14:9 is a compromise aspect ratio

Aspect ratio (image)

The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units of equal length and the height is measured using this...

 of 1.56:1. It is used to create an acceptable picture on both 4:3 and 16:9

16:9

16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...

 televisions, conceived following audience tests conducted by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

. It is used by most UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n terrestrial analogue networks, and can often be seen on satellite on Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...

, and in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 on Discovery Networks' HD simulcast

Simulcast

Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...

 channels with programming and advertising originally compiled in 4:3. Note that 14:9 is not a shooting format; 14:9 material is almost always derived from either a 16:9 or 4:3 shot.

Usage

A common usage is for material shot in 16:9 format. During production, the important action is kept within the centre of the picture, known as the 14:9 safe area

Safe area

Safe area is a term used in television production to describe the areas of the television picture that can be seen on television screens.Older televisions can display less of the space outside of the safe area than ones made more recently...

. When the material is broadcast in a 4:3 format (such as for analog television

Analog television

Analog television is the analog transmission that involves the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal: one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal...

), the sides of the image are cropped to 14:9 and narrow black bars are added to the top and bottom. It is considered that viewers who are not used to wide-screen will find this less distracting than the letterbox

Letterbox

Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes above and below it; these mattes are part of the image...

 format that would result from broadcasting the full 16:9 picture in analogue, while still seeing more of the picture than would be visible if cropped into 4:3. When the same material is broadcast in 16:9 (such as for digital television

Digital television

Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...

) the full 16:9 frame is left intact, but auxiliary signals tell the receiver that the picture is suitable for cropping to 14:9 if necessary (for example, when the receiver is connected to a 4:3 display).

The major benefit in shooting 16:9 with protection for 14:9 (rather than 4:3) is improving the usable screen real-estate for titles, logos and scrolling text. The visible enhancement is significant due to the restrictive requirements of overscan

Overscan

Overscan is extra image area around the four edges of a video image that may not be seen reliably by the viewer. It exists because television sets in the 1930s through 1970s were highly variable in how the video image was framed within the cathode ray tube .-Origins of overscan:Early televisions...

. When shooting in 16:9 for potential 4:3 distribution the "Shoot And Protect

Shoot and protect

Shoot and protect is a technique used in video and film production, in which the material is shot in such a way that the areas of interest within a frame lie within a rectangular "protected area" within the frame, with margins at top and bottom and both sides. The action safe and caption safe areas...

" method (from the BBC's "Widescreen Book") is employed. As the name suggests footage is shot in 16:9 but important visual information is protected inside the 14:9 or 4:3 safe areas.

Another use is for material shot on a 4:3 format. When broadcast in 16:9, the top and bottom of the original frame are cropped to 14:9, and black bars (called pillarboxes) are added to either side. When broadcast in 4:3, the 14:9 crop is often used in preference to the original 4:3 frame. This is especially common when 4:3 footage needs to be included in an otherwise 16:9 program, such as a news broadcast, and is used by the BBC 'Kids' channels (CBBC

CBBC

CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...

 & CBeebies

CBeebies

CBeebies is the brand used by the BBC for programming aimed at children 6 years and under. It is used as a themed strand in the UK on terrestrial television, as a separate free-to-air domestic British channel and used for international varients supported by advertising, subscription or both...

) to broadcast older children's programming shot is 4:3 (e.g. aging schools programming) on a larger proportion of a 16:9 screen. In the case of BBC kids output; addition graphics are added to the pillarbox area instead of leaving it black.

In the UK, most channels broadcast in 16:9, but some channels such as Boomerang

Boomerang (TV channel)

Boomerang is a 24-hour American cable television channel owned by Turner Broadcasting System, a division of Time Warner. Boomerang specializes in reruns of animated programming from Time Warner's extensive archives, including pre-1986 MGM, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...

, Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon (TV channel)

Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...

, Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....

 which broadcast more content in 4:3 also use 14:9. On these channels, the 14:9 cropping is used on adverts and shows which were produced in 16:9, (such as season 3 of iCarly

ICarly

iCarly is an American sitcom that focuses on a girl named Carly Shay who creates her own web show called iCarly with her best friends Sam and Freddie. The series was created by Dan Schneider, who also serves as executive producer. It stars Miranda Cosgrove as Carly, Jennette McCurdy as Sam, Nathan...

, The Garfield Show

The Garfield Show

The Garfield Show is a CGI animated television series that premiered in France on France 3 on December 22, 2008. English-language episodes started airing on Boomerang UK on May 5, 2009. It premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network on November 2, 2009 at 3:00pm...

 & H20

H20

H20 may refer to :* British National Vegetation Classification* Halloween H20: 20 Years Later , the seventh film in the Halloween series* HMS H20, a World War I British Royal Navy H class submarine...

), to present a more consistent output.

Mathematics

The aspect ratio of 14:9 (1.555...) is the arithmetic mean

Arithmetic mean

In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean, often referred to as simply the mean or average when the context is clear, is a method to derive the central tendency of a sample space...

 (average) of 16:9 and 4:3 = 12:9, since the average of 16 and 12 is 14. More practically, it is approximately the geometric mean

Geometric mean

The geometric mean, in mathematics, is a type of mean or average, which indicates the central tendency or typical value of a set of numbers. It is similar to the arithmetic mean, except that the numbers are multiplied and then the nth root of the resulting product is taken.For instance, the...

 (the precise geometric mean is ), and in this sense is mathematically a compromise between these two aspect ratios: two equal area pictures (at 16:9 and 4:3) will intersect in a box with aspect ratio the geometric mean, as demonstrated in the image at top (14:9 is just slightly wider than the intersection). In this way 14:9 balances the needs of both 16:9 and 4:3, cropping or distorting both about equally; similar considerations were used in the choice of 16:9 by the SMPTE, there balancing 2.35 and 4:3.