Editing Broadcast flag (section)

{{short description|Bits in a digital television program that indicates recording restrictions}}
{{Original research|date=October 2009}}

A '''broadcast flag''' is a [[bit field]] sent in the data stream of a [[digital television]] program that indicates whether or not the data stream can be recorded, or if there are any restrictions on recorded content. Possible restrictions include the inability to save an unencrypted digital program to a [[hard disk]] or other non-volatile storage, inability to make secondary copies of recorded content (in order to share or archive), forceful reduction of quality when recording (such as reducing [[high-definition television|high-definition]] video to the resolution of [[standard-definition television|standard TVs]]), and inability to skip over [[advertisement|commercials]].

In the [[United States]], new television [[ATSC tuner|receivers]] using the [[ATSC standard]] were supposed to incorporate this functionality by July 1, 2005.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}} The requirement was successfully contested in 2005 and rescinded in 2011.