NTSC, named for the National Television System(s) Committee, is the analog television system that is/was used in most of the Americas, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Burma, and some Pacific island nations and territories (see map). NTSC is also the name of the U.S. standardization body that developed the broadcast standard.

PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television encoding system used in broadcast television systems in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, parts of Africa and the Middle East.