Reverse mirror


In television, a reverse mirror refers to a situation in which two national television channels have their signals split regionally, such that each of two programs will be available in all regions on one of the two channels, but will not air on the same channel in both regions.
As an example, consider the following situation:
  • Two games, Game 1 and Game 2, are being played simultaneously. The broadcast rights to both games are owned by the same company, which also controls both Channel A and Channel B, and there are no restrictions on airing both games in the same location.
  • Channel A reaches more viewers than Channel B. Alternatively, other considerations, such as Canadian simultaneous substitution regulations, may make it more advantageous for Channel A to carry a particular game in a particular region.
  • In Region X, Game 1 is determined to be of greater interest to viewers, while in Region Y, the same applies to Game 2.
Then in Region X, Game 1 will air on Channel A, and Game 2 will air on Channel B. In Region Y, these will be reversed: Game 2 will air on Channel A, and Game 1 will air on Channel B. This is usually accomplished by sending different feeds to the individual stations or cable companies transmitting the signals of each channel.
Note that simply "splitting the network" between multiple regional games is not a reverse mirror, since there is no alternate channel on which a secondary game from the same network can air.

Examples