope.

Notability
While television channel and station articles, like all articles on Wikipedia, must meet the general notability guideline, in general, any television station which produces original content and is licensed by a national government (e.g., the FCC in the United States) is presumed to be notable. Details can be found at Articles for deletion/Common outcomes.

Translator stations
A minor translator station which only relays the national signal of their network or an associated regional station without local deviation (for instance, a translator of the Trinity Broadcasting Network) should be redirected to the service it rebroadcasts. These are also used by television stations in geographically large markets, such as Salt Lake City, Utah, which have population centers far from the reach of the main transmitters.

In the latter case, if the service rebroadcast is another local station, there should be a list, such as that at KSL-TV. As with all lists, translator lists should avoid excessive detail.

If a translator has a history of carrying different networks and of different uses, it may merit an article. This also applies to full-service satellite stations, such as KRMZ, that once were standalone television stations but now rebroadcast other services.

Article components
A good television station or channel article should include the following:


 * An infobox
 * A good introduction with a summary of the article's contents
 * History of the station
 * Kind of programming aired, with an emphasis on original programming
 * For broadcast television stations (where relevant), information on local news programming
 * For broadcast television stations, any technical information (subchannels, etc.)
 * Are there any original programs that the station shows?
 * Other relevant and verifiable facts about the station, while avoiding lists of miscellany
 * A link to the station's website, if applicable

Infobox
There are two types of infoboxes that articles in the project use.

Infobox television station is generally used in North American countries, as well as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines and some other countries. The articles that use this infobox:


 * Generally concern local television stations serving specific local areas
 * Are often in countries with television systems patterned off the American model
 * Are "traditionally" TVS articles, especially those in North America

Infobox television channel is used by articles on networks of stations, pay television services around the world, and services that are nationally or regionally broadcast on digital terrestrial television platforms, such as Freeview in the United Kingdom. The articles that use this infobox:


 * Generally concern services far larger in scope than a subregion or local market
 * May not be broadcast terrestrially at all
 * Typically have little or no local content
 * Have traditionally not been seen as part of TVS, though some of them have long been tagged into the project

Consult the infobox pages for documentation and examples.

Categorization
There are a wide variety of categories in the project scope, with most being generally classifiable as one of the following:


 * By geographic area: Category:Television stations in Lubbock, Texas, Category:Television stations in Indiana, Category:Television channels in Bangladesh
 * By year of establishment or disestablishment: Category:Television channels and stations established in 1968, Category:Television channels and stations disestablished in 1999
 * By network affiliation or service rebroadcast: Category:NBC network affiliates, Category:Canal 5 (Mexico) transmitters
 * By ownership: Category:Sinclair Broadcast Group, Category:CBS News and Stations‎
 * By genre of programming: Category:Children's television channels in Turkey
 * By language: Category:French-language television stations

Categories should be defining characteristics for the articles placed into them.

Some groupings formerly handled by categories, particularly stations by virtual and physical channel number, are now handled in lists, such as Channel 12 virtual TV stations in Mexico and Channel 26 TV stations in Canada.

Images
Wikipedia allows images to be used in articles, but in order to maintain a freely-distributed online encyclopedia, the following rules must be observed:
 * Before using any image, familiarize yourself with guidelines for non-free content and logos, and the policy on non-free content criteria.
 * Public domain images can be used in all articles without restriction. Most images created before 1923 are in the public domain and do not require a copyright notice; however if the image is also a trademark currently in use, it should be tagged as such.  Other images created prior to 1978 may also be in the public domain, but the copyright status of such images should be thoroughly researched prior to use, as their status of public domain is likely to be challenged.  Cornell University has published an excellent reference on copyright term and the public domain.
 * Copyrighted, or non-free, images can also be used in all articles, but their use has restrictions that should be understood and followed prior to use:
 * Any non-free image must include a copyright notice and at least one fair-use rationale. See the fair use rationale template for a compliant and easy-to-use rationale.
 * If a non-free image is used in more than one article, a separate fair-use rationale must be created for each use. Links to images without a fair-use rationale will be removed.
 * Note: There is no consensus as to how many uses violates fair use, and excessive use of images may be removed.  There is no definition of how many uses is considered excessive, so use good judgment.
 * Excessive use of non-free images in any one article is discouraged. Again, there is no standard for "excessive", so use good judgment. All non-free images should be the subject of critical commentary and should significantly add to the understanding of the article. Non-free images should never be used merely as decoration.  Keep in mind that "significance" is subjective and may be challenged.
 * Galleries (meaning multiple images, whether they are enclosed in tags or not) of non-free images are generally not allowed. Galleries of historical logos meet legal standards as per Wikimedia General Counsel, but are still controversial, as some do not believe that they meet Wikipedia non-free policies and guidelines.  (See Non-free content, Non-free content criteria, and Logos.)  If creating a historical logo gallery, pay specific attention to NFCC policy statements #3a and #8.  Remember that the purpose of a historical logo gallery is to illustrate the evolution of a television station's branding over the years, so there should be noticeable difference between logos and clear critical commentary on each logo.  Do not add a logo if the only thing that has changed from the previous logo is the finish of the image.
 * Use of multiple non-free images in an article—or multiple uses of a non-free image—is more likely to be challenged, so make sure you have followed all guidelines and policies prior to use. Otherwise, the image may be removed.

Utility templates
In addition to hundreds of media market navigational boxes, TVS includes several utility templates, some shared with WikiProject Radio Stations.


 * United States
 * FCC-LMS-Facility
 * FCC-TV-Station-profile


 * Canada
 * RecnetCanada

Stub templates
The official list of stub templates and categories is maintained by WP:WSS/ST. Some of the most important stubs are mentioned below.


 * bcast-stub
 * US-tv-station-stub
 * Mexico-tv-station-stub
 * Canada-tv-station-stub

Talk page template
The tag WikiProject Television should be added to the top of the talk page of all articles maintained by this task force. This template can be used for making assessments of the articles for the television stations task force and WikiProject Television.